Bolt Action: Soviet Army Weapons Teams
Infantry weapons teams are a key component of any Bolt Action army; providing as they do great tactical flexibility for your force. Sniper teams; mortar teams and flamethrower teams are among the most prevalent; presenting your opponent with multiple challenges to overcome.
The sniper became synonymous with the Red Army; particularly during the grim sieges of Stalingrad and Leningrad. ‘Sniper schools’ were established in bombed-out buildings and cellars; where successful snipers passed down their skills to ever-growing numbers of students – many of them women. Soviet propaganda lavished attention on successful snipers and encouraged a doctrine of ‘sniperism’ among the troops. Snipers used telescopic sights on either a bolt action Moisin-Nagant 1891/30; or; more rarely; a Tokarev SVT-40 smi-automatic rifle. A variety of ammunition was used; including tracer and armour-piercing rounds. Soviet snipers were available at company level working as teams or sometimes on their own. Individual Red Army squads would often have a designated marksman with a scoped rifle to help compensate for the lack of long-range firepower due to the large numbers of submachine guns in use. Soviet snipers became renowned for their fieldcraft; stealth and patience. The most successful snipers each accounted for hundreds of the enemy – around 500 being the greatest tally recorded by a single sniper.
The standard light mortar used by Russian infantry during World War II was the 50mm Infantry Mortar Model 1940 (50-PM 40); a cheaper version of the earlier model 1938; In addition; the Soviet army received considerable numbers of 2-inch mortars from Britain via Lend-Lease. The 50mm was deemed a ‘company’ mortar as opposed to the heavier 82mm battalion and 120mm regimental mortars. The allocation of 50mm mortars was initially to individual teams at platoon level; but later they were more often concentrated together at company level for use en masse. The weapon was easily man-portable and could lay down a high explosive or smoke bombs at a range of over 800 yards.
The Soviets made great use of flamethrowers including FOG-1 static types dug in to cover bunkers and trenches. Due to shortcomings in developing other credible anti-tank weapons; Red Army doctrine placed strong emphasis on using flamethrowers as anti-tank as well as anti-infantry weapons. They even formed separate motorised anti-tank flamethrower battalions in 1943. By far the most common Russian flamethrowers were the man-packed ROKS types. The ROKS-2 was designed with a fuel tank that looked like an ordinary backpack and a nozzle resembling a rifle; so as not to attract unwelcome attention on the battlefield.
Contains the following Warlord Resin Plus figures:
2-man Sniper team
2-man Light Mortar team
2-man Flamethrower team
Models supplied unassembled and unpainted