Problems with the current Russian OOB (#11).

[Crueldwarf]

Originally Posted by DRG

The OOB already has a BTR-50 as a heavy APC along with a BTR-152. But right now it's just the open topped model, but there may be other changes that can be done. The other question is was how was it originally determined which troops used each APC. Where they 13 man sections with support elements or two smaller sections that used one transport. The basics have to be sorted out before any other changes can be made but a quick glance seems to indicate this is doable without upsetting the balance in the existing OOB and that is the main goal. I may be able to adjust this and gain a spare unit slot but I need to know how the troops were packed into this thing

There is apparently a service manual for this thing somewhere in the deeps of the internet but most of the links are dead nowadays. Some articles claim that the scheme for BTR-50P was 10+10. Ten guys in the 'turret' and ten guys rode on the armor outside. In that case both BTR-50PK and BTR-50P have only 10 men capacity.

As for the section sizes - Soviet sections in the post war period were either 9 or 8 men (including vehicle crews for motor rifle troops), no larger 'heavy' sections existed in organizational structures. At least I never saw or heard any mentions of such sections.

One memoir claims that motor rifle battalion around late 1950 had separate 'platoon' of BTR-152 and each company had 5 of them assigned, including one (for the company commander) with ZPU-2 AA mount.