Luftwaffe Pershing 1A Force

[Stuart Galbraith]

Has anyone seen a decent TOE of the two Luftwaffe formations that utilized these weapons? Ive found the online website for both, but nothing that suggests how many missiles they have, or where they were based. Circa 1983 would be good if possible, but Ill settle for anything.

 

[BansheeOne]

Per German Wiki:

- Missile Wing 1: Landsberg/Lech, QRA position Görisried-Ochsenhof

- Missile Wing 2: Geilenkirchen-Niederreid, QRA position Wegberg-Arsbeck

 

- Wing HQ

 

- Missile Group

-- HQ Squadron

-- 4 x missile squadron (ca. 250 personnel), each:

--- squadron HQ platoon

--- 3 x firing section (each 3 x missile per dividing the total anount of 72 Pershing 1 through two wings of four squadrons of three sections)

--- signals platoon

--- security platoon (four squads)

--- attached US custodial team for warheads (74th/85th US Army Field Artillery Detachment)

 

- Support Group

-- HQ Squadron (includes driving school, attached NCO training class)

-- security squadron 

-- anti-aircraft battery (twin 20 mm guns, reserve)

-- medical squadron

-- supply squadron

Edited April 13, 2023 by BansheeOne

[Stuart Galbraith]

Ok, so let me clarify, Its 3 72 missiles, so each Missile Wing had 36. That was divided through 4 squadrons, giving 9 per squadron, and presumably that was further divided into flights, if its anything like Anglo American nomenclature, is that right?

Support group, would that have been in each missile wing, or was covering for both? AA battery, how many guns is that per missile Wing? Security squadron, would that be roughtly equivalent to an infantry company?

Sorry for all the questions, im working on a wargame and Id like to give them a vague chance of fighting off all the Spetsnaz.

[BansheeOne]

Okay, I pulled up O. W. Dragoner's detailed Bundeswehr OOBs, and the Luftwaffe volume confirms missile squadron strength at ca. 250 personnel with nine missiles each. Security squadron is given as ca. 300, but including a civilian gate guard detachment and the NCO training class;* supply squadron has the same strength. There are also two additional security squadrons to be activated in wartime, and two rather than one flak battery of 135 personnel and twelve twin 20 mm guns each, both inactive in peacetime. Medical squadron is semi-active, plus there's a wartime replacement squadron. The organization of one firing and one support group obviously applies to both wings, since one was based in North Germany, the other in the South. Overall peacetime strength ca. 1,900, wartime ca. 2,500.

There's also a PDF with a very detailed look at a missile squadron's signals platoon with its teletype, voice radio and tropo-scatter teams and a host of equipment on DKW Munga or Iltis and MAN 5 t trucks. In 1978 it was found that contrary to previous belief all radio links could be intercepted and 80 percent of messages decrypted, including by troposcatter. Thereafter radio use was restricted to emergencies or the actual hot phase of a mission, and even the ground security elements had to lay cables for comms again while there was also a renaissance of motorcycle messengers. The US detachments eventually got SATCOM. Overall, there was a weekly roster:

- one squadron in QRA position, ready to launch within minutes;

- two squadrons on twelve-hour alert to assume pre-planned firing positions and launch; a deployed wing would assume 15-20 different positions across several thousand square kilometers with one firing section always covering assigned targets while another was moving;

- one squadron on stand-down from QRA.

Also, two squadrons went for live-firing exercises in the US each year; from 1974/75, only at Ft. Bliss. There were frequent "Black Jack" exercise alerts limited to the chain of command with simulated launches, but the units also went for field exercises short of the twelve-hour launch threshold several times per year.

 

*ETA: per other information from Dragoner and Wiki, a security squadron in a fighter(bomber) wing would have two active platoons in peacetime with a strength of 2/16/76=94, and another two platoons activated in wartime for a total strength of 181.

Edited April 13, 2023 by BansheeOne

[Stuart Galbraith]

Ok, thats excellent, thank you very much.