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, 4 March 2014

ORBAT - 1980's British Air Defence




The British Army in the 80s had three principal means of engaging hostile air targets:
  • All Arms Air Defence
  • Blowpipe/Javalin Low Level Air Defence Batteries
  • Rapier Low Level Air Defence Batteries 
of these the first was largely an ad hoc response by units under attack although they would be subject to Air Defence weapons control states and the other two were units of the Royal Artillery and deployed as part of the wider Air Defence Plan.  Weapons used include, Machine Guns, Turret mounted canons, Blowpipe, Javelin and Rapier.


Rapier
Rapier was deployed as an area air defence system in tracked and towed varients it had a range of upto 6800m with a ceiling of 3000m and could be fired by day and night and in poor visibility.  The tracked variant was purchased following the cancellation in 1978 of an order for Iran and entered service with the British Army in the early 80s.


The primary advantage provided by the tracked varients was its rapid time into action 30 seconds against 15 minutes.  In addition the launcher deployed 8 missiles rather than the 4 carried on the towed system. Key updates to the system included:

Blowpipe/Javalin
Blowpipe and Javelin were  low level point defence system deployed by both the regular Army and TA during the Cold War. After a lack luster performance in the Falklands conflict the MACLOS Blowpipe was replaced by the SACLOS Javelin amoungst the regular units in the early 80s and in the TA units by 1987. Javalin was replaced by the laser homing Javelin S 15 in 1993 which was inturn replaced by Starstreak in 1997. Javalin had a range of 4,500 m and a ceiling of 5500m.




All Arms Air Defence

All arms air defence was the third option available and largely involved firing bullets into the path of aircraft from shoulder controled and turret mounted machine guns and Cannon's. The canon fire included the 30mm Rardon weapons in Warrior and Scimeter that were provided with an air defence graticule. MGs included the GPMG mounted on Louch poles issued at a level of 1 per Platoon.



The firing of the GPMG in the air defence role from effectively the hip was also taught, hitting targets was always interesting.


Air Defence Units

A range of Air Defence units were deployed by the Royal Artillery to support the British Army of the Rhine and in Particular 1st British Corps.


Rapier equipped Units
  • 12 and 22 Air Defence Regiment RA were the two Germany based Rapier Regiments. The regiments were equipped with 24 Towed Rapier and 24 Tracked Rapier in 4 Batteries. 
    • Each Tracked Battery included 12 launchers 12 M548 and 2 Saxons.  I have assumed its organisation to be 3 troops of 4 launchers and 4 M548 with battery HQ in Saxons, 1 Blind Fire per Troop. 
    • Each Towed Battery included 12 Launchers and 6 Blind fire Radars according to SOHB. towed by  1 Ton and 3/4 ton Land Rovers.  I have assumed its organisation to be in three troops of 4 launchers with 1 Blind fire per troop.
    • Most likely deployment of blind fire to my mind is 1 per troop across the 6 troops.

  • 16 AD Regt RA was a UK based Air defence Regiment.  The regiment deployed 48 x Towed Rapier (SOHB states 40) in 4 Batteries.  I have assumed that these are manned and equipped in line with the towed batteries in 12 and 22 Air Defence Regiments.

Javelin equipped units
  • Regular Army Medium Artillery Regiment Javalin Batteries.  Each of the M109 field regiments included a Javelin Air Defence Battery. This had 36 launchers, I have assumed that these were organised in 3 troops each of 12 Launchers.  They were carried in CVR(T) whilst the Battery HQ used Saxons.  SOHB details 14 AFVs per Battery, which I would assume to be 12 CVR(T) and 2 Saxon. The units and Batteries were as follows:
    • 40 Fd - 10 Assaye AD Battery, 1st Armd Div
    • 2 Fd - 46 Talevera AD Battery, 3rd Armd Div
    • 47 Fd - 43 Lloyds Company  AD Battery, 4th Armd Div
    • 43 Gibralter Battery 24 Air Mobile Bde

  • TA Air Defence Regiments.  Each of the TA Air defence Regiments equipped with Blowpipe or Javalin deployed 16 Launchers in a Battery.  I have assumed these batteries included 2 Troops each of two detachments of 4 Launchers.  Transport was land rover 3/4 ton vehicles with Trailers.  The units and their roles were as follows:
    • 102 Ulster AD Regt RA (V) 2 Bateries only. BAOR Reinforcement role.
    • 103 (Lancashire volunteer Artillery) AD Regt RA (V), 4 Bty, 2nd Infantry Division
    • 104 light AD Regt RA (V) 4 Batteries,  BAOR Reinforcement role.
    • 105 Sottish AD Regt RA (V) 4 Batteries BAOR Reinforcement role.
In addition The RAF regiment provided air defence of the Harrier sites and main airfields
Deployment options

Area Air Defence, The Rapier systems were area Air defence systems and as such did not come under control of units but provided a matrix of air defence assets that could cover a Brigade or Divison.  Rapier units would rarely be under operational control of units.

Point Air Defence.  Blowpipe and Javelin were for point defence of targets so would be allocated to the defence of a target. these could be units, or features such as Bridges Roads or supply dumps.  Javelin units would often see themselves placed under operational control of units.  This task organisation would be dependent on the unit mission.



Allocation of Assets

FEBA

Each of the Armoured Divisions received,:
  • 1 Battery of 36 Javelin 
  • 2 Battery of 12 Rapier 1 Tracked and 1 Towed.  
if this force deployed evenly then effectively each brigade would have:
  •  1 Javelin Troop of 12 Launchers 3 Detachments of 4 Launchers 
  • 2 Troops of Rapier one tracked and one towed (assumed). Each of 4 launchers
Whilst not necessarily allocated to units, it would seem reasonable to allocate a javelin detachment  and upto a maximum of 2  Rapier troops that might be considered to be capable of engaging targets overflying the battle groups air space depending on the detailed disposition of the Brigade and where the represented units sat in relation to the air defence assets. 


The Corps Rear Area

The Corps Rear Area was under 2 Divs control and would have the following units allocated to its air defence:
  • 103 Air Defence Regiment 64 Javelin/Blowpipe
  • 16 Air Defence Regiments 3 Towed Batteries, the other was not committed to BAOR. Batteries acceding to SOHB were each of 10 Rapier and 10 Blind fire Radar.
  • 1 Towed and 1 Tracked Battery from 12 or 22 Regiment is suggested in the sources however  I suspect that the tracked units would have remained forward and that potentially the reserve division with the more mobile role might have been supported by two tracked Batteries whilst the Corps Rear Area took two towed batteries.


The remainder of the TA Batteries would be allocated as required so would reinforce over the top of the air defence pattern depending on what needed protecting.  This would provide an additional 40 reinforcing detachments of 4 launchers from the 10 Batteries within the 3 Regiments allocated to this role.  An even distribution would put roughly three additional detachments in each Brigade area to look at the protection of:
  • gun lines reserves, 
  • supply depots 
  • routes 
  • bridges 
  • HQs 
So units deployed on specific tasks such as  reserve demolitions or as reserves might expect extra assistance.



UKLF, AMFL and the Commando brigade probably had their own assets though other than 20 Battery that supported the commandos I have yet to track this down.



So what am I doing from a gaming perspective? I will deploy the following assets in order to cover upto two battle groups from a Bde operating across a number of different scenarios.
  • 2 Tracked Rapier Troops each @ 1 Tracked Rapier and 1 M548
  • 1 Towed Rapier Troop @ 1 Rapier + 1 Ton LR, 1 Blindfire + 3/4 t LR
  • 2 Regular Javelin AD Detachments each @ 1 CVR(T), 1 Javelin Team
  • 2 TA Javelin AD Detachments each @ 1 3/4 T LR + Trailer, 1 Javelin/Blowpipe team
  • 1 AD Battery HQ @ 1 Saxon
This will provide sufficient to cover a forward deployed or reserve Brigade in either of the forward divisions or to play out a game in the rear area covered by 2 Division.

There are a number of confusion factors when analysing the references but I suspect these are related to organisational change over time in a number of different organisational structures. As ever with un verified and conflicting data we can only make assumptions until better evidence surfaces.

References:

Internet
Books and Publications:
Other Posts of interest:


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Saturday, 1 March 2014

Cold Wargammer Hobby News - Winter 2014



When I started writing this I thought the Winter releases had been a bit sad but as I near the end its starting to look like a steady list and as ever I am not even looking at the Air and Aviation end of things. I do occasionally get a little wound up as yet another Panther is produced whilst hundreds of excellent and quite ubiquitous modern vehicles go un made in 1/72. It is of course a free market and companies not being charities tend to focus on what sells, so if we want to see more modern wagons I suppose we have to buy more.  On with the news:

S&S


S&S's prolific rate of production continues, sadly they got distracted by WW2 so only a couple of this winters output are of interest. The first is an M992 ammunition carrier nice one to team with your US M109 Batteries:



The second is a rework of the Engineer support book beautifully painted here by Iain R from the Guild and the Watching Paint Dry Blog




ACE


ACE have sadly announced that the 2S1 Godvika is now discontinued and whilst the new BMP2 and BMP 1 remain in production they are difficult to find. In their recently published catalogue they have identified 1 new modern release the BTR ZD.



Models Collect


Models Collect popped up on my radar over the Winter, they are based in China and working on a range of Soviet and Rusian vehicles primarily based on the T-72. Releases to date include a T-90 a Tos-1 Buratino, T-72B and T-72A and a range of Soviet decals one sheet of which is shown below.



Available for pre order but yet to be released is a T-72B with reactive armour and a T-72B1 with reactive armour.



T-72B1


I have ordered and received the TOS 1 which looks good though I have yet to build it and have ordered but not received a T-72B, in the hope that its an easier route to a late period tank fleet than ACE.

Black Dog


Black Dog have released a Centurion Mk 3, useful for early Brits and Canadians or mid - late Dutch and Danes.  I picked this up from Armourama it does not seem to be up on the Black dog Web site yet.



Zvezda


Zvezda win the prize for the most prolific releases of Modern 20mm or 1/72 kit over the Winter season being particularly prolific in the release of figures, all part of their Hot War Battle for Oil game, but useful none the less. I usually shy away from plastics but these cover a bunch of topics that have limited coverage in the metal world, notably the MANPADs and light ATGWs. The immages of the figures look good with the potential to generate a number of stands out of a single box






The Soviet packs cover the same functions, Infantry, SAM, HMG and ATGW





Of which the two hottest sets are the Dragon and the Metis as these are only produced by Liberation and under fire miniatures to my knowledge and liberation can be fun to get hold of and the under fire version is included in a pack with a mortar so a little difficult to consume.



Whilst not terribly useful from a gaming perspective the megalomaniac in me tells me to buy one the tool looks like a fairly amazing model in 20mm.  I find it easy to convince myself I should have one just in case NATO goes nuclear early :)

Cromwell Models ordering service

Cromwell Models have always been a little hit an miss on the ordering front but I have recently discovered a service offered by Charles Mclaren who lives close to Cromwell.  If you drop Charles a line @ charlesmclaren1@hotmail.co.uk he is pretty quick to respond, nips around to cromwell places the order lets you know if there are any issues and drops them in the post as soon as they are ready.  Brilliant service, I have so far put two orders through Charles and have not been disappointed and its giving me reliable access to some great models.



QRF

QRF re released this decal set back in December or January, great for numbering Soviet wagons and the range of number sizes accommodate the sides of BMPs amongst other wagons.  I for one have missed this set for a while.  Whilst QRF's products are designed for use with 15mm kits they work find with 20mm.



Mig

Mig's decal set for Modern Soviets and Russians looks interesting.  As well as numbers it contains some of the Regimental identification markings as does the model collect decal sets but in both these are in far two small a quantity to cover of the 50 - 60 vehicles I end up with in a Soviet Regiment.  I have been thinking about commissioning a Decal set for some time - think I will just have to bite the bullet.


as well as the decals Mig have dropped out a number of useful modern paint sets the two shown here cover modern Russian armour but are probably good for the end of the Cold War from 1987 onwards and Israleis.




DTIC on Line

 I found VG Reznichenko's Tactics a Soviet view as a download from the DTIC on line page.  Very useful work on Soviet Tactics.  Personally I find it a bit of a dull read but its got plenty of useful stuff in it and its free.  Which beats having to buy the book as that costs money consumes time as it is quiet difficult to find.

Tactics A Soviet View PDF

CWG on Facebook



You can still follow Cold War Gamer on Facebook, insane ramblings along with products and links to stuff of interest to the Modern Wargaming community covering a range of scales including 15mm, 28mm and 1/285 as well as material for later modern games in the Dragon Rising Bear Resurgent arena. 98 followers currently and keen to make it 200! If you have friends who are into Modern, either Cold War or later spread the word.

The Spring Magazine


Winter is a little inevitably my favourite part of the year. The long nights are great for blogging and painting and Christmas brings both time off and lots of goodies. As ever the Winter period also sees me embark on the set of projects that will be the core component of the summer campaign season and the Spring build. This years no different with expansion of both the British and Soviet armies focused on a set of scenarios that will be looking at a Soviet assault against British defensive positions.

As ever I get a bit carried away with the scope of these projects and I have in my mind two to four games that could become one big game that looks at the attack throughout the depth of the operational space from the Soviet approach march through to the deployment and disruption of the British reserve battle group. This would include action by the covering force against the Soviet advanced guard, NATO BAI against the main body and Soviet airmobile elements acting against NATO reserves as well as the traditional bloody punch up on the objective.

The components being built out are a bit of a challenge
  • British
    • Air Defence - Javelin Detachments, Rapier Battery
    • Dug in Infantry - 2 Companies + Field Defences
    • Armour Squadrons - Challenger 1
    • Armoured Battle Group - This may not get done
  • Soviet
    • Ground Attack Aircraft with PGMs
    • Break through artillery units - 2S4, BM30
    • Army Flame thrower battalions - TOS-1, RPO-A
    • Divisional Air Defence - SA-8
    • BTR Regiment - this may not get done
could be a two year project? of which the British stuff is progressing well and the Soviet less well. So coming up over the next three months will be a variety of articles covering the scope of the scenarios and the units that will be needed to play them out.  Clearly a start to that has been made during the winter, upon which I shall now build.

AND FINALLY


A word of thanks to all the readers as we creep up to the 200,000 hits mark, thanks for reading and if you have friends interested in modern wargaming please recommend the Blog sites and the Facebook page. Hopefully spring will be a little less wet.










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Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Review - Books, Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903 - 2003, Warpaint Volumes 1- 4





The Warpaint volumes are some of the most comprehensive guides to the appearance of British armoured vehicles in the 20th Centuary.  Whilst they cover the whole of the period covered I have focused my comments on their utility for the Cold War period and included links to other reviews if you want to understand how they do the rest. For those interested in the Cold War it provides within its 4 slim volumes, a wall to wall guide of how vehicles were painted and marked.  This includes such gems as the 1980's Call Sign cards which are included for:
  • Battle Group HQ, 
  • Armoured Squadrons 
  • Armoured Infantry Companies
  • BG Support 1 Recce, Millan and Morters 
  • BG Support 2, FOOs Aviation and Air Defence
  • Armoured Recce
  • Engineers
This volume also covers the post war geometric signs and colours.  This is really useful if you want to ensure you have the right call signs on the right wagons depending on how you represent your force i.e.: the number of vehicles represented by 1 model.

The various volumes in the series cover the following subjects:

  • Volume One
    • Chapter 1  - Colours and Sources
    • Chapter 2 – Paint and Camouflage up to 1939
    • Chapter 3 - Registrations, War Department numbers and Census marks
  • Volume Two
    • Chapter 1 – Paint and Camouflage in WW2
    • Chapter 2 - Sub Unit markings and call sign systems
  • Volume Three
    • Chapter  1 – Paint and Camouflage post WW2
    • Chapter 2 – Arm of Service markings
    • Formation Signs
  • Volume Four
    • Ground and Air Recognition Systems
    • Vehicle name
    • Miscellaneous marking Systems
All the volumes are well illustrated with a range of colour photos, plates, and tables illustrating the various subjects.  The sections in volume three and four on air recognition and ground recognition markings largely focus on those used on operational deployments across the gamut of post war conflicts.  Whilst these were not necessarily used under peace time soldiering conditions on the central front it gives you a clue as to how the army might behave once it knows its going to war, when sometimes morale beats security. 


All other miscellaneous markings are included from national flags to load classification and an explanation of the vehicle registration system.  I particularly liked the section on fire extinguisher colours.  Whilst I am fairly sure you could find better coverage on aspects of these books I know of no other set of books that covers this range of information.  Dick Taylor served as an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment so his knowledge on the back end of the period is extensive and derived from personal experience and the extensive nature of the research required to put the volumes together can be garnered from the comprehensive bibliography supplied.


If you Wargame British in multiple 20th Centuary periods these are a bit of a must have, if you cover only the Cold War it is a bit of a split decision, the organisation of the information means it is difficult to drop a volume and with each volume costing around £10 new that was a bit of a price these days with the early volumes increasingly difficult to source the price for some of these is getting a little silly in the £40-£60 bracket, the answer as always is to shop around.

Other Reviews of these Books:


The Books @ Amazon

Warpaint - Volume 1: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
Warpaint - Volume 2: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
Warpaint - Volume 3: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003
Warpaint - Volume 4: Colours and Markings of British Army Vehicles 1903-2003

Other Book Reviews:

Other Book Reviews:









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