The Soviets, Part 1

Well I'm back sooner than I anticipated.  Had a spot of time and some good sunlight, so I took photos of my Soviet Motor Rifle Division (MRD).

Now the organisation for this is based on the Modern Spearhead rulebook.  Recently, following up material suggested by Cold War Gamer, I've learned that for the period I'm interested in things were a little different.  I'll outline the organisation then comment on what should change.

As I've mentioned before I'm using FoB:Moderns for rules.  In terms of real to model scale, a tank, IFV stand represents between 12 and 15 vehicles, while AT guns, ATGW vehicles are 9 to 12 weapons.

This MRD has T72s, BMP1s and BTR70s.

First up, the Tank Regiment:

Regimental HQ group:

Regiment HQ std, BMP1 std, 2S1 (122mm) artillery battalion

3x Tank Battalion:

T72 HQ std, 2 T72 stds

Next, the BMP Motor Rifle Regiment:

Regimental HQ group:

Regiment HQ std, 2S1 (122mm) artillery battalion

3x BMP Motor Rifle Battalion:

BMP1 HQ std, 2 BMP1 stds

1 Tank Battalion:

 T72 HQ std, 3 T72 stds

 

And next, two BTR Motor Rifle Regiments (only showing one, the other is identical)

Regimental HQ group:

Regiment HQ std, 2S1 (122mm) artillery battalion

3x BTR Motor Rifle Battalion:

BTR70 HQ std, 2 BTR70 stds

1 Tank Battalion:

 T72 HQ std, 3 T72 stds

Finally, the Divisional Troops:

 Divisional HQ stand

Anti-tank battalion:

MTLB HQ std, T12 (100mm) ATG std, 2 BRDM3 (AT5) std

Reconnaissance battalion:

MTLB HQ std, 2 BRDM2 std, BMP-R std, BMP-SON std

(I'm missing the independent tank battalion of between 2-4 tank stands.)

So what's odd about the above organisation:

1) Given that I'm interested in the Group of Soviet Forces Germany (GSFG), the T72s should be T64s or T80s.  The T72s were mainly in Czechslovakia and the Western military districts.  Also this would have to be a mid-80s formation as it fully one type of tank, because between 1976 to 1985 the GSFG was transitioning away from T55s and T62s to the more modern T64/T72/T80.

2) I've given it two BTR70 Regiments when it appears that BTR70s and BTR80s were relatively infrequent and that BTR60s were still prevalent.

3) I've given all the regiments Self-Propelled (SP) artillery.  It seems that this wouldn't have been the case until the late 80s.  The Soviets progressively replaced their towed artillery with SP guns over the 80s starting with the tank and BMP Regiments.

4) The Divisional Recon battalion is too big.  I amalgamated the Recon companies with the Regiments to create the Divisional Recon battalion you see.  I'm thinking that I'll farm the BRDM2s back out to the Regiments, so I'll need to base a couple more.

5) Finally, I think that for late 80s MRDs I need to add an AT company to the BTR Regiments, plus increase the number T12 AT guns to two in the Divisional AT battalion.

Over the period from 1976 to 1990 Soviet MRDs and Tank Divisions (TD) grew.  The single BMP stand in the Tank Regiment became a battalion with 2-3 BMP stands, and the tank battalions of the Tank Regiments gained an additional stand.  Also, the BMP1s start to become BMP2s.  Another error would appear to be that the BTR Regiments should have had 3 BTR stands per battalion over all of this period, while the BMP battalions start to have 3 stands over the 80s.

As I noted last time, Soviet organisation was in a process of transition meaning that there was no absolute standard organisation that can be referred to.  This can be a creative situation, allowing a range of possible organisations to be fielded.

Now these models were painted some time ago and I think that my painting has improved some.  I plan to take them off their bases and repaint them.  This will allow me to increase the number of stands of BTR70s and the T72s.

So there are the first lot of Soviets.  There are more.  Next time I'll describe more of the Battle Generator.