Need Help Creating 5th ID's AFV Maintenance Unit

[Raellus]

I'm trying to imagine what the 5th ID's main AFV maintenance unit would have looked like at around the time of the Battle of Kalisz and I'm having a hard time making sense of the TOEs that I'm finding online. A lot of them are newer (post-Cold War) and, by 2000 in the T2K world, such a unit would be a strange, understrenght hodge-podge of vehicles and personnel anyway. I'm really not sure how such a unit would be organized and equipped so I'm just kind of making it up.

Right now, I'm imagining a couple of dozen men, a few large trucks, an M88 or some such ARV, a tank-transporter trailer truck, and a few damaged or broken down AFVs currently under repair.

I figure that such a unit would be pretty small, even for a T2K mech "division". First off, the division has a lot fewer AFVs to maintain, and second, I figure late war divisions are a lot leaner, with a large percentage of the rear-area troops transferred to line units. Is my unit too small, though?

Also, would such a unit also be in charge of refueling? Would that be a separate unit?

Anyway, any concrete info, suggestions, or ideas are welcome.

[dragoon500ly]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I'm trying to imagine what the 5th ID's main AFV maintenance unit would have looked like at around the time of the Battle of Kalisz and I'm having a hard time making sense of the TOEs that I'm finding online. A lot of them are newer (post-Cold War) and, by 2000 in the T2K world, such a unit would be a strange, understrenght hodge-podge of vehicles and personnel anyway. I'm really not sure how such a unit would be organized and equipped so I'm just kind of making it up.

Right now, I'm imagining a couple of dozen men, a few large trucks, an M88 or some such ARV, a tank-transporter trailer truck, and a few damaged or broken down AFVs currently under repair.

I figure that such a unit would be pretty small, even for a T2K mech "division". First off, the division has a lot fewer AFVs to maintain, and second, I figure late war divisions are a lot leaner, with a large percentage of the rear-area troops transferred to line units. Is my unit too small, though?

Also, would such a unit also be in charge of refueling? Would that be a separate unit?

Anyway, any concrete info, suggestions, or ideas are welcome.

Start with the basics, a tank battalion Maintenance Platoon consists of an officer, a warrant officer and 97 enlisted men.
The HQ section would consist of 3 hummers and 11 men
The Admin section would consist of 1 hummer, 5 2.5-ton trucks w/trailers,
and 8 men
The Recovery Support Section would have a 2.5 truck w/trailer and a 5-ton
wrecker and 4 men
The Recovery Section would have a 5-ton wrecker, 3 M88s and 7 men
The Maintenance Service Section would have a hummer, 3 2.5-ton trucks w/
trailers, 2 shop trucks w/trailers and a M113 and 21 men
There would also be four Company Maintenance Teams each with:
2 2.5-ton trucks w/trailers, a M113 and a M88 and a total of 11 men.

That is what the US Army considered to be the bare essentials for supporting 58 M-1A1s with essential maintenance.

For a T2K Maintenance Platoon:
You would need a HQ section, call it a hummer and 4-6 men
The Admin Section can be culled down to a 1-2 2.5-ton trucks and 3-4 men.
The Recovery sections would be combined down to 1-2 wreckers, 1-3 M88
and 3-11 men
The Maintenance Service Section would need at least 2 shop vans, at least 2 2.5-ton trucks and at least 10-12 men
The Company Maintenance Teams are already at a bare level, dropping 2-3 teams might be a logical course.

Now the Brigade and Division Support Battalions have provision for more advanced repair, so I can see them with several trucks, at least 2-3 tank transporters and 2-3 M88s and perhaps 30-70 men.

As far as the refueling/resupply...this would be a QM battalion function...it would most likely continue to be a separte unit.

Hope this helps.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

Hope this helps.

This is awesome. Thanks!

[kota1342000]

Helps with several other of my projects too! Thanks!

[Abbott Shaull]

I think in the archive should be some work done by one of the members here and his take on the 5th Mechanized Division that was reorganized in late 1999. It may help out too.