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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 12/28/2017 8:03:02 PM   
asl3d


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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 12/29/2017 9:05:33 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 12/31/2017 2:52:36 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/2/2018 6:16:04 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/4/2018 5:49:06 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/5/2018 6:00:36 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/6/2018 7:26:49 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/10/2018 5:44:46 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		Barrikady is the second Historical Module for Heroes and Leaders mod.

The historical context is sited in the Battle of Stalingrad (autumn 1942). Specifically, during the days that the German Sixth Army exerted the maximum pressure on the Soviet Army and, specifically, in the hard confrontations for the control of the sector of the production factories, like the Dzerzhinskiy Tractor factory, the Barrikady Gun factory, and the Red October steelworks factory.

This historical mod will include the Soviet Army, with all infantry units, as well as most of its artillery and vehicles. Also, the German Army will include the rest of its infantry (Pioneers, Sappers, Panzergrenadiers, and Schützen), and a large part of its artillery and vehicles. There will also be more Leaders, on both sides, as well as medical units, heroes and snipers.

Regarding the boards, new terrain will be included, such Debris (not Rubble), hexides that block the movement across them, special factory buildings, etc. In total, there will be six boards that reproduce partially the industrial sector of Stalingrad, next to the Volga river.

As always, as I make progress, I will publish them in this "thread" as well as include them in the respective "Documents" of “Heroes and Leaders mod Documents."

We move forward





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/16/2018 6:28:43 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		The Russian Naval Infantry force, or Russian Marines, was formed in 1705 and, during World War II about 350,000 Red Navy sailors fought on land. At the beginning of the war, the navy had only one brigade of marines in the Baltic fleet, but began forming and training other battalions.
From the outset of World War II, the Soviet Navy transferred large numbers of surplus naval personnel, including people from Naval Academies, to fight as ordinary infantry. The first Soviet marine brigade was formed by reorganizing the Kronshtadt Fortress Garrison Regiment of the Baltic Sea Fleet. Even though this unit received some marine-specific training and wore distinctive black naval uniforms, it remained a light infantry formation. The marine brigade lacked any landing craft or artillery. Since there was no time to give the men the appropriate infantry training, they had to learn on the job; such a mode of learning carried a heavy price tag. Very often, army officers commanded naval infantry brigades, with some army personnel dispersed through the ranks to give sailors assistance in learning their new duties.
Another type of naval ground unit, the Naval Rifle Brigade, appeared in the late summer of 1941, with naval personnel and army officers. Because of their origins, they had a strong esprit de corps, and they could boast a higher standard of individual training than the other rifle brigades made up of raw recruits. As Army units, the naval rifle brigades had a much more formal structure than the naval infantry. Wearing their black uniforms, the sailors came to be called the “naval infantry.” As the war progressed, these naval infantrymen were assimilated into regular Red Army formations. Clothed in army uniforms, they retained their distinctive blue-striped jerseys.
Among Marshall Georgi Zhukov’s forces that halted the German advance on Moscow in the desperate winter of 1941 were four naval infantry brigades made up of personnel from the Pacific Fleet. Two brigades of naval infantry fought at Stalingrad. The real Sniper, Vasiliy Zaytsev (Enemy at the Gates) had already served five years in the Soviet Pacific Fleet and held the rank of chief petty officer. He, along with many of his shipmates, volunteered for service at Stalingrad. The Naval Infantry conducted over 114 landings. The largest landings were those in the Black Sea at Novorossisk and Kerch in 1943. Baltic Fleet marines landed in East Prussia in April 1945 to unhinge Nazi defenses. The Pacific Fleet marines carried out a series of landing operations on the east coast of Korea.
During the war, five brigades and two battalions of naval infantry were awarded Guards status. Nine brigades and six battalions were awarded decorations, and many were given honorary titles. The title Hero of the Soviet Union was bestowed on 122 members of naval infantry units. The Soviet experience in amphibious warfare in World War II contributed to the development of Soviet operational art in combined arms operations. Many members of the Naval Infantry were parachute trained; they conducted more drops and successful parachute operations than the VDV.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/18/2018 9:42:49 PM   
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Status: offline 		When the Red Army first went to war in 1939 during the invasion of Poland and the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40, there was a divergence between theory and practice in the employment of infantry.
The basic tactical unit that Soviet commanders used was the regiment, a unit composed roughly of 4000 men. In practice, however, these regiments were difficult to control in the kind of mobile warfare that was attempted against the Finns in 1939, with little initiative given to junior officers and limited command and control capability by higher headquarters. Instead, the battalion was considered the lowest unit that could mount an attack, with the battalion commander managing all aspects of reconnaissance, fire support, and maneuver.
Very little coordination existed between tanks, artillery, and infantry, leading not only to friendly fire incidents but also command confusion and ineffectiveness in the face of determined Finnish resistance. This over-reliance on pre-war tactics resulted in massive casualties in the Russo-Finnish War.
From the spring of 1940 to the summer of 1941, new weapons and organizations were introduced into the Red Army as a means of countering the training and performance issues seen in the Russo-Finnish War.
The average infantry company, by April 1941, had the following table of organization and equipment: Five officers, one political officer, twenty-two NCOs, and 149 enlisted men in three rifle platoons and one machinegun platoon, armed with 126 Mosin-Nagant rifles, 64 submachineguns, 12 light machineguns, 2 medium machineguns, and one 50mm company mortar.
At the end of the year 1941, the average rifle platoon consisted of one officer, nine NCOs, thirty-seven enlisted men and nine light machineguns, while the rifle company lacked mortars and medium machineguns—such assets were now concentrated at battalion and above. Throughout the spring and summer offensives of 1942, the Red Army began to learn from the Germans. A key example of this adaptation was the publication of the Red Army’s first urban warfare manual by Lieutenant General Vasili Chuikov during the Battle of Stalingrad. Chuikov instructed his troops to move as ‘storm groups’, highly mobile but heavily armed groups of submachinegunners, machinegunners, and sappers armed with satchel charges and grenades. Combined with the tactic of strongpointing key terrain, and secured lines of movement and communication, the less heavily-armed defenders of the city held off a mechanized force.
As Soviet armies held their ground throughout the spring of 1943 and defeating the Germans at the Battle of Kursk, interesting differences between Western armies and the Red Army soon emerged during the fall offensives. It was not uncommon for high-caliber artillery pieces, such as divisional artillery and even 152mm cannons, to be used in a direct fire role in support of the infantry. Additionally, the Red Army espoused a tradition of aggressive junior officers, cultivated at Stalingrad and eventually accepted across the entire force, with predictably high casualty rates in company grade officers (Junior Lieutenant to Senior Lieutenant).
As officer leadership improved, so too did overall performance of the Red Army soldier. The razvedchiki would often lead battalion-sized reconnaissance-in-force (razvedka boem) efforts to more accurately locate German positions, while anti-tank and infantry units became more adept at separating and annihilating German infantry from their tank support.
At the operational levels, enough field grade and general officers had survived and gained experience to fully implement the doctrine of deep battle, one of the first mechanized warfare doctrines in the 20th century. In 1943, the Red Army soldier had become the equal in the eyes of his German counterpart.
The increased mechanization of the Red Army also meant that the Soviet soldier was often truck-borne or riding with armored vehicles, the latter of which meant that inter-branch cooperation was necessary in order to become effective.
The Red Army soldier in 1944 and 1945, was a highly mobile, lightly equipped soldier. Automatic weapons firepower was the hallmark of the average soldier, with many using submachineguns instead of rifles or carbines, sensible due to the increased fighting in built up and urban areas as the Red Army moved towards Berlin.
The infantry, during the final drive to Berlin, was a hardened, experienced fighting force that was as different from its 1941 state as the US Army was by this time.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/20/2018 2:39:38 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		The Spetnaz didn't exist during WWII, at least by title, but their lineage can be traced to other Soviet units that did. Two of the more prominent are the Russian Airborne Troops and Russian commando frogmen.
The Soviet Union started frogman operations during World War II. The first unit of combat divers, was formed in Leningrad in 1941. His operations consisted of more than just combat operations and demolitions. There were many rescue missions which also included females divers recovering weapons and other military equipment from sunken cargo ships
A Sapper Army was a multi-brigade military construction engineer formation organized by the Soviet Union's Red Army. Sapper armies were used from late 1941 until mid-1942 when the Red Army opted to organize smaller and more flexible construction engineer formations. The high command ordered the formation of the first sapper armies on October 13, 1941.
The sapper armies worked to construct defensive lines that were made up of battalion and company strong points in the Moscow, Stalingrad, North Caucasus, and Volga military districts. Dissatisfied with the relative lack of flexibility of the sapper armies, the high command disbanded five of them in February 1942 and used the released personnel for the formation of new rifle (infantry) units. Confronted with the German summer offensive of 1942, the remaining sapper armies built defensive works around Moscow and Stalingrad, and in the Caucasus. By October 1942, the remaining five sapper armies had been converted into defensive construction directorates. The troops released by this measure were used to form new rifle and smaller engineer units.
The sapper armies as having contributed significantly to the Red Army's victories at Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad by preparing defensive lines, providing vital engineering support to the Red Army's operating fronts, and serving as a base for the formation of other more specialized engineer forces assigned to operating fronts.
The Russians have traditionally called them "pioneers" or usually "sappers" with specialized demolition techniques, mine laying and clearing plus everything from cratering airstrips to knocking down bridges or breaching heavy defenses, walls, pillboxes and wire. Destroying enemy assets falls to their explosives, as does taking out obstacles in the way of an advance under fire or breaching doors and walls in street fighting or raids. Tough, brave men.
Soviet engineers went behind enemy lines into partisan areas, doing demolitions, sabotages with explosives, causing huge problems for over-extended German supply lines in many areas and requiring the diversion of large numbers of German frontline troops to try to protect rail lines, roads, bridges, airfields and communication links to the front.
The Russian "pioneers" also building everything, from airfields to depots, expedient bridges or anti-tank traps and trenches for attack and defense, often aided by the entire population of cities. It wasn't just the infantry that won the wars. The Red Army included entire designated "Sapper Armies" made up of trained engineers creating huge defensive works to slow the German advances.
They went forward with the elite assault troops, breached thick walls and German armored defensive positions in city attack and defense at places like Stalingrad and did the placement of shaped or satchel charges to break down artillery emplacements and machinegun nests in support of infantry attacks as well as destroying heavy artillery in night raids.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/22/2018 6:18:38 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		Soviet Border Troops were the militarized border guard of the Soviet Union. They were known as NKVD Border Troops. Unlike border guards of many other countries, Soviet Border Troops also included the maritime border guarding units (i.e., a coast guard). The mission of the Border Troops included repulsing armed incursions into Soviet territory, preventing illegal crossings of the border or the transport of weapons, explosives, and contraband. After the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Border Troops assisted the pacification of the newly acquired Soviet territory adjoining the state border.
Border Troops units on the western USSR frontier saw particularly fierce combat in the first weeks of the German invasion of the USSR (June–July 1941). They bore the brunt of the initial German assault, and due to this, suffered high casualty rates. Border Troop servicemen were among the defenders of the Brest Fortress. Border troops from other parts of the Soviet border were also involved in the fighting of the war. Notably, the 105th, 157th, and 333rd Border Troops regiments (operating like regular army units) took part in the Battle for Berlin in 1945.
At the beginning of the war the NKVD formed 15 rifle divisions, which had expanded by 1945 to 53 divisions and 28 brigades. Though mainly intended for internal security, NKVD divisions were sometimes used in the front-lines. For example the 10th Rifle Division NKVD fought at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Crimean Offensive of 1944. Unlike the Waffen-SS, the NKVD did not field any armored or mechanized units.
In early 1942, the Party and the City Committee of Defense were instructed that Stalingrad would form a division. Later, this division had the grievous task of being one of the first to enter the unequal battle against the German forces breaking through to Stalingrad. Units of the 10th NKVD, commanded by Colonel Alexander A. Sarayev, arrived in Stalingrad in January 1942. The core of the division were soldiers and commanders of the Border Troops from Ural and Siberian regions, but the nuclei of the 269th and 270th regiments were citizens of Stalingrad, Party workers, and members of the Komsomol organizations of the city. Roughly three thousand Stalingrad locals served in the division.
The division participated in heavy front-line actions which would significantly reduce its strength by the battle's end. It was under the jurisdiction of the Internal Troops of the NKVD but took strategic orders from the 62nd Army command. Later it converted into a regular Red Army division and was renamed the 181st "Order of Lenin" "Stalingrad" Rifle Division.
The division, stretched over 50 miles, led many fierce battles against the Germans. In the early stages of the battle for the city, the divisional HQ was billeted in the Tsarina gulley, not far from the "Lighthouse" restaurant.
On 2 August 1942, the 2nd Battalion of the 270th Rifle Regiment first engaged the Germans in Stalingrad. The 10th Division, with a battalion of industrial workers, successfully defended the F. Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory and later counter-attacked to regain several miles, despite shortages in technology and manpower. The bulk of the division's forces defended the west and south-west of the city, holding these areas against the sudden breakout of the enemy into the city. On the left bank of the Volga, the division was supported by several reserve regiments from High Command.
The 272nd Rifle Regiment, under command of G. P. Savchuk, and a group of student volunteers occupied a Military-Political Academy in the path of an impending enemy breakthrough. During five days of fierce fighting, the regiment denied elements of the 295th Infantry, 71st Infantry and 24th Panzer Divisions (all belonging to the LI Armeekorps). These enemy forces suffered heavy losses and the Germans' plan to capture the center of the city and the major crossing of the Volga was thwarted.
On 8 September began fighting for the southern part of the Voroshilov district. By mid-afternoon of 9 September, forward units of the NKVD, who were on the second line, had come under direct enemy attack. The Soviets launched a swift counterattack and the Germans were caught by surprise. On 12 September, the fighting for the defense of the South-Eastern Front of Stalingrad was assigned to the 62nd Army, to which the 10th NKVD VV Division was now attached.
On 13 September, the enemy planned another assault on the city. In the morning they hit Soviet fortified positions, including those of the 269th Rifle Regiment of the 10th NKVD, with heavy artillery and mortar fire. At 7:00, the offensive began. For three hours, elements of the 62nd Army repelled enemy attacks which penetrated the first line, knocked out forward posts, and reached the positions of the 269th Rifle Regiment. In this difficult and hazardous situation, the 269th held their area, blocking the path to the Hill 102.0 Mamayev Kurgan. In the center of this fighting was the 270th Rifle Regiment. Despite their numerical superiority, the enemy did not successfully enter the center of Stalingrad.
The next day began again with German air and artillery bombardments in preparation for an attack. Against the 269th Rifle Regiment, alone the Germans concentrated up to eight battalions and 50 tanks. At 1400 hours, two submachine gun battalions with three tanks penetrated the regiment's rear and captured the peak of Mamayev Kurgan. The Germans then began firing on the "Red October" factory. Over the two days of fighting, the 269th Rifle Regiment killed and wounded more than a thousand soldiers and officers and disabled 20 enemy tanks.
On the night of 15 September, the enemy infiltrated the positions of the NKVD and specialists, captured the train-station and reached the rear of the 262nd regiment and 1st battalion of the 270th regiment. Nothing was prepared to repel such an infiltration and bloody, desperate fighting ensued from Mamayev to Kuporosnoye.
Together with elements of the 10th NKVD's northern groups, the 62nd Army conducted bitter defensive operations all through September and regained ground in some areas. On 7 October, surviving soldiers of the regiment were consolidated into two companies and which were added to the consolidated battalion under the command of the Captain Ryabchevskiy. Every day they fought off several fierce attacks from the enemy, preventing him from breaking through to the tractor plant.
Between 23 August – 8 October 1942 during the battle of Stalingrad, the division killed or wounded up to 15,000 German soldiers and officers, destroyed or disabled 113 tanks, 8 armored vehicles, destroyed or captured 6 guns, 51 mortars, 138 machine guns, two ammunition depots, 2 aircraft shot down, and seized a German regiment's banner. For exemplary service in the combat operations in the defense of the Volga shores, the Soviet High Command awarded the 10th NKVD VV Division with the Order of Lenin on 2 December 1942.
In the enemy-held territories, the NKVD carried out numerous missions of sabotage. After fall of Kiev, NKVD agents set fire to the Nazi headquarters and various other targets, eventually burning down much of the city center. Similar actions took place across the occupied Byelorussia and Ukraine.
Also, NKVD Internal Troops units were used for rear area security, including preventing the retreat of Soviet Union army divisions. Though mainly intended for internal security, NKVD divisions were sometimes used at the front to stem the desertion in 1941 and 1942.
During and after the war, 150 border guards were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and over 13,000 of them were decorated with different orders and medals.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/24/2018 5:28:34 PM   
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Status: offline 		The Russian Airborne Troops or VDV is a military branch of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Army. First formed before World War II, the force undertook two significant airborne operations and a number of smaller jumps during the war and for many years after 1945 was the largest airborne force in the world.
The first airborne forces parachute jump is dated to 2 August 1930, taking place in the Moscow Military District. In March and April 1941, five Airborne Corps (divisions) were established on the basis of the existing 201st, 204th, 211th, 212th, and 214th Airborne Brigade, with 10,000 men. The number of Airborne Corps rose from five to ten in late 1941, but then all the airborne corps were converted into "Guards" Rifle Divisions in the northern hemisphere summer of 1942. These units were the best infantry the Soviets had, with the massive manpower to pick from and extensive training the Soviet paratroopers.
Only a few small airborne drops were carried out in the first desperate days of Operation Barbarossa, in the vicinity of Kiev, Odessa, and the Kerch peninsula. The two significant airborne operations of the war were the Vyazma operation of February–March 1942, involving 4th Airborne Corps, and the Dnepr/Kiev operation of September 1943, involving a temporary corps formation consisting of 1st, 3rd, and 5th Airborne Brigades. By the time the summer of 1942 arrived, the Soviets had rebuilt and raised new paratroop units and were up to 10 airborne Corps. Stalin converted all 10 veteran and newly trained corps into Guards Rifle units for the upcoming German summer offensives. Responding to events in southern Russia, where German troops had opened a major offensive that would culminate in the Stalingrad battles, the ten airborne corps, as part of the Stavka strategic reserves, deployed southward. Furthermore, the Stavka converted all ten airborne corps into guards rifle divisions to bolster Soviet forces in the south. Nine of these divisions participated in the battles around Stalingrad, and one took part in the defense of the northern Caucasus region. They served with distinction in the tractor factories of Stalingrad. This desperate measure did not dampen the Soviet enthusiasm for Airborne forces and Stavka raised another eight airborne corps: (1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th).
After the defeat of German forces at Kursk, the bulk of the airborne divisions joined in the pursuit of German forces to the Dnepr River. In April and May 1943, twenty brigades formed and trained for future airborne operations. Most of these brigades had become six new guards airborne divisions by September 1943. The next big operational drop does not take place until September 1943 and the Soviet offensive to cross the Dnepr river. The battle takes place as the Soviets drop a brigade across the river and attempt to link up with them via amphibious assault across the river. Poor reconnaissance on the Soviet part fails to realize the Germans have moved significant forces into the drop zone area around Kanev. What ends up happening is the Soviet 5th Airborne Brigade lands on top of the moving German 19th Panzer and 10th Motorized Division. Was complete failure for the Russians. The drop in and of itself was terrible, as night operations were above the Soviet pilot's skill set. The Paratroopers were scattered and destroyed. Several small units did join partisans or formed together and fought their way back to Soviet lines often under the leadership of junior officers or sergeants. One group of 600 stayed behind enemy lines hiding in the forests and conducting raids until it was time for the final river assault in November. They were ordered to attack the German rear so in the end they finally did get to complete their mission.
After the disaster that was the Dnepr mission, the Soviets did not do any further "Operational" large drops. Small "Tactical" drops to aid partisans or disrupt the enemy rear were all they accomplished for the rest of the war. They did conduct one large drop against the Japanese on a "Operational" level.
During the invasion of Manchuria and South Sakhalin Operation, airborne units were used to seize airfields and city centers in advance of the land forces, and to ferry fuel to those units that had outrun their supply lines.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/26/2018 5:29:23 PM   
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Status: offline 		Penal military units are military formations consisting of convicted persons mobilized for military service. Service in such units is considered a form of punishment or discipline as opposed to imprisonment or capital punishment.
Following Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army began to seriously consider the implementation of penal military units. These efforts resulted in the creation of Shtrafbat or Shtrafniki, penal military units composed of sentenced soldiers, political prisoners, and others deemed to be expendable. A large number of Red Army soldiers who retreated without orders during the initial German invasion were reorganized into rudimentary penal units, the precursors of Shtrafbat. The Shtrafbat were greatly increased in number in July 1942, and was a desperate effort to re-instill discipline after the panicked routs of the first year of combat with Germany. The order "Not one step back!" introduced severe punishments, including summary execution, for unauthorized retreats.
Penal battalion service in infantry roles was the most common use of shtrafniki, and viewed by many Soviet prisoners as tantamount to a death sentence. The term of service in infantry penal battalions and companies was from one to three months (the maximum term was usually applied to those qualifying for the death penalty). Standard rates of conversion of imprisonment terms into penal battalion terms existed. Convicts sentenced to infantry units were eligible for commutation of sentence and assignment to a Red Army line unit if they either suffered a combat injury or had accomplished extremely heroic deeds in combat. They could also theoretically receive military decorations for outstanding service and if released were considered fully rehabilitated.
In some penal units like the 8th Detached Penal (Officer) Battalion, platoons were sometimes had up to 50 men, companies were 300 men, and the battalion could be as big as 850 men; which implies that a penal battalion was sometimes larger than a regular rifle battalion of the Red Army. The battalion was to be commanded by a Colonel, a chief of staff, and a political officer. The companies were to be commanded by Majors and their platoons by Captains. This is probably because in this instance, the shtrafnikis consisted of former officers of the Red Army. Penal units consisted of personnel (shtrafnikis) who were sent to the unit for their crimes or wrongdoings in order to redeem themselves with their own blood.
The first penal battalion was sent to the Stalingrad Front on August 22, 1942, shortly before German troops reached the Volga river. It consisted of 929 disgraced officers who were demoted to the lowest enlisted rank and assigned to the penal battalion. After three days of assaults against the Germans, only 300 were alive.
Different commanders had different attitudes when releasing the shtrafnikis from the unit and returning them to their regular units. 65th Army commander General Pavel Batov only rehabilitated shrafniks who were killed or wounded in action and used the remaining shtrafniks until the end. General Alexander Gorbatov released all shtrafnikis who had bravely fought in a battle, regardless of whether they were wounded or not. In reality, the promise of rehabilitation was (in most cases) propaganda intended to induce obedience from men already earmarked for death. While some men were able to survive their terms via a combination of luck and the recommendation of sympathetic officers, penal infantry battalions were administered and commanded by the feared field units of the NKVD secret police, who treated shtrafniki as a particularly loathsome and dangerous subspecies of cannon fodder who would have already been executed if there was not a constant use for them in absorbing heavy casualties that would otherwise be inflicted on a more worthy Soviet unit. They were used in attempts to break through particularly stubborn enemy defenses; to perform hazardous patrols in large groups (reconnaissance-in-force) to determine enemy strength; as sacrificial rearguards during retreats; and as decoys (e.g., wearing dark, instead of snow camouflage clothing to draw enemy fire away from regular Red Army units). They were also on occasion sent into battle unarmed, or with sticks to mimic rifles.
In terms of supplies, there were some cases where penal battalions received insufficient weapons. When there was a shortage of weapons, sometimes only one out of five received a rifle, while the other received only bayonets.
The total number of people convicted to penal units from September 1942 to May 1945 was 422,700 very few of whom were known to have survived the war.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/28/2018 4:20:29 PM   
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Status: offline 		The Siberian divisions were "better" than many divisions of the Red Army, especially at night fighting. Large numbers of veteran and well equipped Siberian divisions were deployed protecting the USSR’s eastern borders against a possible attack by Japan on 22nd June 1941. After the invasion started, the 57th Tank and 69th Mechanised Division were immediately ordered west and they arrived in June/July. In July 1941, only three divisions went west, namely the 194th Mountain Rifle Division, the 221st Mechanised Division and the 21st Mountain Cavalry Division. They were then transferred west from October to November 1941 in time to have a decisive influence on the battle for Moscow.
The Siberian divisions were well-trained and equipped and accustomed to operating in winter weather. The Soviets rushed about 40 divisions west to participate in the defense of Moscow. There were limits on the quantity of men and material that could be moved over the Trans-Siberial Railway. The transit itself took about 2 weeks and then time was needed to deploy. When Far East and Siberian divisions were committed from general reserves near Moscow and later in the encirclement operations around Stalingrad they were lavishly equipped and greatly more cohesive than their compatriots. “The Siberians are coming! It was a cry that spread terror through the ranks of the German Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941. Since June 22, the Red Army had lost millions of dead, wounded and captured soldiers, while the Wehrmacht had advanced to the very gates of Moscow itself. Now, however, new armies seemed to be springing out of the Russian soil as if by magic as the Germans prepared their final thrust toward the Soviet capital.
The battle before Moscow was the largest battle of Second War II (much lager than Stalingrad). Hundreds of divisions were involved. And they were only a fraction of the new divisions that the Soviets had raised since the Germans launched Barbarossa. Wehrmacht planners calculated that the Soviets would be able to raise 300 new divisions. The Soviets by the end off September had raised an incredible 600 divisions. On the other hand it's well known that the divisions arrived from the East played only a small part in the overall struggle against the Wehrmacht and did not, as is often claimed by German historiography "save Moscow".
While in the totality of the battle, the Siberians were a fairly small force, they were extremely high quality units and not raw recruits. The Siberian divisions had ski-troop battalions. Many learned to hunt as boys and were accustomed to the outdoors, even in winter conditions. They tended to be skilled maresmen, much like the Finns. Unlike the Germans (and many other Red Army units), the Siberians were capable of fighting in winter conditions. And unlike the Germans, their equipment functioned in winter conditions. They were trained to fight in the snow and even make use of it. Thus the Siberians played a key role in Stavka's offensive.
It seems very likely the term ‘Siberian’ was applied to any division that exhibited an above average proficiency or resilience in combat. This was similar to, but less official than, a ‘Guards’ designation which the Stavka started awarding to such divisions in 1941. Ultimately it cost nothing to name a division ‘Siberian’, ‘Guards’ or ‘elite’, and if it enhanced morale, scared the enemy and enabled better divisions to be easily identified then it was certainly worth while. It is easy to forget that all combatants in WWII were waging a morale and propaganda war alongside the real one.
The Russians are fond of pointing out that it does not take a rocket scientist to know that it gets cold in Russia during the winter. The perceived effectiveness of these general reserve units is only enhanced due to the Winter medium (again, these units being quite well equipped for winter warfare) and the general raggedness of the units they were relieving. Especially so in 1942, with Stavka giving the 62nd Army just enough men and material to survive, while entirely new divisions were raised, trained and equipped as cohesive blocks in strategic reserve, it should come as no surprise that these newly committed units appeared to outperform the ragged but rugged formations that had been the subject of patchwork reinforcement on the front. Allowing the reserve forces to be formed and raised in their entirety before being committed also often meant that they were universally equipped and trained on newer equipment. Not only therefore were they better equipped but they often had a better understanding of said equipment. Strength, persistence and dedication of Siberian soldiers made even Germans to create legends about them. Every time the Germans were rejected in Stalingrad, it seems to be due to the "Tartars", the Siberians and all ethnicities except a white Russian. ‘The Siberians were the soul of the Stalingrad battle’, Soviet Marshal Chuikov said about them. The memory about the Siberian soldiers is immortalized in Volgograd.
As someone said years later, ‘there are more monuments on Volga in honour of people who died fighting for Stalingrad than birch trees in Russia’.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 1/30/2018 5:35:32 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		Guards units are elite units and formations in the armed forces of the former Soviet Union. These units were awarded Guards status after distinguishing themselves in service, and are considered to have elite status. The Guards designation originated during the Second World War, and its name coming from the Tsarist Imperial Guard. Any Soviet unit with the word "Guards" in it was considered an elite unit the way Americans considered "Rangers" elite units. The Guards divisions were made up of soldiers who proved themselves in previous battles. Because they were considered elite, more was expected of them and they suffered considerably as a result from the Russian strategy of "reinforce success: abandon failure". They were very well equipped, especially for winter. Their felt boots and winter caps were highly prized by the Germans. German feldgendarmy had to set up depots to re-equip German soldiers heading back to Germany on leave because they were indistinguishable from Russian soldiers in many cases and the High Commander was wary of what their appearance would do to civilian morale.
The title of the Soviet Guards was first introduced on September 18, 1941. The 100th, 127th, 153rd and 161st Rifle Divisions were renamed into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Guards Divisions, respectively. The Soviet 316th Rifle Division was renamed to the 8th Guards Rifle Division on November 18, 1941, following the actions of the Panfilovtsy and was given the Panfilovskaya title in honor of its late commander Ivan Panfilov. By December 31, 1941 the 107th, 120th, 64th, 316th, 78th, and 52nd Rifle Divisions had become the 5th through 10th Guards Rifle Divisions. All artillery units equipped with Katyusha multiple rocket launchers were designated Guards Mortars Units. Some twenty Guards Airborne Brigades were converted into the 11th–16th Guards Rifle Divisions in December 1943. The units and formations nominated for the Soviet Guard title received special Guards banners in accordance with the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. On May 21, 1942, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR introduced Guards ranks and Guards badges to be worn of the right side of the chest. In June 1943, they introduced the Guards Red Banners for the land forces, and in February 1944 for the naval forces.
An example was the 37th Guards Rifle Division that was formed on 2 August 1942 from the 1st Airborne Corps in Lyubertsy, near Moscow. Its most famous action was the defense of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory during the Battle of Stalingrad. The division was highly decorated, receiving two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 1st class, the Order of Kutuzov 1st class and the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. It became the 27th Guards Mechanised Division in December 1945. The division was sent to the Stalingrad Front and became part of the 4th Tank Army on 10 August. On 18 September, elements of the division crossed the Don and established a bridgehead. The division crossed the Volga River 40 km north of Stalingrad on 28 September. On the night of 2 October, the division crossed back to the right bank of the Volga in Stalingrad and reached the Mokraya Mechyotka river, immediately going into combat. The intensity of the fighting can be gauged from the memoirs of a surgeon in the division, M.F. Gulyakin. Gulyakin reports that rarely were there less than 200 wounded troops per day. By 14 October, the remnants of the division were surrounded in the workshops of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. The 14th Panzer Division broke through parts of the division's lines and reached the Volga. During the night of 16–17 October, it was relieved by the 138th Rifle Division and sent to the Barrikady Factory, where the division set up strongpoints. In the middle of November, the division transferred to the left bank of the Volga, leaving in Stalingrad a combined unit based on the 118th Guards Rifle Regiment, subordinated to the 138th Rifle Division. The division was almost completely destroyed in the fighting for the Stalingrad Tractor Factory. Losses amounted to 95% of division personnel.
Zhukov states, "the first period of the war gave birth to the Soviet Guards. For mass heroism and success in the battles of 1941-1942 the Guards title was awarded to 789 groups, formations, separate units, and fighting ships of the Soviet Armed Forces."





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/1/2018 5:33:42 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		The highly skilled sharpshooters known as snipers became vitally important during the Second World War. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the Soviets, in particular, were expert marksmen.
During World War II, the Soviet Union had more skilled snipers than any other country on Earth. Due to their ongoing training and development throughout the 1930s, while other nations dropped their specialist sniper teams, the USSR could boast the world’s best-trained marksmen. Stepan Vasilievich Petrenko was high up among the elite. His 422 confirmed kills are testament both to his individual marksmanship and the effectiveness of the Soviet training program — which enabled its sharpshooters to work seamlessly alongside regular forces in combat situations; more so than those of other nations. Also, Expert sharpshooters such as Vasily Zaytsev — who reputedly killed 225 soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad — proved beyond all doubt their immense value to their military forces during the war.
In World War II, Soviet snipers used the 7.62×54mmR rifle cartridge with light, heavy, armour-piercing (B-30), armour-piercing-incendiary (B-32), zeroing-and-incendiary (P3), and tracer bullets. Most Soviet World War II snipers carried a combat load of 120 rifle cartridges in the field. Unlike the militaries of other nations, these snipers could be men or women.
Soviet military doctrines include squad level snipers, which may be called "sharpshooters" or "designated marksmen". They do so because the long-range engagement ability was lost to ordinary troops when submachine guns (which are optimized for close-range, rapid-fire combat) were adopted. Soviet army used snipers for providing long-distance suppressive fire and for eliminating targets of opportunity, especially leaders. Soviet military leaders and combat theorists found that military organisations have difficulty replacing experienced non-commissioned officers and field officers during times of war. They found that the more expensive and less rugged sniper rifles could match the cost-effectiveness of a cheaper assault rifle given good personnel selection, training, and adherence to doctrine. After the war, the standard Soviet Army sniper team consisted of two soldiers.
The Soviet Union used women for sniping duties, including Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Nina Lobkovskaya. In 1943, there were over 2,000 women functioning in this role.
After the introduction of the Dragunov sniper rifle, the Soviet army deployed snipers at platoon level. Those snipers were often chosen from personnel who did well in terms of rifle marksmanship. Such snipers were estimated to have a 50% probability of hitting a standing, man-sized target at 800 m, and an 80% probability of hitting a standing, man-sized target at 500 m. For distances not exceeding 200 m the probability was estimated to be well above 90%. To attain this level of accuracy the sniper could not engage more than two such targets per minute.
During the war, 261 Soviet marksmen — and women — each with over 50 kills — were awarded the title of distinguished sniper. Vasilij Ivanovich Golosov was one of those honored and makes this list with 422 confirmed kills, a figure thought to include 70 other snipers shot in battle.
As further proof of the scope of the Soviet war machine, during World War II 428,335 individuals are believed to have received Red Army sniper training, and of those 9,534 obtained higher-level qualifications in their deadly art (which so effectively targeted difficult-to-replace enemy officers in combat). Fyodor Trofimovich Dyachenko was one of those trainees who excelled. A Soviet hero with 425 confirmed kills, he received the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy.”





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/3/2018 6:27:20 PM   
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Status: offline 		The start of World War II led to the deployment of combat troops in several continents. Destruction and many casualties among both the military and civilians became an inevitable consequence. A large amount of people injured were in need of life-saving treatment and a speedy return to front. The Soviet Union, its allies and its opponents had no specialized medical units for patients with injuries serious, like burns, when the WWII began.
Medics remained at the rear of a moving column or behind a firing line. They hurried to the aid of the wounded and either bandage them so they can return to the fight, or remove them from the field of battle. Medics – or sanitari– were just as active as the rest of the unit and add a greater realism and heroism in the battle.
Medical support tasks in the Soviet military were integrated with combat to an unusual degree. Doctors and nurses served at the front lines under intense fire. All nurses and over 40 percent of doctors in the Soviet military were women. Medical corps women in 1941 defended the last positions of Leningrad with pistols and hand grenades until they fell in the battle. Many of the heroic stories about these women – some of which appear to be true even if some are exaggerated – revolve around their actions in dragging and carrying wounded male soldiers to safety on the battlefield, sometimes by the dozen. In other cases, women medical soldiers joined and even commanded infantry units when the male ranks were decimated. Reportedly, Vera Krylova enlisted as a student nurse in 1941, was sent to the front, and dragged hundreds of wounded comrades to safety under fire. When her isolated unit was ambushed and its leaders killed, in the chaos of the German advance of August 1941, the wounded Krylova jumped on a horse, took command of the company, and led a two-week battle through encircling enemy forces to rejoin Russian forces. The next year, fighting with a different unit which was retreating from a tank battle, Krylova moved forward to collect hand grenades from wounded comrades being left behind, then single-handedly charged the German tanks with grenades, slowing the advance enough for the Russians to evacuate their wounded. Such tales, although not verifiable in particular cases, reflect an overall reality – that many thousands of Soviet women served as front-line medical workers and some also participated directly (and effectively) in combat.
Medics had to be in good physical condition to participate as a battlefield medic. Medics had carry any of the standard small arms and corresponding ammo pouch for personal defense and the protection of the wounded. The most convenient weapon were a revolver or pistol. Not only were it lighter, but it frees the medical up to carry a "wounded" comrade's weapon while extracting it from the field of battle. There is no other area of medicine than the battlefield, where medics have to think faster, act faster, do whatever they can, while having scarce and limited medical supplies.
The medic’s uniform is no different from the basic uniform with some exceptions. Female medics used wear either the pilotka (side cap) or the beret. The beret were be either Soviet green/tan cotton or blue wool, and with a cap star as on the pilotka. Female medics could use wear the proper regulation skirt, although the sharovari (trousers) were more practical. Each medic carried a proper Soviet army medic bag.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/5/2018 5:17:26 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		“Cramped, either too cold or too hot, surrounded by sharp edges and hard surfaces. surrounded by incredible noise, fumes. Looking at the battlefield through tiny vision slits or over a radio if you’re lucky, praying that you don’t get killed by an enemy tank or tank gun that you never saw coming, and always being ready to bail out of the tank in the event of a fire. Lots of hard labor maintaining the tank. The food wasn’t good, and there wasn’t ever enough of it, although this got better as the war went on. But you have a job to do, and you will do it.”
Living conditions for all Soviets early war were terrible. Medical care was nonexistent, there was no time for hygiene, moral sucked and it was a good day when the logistics train was functioning well enough so that you got a thin gruel to eat. At times the Soviet army would not even waste resources delivering food, fuel and ammo to units that they assumed where just going to be overran by the Germans. Thing stated to get better by 1942. At that point a tankers life would have been decent, brutal to be sure and often short but better then 1941. Most of the Soviets soldiers by that point had season appropriate uniforms, where getting at least enough calories to survive and had a chance of getting very basic medical care if wounded. Training improved through out the war which greatly improved living conditions, crew survival and battle effectiveness. While poor compared to Germany and straight up abyssal compared to the western allies by 1943 a green Soviet tank crew could be expected to have basic competencies. Most tanks came with a 1st aid kit and effort was made to give men basic training like how to dress a wound or apply a tourniquet. It sounds primitive and it was but at least wounded men had a chance of surviving which was a moral booster.
Tankers specifically didn't have to walk everywhere and their tanks gave them some protection from weather extremes. A T-34 could get cold but the engine heat kept it warm on the move, livable for a few hours after the engine was off and provided heat for meals. It also acted as a wind break and sleeping under it was better then sleeping out in the rain. Inside a the T-34 was absolutely essential to wear that padded tanker’s helmet else you’d likely succumb to a head injury as the tank jostled about. The Soviet Army lost about 45,000 T-34s of all types, with about an 80% fatality rate among the crews with the tank losses, about twice what the US and British experienced. However, at least the tankers had a warm place to sleep, out of the elements, and could carry provisions more readily than the poor infantry, even the ‘desanty’ (infantry assigned to ride on the backs of the tanks, which they were ‘desant’).
The Soviet credo on logistical priority, was simple: Ammunition, Fuel, and then Food, in that priority, and tank units got higher priority than the infantry, which were often left to fend for themselves. The lot of a Soviet tanker was actually better than the Soviet infantryman. Meals tended to vary by what was available and ranged from galeta biscuits, canned beets, canned bread, cracked wheat porridges. American Spam and smoked sausage where favorites and tea was occasionally available. For men and woman who often came from a life of subsidence farming the idea of getting regular rations of lard, molasses and even sugar was like a cornucopia.
As far as living conditionings in the tank, they felt stupidly cramped and the layout was terrible compared to say an American M4 Medium Tank. But that’s why the soviets picked small men to be tankers and the Soviet tankers of the period didn't complain much. Even worse was the absence of a turret basket. A turret basket basically is a sub floor the crew stands on that rotates the crew and their stations with the turret. Not having one means the crew has to move themselves when the turret rotates. It also means that if you're busy paying attention to the Germans outside instead of rotating turret's insides you can quickly loose an arm, or an leg or your head. They actually had to build a hatch on the underside that was used for draining the tank. Electrical systems and ammo were frequently damaged by water exposure which of course also made the crews miserable.
Situational awareness was poor and the lack of emphasize on vision blocks and periscope was compounded by the Soviet doctrine of being buttoned up most of the time. Americans and Germans kept their hatches open till the last moment which aided in spotting and getting the all important 1st shot. The Soviets tended to close their hatches before the fight even started. But overall life for late war Soviet tankers was comparatively pretty good. They had good solid tanks, they where well fed and stocked with ammo and most importantly they were winning. By and large the average Soviet soldier saw their terrible sacrifices as noble and they fought for a worthy goal.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/7/2018 5:51:48 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The total number of people who were awarded this title is 12,755, and the great majority of them received it during World War II.
Alexander Matveyevich Matrosov was a Soviet infantry soldier during the Second World War, awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for blocking a German machine-gun with his body. Matrosov was a private in the 254th Rifle Regiment within the 56th Guard Rifle Division of the Soviet Army. He was armed with a light machine-gun. On 22 February 1943, in the battle to recapture village of Chernushki, near Velikiye Luki, currently in Loknyansky District, Pskov Oblast, the Soviet forces struggled to take a German heavy machine-gun, housed within a concrete pillbox, which blocked the route to the village. It had already claimed the lives of many of the Russian troops. Matrosov crept up to the pillbox and released a burst of rounds into the slot in the pillbox. One round hit a mine inside, and the machine-gun temporarily fell silent. It restarted a few minutes later. At this point Matrosov physically pulled himself up and jammed his body into the slot, wholly blocking the fire at his comrades but clearly at the cost of his own life. This allowed his unit to advance and capture the pillbox and thereafter retake the village.
ikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin. Though a movie has never been made about deadly marksman Sergeant Major Nikolay Yakovlevich Ilyin, his 494 kills made him equally important in Red Army. Ilyin was a sniper in the 50th Guards Rifle Division and fought at Stalingrad. He was a locksmith before the war. He achieved 216 kills at Stalingrad and received the title Hero of Soviet Union on February 8, 1943. This great sharpshooter died in action on August 4, 1943.
Ochil Kadyrov was an Uzbek Red Army soldier and a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. From late July 1944, Kadyrov fought in the Lublin–Brest Offensive. On 3 September, he reportedly supported an infantry attack with his machine gun during a tank assault. During the battle for Gora, he reportedly repulsed a counterattack by positioning himself in a stone barn, killing German troops around self-propelled guns with his machine gun. On 4 September, during the crossing of the Narew south of Różan, the regiment was unable to break through German defenses. Kadyrov took his machine gun and ammunition across the river and reportedly opened fire on the German positions from the flank. He was reportedly wounded but did not leave his gun until the regiment had crossed the river. For this action, Kadyrov was recommended for an award of the title Hero of the Soviet Union. As a result of his serious wounds, Kadyrov died on 13 March 1945. On 24 March 1945, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.
Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev was a Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. Prior to 10 November, he killed 32 Axis soldiers with a standard-issue rifle. Between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 enemy soldiers, including 11 snipers.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisan, was the first woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II (February 16, 1942), posthumously.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/9/2018 6:15:42 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		Soviet Scout platoons had many roles on the battlefield in Second World War. They spent a lot of time gathering information, finding ‘tongues’ or German prisoners for Smersh to interrogate for vital intelligence on their plans, or more conventionally prowling around investigating the enemy’s defenses.
Every Soviet rifle regiment had a scout platoon as the commander’s eyes and ears on the battlefield . The soldiers of the scout platoon were usually hand picked for their field craft and fighting ability. Officially scout platoons were 52 men strong at the start of the war on the Eastern Front, but the difficulty in finding suitable candidates and the desperate shortage of soldiers meant that the platoon quickly drooped in strength until the official complement was just over twenty scouts.
The detailed organization of these units is unclear, and was probably very different between units depending on circumstances. It appears that a full strength scout platoon had two squads of nine scouts in its most common form. However, the Red Army had a policy of rebuilding entire divisions rather than feeding in replacement piecemeal, so like any unit in the Red Army, scout platoons were unlikely to remain at full strength for long.
When a major attack was planned, the scouts were sometimes used to find hidden routes closer to the enemy and lead troops forward to open the battle with a surprise assault. Interestingly, female soldiers were often used in scout platoons as well as sniper and machine-gun units. Many of the women in scout units were at least as clever and bloodthirsty as the men they fought with.
There is a false image of Scouts formed as small bands of heroic scouts sneaking about doing their dastardly work, or facing off against far stronger platoons when cornered. Conversely, in the bloodiest moment of the Battle of Stalingrad, Scouts really were Soviet soldiers used their own bodies as shields, covering women and children escaping on ferry boats from a bombardment that killed 40,000 civilians in a single day. The Scouts naval troops arrived in Stalingrad in August, 1942, just a month after the German Army began their onslaught. As a marine unit, the leaders commanded what was left of a reconnaissance platoon, 17 scouts who had survived previous missions on the front lines. They performed recalls reconnaissance missions deep inside enemy territory, crawling for hours and hide in ravines to gather intelligence on the location and number of enemy troops and weapons.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/9/2018 10:55:46 PM   
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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/10/2018 6:53:47 PM   
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Status: offline 		The early Red Army abandoned the institution of a professional officer corps as a "heritage of tsarism" in the course of the Revolution. In particular, the Bolsheviks condemned the use of the word "officer" and used the word "commander" instead. The Red Army abandoned epaulettes and ranks, using purely functional titles such as "Division Commander", "Corps Commander", and similar titles.
However, still one had to use functional titles to address commanders, which could become as awkward as "comrade deputy head-of-staff of corps". If one did not know a commander's position, one used one of the possible positions - for example: "Regiment Commander" for K-9. This rank system stayed on for a decade.
Further complications ensued from the functional and categorical ranks for political officers (e.g., "Brigade Commissar", "Army Commissar 2nd Rank"), for technical corps (e.g., "Engineer 3rd Rank", "Division Engineer"), for administrative, medical and other non-combatant branches. Suddenly, in the midst of crisis, Stalin completely eliminated the commissars on 12 August 1940, and put full responsibility for the units' combat readiness and political status on the commander. After the purges and turmoil in the military in the previous few years, Stalin apparently hoped this would generate a rapid improvement in the readiness of the military in the face of the rapidly growing threat from Germany. This new "freedom" was not to last however, because the political imperatives of the state saw the reintroduction of commissars in July of 1941 and strengthening of the system as the war went on. Officially, the commissars were to reduce the workload on the commanders by relieving him of political work, but "together with the commander he bore full responsibility for the military unit's accomplishment of the combat mission..." Additionally, the commissars' role in indoctrinating the troops and inoculating them against "corrupt influences" in the conquered territories. The educators reacted quickly to all impressions of the Red Army soldiers and attempted appropriately and convincingly to explain to their comrades-in-arms all the questions which came up...
On May 7, 1940 further modifications to the system took place. The ranks of "General" or "Admiral" replaced the senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm; the other senior functional ranks ("Division Commissar", "Division Engineer", etc.) remained unaffected. On November 2, 1940 the system underwent further modification with the abolition of functional ranks for NCOs and the reintroduction of the Podpolkovnik (sub-colonel) rank. For the most part the new system restored that used by the Imperial Russian Army at the conclusion of its participation in World War I.
In early 1942 all the functional ranks in technical and administrative corps became regularized ranks (e.g., "Engineer Major", "Engineer Colonel", "Captain Intendant Service", etc.). On October 9, 1942 the authorities abolished the system of military commissars, together with the commissar ranks, and they were completely integrated into the regular officer corps.
In early 1943 a unification of the system saw the abolition of all the remaining functional ranks. The word "officer" became officially endorsed, together with the epaulettes that superseded the previous rank insignia, styled like the Imperial Russian Army before, and Marshal and Chief Marshal ranks created for the various arms and branch commands of the Red Army.





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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/12/2018 7:00:39 PM   
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Status: offline 		Soviet infantry: photo of family.




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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/13/2018 9:44:51 AM   
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Status: offline 		Great work. Looking forward to the mod. Really appreciate what you are doing.

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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/14/2018 5:40:06 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		Thank you very much "delta07d"

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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/14/2018 5:40:48 PM   
asl3d


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Status: offline 		The PTRD-41 was an anti-tank rifle produced and used from early 1941 by the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It was a single-shot weapon which fired a 14.5×114mm round. Although unable to penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks, it could penetrate the thinner sides of early-war German tanks as well as thinly armored self-propelled guns.
In the years between the World Wars, the Soviet Union began experimenting with different types of armor-piercing anti-tank cartridges. Finding the 12.7×108mm insufficient, they began development of what became the 14.5×114mm armor-piercing round. Rukavishnikov developed an antitank rifle designated M1939 to accommodate this cartridge, but it didn't have large success because of some manufacturing issues, a sufficient number of more effective anti-tank guns in the Red Army, and high expectations about new German tank armor.
In 1939 the USSR captured several hundred Polish Model 35 anti-tank rifles, which had proved effective in the September Campaign when Poland was invaded by Germany. Vasily Degtyaryov copied its lock and several features of the German Panzerbüchse 38 when hasty construction of an anti-tank rifle was ordered in July 1941.
In 1941, the loss of huge amounts of anti-tank artillery created a need for a stop-gap anti-tank weapon, so famous USSR weapons designers such as Vasily A. Degtyaryov and Sergei G. Simonov designed two anti-tank rifles. Both were considered simpler and more suitable to wartime production than an updated Rukavishnikov rifle. Simonov used elements of his 1938 design, a 7.62 mm automatic rifle.
The PTRD and the similar but semi-automatic PTRS-41 were the only individual anti-tank weapon available to the Red Army in numbers upon the outbreak of the war with Germany. The 14.5 mm armor-piercing bullet had a muzzle velocity of 1,012 m/s. It could penetrate an armor plate up to 35 to 40mm (40mm with tungsten ammunition) thick at a distance of 100 meters at 0 degrees. During the initial invasion, and indeed throughout the war, most German tanks had side armor thinner than 40mm (Panzer I and Panzer II); 13-20mm (Panzer III and Panzer IV series); 30mm (Panzer V, Panther mid-1943). However, due to the high velocity and small size of the round, it had a very high chance of shattering or utterly failing against armor it should have penetrated, especially if the target was struck at an oblique angle.
Due to the obsolescence and inadequate ability against tanks, PTRD users were instructed to attempt to shoot view ports rather than actually try to penetrate the vehicles' armour. Despite the good range of fire, this tactic was quickly found ineffective due to the absence of telescopic sights: the simple mechanical iron sights did not allow for proper aiming at the required distances. The muzzle brake, however effective, kicked up a very visible cloud of dust or snow and debris and served to give away the position of the PTRD team. After poor results against the enemy tanks the PTRD and PTRS were finally relegated to anti-materiel duty in 1943[citation needed] as they were still effective against lesser armored vehicles such as armored half-tracks, armored cars and unarmored vehicles. Guns captured by the Germans were given the designation 14.5 mm PaB 783(r).
The PTRD suffered from numerous flaws; the most notable are the lack of penetration versus enemy vehicles and inability to aim accurately with a telescopic sight, which frustrated PTRD teams, its size and weight which hampered its mobility and deployment, and its immense muzzle blast which gave away the unit's firing position. The PTRD also would occasionally jam during shell ejection, leading to a practice of dipping shells in oil before loading. The PTRD was eventually replaced by the RPG series of anti-tank rocket launchers.






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RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/15/2018 6:45:37 PM   
asl3d


Posts: 6531
Joined: 2/6/2017
Status: offline 		The Maxim HMG, while revolutionary in design, was problematic for several reasons. Chiefly, it wasn’t very portable and water-cooled, meaning the outside jacket of the weapon had to be refilled with clean water in order to prevent malfunctions. That all changed in 1927 when Soviet weapons engineer Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyaryov submitted his prototype for what is commonly refer to as the DP-28 Light Machine Gun. The DP-27 was an improvement of the earlier DP-26, both designed by Vasily Degtyaryov. The Degtyaryov machine gun DP-28 is a light machine gun firing the 7.62×54mmR cartridge that was primarily used by the Soviet Union starting in 1928. His new design was exactly what the Red Army was looking for – a highly portable machine gun to serve in support of Infantry attacks. The new machine gun was made by the thousands at the V.A. Degtyarev Weapons Plant located in Kovrov, Russia. The city of Kovrov is located 166 miles East of Moscow, a location far enough behind Russian defenses that it allowed the plant to safely continue production of these guns even at the height of Operation Barbarossa – the Nazi invasion of Russia.
The DP-27 was relatively cheap and easy to manufacture – early models had fewer than 80 parts. The DP was especially able to withstand dirt in a reliable fashion. It featured a flapper-locked breech and was gas-operated by way of a long-stroke gas piston. It fed from a narrow, 47-round pan magazine, which gave it its nickname — “record player.” The DP-28’s charging handle was beneath the receiver on the right-hand side. It ejected from the bottom of the receiver. It had a grip safety that protruded from just behind the trigger guard. The DP-28 weighed nine kilograms unloaded and fired between 500 and 600 rounds per minute.
One of the DP's main drawbacks though was its bipod; it could not withstand much abuse and broke easily. Furthermore, the recoil spring was located under the barrel, around the gas piston; this was one of the design problems of the DP, since the spring tended to lose its temper due to overheating. Also, the pan with 47 rounds that fed in from the top, was relatively small and continuous fire for long periods could not be relied on as much as contemporary belt-fed weapons. The ammunition was troublesome for automatic fire. Degtyarov had to use a flat pan magazine, which could feed those cartridges reliably, but was too heavy itself, uncomfortable to carry and prone to damage. Due to the design of the magazine, reloading an empty magazine with cartridges took a very long time. A redeeming factor was that the DP's lower cyclic rate of fire did reduce the risk of barrel overheating.
Despite its numerous problems, the DP had a reputation as a relatively effective light support weapon. It was nicknamed the "Record player" by Red Army troops because the disc-shaped pan magazine resembled a gramophone record and its top cover revolved while the weapon was fired.
To address the flaws, the Soviets modified the DP in 1943, re-designating it the DPM. DPM, modernized version adopted in 1943–44, with a more robust bipod fastened to the cooling jacket and the recoil spring housed in a tube projecting from the rear of the receiver which necessitated a pistol grip for this model of the weapon. This necessitated a new stock design that incorporated a pistol grip. This change also improved the balance and handling of the gun when firing from the bipod.
The Soviet Union manufactured nearly 800,000 DPs and variants. Soviet premier Joseph Stalin made Degtyaryov a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1940. He rose to the rank of major general of engineering and artillery in the Soviet army before dying in 1949 at the age of 69.







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Post #: 88
RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/15/2018 8:30:51 PM   
bgreen

 

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Joined: 12/18/2017
Status: offline 		This is excellent work detailed background info and great end user product.. really looking forward to this new addition to the family... Thanks heaps!

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Post #: 89
RE: Heroes and Leaders mod - 2/16/2018 5:22:06 PM   
asl3d


Posts: 6531
Joined: 2/6/2017
Status: offline 		Thank you very much "bgreen."
I thank you for your words of encouragement.
Really, I am also having a lot of fun while working on this mod.
Heroes of Stalingrad reminds me more and more of my favorite board game: Advanced Squad Leader. Naturally, I do everything possible to make this happen.
Best regards,


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