Wargames Units - 468 MSB, Divisional Forward Detachment at Waidhaus

Soviet forward detachments were either provided as march security elements or as enablers of operational manoeuvre that were focused on resolving Tacticle combat problems in order to allow the units they were supporting to maintain a high rate of advance. As such they were inevitably highly task organised in order to achieve their mission. They were usually formed from the units of the divisional army or front second echelons and upto 30% of the second echelon could be employed in this way.

468 MSB at Waidhouse is a heavily reinforced example of the type it was composed of:

• 2 Tank Companies (T-72A)
• 1 Motor Rifle Battalion (BMP 1P and 2)
• 2 Artillery Battalions (2S1 and 2S3)
• 1 Anti Tank Company (BRDM 2 + AT5)
• 1 Anti Aircraft Company (ZSU 23-4 and SA 9)
• 1 Engineer Mobility Support Detachment

The two Tank companies are both Revell T-72 As, which are a little light weight for a late period game but they are waiting for me to get my T-72Bs and BVs finished, these are built straight from the box, crew are by liberation with decals being from a variety of sources the best being the QRF white stenciled numbers. Having two tank companies attached to an MRB is unusual, but was noted in 5% of post war exercises in Lester Graus analysis in his paper The Soviet Combined Arms Battalion - Reorganisation for Tactical flexibility. The frequency of this type of task organisation was also observed to be increasing towards the end of the period (TBC).

The late period MRB is the core element of 468 MRB forward detachment, figures are a mix of liberation and Elhiem all painted in sun Bunies, some of the figures wear the Afghanistan issued field service cap, my assumption being that soldiers are the same all over and if you have one you'll probably wear it. Immagery from both the Chechen conflict and afganistan suggest uniform discipline was lax. the battalion is configured for the late period with specific platoons for AGS 17 and Air defence. Vehicles are a mix of ACE BMP 2s and BMP1s that have been converted to 1Ps with the addition of an AT 4 launcher. I think the MTLB in this picture is S&S.

468 MRB for the Waidhaus mission has two battalions of Artillery attached, Lester Grau noted this configuration in .5% of post war exercises. The post on Soviet Artillery explains how artillery units were cascaded forward and how they wer task organised. in addition these units may take a far more active role in the direct fire battle than there NATO counter parts, something we did not manage to explore in the Waidhaus game. Both the battalions are configured as late period battalions with 24 Guns in three batteries with each battalion being capable of deploying upto two OP units. Ammunition resuply trucks are also represented. the 2S3s and 2S1s are S&S with some of the 2S3s being drawn from Mausmanns collection.The BRDM 2Us are ACE as is the PRP 3 (BMP SON) and SNAR 10 crew figures are liberation. trucks are mostly ICM.

In addition to the task organised units 468 MRB also has attached a number of elements from its parent Regiments support companies these include:

• Anti Tank
• Air Defence
• Engineer

The Recce elements that were on board were part of the lead MRR rather than 468 MRB and would be working on the mission of the MRR under separate Command and Control arrangements but would be operating in advance of the main body and potentialy along side forward detachments as in this case.

The Anti Tank Company is built using S&S BRDM 2s with the BRDM 2s with AT 5 having been converted to include the Gunners sight. The Anti Tank Company forms a very useful reserve component and this proved to be the case in the Waidhaus game, dealing with the initial counter moves by the German Recce Leopard 1s and if the game had developed I suspect it would have been critical to dealing with the Leopard 2s of 123 PzBtl?

The Air defence company again built using S&S models, was drawn from the parent regiment, this to me looks like an inherent weakness of the Soviet system as the NATO deep battle doctrine developed with second echelon at Division and Army level being highly likly to be subject to BAI and CAI but in many instances would have lost a proportion of its Air Defence. Leaving them wholly reliant on divisional and army level air defence.  The later cold war period would allow the deployment of an Air Defence Battalion consisting of a 2S6 Battery and a SA14 battery sad to say like the T-72Bs they are still a work in progress.

The final component of 468 MRB was a manupouver Support Detachment (link) This included a Sapper platoon, Sapper and NBC Recce, counter mine, gap crossing and route clearing capabilities, together with a Motor Rifle Company for security and additional labour.

468 MRB was a heavily task organised Motor Rifle Battalion which in this form may have fitted in at the lighter end of the scale for what the Soviets referred to as Brigades. it fits in with the tradition of reinforced task organised forward detachments that developed from operational concepts trialed by the Soviets in the closing stages of World War Two, exemplified in Vistual Oder offensives and the Manchurian campaign. These elements wer also a responce to NATOs deep battle and Air Land battle concepts which saw the Soviets shift emphasis from the second echelon to these Forward deployed Manouver support and enablement groupings with estimates that up to 30% of the deployed force npmight be committed in such roles.

At Waidhaus 468 MRB was assisted in its role by air assault elements focused on 901 DShVB, these primarily had the task of blocking German reserves reinforcing Waidhaus from the South. This was a key part of the Soviet evolving doctrine in the mid to late 80's before they adopted a more defensive doctrine. For the game 901 DShVB was task organised with:

• 396 GvOVP Medium and Heavy Lift Squadrons,
• 490 OVBP Assault Squadron
• Elements of 199 OVE BU, who provided Command & Control, ECM and Liaison aircraft.

901 DShVB with transport, escort, command and control and EW elements, the battalion has two parachute infantry companies, an armoured companie and a range of support weapon platoons including Anti Tank, Air Defence, AGS 17 and 81mm Morter, they have been reinforced by the addition of a 120mm Morter platoon, not sure where from :). The parachute infantry company's include support elements including PKM sections and AT-7 sections and have been heavily task organised with the battalion support platoons creating potent light force units. figures are a mix of Liberation and Elhiem, aircraft are from a variety of sources including; KP, Matchbox, Zvezda and Italeri.  

490 OVBP Attack Helicopter Squadron, was the final component of the force comprising 5 flights of hinds, interestingly they did not dominate the battle, their impact being constrained by the air superiority rule and the amount of German air defence. These squadrons were a key component of any air assault opperation, and might be seen as the "tank" component of the air assault team creating effective anti armour capability that could Manouver around the infantry element, The aircraft are again drawn from a mix of sources including; Italeri, Airfix, Zvezda and Matchbox.

Detailed References for the tactical formations and groupings discussed will be found in the references of the related posts, particularly the Orbat and TTP posts.

Related Posts:

Review - Book, The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre

TTP

TTP-Forward Detachments and Tactical Air Assault

Scenario:

Scenario - Storming The Waidhaus Gap
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability Part 1, Overview and Lift Assets
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability Part 2, Army Air Assault Battalion
ORBAT - Soviet Task Org, Fronts in the Western TVD

Wargames Unit:

Wargames Unit - Soviet Late 80's Independent DShV Battalion
Wargames Unit - Soviet Late 80's MRB
Wargames Unit - The German Army at Waidhaus
Wargames Unit - Soviet, Combat Helicopter Regiment, Assault Helicopter Squadron
Wargames Unit - Soviet, Combat Helicopter Regiment, Attack Helicopter Squadron

AAR:

AAR-Storming The Waidhaus Gap, Part 1 Ground and Deployment
AAR-Storming The Waidhaus Gap, Part 2 Soviet Air Land Battle
AAR-Storming The Waidhaus Gap, Part 3 Counter Attack

Downloads:

Storming The Waidhaus Gap, 19 Mb

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Review - Book, Confrontation, The Strategic Geography of NATO and the Warsaw Pact

I picked up on this books existence from a TMP thread, if your interested in wargaming the cold war this is an invaluable reference, why? Put simply gaming a war that never happened is an easy thing to do in a trivial way but requires a level of involved study if it is to be in any way a recognisable representation of the conflict in question. For this you need to understand:

• force composition
• force quality
• force doctrine
• equipment
• force quality, equipment, organisational and doctrinal evolution against time
• the political context and its evolution
• the geographical context

whilst items 1-5 are covered to a level in many references the geographical context is generally poorly understood and poorly discused. In this book Hugh Faringdon not only sets out to analyse the geopolitical nature of the Cold War against a range of well understood Geo political models which he does in part 1, the basics of Security and `war, he also examines the detailed nature of the Terrain across the Central Front.

In part 2 The Map of Confrontation, he looks at the specifics of the conflict the two superpowers their associated alliances, the regional areas of potential conflict and the effects of the geography on the nature of the conflict. Why is this important well its a comprehensive independent analysis of the force distribution composition and the effects of the physical and social geography on operations. This is examined from the perspective of the current operational plan and deployment and from the perspective of History, primarily world war 2. In this he provides a wealth of understanding of terrain, its impact and the deployments together with a range of very useful maps.

why should you be interested in this as a war gamer, well in one fairly inexpensive volume he succinctly summarises what must amount to years of geographical, historical and contemporary military and political analysis. This book was written in 1986 and was based on information available at the time so like all models some of this will be wrong but it provides a readily digestible framework against which cold war games and campaigns can be framed and can save a lot of effort studying maps and google earth to pick the right spot for the game.

the first two scenarios I penned took a degree of study of the ground against the operational context to find places that would allow me to explore the nature of the operational and doctrinal activity that I wanted to develop. With this volume it was a matter of reading to identify location and deployment and understand the potential impacts a significantly reduced work load.

quite simply a gem, as ever its not that digestible cover to cover but once you have familiarised yourself with what it has to offer it will remain an invaluable reference for an eternity. If you are into scenario generation and want to understand the geographical context to the operations you are creating this is a gem of a book. If your games are based on points values and imaginary terrain it is not for you. A great buy if you can find a decent second hand copy below £13.

Confrontation, The Strategic Geography of NATO and the Warsaw Pact @ Amazon

Other Book Reviews:

Review - Book, Mil Mi 8/Mi - 17 Rotary Wing Work Horse and War Horse
Review - Book, A History of Soviet Airborne Forces 
Review - Book, Soviet Tactical Aviation
A History of Soviet Airborne Forces
Soviet Tactical Aviation
Armies of NATO's Central Front
Red Thrust, Central Front
The Soviet Afghan War, How a Super Power Fought and Lost
Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army
Soviet Air Land Battle Tactics
The Military Balance
Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army
The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manoeuvre
First Clash
The Third World War
The British Army in Germany

The Cold War Bookstore contains links to over 60 Cold War titles covered in my book list

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Modeling - British Army Field Defences, Trenches

The next couple of scenarios we will be playing look at a Soviet attack on 1 (Br) Corps. The first will be a Brigade covering force action, the second an attack on a British defensive position this will either be an attack from the line of march or will look at the deployment and use of a flanking detachment.

Either way in both scenarios the British units will probably need to be dug in. With the increase in available indirect fire assets for the Soviet units that occurred between the late 70's to late 80's their were a number of fairly fundamental shifts in the design of the humble trench, The principal changes were as follows:

• Move from two man to four man trenches, placing an NCO in every trench.
• Introduction of split hairpin system for reveting and shelter bay construction. Shown below.
• Introduction of Chatem arch for overhead protection of firing bay for Milan. Seen in the  second picture in.
• Greater emphasis on overhead protection on the firing bay for 4 man trenches.

Whilst my force is late 80s so should ideally use 4 man trenches I have chosen to stick with a two man representation as this is roughly a platoon for our rules of choice, Rapid Fire, which uses a 1:15 figure scale.

 The British have a relatively low number of figures in Armoured and Mechanised tracked battle groups which generally only deployed  2 Company Groups each of 8 Infantry and a number of support weapons. This makes creating a set of permanently dug in infantry less painful than for other rule systems and periods.  For my companies I decided to create the following:

• 3 "Platoon" 2 man trenches
• 1 Coy HQ trench
• 1 FOO OP trench
• 2 Milan trench
• 1 SF trench

In doing this I wanted to create a range of different trench types. Representing the options available to the British at the time, these would include specific types for the support weapons as well as a variety of types for the infantry.

The basic construction method uses the following raw materials:

• Closed cell foam .5mm sold in multi packs at hobby outlets for children.
• Pre cut MDF bases from East Riding Miniatures, 60mm x 30mm for Infantry and 60mm x 40mm for support weapons.
• Evo stick impact adhesive, sticks the foam without melting it.
• Quick set ready mix poly filler.
• A pile of figures, in this case Elhiems Cold War British which are superb.
• Corregated Plasticard.
• Basing material, flock, tufts, stones etc. 

Infantry Trench

The basic two man trench has a base foam segment with a 25mm x 7 mm hole cut for the trench, and a top layer with a 30mm x 15 mm hole cut init which provides a representation of the parapet.

 To represent the options of splitting the shelter bay either side of the or having it to the left or right of the fire bay the hole is either made centrally or to the left or right.  For the two man trench with Overhead protection on the fire bay the dimensions are 35mm x 7 mm for the base and the top layer is 25mm x 11mm over the fire bay and 7mm x 5 mm at either end to represent the exit bays and or fire positions for AT weapons. The Bunker roof is constructed on pillars built up from foam, and is based on correlated plastic sheet.

Once the basic construction is completed, the whole trench is covered in quick dry poly filler over a couple of sessions allowing each to dry before proceeding. The polyfiller usually needs a little smoothing with a sand stick between layers and before the white glue and sand are added.

The trench covered in sand and white glue, taking care to avoid getting sand in the base of the trench as this makes attaching the figures difficult and spoils the illusion of depth.  

Support weapons Trench

The support weapons trench I have generally made 40mm long with the base layer hole being 40mm x 7mm off set to the rear of the center line. The top layer is 40mm x 15mm but with an additional 15mm x 10mm recess cut centrally to the front to allow the weapon to be mounted.

For Milan trenches which requiered a clear back blast area a wedge shape hole is made in the rear wall of the top layer opposite the weapon mount recess. For SF trenches and OPs this is not made and the rear walls of these trenches can also be built up as can  the front wall of all trenches using Polly filler or a mix of poly filler and foam.

For the Chatem arch a 60mm x 25 mm strip of correlated Plasticard was cut this was bent into an arch, covered in a strip of foam that was segmented to accommodate the curve. Wedging the arch between two fixed points before covering with poly filler that is then left to dry allows a solid arch to be constructed that maintains its shape.

Stowage

As a general rule all equipment on a defensive position should be stowed in the trench, under cover, so would generally not be visible. This excluded items that would be needed that might be kept on the parapet of the trench. Equipment would also come out when the soldiers administered themselves feeding weapon cleaning, putting sleeping bags away etc. The following items can all be used to "Stow" the trench.

• Backpacks
• Water bottles, thermos flasks, ration items, ration boxes
• Ready ammunition, additional 66mm launchers, ammo boxes, magazines.
• Water Jerry cans,
• Digging equipment, picks, shovels, 6 foot pickets, spare corrugated tin, pallets, dinner coils, barbed wire packs.
• Note books, range cards, maps
• Arc markers
• Radios, radio batteries, antenae on ground spikes
• Observation Equipmemt, Binos, weapon sights
• C2 Sight poles on SF trenches

On these two I have added a Bergen, radio, field telephone, file for range card/orders, arc markers, ration box, sleeping bag.  So lots of scope, the game is not to go mad as most units in the British Army would be quite well disciplined but for various reasons, time surprise, progress of work, there would always be some stuff lying around.

Figures

In order to get the figures to fit I have generally just removed the legs below the webbing leaving the detail of the majority of the figure untouched. Getting support weopns to fit May requiered some adjustment and trimming to both the weapons and the figures and in some cases additional detail will need to be built up with green stuff following the triming.

Painting

I have generally painted figures and trenches separately and conducted final assembly before adding basing products. The base of the trench inside and out and the parapet and hard angles are painted in a black brown mix to give the illusion of depth a mid and light brown layer were then painted on the outside with the lighter tone to the top, the whole was dry brushed with a sand colour and a light buff colour was used around the lip of the trench, the whole was then washed using a brown shade and touched up as required.

Basing

A variety of basing products were used to acheive the effects, this included:

• small amounts of static grass
• Tufts of a variety of lengths and colours, cam and turf soon became brown, whilst fresher elements remained green.
• Some flowers
• Some rocks

Completed Trenches

All the figures used here are from Elhiem's Cold War British Range which are a superb range of figures that provide most of what you need for a Cold War British Army.  Stowage items are variously from Black Dog or Goffy.

Two man fire trench

Milan Trench

This will be the last post of 2013 thanks for reading the blog and have a happy new year.

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