WarPac Vehicle Guide?

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Muti

Finally I had the time to read all the OOBs but now I have several doubts mainly because my english is not good as yours!

1) First of all, what do you mean for "Direct reporting"? Maybe something like: "Independent units"?

2) What do you mean for "Spare"? For example: "Spare Artillery Brigade" or "Spare Motor-Rifle Division"?

3) What is the TOE for a Missile Brigade? And for a KGB Motor-Rifle Regiment, a Border Guard Battalion and a Special Border Control Battalion?

Thank you in advance for your patience!

1) Direct reporting units report to the Front/Army headquarters without any headquarters in between - for example, an independent battalion that reports to an army headquarters rather than a regiment or division.

2) Spare units were mobilization-only units that had at most a small cadre although often fairly complete equipment sets. (For example, when the Soviet forces in Mongolia upgraded from T-62s to T-72s, they sent the complete set of tanks to spare units in Siberia.)

3) The missile brigades varied depending on the number of systems they had. In general, batteries had 2 or 3 TELs, grouped into battalions with 2-4 missile batteries, a meterological detachment, engineers, maintenance and guard units. 1-3 battalions per brigade.

Border Battalion: 4 infantry companies, mortar battery (mix of 82mm Vasilyek and 120mm), AT platoon with SPG-9 recoilless rifles. Foot, horse, ski or truck mobile.

Reaction (Mechanized) Battalion: 1 BMP-2 infantry company (10 BMPs), 4 BTR infantry companies (40 BTRs total), tank company (10 T-80s), mortar battery (as in border battalion), AT platoon with SPG-9s. Trucks for units not in APCs/IFVs.

Air Assault Battalion: as border battalion.

Border Guard Brigade: 3 border battalions, 1 reaction battalion, engineer company, artillery battery (6 76mm light guns), rocket battery (9 BM-21s). May be wilderness or mountain capable, depending on area of peacetime employment.

KGB Motor-Rifle Regiment: 4 reaction battalions, 1 air assault battalion, engineer battalion, artillery battalion (12 76mm light guns), rocket battery (12 BM-21s).

Border Aviation Regiment: 18 attack helicopters.

[Muti]

Great! Thank you Chico, by the way, where you found those information? For Soviet TOEs I have the Twilight 2000 sourcebooks, some books from Osprey and the FM 100-2-3 "Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment".

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Muti

Great! Thank you Chico, by the way, where you found those information? For Soviet TOEs I have the Twilight 2000 sourcebooks, some books from Osprey and the FM 100-2-3 "Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment".

The KGB Border Guards is an average of information from the 80s. There were about 80 border detachments, and the number of battalions varied according to the terrain. The border guard brigades therefore represent an average of some of the specific units I found information about. The tanks and artillery were frequently referenced (in both Western and Russian sources) but I couldn't find where they fit in the TOEs, so I had to make some assumptions. The KGB Motor-Rifle Regiments likewise represent an average of the Border Guard Mobile Groups which were in action in Afghanistan. The information on the TOEs comes from forums for vets of the Border Guards, http://www.ryadovoy.ru/forum/index.php?topic=16 and
http://forum.pogranichnik.ru/ both in Russian. (I spent a LOT of time with google translate, since I don't speak Russian although I can read bits of it!)

For the Soviet Army I got TOEs from the same sources you used, plus "Weapons & Tactics of the Soviet Army" by David Isby, the forums at tank-net.org and the following:

Fes'kov V.I.: "The Soviet Army in the Years of the "Cold War" (1945-1991)" online in Russian at: http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/000000d8.pdf
soldat.ru forums (in Russian)
airborne & Spetsnaz (in Russian): http://desantura.ru/forums/index.php?
Armed forces of the USSR (in Russian): http://www8.brinkster.com/vad777/sssr-89-91/sssr.htm
Rubezh forums (in Russian) online at: http://ryadovoy.ru/forum/index.php

Bulgaria:
boinaslava.net forum disscusion (in Bulgarian) at: http://forum.boinaslava.net/showthread.php?t=7695

Czechoslovakia:
http://armada.vojenstvi.cz/

Hungary:
(in Hungarian) http://forum.index.hu/Article/showAr...12&la=51202149

Poland:
Serwisu Militarnego forum post "Wojsko Polskie w 1986 r" (in Polish) at: http://www.serwis-militarny.net/link...ik=lwp1986.zip

[Muti]

Originally Posted by chico20854

Fes'kov V.I.: "The Soviet Army in the Years of the "Cold War" (1945-1991)" online in Russian at: http://www.soldat.ru/files/f/000000d8.pdf

I have an english translation of this book! Never used it anyway because it was made with a translator and I found it a bit incorrect...

People on TankNet forum usually call this book "Tomsk Book"... Don't know why, maybe because they didn't understood that Tomsk is just the city where it was originally published!

Anyway, before someone ask, I took the liberty to upload the translation (in PDF format) on Megaupload. If you have not familiarity with a web sharing site just follow my instruction: click on the following link, insert the code, wait some seconds and then start the download.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MN4JWXJ6

[antimedic]

Chico, how would the Fortified Regions be equipped?

[chico20854]

Muti-

I have the English translation as well, and I also find it's not that useful. I had better luck with the Russian version!

Antimedic-

The fortified regions are smaller versions of the machinegun-artillery divisions. A 1996 US Army report described them:

"Machinegun-Artillery Divisions

In accordance with the need to defend extended sectors with fewer troops and at lower cost, the Basic Forces now also field some machine gun-artillery divisions. These are linear descendants of the World War II fortified regions.

They are strong in machineguns, mortars, artillery, antitank guided missiles, and dug-in tanks, but weak in bayonet and modern tank strength. There is no standard organization for these divisions as they are tailored specifically to the terrain they are to defend.

The role of these semi-static, economy of force formations (and of separate machinegun-artillery regiments) is to hold long secondary sectors or areas where the terrain is especially suited to positional defence. Their tactical areas of responsibility are fortified in peacetime with well prepared and camouflaged primary and alternate positions and plentiful dummy/reserve ones. They form a series of independent strongpoints, often echeloned in considerable depth, with limited counter-penetration and counterattack reserves to plug gaps and support the defense. Figure 1-4 [below] illustrates one of a number of possible variations of organization."



A few I've been able to find details on:

97th Fortified Area (Priargunsk): 3 motorized rifle bns (4 companies in each), a combat engineer bn, 4 tank Bns (also w/ 4 companies each), AT Bn (85mm AT) & BM-21 Btry

and
11th Fortified Region (Bogdanovka, Chita oblast): 5 machinegun-artillery battalions, a T-55 battalion, BM-21 battalion and engineer company.

These units don't play much of a role in my vision of the war. They are generally along the Chinese, Turkish or Iranian borders, all of which the Soviets fight well beyond. By the time (if) NATO troops get close to those borders, the garrisons have been stripped of men, ammunition and mobile troops.

[Muti]

Chico, I'm sorry to abuse of your patience again.

I'm looking for TOEs information also on Independent Regiment for Protection and Guarantee, Mixed Air Squadron, Rear Area Protection Division and Helicopter Transport Regiment. I found all those units in your OOBs. If it is possibile I'm also searching the approximately number of men and vehicles.

I trust in your knowledge!