Late-war US and German OOB questions

[cillmhor]

US OOBs

Thanks for all of this, very helpful and just the kind of information I need. I am not sure what type of TDs the 703rd Tank Destroyer Bn. had at the Battle of Paderborn in March 29th 1945 (the scenario I have in mind). The 9th Armored's 656th TD Bn. had M18s at that time, were the M18s more common?

I also saw a picture captioned as a recon unit being led by an M5? Does this mean that there were M5s in the cavalry/recon battalion? Or is the caption just a general comment, recon meaning at the front of the advance? In other words were M5s attached to Recon Battalions?

Would the cavalry battalion companies be 15 x M8 etc. like the light and medium battalions?

How close to the combat zone would AA battalions be when an armoured division is advancing?

Also I have seen elsewhere that the Signal Battalion is listed among the combat units of the Division, is this true and what was the make-up of a Signal Bn.?

German OOBs

Thanks very much Huib, again just what I was looking for.

So the two unterfurher battalions are officer cadets, probably? The Westfalen Bridade was formed on 29 March from SS training staff and personnel at the Sennelager training grounds north of Paderborn, so they were very adhoc, and only lasted a a few weeks as a unit with Paderborn being there most significant engagement.

Would it make sense for there to have been three battalions for each regiment within the Brigade, as appears to be the case from the unit OOB I have?

Also there was a small panzer unit made up of training tanks from the school; Panzer Abt Kloskowski a safe bet?

Cheers

cillmhor