Mountain Warfare?

[Lucky13]

How common or uncommon was it in WWII?

Did the Allies have any trained troops like the German Wehrmacht 1st Mountain Division?

 

[ThomasP]

US had the 10th Mountain Division, originally 10th Light Division (Alpine). It was (I think) the only large mountain unit employed by the US. The US also had a few small (less than battalion size) cold weather and mountain specialist units.

 

[EwenS]

US 10th Mountain Div

10th Mountain Division - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

British 52nd (Lowland) Div

52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

US / Canadian First Special Service Force

First Special Service Force - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

These immediately camevto mind.

 

[Frog]

France : 27th Alpine Division, disbanded in 1940, reformed on september 1944 from various Resistance outfits that were rebaptised with traditional Alpine Infantry units numbers.

Were also used notably in Italy, then in France and Germany the Moroccan Goums formed from indigenous of the mountains tribes of Morocco, with French cadres. My wife's uncle served as a radio operator with them in Italy. The mules were their main mean of transport.
Onr Goum = a company ;
Three Goums + supports elements = a Tabor (battalion ;
Three Tabors + HQ = a Groupe de Tabors Marocains (GTM) = a regiment ; there were 4 GTM formed during WW 2.

 

[Barrett]

Interesting subject--thank you

I wonder if any units recomputed their sight settings to accommodate altitude-elevation changes. Long ago I won an offhand rifle match held at 6,000 ft because my out-of-state shooting partner provided ballistic data.

 

[Frog]

Absolutely, but this could be tricky sometimes :

 

[bf109xxl]

The Soviets had about 20 mountain rifle divisions, and at the end of the war even two mountain rifle corps were formed on the Karelian Front for operations in Norway and Finland.
Officers for mountain units were trained in several special alpine camps.

 

[ThomasP]

Hey bf109xxl,

Do you know if the Soviets had any mountain units at the start of the war, and if so, how many of what type?

 

[bf109xxl]

Hey bf109xxl,

Do you know if the Soviets had any mountain units at the start of the war, and if so, how many of what type?

The first Soviet mountain rifle divisions were formed in the late 1920s. In 1941 the Red Army had 19 mountain rifle divisions - 8 in the Caucasus region (one of them was transferred to Kiev in July 1941), 7 in the Carpathian area, 3 in Central Asia, one in the Far East. How they were differentiated by type or if they were differentiated at all, I don't know. There was only one standard structure type for mountain rifle divisions (from 15.08.1940), but they could still differ in actual structure.
Operations in the high mountains were not expected - Alpine training was not carried out before the beginning of the war. Alpine camps for training officers of mountain units and special units were created only in 1942.
Separate mountain rifle squads were used for operations in the high mountains - they were rather special units with many mountaineers among their members.

 

[ThomasP]

Thank you for the info.