Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia.militare
Titolo: Siberian Rifle Divisions in 1941

Salve,
scusate per la lunga citazione in lingua inglese. Chi se la sente di
leggersela, troverà informazioni sul contributo, significativo, alla difesa
di Mosca, dato dalle divisioni siberiane. L'articolo viene da Command Post
n. 6.
Saluti,
Michele
                  THE SIBERIAN RIFLE DIVISION
                            IN 1941
                        Frank Chadwick
    Having recently completed work on our summer release
boardgame Stand and Die, Siberians are much on my
mind of late, especially the 32nd Rifle Division. This was
one of the first Siberian divisions to come west, and it
arrived just in time to single-handedly (or very nearly so)
stop the 40th Panzer Corps at Borodino on the Moscow-
Smolensk highway in mid-October.
    That was a fascinating battle, which is why I've run parts
of it as Command Decision games countless times and
finally done a boardgame on it. One reinforced rifle division
takes on SS Das Reich and the 10th Panzer Division, both
at full strength and with a full head of steam, and stops them
dead in their tracks for a week. Das Reich starts with three
regiments of motorized infantry, each with three battalions,
which makes it the biggest motorized division in the
German force structure. Half way through the battle they
disband one of the regiments to bring the other two up to
strength. All told the Germans lose 10,000 men and over
100 tanks.
    What the hell is going on here?
    Part of the answer lies in the many reinforcing units added
to the 32nd Division, but a large part of it has to do with
the division itself., which brings us to the subject of this
article, the Siberian rifle division in 1941.
    This is a subject that could consume page after page of
analysis, but let me try to hit the high points without
boring you too much. The divisions in the Far East enjoyed
a number of unique advantages over their western comrades.
For one thing, the Great Purge left the Far Eastern armies
relatively untouched, which gutting those stationed in the
west. Consequently, the Far Eastern armies were able to pull
off Khalkin Gol, the first true mechanized "blitzkrieg"
campaign (coming before even the Polish campaign), while
a short time later the western armies made a total hash out
of the Russo-Finish War. From this example alone it is
obvious that the competence level remained higher in the
east.
    Second, the eastern divisions retained the early 1941
TO&E long after the western divisions had been forced to
accept a lower level of manpower and equipment. Most of
the western divisions had never reached their authorized
strength levels in any event, and then had been raided to
create high command reserve formations. Divisional recon
battalions were stripped off and given to the newly formed
mechanized corps; howitzer regiments were stripped off to
form corps artillery brigades; antitank and antiaircraft
battalions were folded into reserve units at army and front
level.
    Once the war started, the western divisions were quickly
reduced even further in strength, and many new recruits went
to form new units rather than bringing exiting units up to
strength. The revised October TO&E reflected the dramatic
reduction in Soviet strength at the rifle division level.
    By contrast, the pre-war eastern divisions retained their
original TO&E and, without the eroding effects of combat
casualties, gradually recruited up to strength. When
committed in October, the 32nd Division was at full TO&E
strength, and the Germans were astonished to confront a
Soviet division with more men, and more firepower, than
their own formations.
                 SIBERIAN RIFLE DIVISION, 1941
(nota: la shtat della divisione, che riduco agli elementi base onde evitare
problemi; nell'articolo originale è ben più dettagliata)
Division Headquarters
3 Rifle Regiments, each with
    Headquarters
    Supply Company
    Mortar Battery
    Antitank Company
    Regimental Gun Company
    Antiaircraft Machine gun Company
    Three Infantry Battalions, each with
        Headquarters
        Three rifle companies
    Machine gun company
        Mortar Company
Howitzer Regiment
    Headquarters Company
    Two Medium Battalions, each with
        Headquarters
        Three Batteries, each with
    One Heavy Battalion
        Headquarters
        Three Batteries, each with
Light Artillery Regiment
    Headquarters Company
    Two Battalions, each with:
        Headquarters
        Two Gun Batteries, each with
        Howitzer Battery
AAA Battalion
    Headquarters Battery
    Two Light Batteries
    One Heavy Battery
Recon Battalion
    Headquarters Company
    Motorcycle Company
    Armored Car Company
    Tank Company
    Cavalry Squadron
Engineer Battalion
    Headquarters
    Three Engineer Companies
    Flamethrower Company
65th  Antitank Battalion
    Headquarters
    Three Batteries
                    SIBERIAN RIFLE DIVISIONS
                      1941 Order of Battle
    This order of battle lists the half-month during which the
division in question entered combat in the west. Only  the
strong pre-war Siberian divisions are listed; those divisions
raised after the war started and immediately shipped west are
not included.
Early September:    21st
Late September:     26th
Early October:      32nd, 93rd
Late October:       65th
Early November:     78th, 92nd

 ha scritto nel
messaggio news:bLG8a.356332$AA2.13...@news2.tin.it...


 Grazie
L'inizio della battaglia viene considerato o il 12 o il 13 del mese;
ovviamente le forze tedesche non sono entrate in campo tutte
simultaneamente.
Saluti,
Michele