with Kradschützenkompanie HQ section, Kradschützen Platoon HQ section with Anti-tank Rifle team & three Schützen Squads.
The true tip of Germany’s armoured spear-thrusts are the motorcycle companies and their supporting armoured cars. Fast and mobile they often fight alongside the panzers. Kradschützen companies outmanoeuvre the enemy, speeding
through gaps in their lines to capture key objectives.
In 1941 15. Panzerdivision had a Kradschützen, or Motorcycle Reconnaissance, battalion as part of 15. Schützen Brigade, while both the 15. Panzerdivision and 21. Panzerdivision had Kradschützenkompanies as part of their respective Aufklärungs or Reconnaissance Battalions. Their role is to reconnoitre ahead of the main body, seeking the enemy and investigating the terrain ahead, critical in the North African desert conditions.
Although they would later prove unsuitable in the desert conditions and be replaced, at the beginning of the North African campaign the most prevalent motor vehicle in the Deustche Afrikakorps was the motorcycle, with 21. Panzerdivision alone having almost 1000 of them in December 1941.
