Soviet Naval Infantry vs Naval Rifle (Brigades)

[56ajax]

Documenting this as a reference point, for anyone's information or curiosity.

Naval Infantry brigades were formed by the Navy to protect their Naval bases from the advancing AXIS armies. They were originally controlled by the navy, but eventually subordinated to the Army, and could be used for amphibious operations. If they are under navy control they may not be listed in an Army Order of Battle which may explain why the disappear out of view. An interesting example of this is the the 4th Naval Inf Bde which defended the ice bridge on Lake Lagoda, was under Naval control because the ice bridge is not on land. These brigades drew their personnel from ships crews and naval bases and tended to wear a naval uniform, or at least their uniform had a distinctive naval item. As you can imagine they had a variable and flexible TOE.

Naval Rifle Brigades were formed by the Navy, for the Army, from surplus ships crews and base personnel, ie standard rifle brigades populated with naval personnel, mostly from the Pacific Fleet. They wore an army uniform.

Both types of units fought with elan.

Both unit types are represented in the game, Naval Inf have their own TOE and naval Rifle use the Rifle TOE.

[Mamluke]

ha quiet interesting, I wonder about the naval rifle brigades, I though that they were specialized amphibious units, like a scaled down version of the US Marines.

BTW, can you give information about the Units that defended Sevastopol? in the 1942-1945 scenario, there is a "Naval rifle Corps" in Sevastopol, I wonder it was mostly naval units that defended the city.

[Kel]

Thank you for the insight.
Just a question : In campaign games, how do you use naval inf brigade ?
(they can't be used to form infantry corps). Do you use them for amphibious landings in coastal zones on the black/baltic sea for RP purpose?

[GabrielBora]

4 block the northern aproach to leningrad (instead of forts)
2 defend karelia (behind the janis river)
2 defend sevastopol .

[56ajax]

ORIGINAL: Mamluke

ha quiet interesting, I wonder about the naval rifle brigades, I though that they were specialized amphibious units, like a scaled down version of the US Marines.

BTW, can you give information about the Units that defended Sevastopol? in the 1942-1945 scenario, there is a "Naval rifle Corps" in Sevastopol, I wonder it was mostly naval units that defended the city.

I haven't quite worked out whether Marines are a separate entity all together.

I think the naval rifle corps is just a creation for that scenario (and not historical???). Naval forces made up about 20% of the troops who defended Crimea and Sevastopol from Oct 1941 onwards.

See Robert Forczyk, 'Where the Iron Crosses Grow', appendix F for a list of the Soviet naval forces which defended the Crimea.

[Denniss]

The Naval Rifle corps was probably created as a merge of multiple units fighting there due to unit stacking limits otherwise.