Russian doctrine in CMRT

Bulletpoint · August 22, 2015

JasonC, how much resistance is needed before you stop your first wave and start blasting?

I mean, if you advance as a company, each of your platoons could be one wave. They advance on a broad front to avoid bunching up.

Now, imagine one of the squads take fire from a machinegun some 300 metres distant, but because of terrain, the rest of your squads in first wave don't see anything.

Do you then continue advancing those other squads till the entire line has enganged, or do you stop and blast that one machine gun before rolling up wave two?

JasonC · August 22, 2015

Bulletpoint - a company doesn't use platoons as waves, and won't advance them side by side, and certainly won't stop because one squad takes fire.

A company is more like the minimum unit of maneuver for a Russian Rifle style infantry attack. Sure there are SOPs it follows inside and we can talk over those, but the first thing to understand is that a Russian rifle company gets *one* mission, on *one* axis of advance, as *one* wave. Not 3. As for how broad a front that company should advance on is, 400 to 500 meters, tops. If you've only got one company and the frontage is a full kilometer or more, you might have a small patrol to cover the part of the frontage you won't be using, but almost the whole company will advance in the 400-500 meters you are using.

Such a flank patrol might be a single HQ team, a single squad, split, and an ATR. Maybe a second split up squad and a sharpshooter in addition. With like half the battlefield just for them. They are just eyes they pick forward very carefully (a few movers at a time, max) and stay in cover etc. They can't attack anything and can't really even defend anything, but they will see it coming and give a bit of warning if the enemy leaves his positions on that part of the field trying to flank the main company attack. I am just explaining what I mean by a flank patrol, understand. Better is if the next unit over provides such flank security, but beggars can't be chosers sometimes. The key thing is *not* to spread out to the full width of the map in an even spread. That just prevents you having the depth anywhere, to fight the Russian rifle formation way.

What is a typical formation for the advancing company, with or without such a slight detachment, in the place where you are actually attacking? A blob. Either a wedge with one platoon up, or a square with two platoons up and two following in their foot steps. One of those could be company weapons or an ad hoc platoon led by the company commander. Each platoon is then, again, in a blob formation, not a single skirmish line. There could be several layers to the company as a result, but those aren't really the "waves" talked about previously, they are all one wave. They are all in mutual supporting distance, a grenade throw or less from each other, similar sight picture from one to the next. You don't want a single artillery shell to take out too many of them, they maintain their interval in that sense. But the whole group is still a continuous cloud, not a thin line.

What do they do if a leading unit takes MG fire from a single shooter 300 meters distant? The single unit fired on hits the deck and avoids fire by crawling to the nearest available cover, more likely back than forward. Everyone else keeps right on going. It is going to take a heck of a lot more than one distant MG to stop the whole company. That's kind of why there is a whole company coming. If the MG shifts its fire to another, the first rallies and gets back up and comes on again. The new group shot at hits the deck and crawls to cover and so forth. Good luck stopping 20 units that way with just 1 shooter. You probably won't have a good "spot" of the firing MG, but since it can't remotely stop you from getting closer and changing that, there isn't much reason to care.

If you do get close enough, it is the company's own heavy weapons that are charged with suppressing isolated, single MGs. If battalion 82mm mortars back at the line of departure can chime in, great, but not strictly necessary. None of this counts as the wave being stopped or calls for any pause to fire at the defense with major fire support.

If, instead, we are talking about the entire leading edge of the company coming under fire, and shells falling as well, and half a dozen enemy shooters heard (a full platoon position with HMG supplements or similar), then the company wave may stop and fire back and call for fire support. It uses its unshot elements to reach reasonable cover near where it was first "checked"; it can avoid the fire (everyone prone etc) if it is hot enough and there is going to be fire support help soon. Or it can try to fire back itself and see if it can achieve fire dominance from its own internal resources.

The key thing there is not to press if it isn't working. The problem is not one of movement and it isn't a charge; the company either has the firepower to blow away what has confronted it or it doesn't. If it doesn't, deny closer engagement (cover, prone, short withdrawal etc) and wait for the fire support; the company's mission is to rally in that case, and to hold, ratchet fashion, whatever ground it already covered, that has any terrain worth holding.

The whole battalion is supposed to see that company advance result, and assign fire and direct the next company attack wave based on how it went and what it discovered. Immediately, with no pause in the overall combat. "OK, you showed me that position to check A company, my fire elements will chew on that, thanks. Whatcha got vs B company?" The idea is to induce the defender to reveal himself, to commit his reserves, to show you where his main body is and reveal the whole plan and intention of the defensive scheme. The attack then directs itself at that scheme, in a "hit them where they are", firepower method. It is not a hunt for gaps, but for targets, targets that are then plastered, and assaulted once duly plastered.

For that to work, the waves have to find serious positions, enough to justify major fire allocations to deal with that. That is *why* the waves are substantial in size. It isn't a matter of feeling forward with half squads looking for safe routes or trying to cover ground. The wave is supposed to be heavy enough that it either goes right into or through the enemy, or he reveals real strength to stop it. That strength is they directly smashed, by fire and the next assault. There is nothing subtle about this...

I hope that helps.

DougPhresh · August 22, 2015

I'm really appreciating this discussion! I was handling armour okay before but my infantry kept getting shot up.

If I suspect the Germans are in the treeline that I want my company to advance to, do I use pre-planned fire to hammer them until my guys are right on top, or should I be shifting further to the rear? Are guns or mortars (if so, from what level?) providing the fire?

As far as commands go, am I using "fast" the whole route of advance, or Quick-Fast-Assault? At what distances do I use which move orders?

The trickiest thing is what to do with the infantry weapons. Are the weapons platoons advancing with the companies? What the heck do I do with the Battalion weapons company? I have no idea what to do with all those machineguns!

fivefivesix · August 22, 2015

So far in the Russian campaign my strategy has been basically this: pre-planned artillery, up to and including organic mortars on suspected enemy strongpoints. The Russian C2 is just too limited to be able to accurately and quickly bring artillery fire during the fight, perhaps with the exception of the company (battalion?) mortars. Only a handful of officers have the capacity, and wait times are usually 8+ minutes (playing elite). The few fire missions I have called in during action have come in 300-400 meters off, as well.

I usually start with the weapons company machine guns (and any available rifle company machine guns) setting up in overwatch of my planned route of advance - pioneer platoons are the first forward, to sort out any mine fields that lay ahead, particular along roads and paths. I am specifically trying to identify anti-tank mines, as I need to ensure the limited numbers of SU-76s (or whatever mobile gun / armor) can safely advance along with the infantry.

Then, each infantry company is sent forward along this route. Armor moves "slow" along with the infantry, who are always set to "quick", unless maneuvering far from the front, in which case they move at a walking pace to preserve energy. The infantry company usually stays about 100-150 meters ahead of the armor, to hopefully spot any AT gun positions. Once the rifle platoons start taking small arms fire (usually medium-heavy machine guns at 400 + meter ranges), the SU-76s are moved forward to blast away at the machine guns. If AT guns are spotted, either by infantry or when they kill a SU-76, I try to move multiple guns and bring HE on top of them from several positions.

Rifle companies bound forward, along with armor at this pace, eliminating strong points as they appear. One thing I have done is to split up the rifle platoons into their smaller sections, when advancing. This is tedious normally, and even more so when commanding a battalion of infantry, but because they advance as one large group, it does prevent excessive casualties when the machine guns do start up. I usually plot "quick" commands up to the destination with 10-15 second pauses every 30 meters or so. This helps keep them fresh, and also further splits up the company to minimize casualties. As far as the distance covered total, I advance forward towards the next available cover, that is in range of my guns and overwatching machine guns.

This process is then repeated until the final objective is secured. Weapons company is moving forward once there is enough machine guns from the rifle companies set up at the next base of fire. Then the weapons machine guns set up from there, and the pioneers set out again, etc, etc. It is definitely a slow going process.

This has worked fairly well - casualties are taken, especially when close assaulting strong points or entrenched infantry. I generally try to soften these spots up as much as possible, but eventually my guys have to physically occupy those positions - and a few remaining MP44s or machine guns or potato mashers can do a lot of damage.

Probably my biggest fear is enemy artillery. Since entire companies are advancing as a singular supported unit, and my strategy thus far has required long periods of static over watch as other units move - enemy artillery has caused most of my casualties.

How do you avoid heavy losses to artillery when an entire company is packed together like this?

fivefivesix · August 22, 2015