Stupid GI Tricks

[helbent4]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

And it does't help that its hard to get English translations of the Russian histories of the Great Patriotic War. After getting torn to pieces by the Germans in the early point of the war, the Russian tactical art got better, a lot better than Western historians acknowledge. But, from the Western viewpoint, the image of massed human wave assaults throwing themselves into the teeth of the German defenses has been an image that is almost impossible to dispel.

Lee,

A great book I recommend for anyone wanting a good appreciation of how Russia fought in WWII, and how they saw themselves is "Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army 1939-45." It's based on historical records from Russian archives, diaries, letters, and personal anecdotes.

For one thing, the Red Army of 1941 which used human wave attacks was largely dead by 1942. Taking their place were professional officers and soldiers, with technical skills and training.

http://www.amazon.com/Ivans-War-Life.../dp/0805074554

Moving onto the Pentomic divisions, S&T had a couple wargames in the Cold War Battles series that features them: as an optional unit is Budapest '56 and the focus of Wurzburg Pentomic:



There's a fascinating write-up of the Pentomic concept. Great in theory but difficult to pull off in practice!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4...tomic-wurzburg

Tony