Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockwolf66
well from the US vehicle guide the 5th Mech ID started out with somewhere between 2,500 and 3,499 men and 40 abrams tanks.
It's hard to belive that only 500 men and one tank survied the battle of Kalis. I would thnk that there would be alot more survivors and from the fluff text the 5th mauled the Soviet army they fought.
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I did a storyline simulation of the battles that led to the 5th's destruction, as lead-up info for my future games. I started with Graebeard's OOB, and then followed the basic plot of the storyline, adding casualties as it went along. As this is my own work, it's not canon numbers, but what I ended up with was:
Total initial strength 6,600 Combat troops initial strength approx. 2,600
July 18, 0001 hrs 4,471 Combat troops July 18, 0001 hrs 973*
* includes 86 survivors from 256th Brigade that fled south of Lask on July 16.
So as of the final attack at Kalisz, I ended up with only about 900 "combat troops" defending Kalisz, with over 3,000 in rear area services behind them. "Combat troops" I defined as troops of the front line companies of the three brigades (i.e., not HQ/support troops from battalion, brigade or division).
From this point forward, my feeling was a lot of the rear-area troops would end up surrendering (esp. to 10th Polish TD). I figured perhaps 1,500 total men (about 1/3 of July 18, 0001 strength) would get away, with perhaps one third of these being "combat troops".
Draw from that what you will.