Ok, now for today’s stupid question…
I’m painting the infantry that defend a Pz III from the 3 Panzer Division in 1941, Russia. Are they:
a) Panzer Grenadiers
b) Armored Infantry, or
c) Panzer Anti Tank Infantry
Trying to get the waffenfarbe right and can’t figure between rose pink or grass green. Or just white. I know they switched around, and sometimes it was a matter of preference.
Steve
Being inherently lazy as I am…and not wanting to dig out the books and paraphrase, I cut and pasted from Wikipedia;
The term Panzergrenadier was not adopted until 1942. Infantry in panzer divisions from 1939 onwards were known as Schützen Regiments; they wore the same rose pink piping on their uniforms as the tank crews. Soldiers in special Motorized Infantry units wore the standard white piping of the Infantry. In 1942, when Infantry Regiments were renamed as Grenadier Regiments by Hitler as a historical homage to Frederick the Great’s Army, the Schützen regiments (and the soldiers in them) began to be redesignated as Panzergrenadiers, as did Motorized Infantry units and soldiers. Their waffenfarbe was also changed from either white (in the case of Motorized Infantry) or rose pink (with an “S” cypher that distinguished the Schützen from the tank and anti-tank units that also wore that colour) to a grass green shade previously worn by motorcycle troops. Some units did not changeover their designations and/or waffenfarbe accoutrements until 1943.
Here is the lowdown on Waffenfarben;