State of the Armed forces 1939
The German military stood at varying states of readiness. The German army was the best prepared, with nearly 800,000 men, but nearly 150,00 were still in training. The German army had the longest training cycle of any nation in the world, starting with basic training, moving to advanced specialties, and finally finishing with a training regiment in the assigned division. Though German infantry divisions would technically have a triangular structure, with 3 regiments, a 4th regiment would be a training unit that would prepare incoming replacements with the men and officers they would serve with before entering the division proper. This cycle would ensure that the German army would have the best trained soldiers in the world, but naturally it took time. Overall there were 40 regular Infantry divisions, but several were still forming. The German Panzer formations were also stuck in the expansion phase. While technically 9 divisions existed, only 6 were fully formed. The adopting of advanced designs had slowed the production process, as the first models began rolling off the assembly lines in 1937. The process was streamlined, as there were only 3 basic models, which would have several specialized variants. Additionally, the rearmament board required that the models all be mass producible, so many features were streamlined to make manufacturing faster. Overall the Heer was the most experienced force in the world, as many of the leaders and soldiers in most formations had combat experience in China.
One special unit that would go on to pioneer many of the most important technical and doctrinal advances were the paratroopers. Originally they were a Luftwaffe formation, but were handed over to the Heer by 1937. Training was taken over by the army, but most of the radical leadership was still in place. As this unit was to be dropped behind enemy lines and cut off until reinforcements arrived, it was decided that a better battle rifle be designed. A mix was needed between the power and range of the rifle with the speed of the machine pistol. The Stg 40 would be the very first assault rifle that would go on to influence all armies of the world. It was also small enought to jump with, which allowed the FJ troops firepower immediately on the ground. Initially only a Fallschirmjager weapon, the Heer would later adopt it for use in mobile formations. Additionally, the forward observers of the FJ division would be the best in the business, pioneering much of the doctrine later used by the Panzer divisions and regular infantry. They were also assigned a Luftflotte (air fleet) for support when they landed. Being very valuable troops, they were given very large amounts of fire power. It was also recognized that they were vulnerable to armored vehicles, so an effort to equip them with anti-tank rifles was made. This weapon was inadequate against most modern tanks, therefore an effort was made to design a new, more effective weapon. The initial version was called the Panzerschrek, a rocket weapon that could pierce all tanks of the day. But this experimental weapon would not be available until 1941. A disposable, smaller version would be designed as well, but came even later.
The Luftwaffe was also an extremely effective organization with years of combat experience. Equiped with fiersome weapons, such as the Stuka, Bf110 ground attack craft, and the Me440 gunship, the LW was capable of taking on the more heavily armored ground forces. Additionally, the tactical bombing force, the terror of the Japanese, was just as capable in its role. The strategic bomber force was a least funded of the Luftwaffe, but with nearly 500 heavy bombers, was still a force to be reckoned with. As German doctrine was primarily focused on tactical bombing and the no terror bombing policy prohibited an independent role for these bombers, they would mostly be involved in deep logistic bombing, and the occassional carpet bombing of pockets of enemy troops that the Panzers and mobile infantry had left behind. The LW numbered nearly 4500 combat aircraft by November of '39 and would be one of the largest airforces in the world.
The navy was the step child of the Wehrmacht. With mostly light surface units, it was tasked with only the bottling up of the baltic, and the denial of any other force entry or exit. It also included an air arm that would work in conjunction with ships in this goal. These would mostly be land based. But the Kriegsmarine would later go on to field 2 escort carriers with 40 aircraft capacity. The Uboot service was also small, with only 50 boats, half being costal models. Experiment long range models existed in development, but none were in service yet. The understanding with Britain had made their existence of limited usefulness, mostly to strike at the Soviets or French if needed. The capacity existed for expanded production, but this was more of a contingency rather than a future plan.