Soviet bazooka teams
 

Greetings,

Playing a pbem ME in May 1942, with pc picks for Germans vs Soviets. I’m seeing Soviet bazooka teams and I see in the Soviet oob they are available from January 1943 till December 1944. Anything abnormal here or did the Soviets “borrow” some from the shipment that went to North Africa for Operation Torch?
They work very well against my Pz IIIj’s.
Not complaining, just an observation.

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

a quick look at wiki tells us this
and then there is this
and this
and that's why they are in there


Don

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

If the number of 8,500 rockets total is correct, the availability probably should not be two full years... More like 6 months would seem more realistic and still not overly conservative.

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

Not a lot of info so no matter what we do it's guessing and I'm guessing if they were still around during Zitadelle we might have heard about it so June 1943 seems more than reasonable


Don

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

I've found a text some forum:

In short, according to writer, up to 9 000 bazookas (!) were received at the end of 1942 [1]. There were no further deliveries.

According to other forum:

3000 launchers, 8500 rockets and 1605 practice rockets.

Other forum:
- 1000 + 550 (and 200 Boys, and 831 Piat)

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the soviets regarded the bazooka more as engineering equipmnt than an at weapon.

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

That forum Michael found includes a photo ( not good but still a photo ) of what seems to be Russian troops jumping from a small boat across what appears to be a river and the text of one comment

that photo would seem to support that so it *may* be that the initial trials with the first batches didn't go well and they were put in storage until someone decided we might as well use them for the Vistula assault

Of course I'm guessing...... but right now I'm guessing the original dates we had in the game are just as valid as anyone else's guess on a subject that is now about 70 years old

Don

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

more

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../bazooka-1.htm

so what we know more or less "for sure" is the Russians got them at about the same time they arrived in N.Africa and they didn't like them all that much. They may or may not have sat in storage until they were given to assault troops ( AKA " cannon fodder" ) crossing the Vistula but *IF* that is indeed the case then the date in service needs to be extended to at least Febuary 1945.

one " creative" way to handle this would be to create a second unit so that one unit would be active only in early 1943 and the second only active in early 1945 but I think I'm just going to stick with one but extend it to Feb 1945 to cover the Vistula crossing

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

After this discussion,it seems this boils down to a rarity issue.
OP is saying in essence, that he is surprised the bazooka were so readily available in the soviet oob at that time.
Just my butt-in observation.

Re: Soviet bazooka teams
 

Thanks for all the research. As mentioned, I was NOT complaining ;-) I even fabricated a believable story why there were in a 1942 battle while the oob editor says January 1943.

However, my opponent after reviewing his set up notes, told me the battle is indeed in May 1943, so the pick list corresponds to the oob editor correctly.

Carry on.