Organization of Sanitäts Bataillone

[Witt]

Hello all,

I have some clarification questions regarding Sanitäts units that I am not finding any definitive answers to. I am looking for this information for my research on a Fallschirmjäger Sanitäts Abteilung although it should not vary from the others from the Luftwaffe and even those of the Heer.

I have account of many of the doctors that served in the Abteilung during the war. All were registered physicians and senior practitioners aside from the youngest physician officer who was born in 1915. I know of one Oberstarzt, two Stabsärzte, six Oberärzte, three Assistentärzte, and another of unknown rank. Have yet to find anyone that held the ranks of Unterarzt or Feldunterarzt. An Assistentarzt or Oberarzt would manage the Truppenverbandplatz. The Hauptverbandplatz was the next stop for the wounded and could be mere kilometers behind the line. This had tables for two surgeons but could be rearranged for up to ten surgeons in hot zones. The H.V.Pl was designed for 200 patients but was usually expanded to accept 300-400 wounded.

The ranks of the enlisted Sanitäter is one aspect that I am not confident in. In such a unit I would expect all personnel to be medically trained by the military and thus would hold ranks between Sanitätssoldat and Sanitätsunteroffizier. Would this ranking structure be correct. The majority of casualty cards are omit of the ‘San.-‘ portion. Very few have it written in while other have been “corrected” by crossing it out and leaving just the base.

The Abteilung was had been Kompanie sized until mid-1940 then downsized to two separate Kompanien in 1944. Does anyone have an estimate of the rough size of a Sani Abteilung? On the low side of a typical Abteilung being 500 men or less. Some odd Pionier and Panzerjäger Abteilung had 300 men or fewer. This could be reasonable adjusting for the size of the H.V.Pl and Feld Lazarett.


Thank you, Ben

[Willmore]

Hi Ben.

Hopefully some of this information may help.

Sanitätseinheiten -
Sanitätseinheiten

German Medical Services from Tactical and Technical Trends -
German Medical Services, WWII Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 35, October 7, 1943 (Lone Sentry)

Medical Service of the German Army 1939 -
Medical Service of the German Army 1939. - Feldgrau.net


Here is a list of the actual medical ranks -

Sanitätssoldat
Obersanitätssoldat
Sanitätsgefreiter
Sanitätsobergefreiter
Sanitätsunteroffizier
Sanitätsunterfeldwebel
Sanitätsfeldwebel
Sanitätsoberfeldwebel
Sanitätsstabsfeldwebel

Assistenzarzt
Oberarzt
Stabsarzt
Oberstabsarzt
Oberfeldarzt
Oberstarzt
Generalarzt
Generalstabsarzt
Generaloberstabsarzt

Rank Structure of the Medical Personnel in the Wehrmacht - Axis History Forum


Here are a couple of pages from a Wehrpaß that show lower rank progression along with a krankenträger (stretcher bearer) course that a lot of these soldiers would have attended.





On a side note I actually collect documents to soldiers who were originally members of Sanitäts Ersatz Abteilung 7 and have also noticed that not all soldiers who were medically trained had the 'San' prefix on their casualty cards for some reason.

Post #605 -
Post your death notices

Post #614 and #618 -
Post your death notices

Post #624 -
Post your death notices

Kind regards,

Will.