Soviet Squad Orgs

[Stalin's Organ]

There's probably better info out there, but I thought I'd kick it off with some org's from a set of WW2 miniatures rules I used to play a lot (WRG 1925-50, 1988 ed fyi):

1940 platoon: Command group 3-5 riflemen, 2 sections each 10 riflemen, 2 sections each 9 rifles + 1 LMG.

Inerestingly in 1940 these rules make all the riflemen armed with SLR - self loading rifles. I'm sure they wouldn't all be, but the Sov's did have the Simonov and Tokarev SLR's at this time IIRC - not entirely successful designs. Dunno what happened to their manufacture after 1941.

1943 platoon: Command section of 2 LMG's and 7 riflemen, 2 snipers, 2 sections each 2 LMG's + 7 riflemen.

SMG platoon: 3 sections each 8-10 SMG's (1 is the command section)

Rifle company - 3 platoons + coy command section (6-8, half SMG half rifle), 2 SFMG's (Maxims of whatever), 2 50mm mortars.

A SMG coy is 3 SMG platoons + 1 half section command element armed with SMG's. Transport is 1 light truck and 3 heavy/large ones, presumably 1 for each platoon?

A rifle Bn is 3 companies, 3 mortar plaoons (3 x 81mm each), 3 MG platoons (3 or 4 (in Gds) SFMG's), 1 ATR platoon (9-12 ATR's), 1 ATG platoon (2 ATG's - usually 45's)

A motorised Bn has 3 companies, 3 MG plns, 2 ATR platoons, 2 ATG platoons, 2 mortar platoons plus a heap of trucks of course.

A SMG Bn is a command sectoin of 7-9 armed with SMG's, 3 SMG coy's, 2 each ATR, ATG and mortar platoons.

A regimental recce platoon has command half-section with SLR's, 1 sniper, 3 sections each 6-10 men 1/2 SLR's, 1/2 SMG's.

"Assault Group": 4 "half sections" - 2 with SMG's (1 is command), 2 od SLR's + demo charges, 2 flame throwers, 3 ATR's.

Edited to add a few more details.

[ 06-22-2001: Message edited by: Stalin's Organ ]

[Michael Dorosh]

Interesting, I asked about this before. Thanks for the start of some info.

[Skipper]

1940 OOB was implemented in most regular formations by June 1941, but newly formed rifle divisions were equipped differently - eg, a lot more Mosins in the mix.

SVT was a good rifle.

[Amedeo]

Most of the rifle units in the Kiev military district at the start of hostilities with Germany were lavishly equipped with semiautomatic rifles. In fact Soviet plans in the '30s were to modernize all RKKA equipement, not only in the field of tanks and artillery. The problem was that the majority of the SVT, AVS etc. rifles were lost in the summer catastrophe and they were very expensive and time consuming weapons to produce. So after Barbarossa the production of those weapons was halted in favour of the less expensive Moisin or the new good SMGs.

Amedeo

[Grisha]

Zaloga's Red Army Handbook has everything you'd want wrt squad orgs. It also includes armor too.

[PzKpfw 1]

A Russian Rifle Platoon consisted of 3 squads of 9 men each, The squad was built around the LMG and as long as their were eneough men to maintain the LMG, the squad was kept on the line.

2 Rifle Sqd types existed in the Soviet Shtat:

Type 1 -. 1 Sqd Ldr, 1 LMG gunner, assist, gunner, 6 Riflemen

Type 2 - 1 Sqd Ldr, 2 LMG gunners, 2 Asst, gunners 4 Riflemen.

I.e. an 1942 Rifle Company consisted of a Rifle Co HQ with: 19 officers & men, 5 SMGs, 2 snipers, & 3 Rifle Plts with: 5 officers, 1 political officer, 30 NCO, 138 enlisted men with 12 LMG's, 9 SMGs, & 11 Snipers.

Regards, John Waters

[Slapdragon]

The Soviets in 1940 / 1941 had about 5 million self-loading rifles on hand and issued to troops. While not the best rifles in the world, they were in the process of converting the army to autoloading rifles and turning the bolt action rifles over to militia centers for mobilization troops. US sorces tended ignore the SVT38 and the later 41 for some reason, and since they were destroyed or captured in huge numbers in 1941, they do not show up much 1942 onward, but it is interesting to note that the Soviets had more self loading rifles than the Germans had bolt action rifles at the same point of the war (Ezell). It is also interesting to note that the US made fewer Garands during WWII than the Soviet Union had SVTs on hand at its start.

Of course, the US in the Garand a much better weapon than the SVT, and it had the unique and under sppreciated M1 and M2 Carbine, made in the millions during the war cheaply and issued far wider than just to service troops, but the SVT shows just how hard the Soviet Union had been trying to modernize its forces during the 1930s, and how far back the Germans slapped them in the first 6 months of the war.

[Commissar]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Grisha:

Zaloga's Red Army Handbook has everything you'd want wrt squad orgs. It also includes armor too.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Red Army Handbook is quite handy especially since it seems to be one of the few books I've seen that clearly organizes unit compositons and weapons available in easy to read tables. I have some compliants with the book but if you are really interested in detailed Red Army organization, you should get it.