I'll try to find pictures of Shoulder Boards later but ranks in the Soviet Army are as follows Private Corporal Junior Seargeant Seargent Senior Seargent Seargent Major Jr. Lieutenant Lieutenant Sr. Lieutenant Captain Major Lt. Colonel Colonel Soviet officers(colonel and below) and conscripts were reffered to by rank and the branch of service they were in. Thus a Infantry Captain would be reffered to as a "Captain of Infantry troops" Major General Lieutenant General Colonel General General of Army Marshal Marshal of the Soviet Union Also it was possible for a captain in the Soviet Army to command a battalion(for a soviet captain to be promoted to the rank of Major he must already be on the battalion staff) or a regiment. The Soviet system for promoting officers is different from the US system. First you must prove you are worthy of promotion by holding a position higher than your rank.
Thanks Reddog! I heard something about the russians using allot of color to signify, infantry, artillery etc... is this true? Thanks again,
Yes it is true the the trim of the shoulderboards were different colors. check out: http://www2.powercom.net/~rokats/wwiisoviet.html
IIRC, the Red Army changed their insignia completely in 1943 (and maybe a first time in 1941?, so twice?) Doesn't make it easier, but I have a nich old color paperback book with the WW II insignias of the major nations, so I can look it up. Cheers,
It most be also noticed that Soviet units were significavely smaller than Western European Armies. German standard infantry divisions had up to 18.000 men when a Russian infantry (or fusilier) division didn't have more than 12.000. Soviet Units = German Units platoon = section company = platoon batallion = company regiment = batallion brigade = regiment division = brigade corps = division army = corps front = army Army group = army group
Thanks Friedrich. If a German lietenant commanded a section of men. How many men would he command? As I remember a Soviet section consisted of 8 men. American divisions were larger than German divisions, but the US uses the term sqaud instead of section. Also US units probably had more support personnel(not counting German pack horses and their handlers) than German units.
Actually, weren't German sections lead by Unteroffiziers, Platoons lead by Feldwebels and companies let by Leutnants?
section = sergeants platoon = sergeants-II lieutenants company = I and II lieutenants batallion = I lieutenants-lieutenant colonels regiment = lieutenant colonels and colonels brigade = colonels and major generals division = major and lieutenant generals corps = generals army = generals-field marshals army group = colonel generals and field marshals. Maybe a German section of men could have had around 8 to 30 men, depending on the task and porpouses of the combat, mostly led by non-comisioned officers. If the task was very important there could be batallion or regimental commanders. And in the case of nuts field marshal Von Reichenau, he would lead it himself.
Uhm, a German paper strength of 18,000 per Infantry Division was only at 1st (17,700) and 3rd (17,900) echelon Divisions, most others were around 15,000+. Not to forget that by 1943 the German had to abandon thier 3rd Battallions in each Infantry Regiment. OTOH, I don't find too much evidence that a Soviet Rifle Division was considerbly weaker on paper than thier German counterpart: Both Divisions had 3 Regiments with 3 Batallions each plus 7 other Battallions (Wehrmacht: 4 Arty, 1 Eng, 1 AT, 1 Recon; Red Army: 5 Arty, 1 Eng, 1 MG later AT) plus verious # of companies. The TOE of a German Inf-Batallion was 861 men, that of the Red Army 775 men (=90%). In reality, the Soviets weren't able to fill their on paper slots, so the "two-third"-rule might become right, but there were certainly Red Army rifle Divisions with full TOE, having more men than thier German counterpart Inf-Division especially from 1942 onwards. Cheers,
Andy, there's no way that the Soviet units were the same size than the German units. Even after late 1942 and 1943 when the German infantry divisions had a considerable smaller number of men than in 1941 and early 1942. I would suggest "Stalingrad, the hellish surrounding" (I don't remember if that's the exact translation) by professor Stephen Walsh. He gives a very detailed explanation of Soviet rifle and armoured divisions, being (in paper) smaller than the German ones as much as 60% or 70%.
Soviet paper strength for rifle divions varied wildly during the war. Here is a breakdown on authorized strength during the various divional types used during the war. Table is Soviet divisional unit designation, approval/revision date (dd-mm-yy), personel strength: 04/20 (13-09-39): 18908 04/101 (10-06-40): 17166 04/400 (5-04-41): 14483 04/600 (29-07-41): 10859 04/750 (6-12-41): 11626 04/200 (18-03-42): 12795 04/300 (28-07-42): 10386 04/550 (10-12-42): 9435 04/500 (10-12-42): 10670 04/550 (15-07-43): 9380 05/40 (8-12-44): 11706 05/40 (9-06-45): 11780
Thank you very much, Heartland! Very interesting chart! Which proves that Soviet divisions during war time never had more than 12.000 men.
