RussianSteelDar
Posts: 51
Joined: 3/25/2002 Status: offline
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I like that core force - and I cannot resist KV-2s either...maybe its Freudian... How to make a more historical core force...... From what I've read, about 30% of a first-line Tank Division was T-34s - the rest was light tanks and obsoletes.... Throughout the war - at least until 1944, 33% T34s seems to be fairly common for most tank units with the rest being light or lend lease tanks - I never realized how many T-60s and T-70s they used.. Sort of deflates the stories of big German tank kills a little - "over 500 Soviet tanks were killed" is more believable if only about 160 were T34s and the rest were T70s, T60s, and Stuarts... It appears that the KVs were concentrated in Heavy Regiments and allocated to Armies... The Sovs were just starting to reconstitute Tank and Mech Corps by the outbreak of Barbarossa...typically 2 x Tank Div + 1 Mot Rifle Div - but these got burned up in 1941 and it was not until 1942 that the large units reappeared (they got creamed at Kharkov and in the Don Basin and on the road to Voronezh in summer 1942...) then got rebuilt for Operation Uranus and Mars and creamed during Manstein's spring riposte then rebuilt again in time for Kursk and creamed again but finally, with the initiative shift, the Soviets finally had the opportunity to perfect the Tank Army which essentially was a Russian style PanzerKorps 1941 style... Paratroopers were frequently sent into regular combat so I think that's not too much of a stretch... The more I read about the Soviets in 1941 the more I realize that their weapons were often superior or at least equal to German stocks and their unit organizations were rational and well-thought out - they added infantry to tank battalion sized units before anyone else thought of it....making them into combined arms units.. Their doctrine was OK and sometimes quite realistic and by most accounts, they were often ferocious fighters when cornered or dug in. BUT.... their training and maintenance was deplorable (many tank drivers had little or no experience driving T34s - and many tanks were inoperable for lack of spare parts) - the rear echelon was riddled by incompetence - and they were saddled with a War Plan that rivals Plan 17 for sheer denial of reality...and that was without adding in the paralysis and shock of the "surprise" Barbarossa attack... Oh, and the professional officer corps was largely dead or in the Gulags... From what I've read, the first month was dominated by Soviet units that were often low or out of fuel, starving, low on or without ammunition - and they were ordered into desperate attacks that were generally uncoordinated, lacked effective artillery support and relied on mass assault waves... the fact that they carried out these orders nonetheless speaks volumes both for the Russian soldier's sense of duty and the terror instilled by Beria's goons... The Luftwaffe was generally available to relieve any truly desperate situation for the Germans and so the intermittent successes by various units usually had no lasting operational impact.....but the attrition effect could not be totally ignored by the Wehrmacht.. So: Starting core (mostly historical - IMHO): assumes this is a favored unit... 5 t-34s 10 Bt-7 2 Bt-7a Mot Rifle Co. 82 mort platoon 45mm ATG platoon Maxim HMG Platoon AC platoon (BA-3,6,10..) Motorcycle platoon Possible attached units (from Corps or Army): GAZ-AA flak truck platoon 4 x KVs 76mm Gun (dual role: FH or ATG) platoon Additional T34s I think the above would have been OK for a Tank unit that enjoyed some privileges in equipment and supply (due to well-connected Commissar most likely)... For a run-of-the-mill unit, lose the T34s and KVs replace with Bt-2 (shudder) and bt-5, the Rifle company would be motorized in name only, and the mortars and guns would be gone or at best present but low on ammunition... I'd avoid having less than 30% T-34s and expect your Bt and BA vehicles to evaporate in combat....if anyone manages to get a Bt7 to elite status I will be majorly impressed! t-26 tanks would have been associated with Rifle Corps and Divisions - I kinda like these and the t26E has a slight chance of surviving a round or two if faced front-on... Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the campaign... Brad
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