Position of German Forces, June 1944

Reading about Normandy, it was said that straight into Germany was unfeasible because of the amount of likely resistance that would be encountered.

Well we know that there was 1 Million troops in France, 3-400,000 in Italy, 500,000 in the Balkans, and around 2.5 Million in Russia.

But does anybody have a country by country statistical amount of the size of the German Armed forces in Europe? I would adore seeing one.

 

what about armed forces? do you want them aswell? cos i know that there was about 900 something panzer IVs in france june 1944, first batch of king tigers (not sure) and probably a good amount of panthers.

 

off the top of my head,around 25 percent of the german army was in france,before d-day,cheers.

 

This map from the West Point archives gives a pretty good idea of where "everybody" was on the western front in June, 1944. It does however not give numbers of personnel nor armor. But, better than no clue at all I suppose. One could take the numbers of the units, transfer them into google search, and find out their strengths on any given day I guess.

Goto:

http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/ww2 europe/EuropeanTheaterGIF/WWIIEurope54.gif

That home site is a great one for maps of the war, and includes maps from both the PTO and ETO as well.

 

I think I have something (interessant ?)
From Panzerarchiv :Starken des Feldheeres am 01-06-1944
My translation
One point :the figures are indicating the Ist-Starke(actuel strength )from the fighting forces,occupation forces are not included,nor the Luftwaffe and Navy
Verbande und Fechtende Heerestruppen
AG SUkraine :476889
AG N Ukraine:532738
AG Centre :644396
AG North :434749
OB West :4O6935
OB S West :291738
OB S East :244821
AOK 20 :115119
AOK Norwegen :140777
Danemark :31432
Total :3297169
If I am not wrong,Verbande are divisions and Fechtende Heerestruppen are not divisional units .
The first four AG are those in Russia
OB West is von Rundstedt with as subordinates Rommel and Blaskowitz
OB SW is Kesselring (Italy )
OB SE :Greece and Yugoslavia
AOK 20 ietl (Finland )

 

the german panzer forces were stumped at at that time

 

Significantly the bulk of the Luftwaffe and Navy were in The West.
In June 1944 there were actualy more panzers in the West than the East (West 1928, East 1913) though the number of Stug. was the other way around by a wide margin ( West 355 East 2180)

The 'total' number of soldiers on any given front vary greatly depending on the criteria you use but these are representitive.

1. Date: 7.11.1943 (15.10.1943)
East: 3,900,000
Finland: 180,000
Norway: 315,000
Denmark: 110,000
West: 1,370,000
Italy: 330,000
Balkans: 610,000
Sum: 6,815,000

Source: Materialien zum Vortrag des Chefs des Wehrmachtführungsstabes vom 7.11.1943 "Die strategische Lage am Anfang des fünften Kriegsjahres", (referenced to KTB OKW, IV, S. 1534 ff.)
---------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 5.5.1944 ( April 1944)
East: 3,878,000
Finland: no figure given
Norway: 311,000
Denmark: no figure given
West: 1,873,000
Italy: 961,000
Balkans: 826,000
Sum: 7,849,000


Source: "Strategische Lage im Frühjahr 1944", Jodl, Vortrag 5.5.1944. (referenced to BA-MA, N69/18.)

--------------------------------------------------------
From Müller-Hillebrand, Heer 3, p. 173:

"Ration strength in the West", 1. March 1944 (referenced to OKW War diary)

Army 806,927
SS and Police: 85,230
Foreign volunteers, mainly Eastern troops: 61,439
Allies: 13,631
Luftwaffe (air force): 337,140
Kriegsmarine (navy): 96,084
Wehrmachtgefolge (auxiliary civil personnel): 145,611

Sum: 1,546,062

Not my figures but I do not have the link to hand!

 

i love the fact that norway has to a certain degree taken as much importance as italy in the first set of numbers.