Panzergrenadier
Panzergrenadier (pronunciationⓘ), abbreviated as PzG (WWII) or PzGren (modern), meaning "Armour"-ed fighting vehicle "Grenadier", is the German term for the military doctrine of mechanized infantry units in armoured forces who specialize in fighting from and in conjunction with infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) – that is, armoured troop carriers designed to carry a mechanized squad of six to eight soldiers into, during and out of combat while providing direct fire support for those troops.
Modern day examples traditionally use medium-caliber (20–60 mm (0.79–2.36 in)) autocannons and integrated missile-systems in a revolving turret.
The Panzergrenadier doctrine and name is primarily used in the armies of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, in the latter under the native forms "pansarskytte" (Swedish: skytte = German: schützen) and "pansarinfanteri" ("armour infantry").
[1][2] In the modern German Army, Panzergrenadier (Pzg) is the lowest rank of enlisted men (Mannschaften) in the Panzergrenadiertruppe, comparable to NATO Other Rank-1 level.
The success of this tactic during the first years of World War II led to the introduction of a new troop type specialising in IFV combat, called "Panzergrenadier".
Sweden also adopted the Panzergrenadier doctrine in 1942, to some extent independently, although lacking dedicated infantry fighting vehicles until 1943.
Their Waffenfarbe was also changed from either white (in the case of Motorized Infantry) or rose pink to a meadow-green shade previously worn by motorcycle troops.
Some units did not change over their designations and/or Waffenfarbe accoutrements until 1943, and many veteran Schützen ignored regulations and kept their rose-pink until the end of the war.
Others, such as the Großdeutschland Division, were built up over the course of the war by repeatedly augmenting the size of an elite regiment or battalion.
The Panzergrenadier divisions were organized as combined arms formations, usually with six battalions of truck-mounted infantry organized into either two or three regiments, a battalion of tanks, and an ordinary division's complement of artillery, reconnaissance units, combat engineers, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, and so forth.
division, though most of the artillery, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft elements were equipped with weapons towed by trucks rather than the relatively rare armored and self-propelled models.
Of 226 panzergrenadier battalions in the whole of the German Army, Luftwaffe and Waffen SS in September 1943, only 26 were equipped with armoured half tracks, or just over 11 percent.
[4] The use of armoured half-tracks was rare in the German Army, and even the elite Großdeutschland Division, with two panzergrenadier regiments, only mustered a few companies' worth of the vehicles, generally Sd.Kfz.
In the German army, Panzergrenadiere act as mechanized infantry and escort for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles.
To fight armored vehicles or other hard targets the Panzerfaust 3 rocket-propelled grenade and the MILAN Anti-tank guided missile are in use.
The tgb m/42 KP was generally a good design for its time but it lacked an armored roof for the troop compartment.
For a brief period, Sweden also operated ex East German BMP-1 IFVs from the Soviet Union, under the Swedish designation pbv 501, while waiting for more strf 90s to be produced.
The Schützenpanzer 63 was subsequently updated with a 20 mm gun turret from Swedish firm Hägglund & Söner in the 1970s, mounting a modified Hispano-Suiza HS.804 autocannon.
