How long will I be in basic?
The region you were drafted into the Wehrmacht from or signed up, as well as the date, determined where you were sent for basic training, and with a degree of relative certainty, what unit you would most likely serve with.
During WWII, Germany was divided into wehrkreise (military districts) Each division that was raised was associated with one or multiple wehrkreise, and hence a specific area of Germany. They also drew their replacements from there. In a sense, Wehrmacht units were sort of like the US National Guard divisions at the beginning of WWII.
A map of the wehrkreise in 1943-1944
In the US Army, soldiers generally came from all over the country. The National Guard divisions originally came from areas of several states (as few as two, as many as five or six) but transfers and replacements reduced the number of local men very sharply through training and combat. The territories of US National Guard divisions are comparable to the German wehrkreise, although geographic size is far different; the whole of Germany is slightly smaller than Montana! For example, the US 41st Infantry Division drew its original troops from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming!
Men were frequently transferred to other units, or stripped away in training and sent unassigned to the ETO as replacements. If an American soldier was wounded and recovered, he was for the most part (the rules changed later in the war) not sent back to his old unit. Instead, he was sent to a replacement depot, where he was assigned to a unit that needed him the most. Once US Army divisions reached the front, their strength was continuously ground down, but reinforced by replacements. The US's replacement issue often created a situation of a core of hardened veterans mixed with anonymous replacements, permeated with an air of "I don't know him and don't want to know him; he's just going to get killed anyway." Infantry replacements often quickly became casualties.
In comparison to the United States, the German replacement system was different. Each wehrkreis maintained numbered replacement and training divisions for their field divisions at their home station in Germany. Conscripts or enlistees were first received at this unit. They completed their training at the training units, typically 16 weeks, but sometimes 12-14 and even as few as eight; in contrast, US training varied from 13-17 weeks. Armored troops trained for 21 weeks. Earlier in the war, each division had numbered organic Infanterie Ersatz Battailonen assigned to it back in Germany, with a stammkompanie (reception unit) and several ausbildungskompanien (training units) After training, recruits were sent to their new division. Each division had in its table of organization a replacement battalion. The new recruits arriving from the reception and training units in Germany went here next, before entering combat.
Since German units mostly trained In this way, men knew what divisions they were joining essentially as soon as they signed up, and trained together from enlistment to their first combat with men from their geographic area. In contrast to the US system, if a German soldier was wounded, he always returned to his unit through the replacement and training division. and the divisional replacement battalion.
Later in the war, this system became jumbled; reserve divisions assigned in the wehrkreise were also used to train recruits for nearby units, and sometimes the replacement units and training units were split up. At the same station, troops were often trained for delivery to multiple units. German divisions, unlike US ones, were often rotated completely out of the front lines, back to quieter areas where they could rest. "Rest" for a US division often just meant a transfer to a quieter area of the front.
My last link below gives an excellent account of the training of two ordinary Germans who served in the Wehrmacht during WWII, in 1940 and 1943.
German infantry divisions were mobilized in "waves" from 1934 to 1945, each "wave" of divisions having a specific purpose, and hence organization.
| Wave | Date | Number of Divisions | Series | Composition/purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 1934-1938 | 39 | 1-46 | Peacetime army units |
| II | August 1939 | 15 | 52-87 | Reservists |
| III | September 1939 | 20 | 206-246 | Formed from Landwehr, former soldiers between 35-45 years old who were still liable for service |
| IV | August 1939 | 14 | 251-269 | Mobilized from reservists |
| V | September 1939 | 5 | 93-98 | Reservists |
| VI | November 1939 | 4 | 81-88 | Disbanded in 1940 |
| -- | November 1939 | 5 | -- | Frontier Guard Units |
| VII | January 1940 | 14 | 161-199 | Mobilized from reserve units |
| VIII | February 1940 | 10 | 290-299 | Occupation units for Western Front |
| Oberrhein | February 1940 | 4 | 554-557 | Disbanded in 1940 |
| IX | March 1940 | 10 | 351-399 | Draftees |
| X | June 1940 | 9 | 270-280 | Formed from replacement units |
| -- | June 1940 | 9 | 351-395 | Formed after the French Campaign from older personnel |
| XI | October 1940 | 10 | 121-137 | For use on the Eastern Front |
| XII | October 1940 | 10 | 97-113 | For use on the Eastern Front |
| XIII | November 1940 | 9 | 302-327 | Occupation units for Western Front |
| XIV | November 1940 | 8 | 332-342 | Occupation units for Western Front |
| XV | May 1941 | 15 | 702-719 | Occupation units for Western Front |
| XVI | June 1941 | 4 | 201-204 | Security divisions |
| -- | December 1941 | 1 | 416 | For use in Denmark (older personnel) |
| XVII | December 1941 | 4 | 328-331 | For use on the Eastern Front |
| XVIII | January 1942 | 5 | 383-389 | For use on the Eastern Front |
| XIX | April 1942 | 4 | 370-377 | Occupation units for France |
| XX | June 1942 | 3 | 38, 39, 65 | Occupation units for English Channel coast |
| -- | September 1942 | 5 | 344-348 | Occupation units for France |
| Kreimhilde | November 1942 | 3 | 326-328 | For use in Germany |
| -- | November 1942 | 3 | 23, 369, 373 | Croatian conscripts |
| -- | February 1943 | 13 | Various | Bore numbers of divisions destroyed at Stalingrad |
| Brunhilde & Gisela Divisions | May 1943 | 3 | 282, 355, 356 | Occupation units for France |
| -- | June 1943 | 5 | Various | Bore numbers of units destroyed in Tunisia |
| -- | July-September 1943 | 7 | 242-266 | Occupation units for France |
| XXI | Nov-Dec 1943 | 10 | 349-367 | Type 1944 Divisions |
| XXII | December 1943 | 6 | 271-278 | Formed from disbanded units and used on Western Front |
| XXIII | February 1944 | -- | -- | Grenadier regiments used by 25th Wave |
| XXIV | April 1944 | 3 | 68, 331, 389 | Formed from reserve divisions |
| "Magen" | July 1944 | 1 | 70 | For troops with stomach issues |
| XXV | February 1944 | 6 | 77-92 | For use on Western Front |
| XXVI | May 1944 | 4 | Named | Shadow (filler troops used to restore destroyed divisions) divisions absorbed by reformed divisions |
| XXVII | June 1944 | 5 | 59-237 | Formed from shadow divisions |
| Krim | May 1944 | 3 | 50, 73, 98 | Bore numbers of units destroyed in the Crimea |
| XXVIII | July 1944 | 4 | Various | Formed from shadow divisions |
| XXIX | July 1944 | 13 | 541-562 | Volksgrenadier divisions |
| XXX | August 1944 | 6 | 12-563 | Volksgrenadier divisions |
| XXXI | 1944 | 12 | 560-572 | Absorbed by 32nd wave |
| XXXII | Sepember 1944 | -- | Divisions of previous waves reformed as Volksgrenadier divisions | |
| -- | October 1944 | 9 | 148-462 | Reserve and security divisions reformed as infantry divisions |
| XXXIII | January 1945 | 10 | 85-716 | Worn out divisions reformed as Type 1945 divisions |
| -- | January 1945 | 10 | -- | Reserve, training, and replacement divisions converted to infantry divisions |
| XXXIV | February 1945 | 4 | Named | For use in northern Germany |
| XXXV | March 1945 | 8 | Four Reich Labor Service and four infantry divisions | |
| -- | April 1945 | 3 | Varied | Rhine sector |
Sources:
The German Replacement Army 1939-1945
German Order of Battle: 1st-290th Infantry Divisions in World War II, by Samuel W. Mitcham