When the Germans would ride into battle on their halftracks would they stand in the middle or would they stand on the seats?
Based on most of the photos I’ve seen of halftracks in action it appears they did both. It probably depended on the mission, the amount of small arms fire being received and the height of the soldier himself. But I’m just guessing.
Normally they would sit on the seats to avoid exposure to small arms fire. The armor on the halftracks was designed to prevent penetration by 7.92mm armor-piercing rounds only, so standing on the seats would kind of negate that protection. When it came time to disembark from the carriers, they could exit the vehicle in one of two ways…out the back or over the sides.
It really all boils down to what you mean by “ride into battle” as the HTs were also used to transport infantry behind the lines…so many photos will show the infantry in various poses depending, sometimes they are exposed and sometimes not. Context here is the key…and not something that can always be discerned in a photo even when it has captions. [;)]
Exactly. It depends where they were and what they were doing. You can do pretty much whatever you want with the infantry.
Although keep in mind that the purpose of the half-tracks was to move the troops close to the fighting and have them disembark, BEFORE they became decisively engaged - it really blows to drive right into the middle of a fight and have all your troops get machinegunned trying to get out of the track… The track could then use its own MG to support the movement of the troops. No different from a Bradley or an AAV today, really…
Another question. What woulld a troop carrier batalion consist of
There weren’t specific troop carrier battalions, the equipment for moving troops around was organic to the infantry Division itself. For troops equipped with the armored halftracks, these were referred to most commonly as Panzergrenadiers (the naming convention changed during the war on Hitler’s direct orders). If you do a search for the order of battle for these types of units, you will find what you’re looking for.
Sorr y I think I was being a bit vague I ment what would Peipers armored troop carrier battalion consist of. I just looked it up and it was called the blowtorch battalion. Were there any of these such units around arnhem and wuld they have worked with stugs and panzer units?