140th Motorized Rifle Division?

[Olefin]

Its mentioned in both the Soviet Vehicle Guide V1 and the Soviet Combat Vehicle Guide V2 - but its in neither book.

Is it detailed anywhere in the canon as to how big the unit is? I was guessing if it was overlooked both times that it was a remnant group with only a few hundred men at most.

[Raellus]

Probably. OR you could make it a powerful formation that shows up somewhere in your campaign world. For example, to explain the failure of German III army's summer 2000 offensive in Northern Poland, I feel additional Soviet units need to participate in order for it to make more sense. I've used a Soviet Army that canon has stationed in Western Ukraine/Belarus but I wouldn't mind throwing another relatively strong MRD in there for good measure.

[James Langham]

A simple answer would be that the unit was destroyed during the summer offensive, probably by the 5th or 8th Division's breakthrough.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by James Langham

A simple answer would be that the unit was destroyed during the summer offensive, probably by the 5th or 8th Division's breakthrough.

And for a twist, small groups of survivors have a real axe to grind toward the western units that massacred their comrades! Your unit might find evidence of war crimes along their path, all the bodies having some 5th Division insignia on them. And to top it all off the bodies were desecrated in a most, umm, _imaginative_ fashion.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by James Langham

A simple answer would be that the unit was destroyed during the summer offensive, probably by the 5th or 8th Division's breakthrough.

And the simplest answer is often the correct one.
Unless the GM wants to use them for some purpose as Rae indicated.

[Olefin]

That could also be the unit that pushed the 8th into Latvia - i.e. attacks the 8th and makes them move all the way to Riga before the 8th finally makes its defensive stand and wipes the 140th out or hurts them so bad that whats left just falls apart into deserters and marauders.

So you get why they are mentioned but not detailed and also why did the 8th go so far east instead of being more westerly in their final position.

[Legbreaker]

Except that there's no indication anywhere in any of the books that the 8th was "pushed". We also have from the V1 Players book:

The initial drives were successful, with two US divisions breaking loose and conducting deep penetration raids into the enemy rear area.

While the 8th Division (Mechanised) headed for the port of Kalingrad and a link-up with the Free Latvian Army...

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=354
There's a number of other threads scattered about with more information and discussion on this and other relevant topics.

[Cdnwolf]

The 139'th and 141'st MRD were both destoyed in Manchuria China so I think thats where the 140'th was sent too.

(From Soviet Vehicle Combat Handbook pages 93 and 94)