1941 Soviet TOE's from The Red Army Handbook
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:04 am
Info on The Red Army Handbook by Zaloga and Ness can be at online booksellers.
First whack here is just for infantry units: rifle divisions, brigades, mountain division, and airborne brigades.
I can't speak to the logic of existing Matrix TOE's so I haven't tried to "adjust" to them except to divide numbers of support troops by 21.986 as described in the example in rules at 8.1.2. Speaking for my own bias... I did not count the 50 mm mortar squads! But I can get them for anyone that must have them. Sources available on line suggest that Far East and Trans Baikal units were filled out -- one reason everyone in the west was so happy to see them. Also troops from the east had been left alone during the purges. But no doubt there is plenty of room to argue about numbers of trucks and what not. I know Zhokav used quite a bit of truck transport during 1939 border war with Japan though.
After I get through posting the TOE's I'll go back to examining the weapons. I see no reason why mmg's shouldn't be included as infantry weapons when they are modeled as AA weapons and individual airplane weapons.
Some may say these are too big. All the lesson reason to invade Russia. I suspect that Soviet OOB's are off by quite a bit though. Many units were taken off the line and sent west after the German invasion. Current Matrix OOB looks like the June 1941 OOB as found at Niehorster's site minus the Trans Baikal district. However Matrix makes mech and armor divisions into brigades. Matters little since I think many of them were gone west by December 7th. Glantz has a new book coming out in April which I hope will provide more accurate OOB info. Otherwise I'll hold a bake sail to buy some of the more expensive options out there.
In any event, my idea is to write the units like they were in 1941 but write the TOE's to match what they were by the end of the war. Other controls on these big boys would include the rate of build.
Here is the Rifle division:
345 infantry squads
224 support squads
50 engineer squads
9 cavalry squads
484 trucks
162 mmg
45 T-26 tanks
10 armored cars
16 T-38
54 82 mm mortar
54 45 mm AT gun
32 122 mm howitzers
16 76 mm guns
12 152 mm howitzers
18 76 mm infantry guns
12 120 mm mortars
14 hmg
18 quad mmg AA
8 37 mm AA
4 76 mm AA
At the begining of the war the Soviets had 5 rifle brigades. RAH sez two were based on two infantry regiments and a light artillery regiment. For want of better info at this time, that's what I'm doing with the ones for this OOB
Rifle Brigade
224 infantry squads
12 engineer squads
6 cavalry squads
64 support squads
39 trucks
108 mmg
6 hmg
12 quad mmg AA
36 82 mm mortars
8 120 mm mortars
12 76 mm infantry guns
36 76 mm guns
24 45 mm AT guns
ooops got to run now. Juniors birthday dinner is calling. Don't want him to grow up to be a JD. I will transcribe my scratchings on mountain and airborne soonest.
First whack here is just for infantry units: rifle divisions, brigades, mountain division, and airborne brigades.
I can't speak to the logic of existing Matrix TOE's so I haven't tried to "adjust" to them except to divide numbers of support troops by 21.986 as described in the example in rules at 8.1.2. Speaking for my own bias... I did not count the 50 mm mortar squads! But I can get them for anyone that must have them. Sources available on line suggest that Far East and Trans Baikal units were filled out -- one reason everyone in the west was so happy to see them. Also troops from the east had been left alone during the purges. But no doubt there is plenty of room to argue about numbers of trucks and what not. I know Zhokav used quite a bit of truck transport during 1939 border war with Japan though.
After I get through posting the TOE's I'll go back to examining the weapons. I see no reason why mmg's shouldn't be included as infantry weapons when they are modeled as AA weapons and individual airplane weapons.
Some may say these are too big. All the lesson reason to invade Russia. I suspect that Soviet OOB's are off by quite a bit though. Many units were taken off the line and sent west after the German invasion. Current Matrix OOB looks like the June 1941 OOB as found at Niehorster's site minus the Trans Baikal district. However Matrix makes mech and armor divisions into brigades. Matters little since I think many of them were gone west by December 7th. Glantz has a new book coming out in April which I hope will provide more accurate OOB info. Otherwise I'll hold a bake sail to buy some of the more expensive options out there.
In any event, my idea is to write the units like they were in 1941 but write the TOE's to match what they were by the end of the war. Other controls on these big boys would include the rate of build.
Here is the Rifle division:
345 infantry squads
224 support squads
50 engineer squads
9 cavalry squads
484 trucks
162 mmg
45 T-26 tanks
10 armored cars
16 T-38
54 82 mm mortar
54 45 mm AT gun
32 122 mm howitzers
16 76 mm guns
12 152 mm howitzers
18 76 mm infantry guns
12 120 mm mortars
14 hmg
18 quad mmg AA
8 37 mm AA
4 76 mm AA
At the begining of the war the Soviets had 5 rifle brigades. RAH sez two were based on two infantry regiments and a light artillery regiment. For want of better info at this time, that's what I'm doing with the ones for this OOB
Rifle Brigade
224 infantry squads
12 engineer squads
6 cavalry squads
64 support squads
39 trucks
108 mmg
6 hmg
12 quad mmg AA
36 82 mm mortars
8 120 mm mortars
12 76 mm infantry guns
36 76 mm guns
24 45 mm AT guns
ooops got to run now. Juniors birthday dinner is calling. Don't want him to grow up to be a JD. I will transcribe my scratchings on mountain and airborne soonest.