Welcome to Cold War Gamer, a blog I am using to record my Cold War wargaming projects. These range from fictitious Cold War hot projects to historical conflicts that took place around the globe throughout the Cold War era, all modelled and gamed in 20mm. The blog includes links to various resources useful to the Cold War Gamer.

My current projects include: Central Front; British & Soviet. South African Border War; Angolans and South Africans. Soviet Afghan War; Soviets and Afghans

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

ORBAT - 1980s Canadian BG, Part 1 Task Organisation


The History of Canadian involvement in the post war NATO force in europe is covered in more detail here the key components are as follows:

  • In 1968 the Brigade had mechanised and been renamed 4 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group (4CMBG).
  • in 1971 it transferred from BAOR in Northern Germany to Lahr in Southern Germany where it would act as a reserve for either III US Corps or II Ge Corps.
  • In 1988 it was incorporated into 1st Canadian Division following the Canadian governments decision to withdraw from the CAST Brigade commitment to Norway. 1st Canadian Division remained the parent formation until the end of the cold war.



Battle group composition is therefore:


  • The early 80s forces will be based on 4 CMBG and potential reinforcements from either of the supported Corps who reinforced the brigade in areas of key equipment shortfalls. 
  • The late 80s force could either be as above or could be based on the composition of 4 CMBG and 1 Canadian division.
  • The 90's force will be based on 4 CMBG as part of 1 Canadian Division.

Throughout the 80s the Canadian land forces in Germany received little in terms of equipment upgrades and were organisationally stable, although some new equipment started to reach them in the early 1990s.  They are therefore quite straight forward to represent across the spectrum of the decade and a half that represents the arms race at the end of the cold war. They are very distinctive with a unique camouflage scheme and their regiments are distinctive with long and glorious fighting histories.  On top of all that they have a great Brigade title and the opportunity to be reinforced from and support two other nations.
















4 CMBG was a Mechanised Brigade its Orbat is shown here from the Canadian Soldiers website


In essence 2 Infantry Battalions, an Engineer Regiment, Tank Regiment and Artillery Regiment with an Aviation Recce Squadron.

Higher level task organisation


The Canadians like the British and most NATO forces formed task organised groupings depending on the mission.  The structure of 4 CMBG limited what those groupings could as it deployed 2 Infantry Battalions  and 1 Armoured Regiment.  The Canadians through out the period formed Combat teams of Armour and Infantry at Sub Unit level through cross attaching Troops and Platoons.



The Infantry were provided by:

Each Infantry battalion was scaled for 4 Infantry companies and a Support Company, in the early 80s 1 rifle company was held in Canada, by the late 80's all 4 were deployed. The Support Company provided Mortars, Recce, Anti Tank and Assault Pioneers. They used M113 A1 and A2, M150, and Lynx C&R.






The 4th Canadian Engineer Regiment (4CER) consisted of a field squadron and a support squadron.  The field squadron comprised  4 M113 mounted field troops.  The field troops and sections could be  deployed to battle groups or be deployed on Squadron tasks. 




They used the M113, M113 engineer variant with a dozer, the beaver leopard based AVLB and Lynx C&R along with a variety of other plant in the support squadron.




The Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) provided the Tank Regiment. The Unit consisted of 3 Armoured Squadrons and a Recce Squadron. The Squadrons were very large by comparison to other NATO units consisting of 19 Vehicles, 4 troops of 4 Tanks with 3 in the HQ.  It would donate armoured squadrons or troops and would receive infantry platoons or companies. It operated the Leopard C1 which was an upgraded  Leopard 1 A3 and the Lynx command and reconnaissance Vehicle



The recce squadron would be deployed in support of the brigade providing a formation recce capability in conjunction with the aviation squadron.  I assume the armoured regiment retained at least 1 reconnaissance troop for its own needs but have been unable to confirm this.




1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1 RCHA) provided the artillery regiment. This consisted of 4 Batteries of 6 M109 and a blowpipe troop.  The regiment like its British counterparts provide 3 FOOs from each battery in support of  the battle groups of the brigade.  It seems likely that the FOOs from the 4th Battery supported the Recce Squadron.  Each Battle Group could also receive a blowpipe section.  The artillery regiment could be augmented by assets from the supported Corps as required, this would normally be in the form of longer range equipments such as the M110.




444 Tactical Helicopter Squadron provided the Canadian component of the aviation assets. The Squadron provided aircraft for command, liaison and recce.  The recce Aircraft tended to work in support of the Brigade Recce Squadron provided by the armoured regiment but could be attached to other Brigade elements.

Typical Battle Groups


In First Clash Kenith Macksey creates three Battle Groups in 4 CMBG, two of them ground holding infantry battle groups and the third composed of 1 Squadron and 2 Platoons but capable because of the strength of the tank Squadron of forming two Combat teams.  This gives a clear indication of an extremely flexible approach to task organising force elements of the anything goes variety.




3 RCR Battle Group

  • 3 Combat Teams each of 1 Rifle Company at full strength with attached support weapons 
  • 1 Rifle Coy (-) 1 Platoon (+) 1 Troop Tanks, in reserve
  • 1 Armd Sqn (-) 1 Troop, Fighting within the main defensive position 
  • 1 Engineer Field Troop
  • 1 Battery of M109
  • 1 Blowpipe Section
  • 1 Mortar Platoon
  • 1 Anti Tank Defence Platoon
  • 1 Recce Platoon


Royal 22e Regiment
  • 3 Combat Teams each 1 Rifle Company at full strength with attached support weapons. 
  • 1Combat Team of 1 Rifle Coy (-) 1 Platoon (+) 1 Troop Tanks, in reserve
  • 1 Armd Sqn (-) 1 Troop, Fighting within the main defensive position 
  • 1 Engineer Field Troop
  • 1 Battery of M109
  • 1 Blowpipe Section
  • 1 Mortar Platoon
  • 1 Anti Tank Defence Platoon
  • 1 Recce Platoon




RCD

2 Combat teams each
  • 1 Sqn HQ 2 tanks
  • 2 Troops of Tanks
  • 1 Platoon Infantry
  • 1 TOW Section
  • 1 Blowpipe Section
  • 1 Platoon Mortars
  • 1 Engineer Section
  • 1 Trp Lynx
  • 2 x LOH CH 136
  • 1 Battery RHA
  • 1 ARV 


Its not clear from the reading I have done if these task organised units existed simultaneously or if some assets were regrouped to the RCD as the started their mission such as the mortars.  US Chaparral and Vulcan provided area air defence within the scenario and in addition the brigade were supported by an attack helicopter squadron and a battery of M110, more of that in the next post.

Some of the other battle group options worth considering are
  • R22eR and RCR would each of 3 Companies and 1/2 Squadron, RCD 2 Squadrons 2 Companies 
  •  R22eR and RCR 3 Companies 1 Squadron, RCD 2 Companies 1 Squadron
  • R22eR 4 Companies, RCR 3 Companies 1 Squadron, RCD 2 Squadrons 1 Company
  • Considering the RCD as a covering force with 2 Squadrons 2 Platoons and the Brigade Recce force is also interesting,  
All these options seem to fit within the ways of doing business outlined in First Clash it would be interesting to understand what options were used and under what circumstances.



References:

4CMBG The Canadian Soldiers website
First Clash. Combat Close - Up in World War Three
Canada's NATO Brigade a History






Friday, 22 June 2012

Wargames Unit - British 1980s BG, Armoured Squadron, Cheiftain


I recently completed the fourth tank in my Chieftain Armoured Squadron for my early 1980s British Battle Group.  The Models are all from Britannia and use the provided crew figures.


There were a few different Squadron Orbats used by the British over the late Cold War period and at a scale of 1:3 a group of 4 tanks can be used to represent either.  The two being:

  • 4 Troops of 3 and 2 HQ Tanks
  • or 3 Troops of 4 and 2 HQ Tanks
I believe that 3 troops of 3 and a 3 tank HQ was also trialled but I am not sure if this was ever taken any further.  Either way at this scale 4 Vehicles seems an appropriate representation for 12-14 tanks either representing the 4 troops or the three troops and the HQ. Which was used seemed to be at the discretion of the unit Commanding Officer.






The Britannia vehicles come with the Turret baskets pre stowed with a variety of items, in order to provide variety within the unit I have removed this on a number of the vehicles and added covers to the baskets.







The principal stowage added includes Cam Nets, Cam Polls, Bin Bags, and lubricant cans which for various reasons were all common externally stowed items.  British vehicle Antenae were all fixed poles on a fairly solid mount so you don't get those rather racy tied back affairs you see on US and Canadian vehicles. Pennants, Rats Tails, Tennis balls and Cyalume sticks on the Antenae were all used as identification markers for command vehicles which as a fashion waxed in and out of vogue throughout the period.



I tend to use these Chieftains generically to represent any of the Marks of vehicle prior to the introduction of Stillbrew Armour from 1986 and TOGs in Chieftain from 1989.  They are painted and marked in line with the posts in the reference section.  My intent is to use this as a 1:2 Infantry battle group so I have just made the one Squadron.  It will be interesting to see how a formation this light in tanks fairs against a Soviet regiment

References:

ORBAT 1980s British Battle Group, Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 7






Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Review - Web Resources, Armoured Acorn Site



The Armoured Acorn site is a very popular Cold War and WW2 information source. It has two main areas of interest for me the Soviet Cold War Orbats and the Canadian Cold War vehicle markings.
The Orbats are each done with little pictograms of the vehicles and are an invaluable source of information for Soviet Cold War organisations. They are very coherent with a range of other data sources and Orbats are provided for:
  • 1954,
  • 1961, 1964
  • 1974, 1979
  • 1984, 1989
These dates give excellent coverage of the post war evolution of Soviet formations. In Each date bracket Orbats are generally provided for:
  • Tank Divisions, with subordinate Regiments
  • Motor Rifle Divisions with Subordinate Regiments
  • Airborne Divisions with Subordinate Regiments

On top of covering the key evolutions of Soviet formations throughout the cold war, I think they are just wonderful to look at and a really great way to present Orbat information.

The second reason I visit is the wonderful range of PDFs covering vehicle cameouflage and markings for the Cold War period. These are superb and cover a range of Warsaw Pact and NATO Nations, my main interest here has been the Canadian army which is extensively covered.


Each Vehicle is covered Front back and sides with numerous instances of the same type showing variations in markings and painting schemes. For Cold War Canadians the site includes the schemes used in Canada and Germany for each major vehicle type, these can be found here.


In addition to the Artwork there are several Galleries of photographs again covering Canadian Military vehicles. This is a superb resource for the war gamer and everyone should visit here at least once a truly visual feast and a source of some otherwise hard to come by information , just what the internet was made for..................... sharing. http://www.armouredacorn.com/.

Sunday, 17 June 2012

Review - Models 1/72, Military Wheels 2a45 Sprut Anti-Tank Gun



The 2a45 Sprut AT Gun was developed in the mid 80s and is reported as commencing fielding in the forward group of forces in the late 80s early 90s, FM 100-2-3 does not acknowledge the deployment of this gun in 1991. Isbey in the 1986 version of weapons and tactics of the Soviet Army does. Ultimately it's a cool looking gun and something a bit different so I'll use it post 1989 and use the 2a29 MT12 100mm anti tank guns prior to that.






When you pull it out of the box it looks fairly simple, three spurs and a bunch of bits after a few hours you start to realise just how many! Quite a complicated kit given its size. Despite its limited production run status the parts quality is really quite good and the general fit and lack of flash are again good. Having said that there is plenty of construction fun in this model for the unwary, the principal issue being with the lack of part location definition on the model and a degree of ambiguity around the detailed assembly sequence some thinking effort is required in order to sequence the assembly to achieve the desired fit.

Trail Assembly


As I was building all four models in the firing position the first task was to assemble the trails deployed for firing.



Top Tips
  • Chamfer, the top of the trail on the inside edge where it fits to the centre of the gun platform, in the diagrams that refers to the inner ends of parts 4,  and 2
  • Increase the depth of the indentation on the underside of the inboard end of the 2 smaller trail arms, otherwise the arms struggle to reach the ground, parts 8, 4, 2 and 9.


in the second phase of the trail assembly part 68 needs to protrude clear of the lead trail arm as it is the attachment for the front wheel and part 62 needs to attach to the trail arm to the side of 68

Main Gun Assembly


The sequence of assembly and the creation of sub components can lead to problems, I certainly struggled



In order to get the breach and barrel all lined up correctly I found the best approach to be:
  • assemble the recuperatory system housing parts 61, 24, 27
  • assemble the breach parts 15 and 11
  • attach gun barrel to breach and recuperatory system housing
  • add rear of recouperators to top of breach, part 19
  • add covers 34 and 38, note the inside lower edge of these parts needs filling to ensure good fit
  • add breach side 58, this is the only way to get this in the right place

  • then do the rest, part 22 could be left until later as it can interfere with setting the gun in the gun cradle


  • The motor housing needs quite a bit of filler
There is a part in any model that can bring a man to tears for me it was the second phase of the trail construction and seating the gun in the gun cradle. Having filed and checked fit on everything obvious the things I wished I'd been told were as follows:



  • Parts 73 and 74 fit outside 48 the rotation table
  • I inserted some plasticard under the engine platform and on the gun rotation table in order to more firmly fix those components.
  • getting it all straight was fun!

After that it was a breeze



The Gun is mounted on a CD, something to do with your CD collection now you have iThis iThat and iTheOther. The handy part of the CD is the hole in the middle can help solve the "trail legs won't touch the ground" problem.


The figures are from Elhiems Cold War Soviet Range in Flack Jackets with the weapons removed, the prone figure is from the AT4 set.




To be fair this is a very detailed model of a lovely looking gun, once you have got the sequencing sorted, the final model looks great and is a fairly unusual subject. Employing it in a game is the next test of the Soviet gamers resolve but I have a few answers for that as well.

References:

Thursday, 14 June 2012

Cold War Games Hobby News - Jun 2012



The Cold War release frenzy continue a pace with some great new offerings from S&S, Italeri, and Trumpeter amongst others, less hot on the book front but some interesting pieces applicable to a variety of periods from early war miniatures.

FIGURES


Elhiem Figures


On the work bench for the cold war enthusiast from Matt at Elhiem figures are a set of Soviet artillery crews, very much work in progress. 



I have my fingers crossed that the Gun crew will have sufficient flexibility to crew up the SPG9 and AGS 17 that Matt already produces for his Afghan range and 120mm Mortars that you can pick up from his and other manufacturers ranges and with 6 D30s to complete along with a few BTR battalions - just what I am after. In addition he has a German Milan team and a German with ManPAD the Milan team will be very useful hopefully this will be replicated for the British.

MODELS


Hobby Den


Hobby Den,  Brian is just finalising the metal moulds on the second of his MMS vehicles this time a BTR 60, pictures should be available within the week, if they pop out before the end of the month I'll update this post.  Slipping out on the 20th of this month was this picture of the Metal components of Brian's new BTR 60, Brian is now working on the Resin body so hopefully a new kit by the middle of next month.


Brian just put out this photo of the hull and turret on the 24 June, and very tasty it looks to.



 The MTLB of which I now have two is a super kit and well worth the price, pictures of the components below I will be running a review on it once its built.






S&S


This month the very prolific S&S have been working over time, Shaun tells me the GSP ferry goes on general release together with the BTR 80 and 80a, Balaton do a BTR 80a conversion kit for the trumpeter kit but the 80a is otherwise difficult to source.






He also has re released the 3/4 toni GS trailer a copy of which I will be playing with for my Brits in the next month or so.

But the big news is whats just popping out of the pipeline and not quiet on release yet, for those like me obsessed with Soviet goodness the fact he now has a rather smart looking 2S3 getting close to completion is great news, I'll be on for at least a Bn, up to now the only option for this was a rather pricy if nice version from Balaton ( I could only afford 1).  The upside of the 2S3 is that the hull formed the basis for a number of vehicles, including GMZ, 2S4, 2S5 and SA4 so loads of conversion scope.  Shaun tells me this should be going on release next month for somewhere around £11 to be confirmed



He has also got to the backend of the production pipe with a M998 beloved of the USMC, airborne and light divisions of the Cold War US Fraternity.  This may be a little slower getting to the released stage.



Cpl Overbys Motor Pool


The redoutable Corporal continues to add to his range this time with an LVT 4 - ideal for Indo China and Korea?



Italeri


Italeri have released the M163 Vulcan Canon in 1/72 scale, I will be using a couple of these to reinforce my 4 CMBG battle group for when my Canadians operate with VII US corps.  I have an eye on a US force at some stage as well.


Trumpeter


Trumpeter continue to add to their 1/72 British cold war subjects this time with a Warrior, the release is posted on their web site but I have been unable to find any evidence of them landing in the shops yet. Hopefully they will follow the European theatre with a Gulf War version as they have with many of their other vehicles.



BOOKS


The Bear Marches West


As soon as  I post this I find something else worth talking about, so I updated the news post on 15 June 2012 to include this offering.  Russell Phillips has just published, The Bear Marches West a book containing 12 cold war scenarios based on the books, Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, Red Army by Ralph Peters and Team Yankee by Harold Coyle.  The PDF version is available from his web site Russell Phillips Books at £2.75 a sample scenario is contained here.



The web sites worth a look as well with some interesting articles on the Falklands Island Defence Force, and the Sergeant York Air Defence System.

The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War


I found this item whiles looking for released books this month, grandly entitled the Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social and Military History, it retails for a whopping £400 one would hope it is as it describes itself a comprehensive history of the Cold War.

The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History


WEB


two things from the web this month:

Maksshop


The first is a store operated by email that I stumbled across whilst trawling the Missing Lynx Braille Scale forum which offers a range of limited production resin convert ion kits and kits for the Soviet Union.  Whilst pricy they offer some interesting subjects.  The kits can be seen here




and the owner can be contacted by mail at maksshop@gmail.com 


Prices currently look like this:

  • BREM - 1 - 2000 russian roubles
  • GAZ TIGER AFV - 1500 roubles
  • T72 With ERA with turned barrel and smoke grenades - 1250 Roubles
  • T72B with ERA without turned details - 900 roubles
  • T72A with/ without antirad protection  - 500 roubles without turned details With Turned details - 900 roubles
  • Wheels - Zil 131, Zil 157 and 2 types for URAL - 400 roubles
Maks accepts PAYPAL in Euros  (+4% paypal fees or as Personal payment), Shipping to Europe or US is about 15 euros or not depending on quantity.

BAORFacebooklink



The other interesting find on the web this month was the updated face book BAOR photos web site well worth a look if your after british equipment photos, now sorted and categorised by equipment type with the happy snaps weeded out.


OTHER


Early War Miniatures have released a set of Explosions and Craters aimed at the WW1/2 market but something that most modern gamers need, better pictures can be seen on the web site



My Work Bench


Most of the items I have been building have moved on to completion, or the next stage of the production line. The big projects this last month has been:

  •  A scenario for a game I'll be playing with some friends in August.  The Wissenberg Counter Attack is set in Southern Germany following an invasion by the Soviet Union in 1988. So I'll be posting a bunch of the supporting material, hopefully an AAR and a downloadable scenario pack sometime in the future.  



  • A mad rush on terrain as fighting in Germany means fighting in trees, villages and on modern roads so hopefully some terrain related posts on the horizon as well.
  • The start of a battle group from 4 CMBG including a test vehicle and the initial research for the Orbats along with a somewhat fruitless search for books.



I'll leave you with this, it'sssss sooooo cold war, thanks for reading.




If you have any cold wargaming product news that you would like to share drop me a line at coldwargamer@gmail.com