Unit Structure

We portray an under strength campaign company. On paper a company consisted of about 100 soldiers. However, Red Army units were never up to strength, and at the front could suffer up to 80% or 90% loss in casualties through sickness, frostbite and enemy action.

 

Roles within the Unit

Officer: The company is commanded by our Lieutenant ably assisted by one of the riflemen who acts as an NCO.

 

Polutruk: Each company in the Red Army had a junior political officer appointed by the Communist Party, up until 1942 the ‘Polutruk’ wielded a great deal of power and could give orders to the company over the head of the officer commanding. From mid-1942 they lost this power and from then on fulfilled a role similar to the Chaplain in Western armies (raising morale, passing on news from home and giving lectures on the justness of the struggle).

 

Medic:  Rushing forward under enemy fire and dragging back wounded soldiers, the bravery of the medics (who were often young girls in their late teens or twenties) was much admired by the ’frontoviks’, whose lives often depended on them.

 

Sniper: Wearing a camouflage suit and armed with a Mosin Nagant and telescopic sight, the sniper was usually the best shot in the company.

 

Scout:  Also wearing camouflage, the scout supplied the officer with military intelligence on the enemy forces facing the company. Sometimes the scout would penetrate behind enemy lines and could be helped by partisans (guerrilla fighters).

 

Rifleman: Forming the backbone of the company, the rifle squad, 6 to 8 strong it is led by a junior sergeant assisted by a corporal. Armed with Mosin Nagant rifles, each squad also had a light machine gun team supplying most of the squad’s fire power.

 

Heavy Weapons Squad: The heavy weapons squad, also led by a junior sergeant, provides fire support to the rifle squad, crewing the maxim heavy machine gun and the 82mm mortar.

Issued with a camouflage suit, scouts would move out behind the enemy lines. Their mission was to avoid fighting the enemy, rather to gather as much information as possible.

Often they would carry German weapons and wear German boots (the sound of German guns and German tread marks being less suspicious behind enemy lines).

Sometimes they would capture a ‘tongue’, an enemy soldier who would be taken back for interrogation.

German sentries would be silently gagged, bound hand and foot with a rope, they would be dragged back along the ground to Soviet lines. So expert did Red Army scouts become,  that often the prisoners comrades would hear nothing even though being only a few feet away.

Below: Shoulder boards (‘Pogoni’ ) were introduced in 1943. They were used to denote rank and replaced the collar tabs and insignia (‘Pitlesi’) that were previously used.

Different branches of the Red Army had different colours.  Green & Rasberry were the colours of the infantry.

 

From the Top :

Private

Corporal

Jnr. Sergeant

Sergeant

Starzina (Sgt. Major).

Jnr. Lieutenant

Lieutenant

Snr. Lieutenant

Captain