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A Soviet general has three motor-rifle regiments attacking; one is under fire and their assault has stopped; one has taken heavy casualties but is advancing and the last one is under a counter-attack, lost its command staff and is retreating; the general has three companies of tanks and three artillery batteries along with air-support.

1. Which regiment gets the fire-support?

2. Which regiment commander will call for it first?

The general will focus his efforts on the sector where he can force a breakthrough first. So about 2/3rds against the enemy weak point. He might use the remaining third to blunt the counter attack.

It doesn't matter who calls for it first, the commander will check the situation with all three regiments before deciding where to place his support.

Though he would have attacked with 2 rifle regiments, found the weak point and driven his tanks and reserves at that point in the first place rather than attacking with all 3.

As much as hate the idea, send half the force into the advancing unit. Meet up with the unit pinned down with half the force. Then send the combined forces to rescue the leaderless squad.
Then finally focus all units on the unit making progress.

Commanders orders are attack, not hold the line.

It's the decision of his superiors if they want to change his priorities to block the enemy advance. Until they do, he needs to force the attack home.

He should certainly report the situation of course.

Then focus all availible forces on the unit making advance. I dislike this you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet strategy. But orders are orders.

Make sure in my report I ask my co to personally give his condolences to the "eggs" families.

The CO has you censured for the editorializing in your report and makes sure your commissar watches you for further deviancy.

Soviet army, not American. Those concerns are not concerns unless the excessive casualty rate endangers the mission. The Soviets expected the conventional phase of any war against an opponent able to resist their ground forces to last only briefly and then for both armies to be destroyed by nuclear weapons. So they didn't expect any of their men to live through the war anyway.

I history major friend of mine told me a single russian peasant stold a german rifle and killed 44 soldiers then holed up in a hotel. He killed so many men the germans withdrew.

Yup, and the soviets willingly sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers and the population of an entire city to slow the German advance while they prepared their own attack.

In the Soviet system, casualties are meaningless if they support the mission.

And many cows were marched through minefields. I know a lil bit about ancient soviet tactics. Sambo and there mounted use of the saber. When I wotked at the pawn shop. A russian saber floated through. One of the most balanced single hand weapons I have ever held. Kickin myself for not spending the 3 grand. Lol.

Peacebringer wrote:A Soviet general has three motor-rifle regiments attacking; one is under fire and their assault has stopped; one has taken heavy casualties but is advancing and the last one is under a counter-attack, lost its command staff and is retreating; the general has three companies of tanks and three artillery batteries along with air-support.

1. Which regiment gets the fire-support?

2. Which regiment commander will call for it first?

1. Who gets it? Well, since we are talking Soviet...the unit advancing will get the fire support

2. Who will ask for it? I would suspect that the one taking the counter attack would ask for it first.

But, because I am interested in this...even if it is off-topic slightly:

I would push the 3 tank companies to the regiment that is advancing, along with making two batteries of artillery dedicated to that regiment.

The regiment under counter-attack would get one battery of artillery and 1 sortie of air strikes to cover their retrograde but ONLY if they can make movement to link up and screen or reinforce one of the other two regiments...if they are in that much disarray, they get nothing.

The stalled regiment I could use to isolate and destroy the unit chasing my routed unit, or use it to screen a flank of my advancing unit or simply tell them to sit tight and draw more enemy forces to them to reduce the pressure on my main effort (advancing unit).

Ah, I do love these wargames... Now I want to know fuel levels, casualties, opposing force composition, depth of penetration, type of air support (fixed, rotary), artillery ammo types, geography, commo systems of my enemy, how many minutes of smoke, is my artillery towed or self-propelled...ah, so many questions, so many variables...

-STS

Here are the answers: according to a Soviet officer defector, a, Viktor Suvorov, who wrote a book in '82 about the Soviet Army.

1. The advancing unit gets the fire support. They get it all. Everything.

2. A Soviet unit commander would never request fire support; it is always up to the top ranking officer in charge of the units to allocate fire support.

The author stated that most Western military officers do not get these questions right.

So if you are a MD and running a Communist attack, if the players stop a unit, they will not have enemy incoming. If they are overrun, you betcha! Also, there will be no enemy radio chatter requesting fire support; only battlefield reports.

Victor Suvorov had a penchant for exaggerating the effectiveness and cruelty of the Soviets in order to win support for anti-communist measures in the West. Not saying he was wrong, but what he said should be read with that in mind.

The vast majority of fire support would definitely back the 'winning' regiment, but a regiment that was crumbling in the face of a counter attack could still get some stiffening to make the counter attack slow down (but not stop) and get the enemy to devote more resources to supporting the counter attack instead of blocking the advancing forces.

After all, no soviet officer wants to be the one to explain to his superior why their are enemy tanks advancing on his superior's HQ.

Depending on when we are talking about, 40s, 50s-80s, 90s-the break up, post break up. Standard Soviet doctrine (50s-80s) they would have only attacked with 2 of the 3 motor rifle regiments, even under the old Fulda Gap doctrine.

That being said the support would be directed to the second regiment first with plans to shift to cover the third regiment after a break out, along with orders to the first regiment to redouble their efforts. Also requests for Division level strategic reserve support.

This sounds like one of the scenarios we use to War Game out.

say652 wrote:I history major friend of mine told me a single russian peasant stold a german rifle and killed 44 soldiers then holed up in a hotel. He killed so many men the germans withdrew.

There are numerous accounts of Russian peasants killing German soldiers and turning sniper with the captured weapons. the Soviet Snipers were some of the best in the world at the time and the static urban battlefields of Stalingrad among many was the perfect hunting grounds.

Jefffar wrote:Yup, and the soviets willingly sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers and the population of an entire city to slow the German advance while they prepared their own attack.

In the Soviet system, casualties are meaningless if they support the mission.

One of the best movies that shows this philosophy is Days of Glory (1944) with Gregory Peck, if you ever get to see it take it.

given the way the soviet military usually worked at that level.. whichever unit it is assigned to cover in the pre-operation battleplan. and getting detailed orders down the chain of command to change that will take time.