Scenario designers

[RCHRD]

I certainly hope this doesn't come across as a criticism, but I noticed that in the recently posted AAR's both scenarios had indirect support from 76mm guns. According to Charles Sharp, only the howitzer Regiment had the wherewithal and the personnel to coordinate indirect fires. The light regiment was direct fire only. I'm a big fan of the Eastern front. I want the scenarios I make to be as accurate as possible. Can anyone contradict Sharp on this point? Can anyone point out tidbits of interest to scenario makers? Anyone want to share TO&E info? Is there any interest from the community at large in this kind of thing? Edit; He refers to Infantry divisions in 41.

[ April 28, 2002, 08:01 PM: Message edited by: RCHRD ]

[rune]

Red Army Handbook, Page 129:

A standard weapon of the Soviet divisional artillery was the 76mm divisional gun. This particular example is an F-22 USV, an interim design og the late 1930's which preceded the wartime ZiS-3 type. This category of weapon is frequesntly misunderstood in Western accounts as an anti-tank weapon, partly because the Germans used captured weapons in this role. This weapon is seen in use during the Stalingrad fighting in 1942.

Rune

[Redwolf]

RCHRD, if you hope for any respone from the CMBB team - there is hope hope with the indescriptive Subject: line you chose. You can edit it.

[Scott B]

Pillar's AAR is for an action in October 1943, so I believe you're referring specifically to Germanboy's AAR.

Germanboy's AAR, which occurs in July 1941, does have a Soviet unit with a 76mm gun battery in support, but on reading it I didn't see anything to do with actual coordination of fires. The Soviet player appears to have fired a preparatory bombardment with his 76mm guns, rather than having actually called it on an observed target.

From Germanboy's AAR:

Artillery would only be used in an initial barrage over the whole of the enemy line, due to the absence of radios with the forward observer detachment under Leytenant Karikov.

Later in the AAR this is seemingly confirmed-- there is no mention of the effects of the barrage on the actual engagement save a comment that it apparently had little effect on the defenders.

Scott

[ April 29, 2002, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: Scott B ]

[Andreas]

Scott is correct. The barrage was fired on a predetermined line at the start, and was not switched.

I would be interested in a bit more discussion of this matter though - did the Red Army artillery really not have the ability to use their 76mm guns in indirect mode in 1941 at all? I find that hard to believe, but I don't know enough about it.

[Scott B]

Originally posted by Andreas:

I would be interested in a bit more discussion of this matter though - did the Red Army artillery really not have the ability to use their 76mm guns in indirect mode in 1941 at all? I find that hard to believe, but I don't know enough about it.

According to Sharp, the rifle divisions began the war with a 76mm regiment and a 122mm/152mm mixed howitzer regiment. The howitzer regiment was the one that would get priority for fire support and communications assets, because there weren't enough to go around. Problem was, when war came there simply weren't enough artillery units to go around, and the howitzer regiments were yanked by high command, leaving the rifle divisions with only the 76mm field gun regiments in many cases.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that the Soviets were completely incapable of indirect fires in these units, but I do believe that effective communications between the line units and firing batteries were relatively rare. There weren't enough radios and wire for the chain of command, let alone the fire support net, so whatever indirect fires there were was difficult to coordinate. It was difficult, but not impossible-- even without radios or wire commo, you can use signal flares or runners, and the Soviets were (by necessity) masters of improvisation. Because of this difficulty, and likely also because of a scarcity of ammunition, the 76mm guns were more often used in direct fire.

The Soviets commonly used systems up to and including 152mm howitzers throughout the war in the direct fire role because of the reduced need for coordination and, as is commonly pointed out in Soviet writings, it saved ammo.

Scott

[RCHRD]

Ok, I'll go back and read again. I looked all over that one AAR for a date and never saw it. He did write about calling fire on the ridge and waiting for it. What about battalion and regimental mortars? My understanding is that they were often detached and combined into groups. Could you describe a bit about the flares and runners approach. Surely batteries controlled in such a way could not have delivered very accurate fires.