The Battlefront Bookshelf: Soviet Infantry Tactics Introduction

SOVIET INFANTRY TACTICS
IN WORLD WAR II

Introduction

Tsaritsa Poley - the "Queen of the Fields", is the traditional name of the Russian infantry. The similarity to the United States Army's characterization of the infantry as the "Queen of Battle" is obvious, but like the US infantry, the effectiveness of the infantry forces of the Red Army has been seriously underestimated by most students of the Second World War. Victory in the East, according to the usual view, went to overwhelming numbers of tanks, guns, and rockets followed by waves of ill-trained but limitless "cannon fodder" which served mainly, it would appear, to use up all the German ammunition.

The problem with stereotypes is not that they are false, but that they are not entirely false. There were mass attacks by poorly trained Red Army infantry. There were attacks repeated over and over until casualties reached ghastly proportions among the attacking troops. There were poorly supported and coordinated infantry actions. On the other hand, were this the complete picture of the Red Army infantry forces, all the tanks, artillery, aircraft and frost in the world would not have sufficed to drive the Germans out of Russia.

The infantry comprised the bulk of the Red Army from beginning to end of the war. Even after 1943, when the supporting tank and artillery forces reached truly massive dimensions, there were never less than 450 rifle divisions on the German front. And for all the sacrifices of the Red tankers, partisans, airmen (and women) and others, the infantry suffered 85% of the 29,000,000 total casualties suffered by Soviet military forces in the war. They also, day after day over the years from 1941 to 1945, ground the German front line forces down until, in the end, it was a regular Soviet rifle unit, the 150th Rifle Division, that stormed the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945.

The Germans from the first appreciated certain things about the Soviet infantry. They admitted that their opponents were better than they at fighting at night, in forests and swamps, at camouflage and quick digging in. However, they insisted that this was due not to any special training or preparation, but to the "natural cunning...of the Slav". Since the opening of much of the formerly classified Soviet General Staff material, this is no longer a tenable premise.

The Red Army consciously studied both its own methods and those of its opponents, and from the 1930sfighting against the Japanese through the Winter War with Finland and throughout the Great Patriotic War against Germany, was constantly collecting data, analyzing and modifying its tactics and techniques at all levels.

At the tactical level for the Soviet infantry, the first great distillation of lessons forms the basis for this booklet. The "Combat Instructions for the Infantry of the Red Army" was published in November 1942, covering the tactics of the soldier, squad, platoon and company in Part I, and that of the battalion and regiment in Part II. The bulk of this work is based on Part I.

This is not a complete translation of Part I. The focus here is on the combat tactics of the basic infantry unit: the rifleman, rifle squad, platoon, and company, and the most common supporting weapons for those units. Parts of the Instructions that deal with the heavy machinegun and mortar platoons and companies, which were rarely attached to any single rifle company, are omitted, as are elements dealing with the submachine gun company, a separate assault unit, and the company in reconnaissance, which was a separate divisional reconnaissance element. However, in addition to the basic translation of the manual, I have included additional information from other sources on Soviet tactical signals, infantry weapons, and organization.

In the body of the Combat Instructions there are phrases and passages that are not likely to be familiar to someone used to US or western military practice and terminology. Where comments have been added that were not part of the original Soviet manual, they are set off inside a border and prefaced with the word, "Note", as below:

[Note: ]
Aside from the notes the original format of the Manual has been retained. Except for translation and clarifying some numerical data, the illustrations are also from the original Manual.