Racing the Raspititsa - Part 2

This game was played over an evening from 8 to 11 o'clock including setup and strip down, with Trebian taking the Soviets and Yesthatphil taking the Axis . I scaled the game at one NQM battalion representing a division. This gave me some problems midway through the game, but more of that later.

The 2 Panzer Armee advance was limited to  the rail line from TAMBOV to BORISOGLEBSK due to deteriorating weather. Soviet resistance was less hampered, but 57 Army comprising 99, 150, 317 and 351 Rifle and 14 Guard Rifle divisions  had left most of their their divisional artillery behind in order to advance to contact with  48 MotKorps, comprising 17 and 18 Panzer divisions with 29 Motorised and 167 Infantry divisions.

Soviet South Front had managed to reinforce BORISOGLEBSK with 335 Rifle division from 9 Army in time to fend off assaults from 2nd SS Panzer and then 10 Panzer  divisions from 46 Mot Korps as they arrived on the outskirts of the rail junction.

Things were looking good for 9 Army, as Strategic RKG reserves in the shape of 3 Guards Cavalry and 24 Tank divisions were able to catch 2nd SS Panzer.

Then disaster struck ...

I applied a Tank Terror ruling  to the reinforced 10 Panzer and 18 Panzer assault on BORISOGLEBSK. The look of horror in Trebian's eyes told me that I had failed to carry the players with me in the narrative. The story running in his head told him that the heroic 335 Rifle division, fortified* in a city, on the point of achieving guards status , had had victory snatched from them by a dodgy umpire ruling and one die roll. It took a bit of smoothing over as Phil marched the division off into captivity**.

Elsewhere things were going badly for the Germans. An apparently unending wave of attacking infantry was tearing into 48 Mot Korps as it advanced along the rail lines. Any semblance of an attack dissolved as logistic echelons found themselves defending against close assaults.

A fierce cavalry-armour battle developed around the outskirts of BORISOGLEBSK. what became apparent was that the panzers were not going to reach STALINGRAD this year and were not going to hold on to the TAMBOV-BORISOGLEBSK railway.  The assault ended with scattered remnants of  48 Mot Korps straggling in to BORISOGLEBSK in order to fall back to VOROZHNEV to regroup.

* I keep having this problem with the open, single storey, wooden built-up areas in 1940s Russia. Everyone equates them to the high-rise city centre scenes in 'Enemy at the Gates' rather than the more open suburbs of Stalingrad that burned down leaving only chimmney stacks. I count these troops as Medium in defence, and only count  fortified troops in concrete bunkers as Heavy.

http://historyimages.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/some-rivetting-pictures-from-ww2.html

** On reflection, a rule that works well at battalion level is too abrupt to apply to an entire infantry division, even if it has left its heavier equipment behind  to reach close terrain. On reflection, I should have made the panzers fight through the rail junction. The result would probably have been the same, looking at the red pips on the infantry stands, but the players would have been happier, and that's important.

Related articles

• Racing the Rasputitsa (notquitemechanised.wordpress.com)
• http://wargaming4grownups.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/nqming-on-eastern-front.html

In the dying days of Summer 1942. German armoured forces fanned southeast to STALINGRAD towards the banks of the river VOLGA. Spearheading the 2 Panzer Armee advance against minimal opposition were 10 Panzer and  2nd SS Panzer divisions from 46 Mot Korps less Gross Deutchland, which had been engaged at TAMBOV junction.

48 MotKorps, comprising 17 and 18 Panzer divisions with 29 Motorised and 167 Infantry divisions, were echeloned northwards behind them. These formations were all well understrength and although coming to the end of their logistical chains, were benefitting from the opening of TAMBOV junction to rail traffic.

Opposing them was South Front comprising 2 Armies :

57 Army comprising 99, 150, 317 and 351 Rifle and 14 Guard Rifle division

9 Army comprising 51, 106, 333, 335, 341 and  349 Rifle  divisions

and South Front troops comprising 3 Guards Cavalry division and 24 Tank division. Unusually fo rthis stage of the campaign, the operation had the characteristic of a meeting engagement.

The Defence of TAMBOV Rail Junctions (Fall Gabel AAR)

295 Infantry Division overrun the positions of 55 Rifle Division after a bitter fight.

This battle was fought rapidly over one evening at Trebian's 'Shedquarters' in two hours rather than the six that  I had originally envisiged. Present were Messrs. Graham, Phil, Will and Harvey, a newcomer to NQM, but by no means a novice gamer. Graham took command of Soviet 5th Army. Will and Harvey took command of 2nd Panzer Korps. Phil turned up slightly later and took control of the southern armoured thrust of 4 Panzer Division and Gross Deutchland.

Other newcomers to the game were the new casualty markers. Once the players had become accustomed to them, they speeded the combat sequence up significantly, and Graham deserves the credit for pressing me to actually do something about the ****** pins that rarely fail to draw blood at least once in a game. Contempory gamers are clearly made of less stern stuff than John Sandars, but we all appreciate the increased game speed!

The plan in my own mind was for two infantry divisions to fix the Soviet infantry position around the rail junctions with probing attacks, then outflank them to the south with the panzer divisions. Von Wyler had other ideas* and attacked due west down the railway on  a two-division front supported by korps artillery. I was explaining to Harvey the tradition of black heavy dice rolling low numbers, when Graham and Will immediately proved me wrong with some demon dice.

As a veteran NQM player, Will preceded his infantry attack with Korp-level artillery bombardment and an airstrike by the Luftwaffe. The PVO Strany was up to the challenge and had some success in fighting off the attack. I was probably a bit generous in allowing the Soviets to switch army artillery targets early on, but by this stage of the war, they were beginning to  develop the ability to put tactical doctrine into practice.

The German attack began to  cause and accrue some very heavy casualties. Notice that 296 Infantry Division is still on its movement tray. It was easier to do this than explain to Harvey that unit formations are not desparately important at this scale, and usually stay in base contact to count as organised. I needn't have worried. Harvey picked up what was going on very quickly, like the seasoned campaigner that he is.

For this game I limited the number of stands in a division able to initiate a firefight to six, as we were using one-third strength divisions. Even so, the German attack by 295 Infantry Division began to bite into the northern defensive position of 55 Rifle Division, although 296 Infantry Division had less success against  56 Rifle Division, being repelled and only making headway when 4 Panzer Division cut its deep hook short and turned north into the attack.

I had expected Phil to outflank the Soviet 5th Army and cut into their supply line with his armour, perhaps even disrupting West Front Headquarters, He is normally pretty reliable in this respect, but he judged that the infantry attack needed support and shortened his hook to attack 55 and 58 Rifle Divisions directly.

Gross Deutchland break into the positions of 58 Rifle Division from the south.

The cost was heavy to  4 Panzer Division, which got caught by Soviet army-level artillery. Phil was using his own 22nd Panzer** to represent an understrength 4 Panzer Division. Eventually the continual hammering drove the Soviet defences in. They survived a number of morale checks, giving ground grudgingly and responding to 'stiffening' by their commisars (roll another die to pass a failed morale test and deduct that number of hit points from your own side. You can do this as often as you want until you pass or run out of troops!)

The destruction of 4 Panzer Division at the hands of 56 Rifle Division with supporting army level artillery.

Graham by now had issued an entertaining series of predictions about the inevitibility of socialist victory that saw his 55 Rifle Division gathering its second wind and counterattacking  295 Infantry Division to drive it back . In most other aspects though his pronouncements and the course of the battle coincided only tenuously***.

55 Rifle Division reorganise at Rail Junction 1 prior to counterattacking 295 Infantry Division.

The arrival of 4 Tank Corps from reserves put any thought of further German exploitation on hold. Off-table manouvering from 2nd SS Panzer Division and 297 Infantry Division to the southern flank was countered by 20 Guards Rifle and 7 Motor Rifle Divisions, allowing Southwest Front headquarters to escape further east.

4 Tank Corps engage the right (eastern) flank of Gross Deutchland.

The real Soviet victory though, as 5th Army withdrew, much reduced but still in good order, was that they had fought four German divisions to a standstill and given time for West Front headquarters to pull further east as the first drops of the Rasputitsa began to fall.

5th Army withdraw with little real fighting strength left, but 2nd Panzer Korps is in no shape to pursue them either. East is to the left of the photograph.

My thanks go to the players for fitting a lot into a very short space of time, and putting up with arbitrary decisions made to speed the narrative along. A few Heroes of the Soviet Union will have been made from the bitter defence of the  TAMBOV  Rail Junctions by 5th Army. For this battle, an infantry division had between two or three six-stand infantry battalions, so in other words, they were fighting at regimental strength. At this stage of the war this is not much of an NQM scale-down. I did however, leave a good deal of the supporting and logistic stuff out. two hours did not give enough time to consider supplies and ammunition.

4 Panzer may be receiving some new panzer IVs over winter, as it left a trail of burning Pz38(t)s strewn in front of the Soviet positions. The strongest unit that never made it onto the table, with three full panzer battalions was 2nd SS Panzer Division. Perhaps another day?

Footnotes :

* Often, it's the same idea :  "I can see the enemy in front of me, so let's all attack frontally!".

** Reputedly the worst panzer division on the Eastern Front. Phil is almost magnetically drawn to this type of unit as an antidote to the massed ranks of Panthers to be found elsewhere on the web. I'm not criticising Tiger/Panther armies,  just saying.

*** Phil called it 'trash talk' but I felt it showed an understanding of Soviet mentality - Stalin didn't care who he annoyed and felt that everyone was 'out to get him'. For the record, the Germans were out to get him; the Umpire wasn't.

Fall Gabel (Fork)

Fall Gabel (Fork)

As the Rasputitsa drew on from the South in Autumn 1942*, German forces in the area of YELETS, East of KURSK made one last attempt to unseat Soviet 5^th Army guarding the strategic rail junctions West of TAMBOV. Capturing this area would also dislodge or destroy the headquarters of West Front.

Rumours of Soviet Forces deeper in the East were picked up by the Abwehr, but surely the bottom of  the Soviet manpower barrel must have been reached by now? The plan is to fight this over at Shedquarters as soon as Graham, the WHELKs and I have a free Tuesday evening. In the meantime, I’m painting up more Soviet infantry.

German Forces :

HQ 2 Pz Korps :

Comd Car (s3), Signal Bn Radio truck (s3), Tac Air Liaison Truck (s3), Korps Field Hospital Bn Truck (s3), Korps Arty Bn HQ Truck, Korps Arty Bn 155mm (s3) + Limber (s3), Rear HQ Workshop Truck (s3), Korps Rear HQ Fuel Truck (s3), Close AA Flack Bn 20/37mm (s3) + Limber (s3). Rifle Bn Comd (s3), 3 Rifle stands (s3), MG stand (s3), Mortar stand (s3)

Gross Deutschland Grenadier Division, 4 Panzer Division, 2 SS Pz Division

Supporting From XLVI Korps : 295, 296 Infantry Divisions (North Flank), 297Infantry Division (South Flank)

Supporting From XIV Motor Korps : 47 Motor Division (South Flank)

Soviet Forces :

HQ West Front :

1 Comd Car (s3), 1 Signal Bn Radio truck (s3), 1 Tac Air Liaison Truck (s3), 1 Front Field Hospital Bn Truck (s3), 1 Front Arty Bn HQ Car, 1 Workshop Truck (s3), 1 Fuel Truck (s3), 1 Ammo Truck (s3), NKVD Rifle Bn Comd (s3), 3 Rifle stands (s3), MG stand (s3).

Artillery Division : 2 76mm guns (s3), 2 122mm howitzers (s3), 1 152mm gun-howitzer (s3), 2 120mm mortars (s3), 6 tractor limbers (s3).

PVO Anti-aircraft Division : 37mm Anti-aircraft gun (s3), 12.7mm DShK MG (s3), Quad 48 MG (s3). 3 limbers (s3).

7 Motor Rifle , 4 Tank, 20 Guard Rifle Divisions

HQ 5^th Army :

1 Comd Car (s3), 1 Signal Bn Radio truck (s3), 1 Army Arty Bn HQ Car, 1 Workshop Truck (s3), 1 Fuel Truck (s3), 1 Ammo Truck (s3). NKVD Rifle Bn Comd (s3), 3 Rifle stands (s3), MG stand (s3).

RVKG Anti-tank Brigade : 2 Anti-tank rifles (s3), 45mm gun (s3) + limber (s3).

55, 56, 58 Rifle Divisions

* In my fictitious NQM Eastern Front campaign.

Monthly Archives: February 2012

29/02/2012

Battle for Girovka Bend

The toys got a rare outing to the Monday Night Group this week, (after many weeks of meeting on Wednesdays or Thursdays, the group is back to its eponymous night). I took the opportunity to game a particularly interesting part of the South Western Front around Kharkov. XLIV and XXIV Korps were tasked with securing rail bridges against what was expected to be weak Soviet opposition. This was to be a prelude to 1 Pz Korps attacking South West to disrupt Southern Front‘s attack against the southern flank of Army Group South.

Our host was the Revd Ian Lowell, with Graham, Chris A.  and Richard rounding out the Soviets. Will and Ian took the German side, with Phil (yes, that Phil) bringing 1 Gebirgsjaeger as late arriving reinforcements (not that late as it turned out). The start state looked something like this, representing the front and army group commanders’ plans. As we shall see, the situation on the ground was slightly different :

The Soviets realised early on that 3 German Divisions : 71, 262 and 101 light, were trapped in the fork  of the river bend and attacked north and south more or less simultaneously on the morning of the first day. At this stage, I thought that 12H were east of the river. It turned out that they were not, and the unit marked up as them was an extra division that no-one knew was there! I think that Will had enterprisingly found an extra Panzergrenadier division from the reserves.

For the avoidance of confusion, the picture below is of the Kessel on Day 3 when the German counterattacks have pushed 11Cav back over the bridge in the south, but are steadily losing ground to the Guards and tanks in the north. Richard’s well-tailored arms are putting pins onto 22GR.

By day 2 they had pushed 101 Light division back almost to their bridgehead and we can see 12H where they were supposed to be.

By Day 3, 22GR and 5Tk had succeeded in pushing 71 division south into what was fast becoming a Kessel. Richard discovered that T-60s are quite capable of inducing ‘tank terror’ in unsupported infantry. Even the camera lens is shaking in this shot!

Richard, in charge of the defence of KHARKOV and fired by the possession of 2 guards and one mechanised division threw off all attacks by XLIV Korps and then also attacked south into the area held by 10 Hungarian division, making steady progress to the railway line.

XXIV Korps was not idle whilst this attack was developing. On day two it threw its weight against  GIROVKA and its bridge, but to less effect than might have been hoped. By day three, 1 Gibirgsjaeger division launched itself into the attack against GIROVKA. There was some Soviet confusion as to how far forward 227 division was. It proved to be in GIROVKO, not STALINO as thought when the map was drawn.  This happens a lot in games with commanders losing track of units, sometimes for days at a time.

The Soviets also riposted on the third day with a fierce attack against STALINO that swayed back and forth several times until the Germans were finally ejected on the sixth day of the operation. The timely provision of a commisar detachment (one of Phil’s) may have helped! We allow the commisar to override a morale check by firing at his own unit and adding his score to the casualties. They are not popular chaps!

In the south of the German attack on day four the Luftwaffe made an appearance with two squadrons of He 111s attacking VOROSHEVGRAD to forestall any reinforcements that might be massing there. You can see them flying east in the corner of the picture below.

Whilst this was going on , 10 Hungarian division succeeded in establishing a pioneer bridge over the destroyed railway bridge on the western river fork. This was not to survive long though, as on day five, a VVS attack onto the newly established bridge destroyed it and sealed the fate of any forces trapped in the bend.

You can see the Zementer* squadron making its run-in with 3 squadrons of Ratas in support

A six on one black heavy die ensures that the bridge is closed for business!

One Stormovik and three 1-16 squadrons took part in the attack. It is worth noting that my ropey old Mustang conversion delivered the goods once more, but the photographers insisted that Phil’s better painted model be substituted for propoganda purposes. This is the shot below that you will see on more accomplished blogs  

Ian’s legendary reputation for rolling sixes deserted him as the Soviet jaws closed around his trapped forces in the Kessel. At this point, momentum was lost on both sides as the Soviets outran their immediate supply lines and the Germans began to pull back to their start lines, having lost two divisions (71 and 262) to the enemy. Many of the divisions on both sides in the south were at between 20% and 50% strength, although because of the plentiful rail network, most units could still trace supply lines at the end of the battle, as can be seen by the truck markers.

This setback to the Germans will have consequences for the forthcoming second stage of Fall Blau. The two Korps Commanders will be having interviews without coffee before their Army Chief of Staff. Losses were heavy on both sides around STALINO and GIROVKA.

The players all kindly professed to enjoy the game. Richard was introduced to the joys of being an NQM Corps commander in a fairly gentle fashion and will hopefully want to repeat the experience. General Vyler reinforced his reputation as a steady commander in defence, and Generals Evanski and Agerov added another medal to their already substantial rows. General Stahl added to his reputation as the Minifuehrer’s fireman, but not even he could put out a fire without buckets. The game started at about 8pm and finished at a little before 11pm with pauses for coffee and Welsh cakes.

* The Germans called Stormoviks ‘Zementers‘ (Concrete mixers) because of their toughness

 

 

19/02/2012

NQM Soviet Air Defence Commands

In addition to an air army  as previously mentioned supporting each front commander, the Soviets had military district air defence commands as follow :

Leningrad, Baltic, Western, Kiev, Odessa, Transcaucasus, Archangelskii, Kharkov, Moscow, North Caucasus, Orel, Volga, Central Asia, Transbaikal, Ural, Siberia.

These were in addition to the air army that each front had for direct ground support. Each geographically named military district air defence command had a subordinate front air defence command (PVO) and an air command that was tasked with protecting a geographic area, being independent of the army front commands with their own supporting air armies.

The numbers of air divisions in each military district were variable, but might typically number some 6 Divisions containing 20-30 air regiments (About (12 + 18) NQM fighter models). We are still dealing with big numbers here, The Moscow Military District had (30) NQM models plus (23) from the Moscow front and more from the flanking army fronts, say another (46) to give perhaps (99) NQM models in total, across an area of 3 army fronts. This compares to the (15) NQM models that the allies had at Gazala for one army of 2 corps (equivalent to 2 Soviet armies).

Caution :  I have taken these sums from a direct count of the orbats on the excellent (niehorster.orbat.com)  for 1941.To see the number of models available in any part of the front, you would have to look at the relevant military district and then extrapolate. I would suggest that by summer 1942 orbats were running around 1/3 of their 1941 strengths, and newer aircraft would be trickling in on the Soviet side. This would give perhaps (20) rather than (55) NQM models, a more maneagable total. PVO fronts normally covered airspace over several ground army fronts. That gives us 3 independent forces for the Soviets :

Ground forces (RKKA) - Rabočě-Krěst’janskaja Krasnaja Armija (Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army)

Air defence forces (PVO) – ProtivoVozdushnaya Oborona Strany, PVO Strany (Anti-Air Defense of the Nation)

Air Forces (VVS) – Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (Military Air Forces)

The acronyms above were all sourced from Wickepedia

Military District Air Defence Command

(1-5) Front Air Defence Command (PVO)

(Moscow had 4 commands with 8 regiments and 6 battalions)

(3-7) Air Defence Artillery Regiments
1 AA gun (s3)
These may be 57mm, 40mm or Maxim MMG regiments

(0-2) Barrage Balloon Regiments
Designate a line as having barrage balloons, which prevents low level attacks

(0-3) Air Warning Regiments
0-1 Radar (late war lend-lease)(s3), 0-1 searchlight (s3)

1-6 Air divisions (Moscow had 2) comprising :

24 PVO Division
(2 – 10) PVO Fighter Regiments (Moscow Command had 2 divisions of 5 as follow:)
11PVO – (2) I-16
16PVO – (2) I-16
24PVO – (1) LaGG-3
27PVO – (2) I-16
34PVO – (2) I-16

78 PVO Division (forming June 1941)
176PVO – (1) I-153
177PVO – (1) I-16
178PVO – (1) I-16
233PVO – (1) I-16
309PVO – (1) I-16

In addition Moscow had an Air Command of 3 Divisions with 1 forming, containing 11 regiments and 7 forming.

 

 

16/02/2012

Comparative Strengths Tank vs Aircraft Crusader/Venezia (GAZALA)

I was looking up servicable combat aircraft strengths for the Western Desert (as one does) and wondered how they compared to servicable tank strengths (excluding reserves) around the time of Rommel’s 26th of May Offensive to take TOBRUK (Operation Venezia); known to the British as the GAZALA battle. This  followed the British Operation Crusader, begun in November 1941.

Given that figures fluctuated as battles were fought, caution is needed, but here is what Ellis (1993) has to say in The World War II Databook. (NQM 30:1 strengths in bold brackets as always). More tanks and ‘planes were around in the logistic chain and the Mediterranean theatre, but I have excluded these.  The numbers make for a maneagable campaign and will doubtless be further jigged to reflect the models that I actually have.  I was surprised at the Allied types breakdown from Brad Hunter (2006) on the Axis History Forum;namely the 5:1 Hurricane to Spitfire ratio. A huge amount of ratio-ing and extrapolation has gone into these figures, and will doubtless continue.

November 1941 (Crusader)

Allied

Tanks – 711 (23),  Aircraft – 445 in DAF (15), broken down as :
Armoured cars :  (8) Marmon-Herrington, (2) Humber

Light/Cruiser : (3) Honey, (11) Crusader
Medium : (1) Lee, (3) Grant
Infantry/Heavy : (3) Matilda, (5) Valentine
(1) Boston, (2) Baltimore, (2) Mitchell – Bombers
(5) Hurricane - Fighters/Ground Attack

(2) Kittyhawk, (1) Tomahawk, (1) Warhawk, (1) Spitfire – Fighters

German

Tanks – 244 (9),   Aircraft – 360 * (12), broken down as :
Light : (2) PzII
Medium : (5) PzIIIh
Heavy : (1)  PzIVe
(4) Bf 109, (2) Bf 110 – Fighters
(2) Ju 87 - Dive Bombers
(2) Ju 88, (2) He 111 - Bombers

Italian

Tanks – 146 (5)  Aircraft – 300 (10) broken down as :
Light: (1) L6
Medium : (1)  M11, (3) M40
(3) C.R. 32, (4) C.R. 42 Falco, (1) G. 50 Freccia, (1) M.C. 200 Saetta – Fighters
(1) Z. 1007 Alcione - Bomber
* Ratioed from (183 North Africa/375 total Mediterranean) in June 1942 and approx 600 total Nov 1941

May 1942 GAZALA (Venezia)

Allied

Tanks – 849 (28),  Aircraft – 463 (15), broken down as :
Armoured cars :  (10) Marmon-Herrington, (3) Humber

Cruiser : (3) Honey, (10) Crusader
Medium : (1) Lee, (4) Grant
Infantry : (3) Matilda, (7) Valentine
(1) Boston, (2) Baltimore, (2) Mitchell – Bombers
(5) Hurricane - Fighters/Ground Attack

(2) Kittyhawk, (1) Tomahawk, (1) Warhawk, (1) Spitfire – Fighters

German

Tanks – 330 (11),   Aircraft – 183 ( 6), broken down as :
Light : (2) PzII
Medium : (8) PzIIIh
Heavy : (1)  PzIVe
(2) Bf 109, (1) Bf 110 – Fighters
(1) Ju 87 - Dive Bombers
(1) Ju 88, (1) He 111 - Bombers

Italian

Tanks – 228 ( 7)  Aircraft – 248( 8) broken down as :
Light: (2) L6
Medium : (2)  M11, (3) M40
(2) C.R. 32, (2) C.R. 42 Falco, (1) G. 50 Freccia, (1) M.C. 200 Saetta – Fighters
(1) Z. 1007 Alcione - Bomber

Alcione (Kingfisher) bomber converted from a Liberator, and Freccia fighter by QRF from the Author’s collection

… and for anyone who has read this far, I am adding thumbnails to the aircraft pages as I try to make sense of the air strengths in NQM terms for various theatres of war. (Last updated September 2012)

 

 

02/02/2012

The Soviet Air Force Toybox.

By special request (You know who you are Tim!), here is the NQM collection of Soviet Air Armies (PVO) and Long Range Bomber Force (ADD) :

PVO

Fighters

(2) I-15 (Il-153 from redbanner.co.uk in early “”sky laquer”)

(3) I-16 Rata (Author’s models)

(4) LaGG-3 (redbanner.co.uk in winter MK-7 white laquer)

(2) Yak-7B (redbanner.co.uk in AMT-4/-6/-7 laquer)

(1) MiG-3 (Author’s Spitfire conversion in the older AEh-15 dark green lacquer and a red banner thumb to show what it should really look like!)

(2) Spitfire (lend-lease) (wp.scn.ru)

(2) P-51 Mustang (lend-lease) (wp.scn.ru)

Bombers

(3) U-2 Kukuruznik (Another  dodgy diecast from the Author)

(1) A-20 Boston (lend-lease) (wp.scn.ru)

Stormoviks

(1) Il-21 Stormovik (early single seat 1/200 Author’s model)
(1) Il-22 Stormovik (later twin seat, converted from P-51 by Author)

(2) P-47 Thunderbolt (lend-lease) (wp.scn.ru)

ADD

(1) TB-3 (TB-3 Bomber converted to G-2 transport originally by Revd Ian Lowell in the Author’s collection and one from http://www.hobbyvista.com to show what it should really look like)

(1) Il-4 (Author’s conversion of a Japanese Betty and from http://www.scn.ru)

(1) Pe-8 (Author’s conversion of a USAF Flying Fortress and from http://www.scn.ru again)

Missing from this list are the hordes of AA regiments, represented in my army at the moment by a few 1/72 and 15mm Bofors guns borrowed from my US and British collection

And here they are in a disorderly state, waiting to be bombed by the Luftwaffe! These boxes probably look disorganised enough to enter the “show us your spares box” thread”

For the inner modeller inside us all, there are many online resources. This one is a good start : (www.redbanner.co.uk/History/il2guide/basic_vvs-colouration.html)

 

 

01/02/2012

Soviet Air Forces VVS

The Soviet Air Forces on the Eastern Front

A Luftwaffe Fw 189 Uhu (Owl) searches in vain for VVS orbats. Converted P-38 by the Author

If the Luftwaffe on the Eastern front is slippery to pin down, then the Soviet air forces make it look a model of clarity! A combination of limited and conflicting sources, massive early losses and constant replacements and attrition mean that this orbat is an approximation at best.
Summer 1941 saw a huge proportion of the Soviet air assets destroyed close to the border, with both Soviet and Luftwaffe orbats reduced to 20-33% of their initial strengths in 1941.

The Author's storage box for the VVS is a faithful reproduction of the Soviet state of organisation days into the Axis invasion

It was normal for Soviet regiments to be operating at 1/3, or squadron strength. Depending on the scenario, you could either field the correct number of regiments at one strength point each (s1), or amalgamate them to 1/3 of the correct number of regiments.

See this link for a breakdown of  forces :  http://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/orders-of-battle-orbats/nqm-soviet-orbats/nqm-soviet-air-force/

For 1940 – 41 Boyd (1977) gives the following for the Western Military District :
3^rd Air Army
9^th Composite Air Division (fighters, bombers and Shturmovik regiments)

4^th Air Army
10^th Composite Air Division (fighters, bombers and Shturmovik regiments)

10^th Air Army
11^th Composite Air Division (fighters, bombers and Shturmovik regiments)

III GKO Air Corps
42^nd Bomber Division
52^nd Bomber Division
61^st  Fighter Division

Directly allocated as required to air armies from MD HQ:
12^th Bomber Division
13^th Bomber Division
43^rd Fighter Division
59^th Fighter Division
60^th Fighter Division

By 1943 the Soviets distinguished between Air Armies directly supporting the Army Fronts, the Air DefenceForces (PVO) and Long Range Air Arm (ADD), which comprised ADD bombers, GVF transport and special GKO transports and was as I understand it part of the VVS.

The air armies were allocated as follow :

KARELIAN FRONT                  (7^th Air Army)             Gen Sokolov
LENINGRAD FRONT               (13^th Air Army)           Gen Rybal’chenko
VOLKHOV FRONT                  (14^th Air Army)            en Zhuravlev
2^ND BALTIC FRONT               (15^th Air Army)            Gen Payatikhin
1^ST BALTIC FRONT                (3^rd Air Army)             Gen Gromov
WESTERN FRONT                  (1^st Air Army)              Gen Khudyakov
BRYANSK FRONT                  (16^th Air Army)            Gen Kondratyuk
1^ST UKRANIAN FRONT         (2^nd Air Army)             Gen Rudenko
2^ND UKRANIAN FRONT        (5^th Air Army)              Gen Smirnov
3^RD UKRANIAN FRONT        (17^th Air Army)            Gen Krasovski
4^TH UKRANIAN FRONT         (8^th Air Army)             Gen Khryukin
INDEPENDENT MARITIME ARMY (4^th Air Army)    Gen Naumenko

When compiling lists like these, you have to watch out for generals who move between armies, rather like the boy who always appeared at each end of those long school photos by running along the back.

Sources :
Boyd, A. (1977) The Soviet Air Force since 1918. London, Macdonald and Jane’s.