German Companies

The Germans consistently changed their organisation during World War Two and this was down to losses in men and equipment. The standard infantrycompany was originally thirteen strong but this was changed to ten by 1940, after this the squad virtually remained the same and this built around a light machine gun team.

The squad was commanded by a corporal and assisted by a lance corporal and these NCOs were initially armed with rifles, but by mid-war they could be issued with machine pistols. The corporal usually commanded the LMG team which was made up of a two man gun team and an ammunition bearer. The lance corporal took charge of the rifle team which contained five infantrymen armed with rifles.