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Originally Posted by Ursus Maior
They could of course recall veterans, but it comes at a cost. First of all: As I explained, there were no airborne battalions to reconstitute, so new battalions formed would be new battalions indeed, with no weapons - especially heavy - available, unless pilfered from other units or newly produced. Second, there would be hardly any officers available. A battalion needs warrant officers and commissioned officers in a good number. Those don't get retired after conscription service, but have a career. Reassigning them from somewhere else, means crosstraining them and likely not getting the best.
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You make a good point about a recall of personnel not including many (if any) officers, but I don't think that's an insurmountable obstacle. Active duty officers could be shifted around as needed and internal promotion could make up a lot of the difference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ursus Maior
But the biggest question would be: Why?
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Why? Because if a country wants to expand its military in a hurry, it's much easier to raise light infantry/light motorized formations than motor rifles or tank formations. That's true in terms of training and equipment. It takes time to pull reserve AFVs out of storage and get them into operational condition. That's going to prolong the raising of motor rifles and tank formations; it's not going to delay the raising of primarily leg infantry formations.
Also, in the v1 timeline, the Soviets wanted its Warsaw Pact allies to contribute mechanized forces for service in China. The timeline indicates reluctance on the part of most WTO nations to send any of their forces to China. Maybe the Poles started their military expansion with a nominally air mobile formation so that they could pretend to comply with Soviet demands for increased military readiness while still claiming to be shorthanded on motor rifles and tank formations, thus excusing delays in compliance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ursus Maior
A tenser atmosphere in international security isn't well countered by adding completely new battalions that never existed and re-drafting older personnel into it.
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I'm not sure what you mean. The 6th Pomeranian was a division, albeit a smallish one, before it was a downsized to a brigade. We're talking about a relatively small expansion, almost just a backfill. And we're not talking about recalling 40 and 50 year-old former paratroopers. We're talking about a few hundred men that had been discharged 1-5 years before re-expansion (they'd be in their mid-to-late twenties, mostly,
maybe early 30s). And elite units almost always have a greater
esprit de corps than regular units. Even in mostly conscript armies, those elite units are made up of volunteers. There'd be grumbling, of course, but ultimately, acquiescence.
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