Le enfield, did you mean the Sandrighan (spelling) men???
They made a tv movie about this starring the old geezer who is a grumpy old Inspector , bugger I can't remember his name!!!!!!!

Hi Ollie.

You make an important point regarding divisional make-up which isn't realised by most people not into this subject. However, the ideal make-up of a division on paper did not often match what was its make-up in practice. This certainly would have been the case for German formations, particularly as the war went on. Indeed, the make-up of a German panzer division itself changed several times due to various reasons, chief among them being not having the tank crews or even panzers to continue to have the panzer regiment strength that existed say in a 1940 panzer division. The massive expansion of the Panzerwaffe in 1941 for Operation Barbarossa (from 10 to 21 Panzer divisions) is a prime example. On paper, this would seem like a massive increase in combat power but one has to also realise that the average strength of a Panzer division had dropped from 258 to 196 tanks as a result, because of the lack of crews and equipment.

Futhermore, in very heavy fighting, if specialist components of a division were wiped out, then the division itself would change. This was especially true on the Eastern Front but also happened on other fronts. For example, if 12 SS Panzer Division lost its panzer/panzergrenadier regiments it would end up acting as an ad-hoc infantry division. So whilst the wiping out of aforementioned regiments would destroy its combat power on paper, the reality would be somewhat different. Of course, and especially in an armoured division, the loss of tank regiments would be a serious blow, the division would still be somewhat combat capable. Every specialist knows how to pick up a gun and shoot and whilst (in most cases) they are probably not as effective as regular infantry they can still perform a worthwhile role. Look at Fallschirmjäger and Luftwaffe troops being used as infantry in 1944/1945 as an example.

Where do the stories of scrap regiments fit in? They would lose their proper name and scratched of the list. However they were stil fighting forces which plugged many holes on the eastern front. I am not really into the subject, but reading Guy Sajer's book (which has been finally been taken to be true, just a little while back).... you get a picture of how it must have looked like.

39 Battalion, and the 2/27th Battalion are 2 Aussie formations who were not wiped out as such, but had massive, massive losses on Kokoda.

So did the Royal West Kents at the same battle.

No Lee that was Kohima the Burma campaign, Kokoda was exclusively an Australian battle"When Australians saved Australia"

A Well known unit in fact was Lee's, The British 1st Airborne Div ,Arnhem, Holland 1944. Out of 10,000 that dropped in less than 2000 came out.


Of all the qualities required by the Infantrman,the most important is "Aggression"

The British Army had several units wiped out completely the most famous was the 24th of Foot during the Battle of Isandlwana.

The 24th of Foot was surprised by an attack of Zulu warriors and failed to form squares in time. There were only 60 survivors of 1200 men.

Not sure if it counts but there was a British unit in Afghanistan 1850 ish that was wiped out leaving only one man alive, everyone was killed or captured incuding the camp followers and soldiers families.

Yep totally correct fella! however there where in fact several survivors eventually, the most well known being Lt Souter who ripped off the colours and tied them around himself to save them.Turned out to be a savvy move as when captured(As they'd run out of Ammo) the Afghans thought he must be a man of importance due to his richely decorated waistcoat and spared his life! The Unit was H.M 44th of foot,later known as the Essex Regt and later becoming the 3rd East Anglian Regiment untill it became the 3rd Bn(The Pompadours)The Royal Anglian Regiment. But alas in S.D.I in 1993 it was taken out of the order of Battle and its men merged with the 1st & 2nd Bn The Royal Anglian Regiment. It's Title is now to be reactivated in the T.A with the East of England Regiment remaming to the 3rd Bn The Royal Anglian Regiment this year, so the show aint over yet! "Come on All the Four's! Little Red Rooster ****-a-doodle-Doo!"