just a question.

[tonygill]

hi,

I have a few disks that are stamm kp & stamm b, but dont know what the diffirence is between a normal inf company & a stamm company. Are the stamm companys actual combat units?

Thanks in advance,

[Stacez]

Hello,

Firstly identification:
Stamm-Kp./Jnf.Ers.Btl.12 = Stammkompanie/Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 12 - cadre company/12th infantry replacement battalion
Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 12 - Lexikon der Wehrmacht

As you can see Stammkompanie was a part of replacement units. Now, please see my post dated 04-21-2011, 03:16 PM in the following thread:
Erkennungsmarken, help needed

[tonygill]

as always thanks for info stacez
its much apprecated.
tony.

[Matt L]

Stamm means 'stem' or 'root', which makes it easy to remember this is the reception and induction section- the 'stem', from which recruits went on to the training sections and such.

[tonygill]

cheers matt

[Matt L]

Oh and no Ersatz unit is an actual combat unit- until very late in the war when some were mobilized to the front that was probably at their gate; nearly any marked 'Ersatz' or 'Ausbildungs' was a non-combat training unit. Field units were 'Infanterie-Regiment', 'Panzer-Abteilung', 'Pionier-Bataillon', etc.- all those you'd find listed as elements of a Division on an OOB, for example.

[tonygill]

so if a ersatz is in a regiment or a abteilung etc-
would that make them combat troops.
please say yes lol
as most of mine are ersatz.
thanks tony

[Stacez]

Simply saying, all Ersatz units were responsible for soldiers' induction, training and sending them as the replacements to affiliated field units. Soldiers received ID tags in these units after induction and kept them during whole service even while changing the units - ID tags were changed (issued new one) only if were lost, misplaced etc. So, if you have the Ersatz units ID tags it means that these guys ended up mostly in the combat units affiliated with their Ersatz units. You need extra documents like Soldbuch or Wehrpass to be exactly sure in which field unit they had served.

[Matt L]

Right- just because a disc has 'Ersatz' on it doesn't mean the man who once wore it wasn't a combat soldier. I was simply saying the Ersatz unit itself isn't a combat formation. Practically EVERY German soldier entering service from 1939 on started in an Ersatz-type unit and would have a disc with that marked on it, regardless of where he served. He spent his few months or whatever it was in the Ersatz unit proper, then went off to his field unit.

You have to understand that the US system where men joined 'the Army' and would just be put into a central stream and could be sent anywhere for training and to any field unit isn't common- in Europe, men joined their local Regiment, so there were literally hundreds of training units. The exceptions being the smaller or specialized services- the KM, Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe, of course.

[tonygill]

thanks for the replys stacez and matt.
its very much apprecated.
tony.