Grenadier Company

Grenadier Companies, or more commonly, the PANZER MOTHERFUCKING GRENADIERS, were a common sight in the German army in WWII and a unit in Flames of War.

IRL

Panzergrenadiers evolved out of a desire from German command to have highly mobile troops to compliment their tanks. So they decided: Hey, why not use horses or trucks to propel the men? This stroke of pure genius resulted in companies being divided into separate detachments, each with their own purpose. The "Rifle" Platoon was mostly to provide numbers and covering fire for the separate "storm" platoons, which would take the fight to the enemy at closer ranges. All of this was serviced/commanded by a "command" troop, which had all manners of auxiliary personally shoved into it, including six dedicated sharpshooters.

A fascinating part is that the Germans were smart enough to (try to) integrate Radios into every Platoon, to allow maximum coordination of forces on the battlefield, and thus maximize speed, which is kinda important to something called Blitzkrieg. Only America would attempt to push radios as far down the chain of command as the Germans tried to (a bit more successfully due to having ALL THE FACTORIES). Germany's extreme shortage of vacuum tubes meant they only had enough radios to consistently outfit their best units this way, but until America showed up it was still an enormous advantage in their favor.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Germany was not as mechanized or motorized as the movies make them to be: trucks were slightly more common, and hanomags were for the competent ones.

As for the weaponry involved, we have a dedicated page for most of this shit, but the short version is as follows.

• The Kar98 was a solid weapon but lacked the magazine size of the Lee-Enfield or Garand. It is still used for hunting today, but in the war it was still better than a Carcano or Mosin.

• The MG34 was superior to every LMG in the war. Period.

• The MP40 was mostly for officers and city fighting, and traded the speed of American Thompsons and Soviet PPSH41s for a lighter weight and easier to control during fire. The M3A1 SMG is very clearly influenced by the MP40 simply existing.

• The STG44 entered the war late as an innovative idea to combined the power of a Kar into the Fire Rate of an MP40. It was a decent weapon for all purposes, but suffered from being introduced way too late to make a difference in the war. He's basically the direct grandad to the Soviet AK-47 and the uncle of literally anything Liberals hate that calls itself an automatic rifle.