Panzer division (Wehrmacht)

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Panzer division (1939)
Panzerdivision (1939) — PzDiv —
(US Army Map Symbol: Panzer Division)
Active	1939–1945
Country	Germany
Branch	German Army
Type	Panzer
Role	Armoured warfare
Size	11,792 personnel (1939) 394 officers 115 officials 1,962 NCOs 9,321 enlisted
Part of	Wehrmacht
Engagements	World War II

A Panzer division was one of the armored (tank) divisions in the army of Nazi Germany during World War II. Panzer divisions were the key element of German success in the blitzkrieg operations of the early years of World War II. Later the Waffen-SS formed its own panzer divisions, and the Luftwaffe fielded an elite panzer division: the Hermann Göring Division.

A panzer division was a combined arms formation, having both tanks (German: Panzerkampfwagen, transl. armored fighting vehicle, usually shortened to "Panzer"), mechanized and motorized infantry, along with artillery, anti-aircraft and other integrated support elements. At the start of the war, panzer divisions were more effective than the equivalent Allied armored divisions due to their combined arms doctrine, even though they had fewer and generally less technically advanced tanks.^[1] By mid-war, though German tanks had often become technically superior to Allied tanks, Allied armored warfare and combined arms doctrines generally caught up with the Germans, and shortages reduced the combat readiness of panzer divisions. The proportions of the components of panzer divisions changed over time.

The World War II German equivalent of a mechanized infantry division is Panzergrenadierdivision ('armored infantry division'). This is similar to a panzer division, but with a higher proportion of infantry and assault guns and fewer tanks.