My VDV/DShV battalion is finished

Well, more or less finished. I still need to do an airborne light antiaircraft company, but that will be along soon. 

As Andy mentioned in the comments section of my last VDV post (July 5, 2015), this battalion seems more DShV (air assault) than it does VDV (airborne/paratroops). The reason being that I have simply been lumping the two together. The two types used much the same uniform and they fulfilled a similar, though not identical, role. Much like the very general similarity between the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Air Assault. VDV troops were generally, but not always, more lightly equipped than the DShV. 

In any case, this battalion will do for DShV or for more heavily equipped VDV. At some point in the future, maybe I'll do a more traditional light battalion for my VDV and keep this one for just DShV. 

So, here it is:

Two companies of BTR-Ds:

and one of BMD-1s:

Also three company command stands, each with an SA-14 Gremlin:

and a battalion commander:

Also the direct fire support platoon, armed with AGS-17 Plamyas:

As I've said before, in a shooting war, the VDV/DShV would all, without exception, look like this:

But where's the fun in that? Who can resist having them look like this instead?

I can't, so mine all get the blue beret!

The next Cold War project on my list is an SA-4 Ganef battery, so stand by for that. 

Progress on a Soviet VDV battalion

Both Mrs. History PhD: 

and I:

have been feeling a bit under the weather this holiday weekend, so painting has been at a bare minimum. However, I have managed to complete a second company for my VDV battalion, this one being equipped with BDM-1s:

As I said in my last post on this subject (June 21, 2015), battalions with mixed vehicle types would almost never have happened in reality, so shame on me, but I don't need masses of VDV troops and I do want to use both BMD-1s, and BTR-Ds:

which means that in MY Soviet Army, this battalion will have two companies of BTR-Ds and one of BMD-1s. 

Here's my second company:

There's the extra SA-14 Gremlin launcher kept at company level. 

Stand by for the third and final company (BTR-Ds again). After that, it will be time to do up a few support units and then the battalion will be finished. Finally, something/anything that actually gets finished!!!

Let's start a Soviet airborne battalion

This weekend, I've decided to begin a Soviet VDV (airborne and air-assault) battalion which will, in time, support my East Germans in their drive across the North German Plain and up the Jutland Peninsula. 

In 1981, VDV battalions would have had either the BTR-D:

or the BMD-1:

as their APC/IFV. However, as the BTR-D was significantly cheaper and faster to build, it would have been the more common of the two types. Battalions were always equipped with one vehicle or the other, but never with both.

Being a wargamer, I want to have my cake and eat it too. I'd like both vehicles, but I can't see ever needing two VDV battalions, so I'll tweak reality slightly and do a mixed battalion: two companies of BTR-D and one of BMD-1. Ok, so sue me, but it's MY Soviet Army, not the REAL Soviet Army. If, in future, I find the need for another battalion, I'll just separate this one by vehicle types and then flesh both of them out. 

Here's the company that I finished this weekend:

VDV battalions were often accompanied by a separate light antiaircraft platoon equipped with MANPADS (in 1981, the SA-14 Gremlin), 

but it was quite common to see each company with an additional SAM of its own, which was attached to company command:

The command vehicle would've been a BMD-1K (photos of which seem to be non-existent), which sported two long "clothes rail"-type antennas, but O8 doesn't make them, so I just went with a BTR-D. 

Mrs history PhD has chosen (and I've ordered) her next FOW Vietnam project, so stay tuned for that. More next weekend!

Soviet airborne assault guns!!

In addition to my ever-expanding masses of East Germans, I'm trying to get small units of supporting Poles and Soviets done and toward that end, I'm planning a VDV battalion (Soviet airborne and air-assault troops). 

Prior to the end of the 1960s, Soviet airborne units had been mounted in trucks; generally the air-droppable version of the GAZ-66. In order to give these troops some fire support, self-propelled assault gun units were added to the VDV TO&E. By the mid-1950s, the ASU-57:

was recognized as having too little punch. The days of the 57mm gun being effective were already long over. So a new, up-gunned vehicle entered service in 1959, the ASU-85:

its 85mm main armament having been derived from the D-48 antitank gun:

Like its predecessor, the ASU-85 could be palletized and airdropped:

or it could be loaded into the Mi-6 Hook heavy lift helicopter. The ASU-85 filled the role of light infantry support gun and was also capable of a limited antitank role. 

Beginning in 1969, the BMD-1:

began entering service, filling the triple roles of IFV, infantry support artillery, and antitank vehicle. However, it proved to be complicated and slow to build, as well as quite expensive, so in 1974 a simpler and cheaper APC was introduced, the BTR-D:

The BTR-D had no offensive weapon, so the planned retirement of all ASU-85's was scaled back, its firepower still being required for those units equipped with the new APC. 

Those ASU-85's that were retired found a new lease on life as city buses:

and several were entered into local demolition derbies, where they performed quite admirably:

The Poles and East Germans also operated the ASU-85 from the mid-60s through the mid-70s, but all of theirs had been retired by 1976.

And here is my ASU-85 assault gun company which will operate in support of my VDV battalion:

I just can't resist those blue berets. Even though the smallest maneuver element in Soviet doctrine was the battalion, on rare occasions, a company could operate independently. 

That's it for this weekend. More next time. 

Looking ahead (quite) a bit.

For the last few days, I've put a bit of thought into the forces I'll need for my 1981 LANDJUT campaign. Before I began this whole thing, I decided that I'd make it primarily West Germans and Danes opposing numerically superior East Germans. But thinking a bit on what forces would be available in the LANDJUT area of operations during a real WWIII, I find myself expanding who'll be fighting whom. 

Firstly, I know I've quite often used the term LANDJUT, but I've never really explained it. In West Germany, NATO was broken down into three area commands. They were NORTHAG, CENTAG, and BALTAP. These stood for "Northern Army Group", "Central Army Group", and "Baltic Approaches". There were higher levels than these (AFNORTH and AFCENT for example, and above that, SHAPE), but they really needn't concern us here. Each of the three area commands in West Germany was roughly equivalent to an Army. Each was sub-divided into areas of responsibility (i.e. Air, Sea, and Land), one of BALTAP's subdivisions being "Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland" or more simply LANDJUT, which was tasked with defending the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark and the West German state of Schleswig-Holstein:

And in particular, the defense of the Kiel Canal/River Eider, as well as the northern and eastern approaches to the city of Hamburg. 

The bulk of the NATO forces in this area would have been the West German 6th Panzergrenadier Division and a variety of local Heimatschütz (Home Defense) units, as well as the Danish Jutland Division. In addition, units of the US Marines' 2nd MEU (including the Marine 4th Division), the US 9th Infantry Division (later changed to the 5th), one brigade of the US 2nd Armored Division, and NATO's ACE Mobile Force (which was more likely to be sent to Norway) were all earmarked to reinforce the area and it is also quite conceivable that units of the Netherlands I Corps fighting just to the south of Hamburg could've been cut off by the rapid WarPac advance and forced to fall back northward and thereafter used as additional reinforcements. 

As for the WarPac, I originally envisioned an all East German force, but again, reality wouldn't have been so cut and dried. Soviet ground troops (likely from the 2nd Guards Tank Army) would have made an important contribution, but in LANDJUT, Soviet VDV (airborne and air assault troops) as well as marines (naval infantry) would have played quite a prominent role. Additionally, Polish ground troops and the 7th Lusatian Landing Division (basically, marines) could also have supported the East Germans. 

So, with all this in mind, I decided to make up a command stand for the Soviet VDV as well as the Polish 7th, just to see what they'll look like. The VDV often wore a bright mid-blue beret:

Needless to say, in combat they would've worn a standard helmet with a camouflage cover, however, that bright blue (Vallejo Andrea Blue 841) is a great way to pick out my VDV troops on the tabletop:

It is a bit annoying that they look like UN troops, but oh well. That's a BMD-1 with them:

For regular Soviet ground troops, I'll go with a dark green helmet.

As for the Polish 7th Lusatian Landing Division, they wore a helmet that more or less matched their uniform:

But the kneeling soldier in the top photo has a helmet that's a bit darker than his uniform, so I'll go with that:

Their stand has a TOPAS 2AP:

 

I'll cover more on how I paint Soviet and Polish uniforms when the time arrives that I'm painting a lot more of them. That finishes off this rather wordy post. More on the weekend!