New Russian OOB (or SPR OOB)

[DRG]

You do love to bring up the RPG-1 don't you ?

I have seen reports that Russia kept captured stocks of Panzerfausts available after the end of WW2 until the RPG-2 started to be produced. I personally did not add the "RPG-1 " to the Russian OOB but there IS info available about it. Russian troops were well known for using captured Panzerfausts during the war and it's not the least bit of a stretch to imagine they may have been kept around after the war as there were no other Infantry AT weapons of it's kind available.

If you Google "RPG-1" "Panzerfaust". you will find quite a number of hits

and you will find at --- http://www.battlefield.ru/cgi-bin/ik...=Print;f=2;t=6 quotes as .....

For example Zaloga, in his book "The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War 1941-5" (Osprey) says:
Quote

The Red Army captured large stocks of Panzerfaust on their advance west, and also began manufacturing a copy as the RPG-1

and it was on the strength of information like this that the "RPG-1" was added.

But here's an alternate opinion on the matter from the same message board

I know an American author who is researching this topic for an upcoming work. So far he has found no primary historical evidence that the RPG-1 was a Panzerfaust copy (of any model), nor any evidence that the Red Army manufactured the Panzerfaust under any name.

He believes that the Panzerfausts carried by Soviet soldiers in pictures are from captured stocks (the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division was also known to carry numbers of captured Panzerfausts). Furthermore he believes that the RPG-1 was wholly a Soviet design. It may have benefited from the study of captured Panzerfaust 150 and 250, but it was not a copy.

Here's a further quote on that line of thinking from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-149364162.html

The Soviets were quick to grasp the potential of a simple, light, easily fired grenade launcher, and by 1944 were working on what was to become the RPG-1, whose 70mm rocket could defeat 150mm of RHA at an effective range of 75 meters, two and a half times that of the Panzerfaust. Due to difficulties with the fuse mechanism and the propellant charge in extreme seasonal climates, however, the RPG-1 was never produced in quantity, and once these issues were resolved the product improvements were applied to the RPG-2 (Figure 2), which entered Soviet service in 1949. The operation of the RPG-2 was easy for soldiers to learn, and its penetration of 200mm RHA and its effective range of 150 meters--twice that of the RPG-1--were significant improvements over its predecessor's performance. With its HEAT warhead and solid-propellant fuel, this was the first antitank weapon to be encountered in large numbers by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War.

"never produced in quantity" is quite a bit different than " nonexistent weapon or shells (for example RPG-1)"

Is it ?


So we have

A/ your idea that no RPG-1 ever existed
B/ the idea that the RPG-1 was simply the Panzerfaust renamed "RPG-1" and used because of the huge number of captured weapons available
C/ the idea that the RPG-1 was a wholly a Soviet design based on a study of captured panzerfausts but wasn't produced in quantity.

Given those choices we decided to go with options B (and/or C )as there was more evidence something called an "RPG-1" existed than not.

OK ? That's why there is an "RPG-1" in our OOB. If you don't like it, you can take it out as you have done but it's a little tiresome to have this repeatedly used and an example of why your OOB is so much more "accurate" because you don't include it.


Don