WWII German army organisation

[the hairy bloke]

One of those questions that comes to you while staring out the window doing the washing up.

Did "Austrians" and "Germans" serve in separate units during the Second World War, or was it assumed that the two nationalities where one, and thus served together?

Were there "Austrian" only units?

 

[Fastuni]

They usually were organized separately, not because of "ideological considerations" but since the Werhmacht raised conscripts according to "Wehrkreise" (Military Districts)... thus conscripts from one region of Germany would fight alongside each other.
The Austrian "Wehrkreise" were Vienna and Salzburg, units raised/stationed within these would be manned by Austrians. The changing commanding generals however could hail from other parts of Germany.

"Austrian" Divisions for example were the 2nd and 9th Panzer Division.

Or the 44th Infantry Division - which became the "elite" "Hoch- und Deutschmeister"-Division:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44th_Infantry_Division_(Wehrmacht)

(An Austrian SS-Regiment was "Der Fuehrer".)

Wehrkreise 1938 (after "Anschluss" of Austria):

Wehrkreise 1944-45:

Of course it was a common thing to mix and match units as they were available on the front into "Kampfgruppen" or other ad-hoc combinations, or integrate soldiers separated from their units into another.

 

[Edward]

How local did it get? I wonder was there an equivalent of what the Brits had in WW1, with squads being deliberately organised along the basis of hometowns - the big unintended consequence being individual towns and villages being hit very hard by losing whole generations of young men.

 

[Fastuni]

Below each "Wehrkreis" were several "Wehrbezirke", and under them several "Wehrbezirkkommandos" and at the last level "Wehrmeldeämter" (Record offices) around the smaller "secondary" towns, where the conscripts who received the draft notice had to turn up.
So conscripts within one "Wehrmeldeamt" region (a smaller middle sized town plus surrounding villages) would likely serve within one unit (unless of course they volunteered or were moved to one of the other branches... the Luftwaffe i.e. had slightly differently divided "Luftgaue" as an equivalent to the "Wehrkreis").

It may not be unusual for the young men of one village to serve in the same squad or company (provided they weren't split into say Infantry, Artillery etc.), but I can't say for sure whether this was the policy of the military.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

While such a system made for higher morale and unit cohesion it was also quite inflexible and unwieldy when it came to replacing losses. Each German division had its own Ersatz Battalion to receive the intake of new replacements from the parent Wehrkreise rather than receiving the men from a central replacement depot at higher level. In the face of mounting casualties these assets were jealously guarded by the division commanders to the detriment of other divisions, often in more critical sectors, who had greater need for the manpower.