The system initially had four waves, the first of which would be the peacetime army and the other three raised in anticipation of the invasion of Poland.
[3]: 43 The divisions were intended to be staffed by 518 officers, 102 bureaucrats, 2,573 NCOs and 13,667 soldiers, for a total of 16,860 staff members.
Each battalion also contained a machine-gun company with eight heavy machine guns, later upgraded to twelve.
[6] Divisions of the third wave, many of which were deployed under Army Group C in defensive roles against France between September 1939 and the summer of 1940, were considered lacking by Army Group C commander Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb (who reported to Franz Halder on 3 October 1939 that third-wave divisions were, in his view, suitable only for relatively-quiet conditions).
[6] Army Group C commander von Leeb reported to Halder on 3 October 1939 that the fourth-wave divisions were, in his view, only suitable for combat if they received additional defensive training.
The fifth Aufstellungswelle was the first wave of units raised after the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Unlike the first four waves (which were armed with German-produced materiel), the fifth-wave units' weapons were taken from Czechoslovakia, which Germany annexed between 1938 and 1939.
The idea of raising five additional divisions had already been considered before the outbreak of war, and was ordered on 8 September 1939.
The regimental commanders were named on 25 September, and the deadline for divisional combat readiness placed on 1 November.
[3]: 46 In the units of the sixth Aufstellungswelle, assembled by 14 November 1939, the 13th companies of the infantry regiments were not deployed.
The units of the eighth Aufstellungswelle (organizationally identical to those of the seventh wave) were assembled in February 1940, when the Wehrmacht was preparing for the Battle of France.
Armed with three infantry regiments, an infantry-gun, engineer and intelligence company, an artillery battery and a bicycle squadron each, the units of the ninth Aufstellungswelle were raised in preparation for the attack on France in February and March 1940.
Intended as occupation forces of territories seized along the Western Front, the 13th Aufstellungswelle of November–December 1940 consisted of divisions whose infantry regiments were not equipped with infantry-gun or anti-tank companies, lacked reconnaissance or intelligence detachments, and had smaller artillery and anti-tank detachments.
The final mobilization of 1940, the 14th Aufstellungswelle was raised in November and December of that year and was similar to its predecessor.
The divisions of the 15th Aufstellungswelle began to be assembled in April 1941 as occupation forces in the Balkans, where the Germans had recently invaded Yugoslavia and assisted Italy in the Battle of Greece The divisions, with two infantry regiments, were weaker than the previous waves.
At four brigades, the 16th Aufstellungswelle (assembled in June 1941, just before the German invasion of the Soviet Union) was the smallest deployment wave.
Assembled at the same time as the 17th wave, the units of the 18th Aufstellungswelle lacked a heavy-artillery detachment and had only one engineer company each.
The 26th Aufstellungswelle, in April 1944, raised four shadow divisions: Böhmen, Neuhammer, Ostpreußen and Wildflecken.
Raised in August 1944, the 30th Aufstellungswelle recreated several units which had been part of the first waves and were dissolved or destroyed in combat.
Raised in August 1944, the 31st Aufstellungswelle was the fourth (and penultimate) wave of shadow divisions.
The largest mobilization since the first wave and the last in 1944, the 32nd Aufstellungswelle in August attempted to raise large numbers of Volkssturm conscripts to fill gaps in the regular divisions.
The wave consisted of six infantry divisions: Potsdam, Ulrich von Hutten, Scharnhorst, Schlageter, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn and Theodor Körner.
A seventh division (ordered on 29 April 1945) was planned for Reich Labour Service members, but was not mobilized.
The Ferdinand von Schill division followed the 35th-wave naming convention, but was not listed by the Feldpost military-mail service.