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Table of Organization and Equipment:
According to Battlefronts early war advanced reference sheets (www.flamesofwar.com) a full strength tank company before Germany invaded was 17 tanks. This was often not possible do to the wear and tear on the vehicles and need for maintenance. After Germany invaded a full company was reduced to three platoons of three tanks plus one for the company commander to make a 10 tank company. Again this strength was often not possible to reach and only found on paper.
A medium tank battalion would normally have one medium tank company and two to three fast tank companies. Or just three to four light or fast tank companies.
A tank Regiment would normally have one medium tank battalion, containing one medium tank company with the remaining being light or fast tank companies. One Light tank battalion, and one Chemical tank battalion.
A Chemical Tank battalion consisted of three to four tank companies consisting of nine chemical tanks and one gun tank of the same model for the company commander. Chemical tanks could be used as flame throwers, Smoke Screens, poison gas, or water.
According to Fleischer T-26 tanks were used in tank and mechanized brigades were to have 201 or 267 T-26 tanks each. Tank battalions of infantry divisions in 1940 had 38 tanks in each.
According to Myers a Soviet Mechanized or Tank Brigade had three tank battalions, each with three light and medium tank companies plus one amphibious tank company.
References: Fleischer, Wolfgang "Russian Tanks and Armored Vehicles 1917-1945" Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA, 34
and http://www.flamesofwar.com - Battlefronts early war advanced reference sheets
and Myers, David, "Unit Organizations of World War II", Z&M Enterprises (1977) 73
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I see a lot of info on the tanks but not the process of making one. Are they complicated to make? Is there a market for them after you create them?
ReplyDeleteDo you think you'll be getting together with your club more often now that your blogging about the subject matter?
ReplyDeleteDr. Vent, at the time (1930s) there was not much of a market for tanks since the great depression was going on. The soviets however did not suffer in the same way as the western world. They had a command economy which allowed them to produce what the government wanted (in this case tanks). The downside was that the citizens suffered a depression that arguably started during the Czars and lasts to this day.
ReplyDeleteBack to the point, the T-26 is not a very complicated tank. It like many tanks of the day were based on the Vickers 6 ton tank which was made as a commercial venture by the vickers company in england. the problem that vickers had was countries like russia would buy a few and then make their own unlicensed copies. There were thousands of T-26s made starting with simple twin turret 7.62mm machinegun armed versions in the early 1930s up to the more advanced, sloped armor versions armed with a 45mm cannon.
If you are looking for sources on the T-26 tank, Armada (russian company) prints Squadron Signal style monographs on the T-26 tank. Schiffer also has a nice book on soviet tanks to 1945 which has quite a bit of accurate information on the T-26
WPD
The reason I don't get out to use them with my group is based more on time to play. Being a husband, father, full time employee, and student doesn't leave much time to play games. I play with my oldest son the most and my two yonger ones are starting to get involved but I don't know if they'll stick with it yet or not.
ReplyDeleteI try to work on building them on Friday nights as my personal relaxation time but for now that is all I can do on a regular schedule.
My group gets together at a store called Games Plus in Mt. Prospect weekly on Wednesday and Friday nights and has a monthly introductions to the game on the first Sunday of each month. I try to get out to the Sunday games once in a while but that is all for now.
The ones I make aren't that dificult.
ReplyDeleteThe first three I posted here are kits with 6-7 parts in each. All I had to do was to trim and paint them (and of course buy a bunch of them).
The rest are custom made and are a little more complicated. What I had to do for them is to research all about them, get line drawings/schematics and so forth so I could see what they actualy looked like. If I was lucky I might have found a model of one in another scale I could look at.
All the ones I have here are based on the T-26 tank so I made a mold of one of the kits and modified it for what I wanted. I then made a mold of that custom model and poured enough of them for a unit.
The first customization part may take a month or two to complete then the making the mold could take a weekend or a full week if done one step per day. Then about 4 hours minimum to pour each mold before I could reuse it for the next mold. Painting at one night a week and 17 tanks per company could take up to a month to complete.
I'll post a step by step on my next customised kit from beginning to end.
This is so fascinating to me the different types and styles. When I was little, my brother used to get model car kits but he was not interested in building them. I would take them and build them and he would take credit for it.
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