Urrahs,

Blocking Detachments

& Kibbles and Bits

By Dan Welch, 8th Guards Mechanized Corps

Article copyright Dan Welch, 2002

Part One of a Two Part Series

There is reality, then there is the pragmatism of capturing the flavor of it. What we do is pragmatic. No-one out there can properly do any kind of western style small unit tactic for WW2 re-enacting and make it work, and to anyone who dares say "my unit does" - I will tell them they are full of shit.

What many have repeatedly heard me refer to unlovingly as "the run-dodge-and-jump" (from an old PT excercise we used to do in the early 1980s), a bunch of guys out there firing blanks and trying to do section fire and bounding, simply will not work. Any kind of Graef/victory/anything point system or set of wargaming rules will not make it work. Even semi-professional soldiers have trouble making it work in real life. Professional soldiers only make it work after months and months of training, when they are really forced to do it. So what makes everyone think they can make it work with a bunch of guys that get together less often than National Guardsmen, with no proper training and leaders who get most of their inspiration from watching TV?

Sooooooo ... What we do with RKKA re-enacting is much different and probably works better than any other period of re-enacting for what it is. The re-enacting urrah charge in it's present form was born from John Ryan of the 62nd Guards Army in Illinois. I first experienced it at North Vernon, Indiana in 1993 before I was actively involved with that site. He was the first person I ever saw who tried to incorporate some real living history and imagination into WW2 re-enacting of any type. I was smart enough to realize the virtue and potential of what I saw that day. I even added to it, which is something I don't know if John realized when we did it at Rosemount, NM.

Yes, the RKKA indulged in human wave tactics. Yes, they did it throughout the end of the war. Yes, as the war progressed they did less and less of it, and more and more relied on firepower and steel to do the killing rather than flesh.

No, they never indulged in Western style squad/section maneuver "run-dodge-and-jump" tactics. What they did become proficient at was assault group tactics. RKKA combat took on a very distinctive form by the end of the war. Western armies trained for flexibility, using "battle drills" as the basis for combat whereas the RKKA developed a method of "battle drill" that went from the lowest to the highest echelon, and was used from every situation after Kursk through the end of the war, simply refining and refining with each new battle and lesson learned.

This is the method. Eventually the pursuit runs out of steam and supplies and must regroup. The German line stabilizes and digs in. We stabilize and dig in, and bring up all the stuff that has fallen behind such as fuel, ammo, food, towed artillery, etc. We begin reconnaissance to figure out where all the German stuff is via aerial, deep independant patrols, etc. (Spetznaz forerunner). We decide where the main attacks for the next deep penetrations will be. We set up huge deceptive efforts to throw off the fascist estimate of where that will be and when. We concentrate a huge amount of men and material behind each proposed avenue into the depth of the new enemy front. We strip everything possible from every other portion of the front, leaving a handful of men with a ton of firepower to cover those areas (called fortified zones), just in case the Germans try to make an advance there. We know they will not because they no longer have the capability for large operations.

Behind the planned breakthrough zone we position artillery, including mortars, with the shortest ranged weapons (45mm/82mm) closest behind the front, in ranks by batteries/battalions/regiments/reserve artillery groups, with each subsequent heavier caliber weapons in rows successively toward the rear which is where we find the 203mm, etc. We mass huge amounts of men and armor, in the form of shock armies and combined arms armies, closely behind the front line already in their battle formations for the initial advance. We keep the tank armies in column behind those occupying the areas immediately behind the artillery.

Ahead of the combined arms and shock armies formations, and first to go in, are the assault groups. They are called "advanced detachments" and "forward detachments". They are in two forms. One is strictly for combat in the initial German zone. It is formed from platoons and companies of rifle battalions, which are given mortars, assault engineers with explosives and flame throwers, anti-tank guns of 45mm and 76.2mm and SU assault guns and tanks. They are truly combined arms formations and work together at the lowest level. They are given specific targets to take out in the initial advance. Their mission is no deeper than the German main line of resistance. These groups are the closest thing anyone will see to the concept of "run-dodge-and-jump" in the RKKA. When they are put together, it is with specific targets and limited goals, tailored to breaking through that particular part of the German front. They practice together on mock-ups of the German defenses behind their own front.

The second form of "advanced detachment" or "forward detachment" is strictly a mechanized thing, and is a reinforced combined arms reconnaissance element made up from the elements of tank and mechanized corps for leading the pursuit after the breakthrough.

The battle drill goes like this: We start with a rolling barrage that goes a few kilometers deep into German defenses. We give them a few minutes, up to an hour, and then do it again while they are trying to recover from the first one and put the pieces of their army back together. This is to soften them up. Then we do a "lightning barrage" which differs from the rolling barrage in that it concentrates huge numbers of guns on point targets like headquarters, artillery batteries, etc. Their goal is to destroy high priority targets. In between the rolling barrages and lightning barrage, we send the forward battalions to do their work. They attack specific strong points, infiltrate to deeper high priority targets and conduct "combat (fighting) reconnaissance".

Based off what the forward battalions achieve, the actual assault is quickly tailored to take advantage of the new situation. Artillery targets are quickly updated and the rifle and armored battalions of the shock and combined arms armies are also updated quickly in their missions. The artillery then begins what is called "maneuver by fire", as it now concentrates it's guns on specific targets that have been identified by the forward battalions as still needing servicing. The rifle battalions move closely behind these fires and the fires only stop when the rifle units are just about to enter that target and clear it. The artillery fire is then shifted to the next target back and the unit attacking that target moves forward, secures it, etc. The attack throughout the German main line of resistance follows this patten. The forward detachments move from problem area to problem area cracking nuts, and the bulk of the infantry forces do the same thing they have done since the beginning of the war.

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