Soviet Naval Infantry - The Start

Военно-морской флот

Honorable Son #3 (Also known as Comrade Colonel Colinovsky) and I wanted to give some color to his Flames of War Soviet Army - drab browns and greens can only take you so far. So we decided to add elements of the Red Fleet to his force, Soviet Naval Infantry.

The Soviet Naval Infantry "Morskaya Pekhota" we are building will be based on the 79th Naval Infantry Brigade, though we will take some liberty with the organization based on resources (my pay check) and what we think is cool.

Based on my research so far, Naval Rifle units tended to be more "elite" than regular Naval Infantry. They were trained and led by Red Army officers and were also the first Naval units (supposedly) to be issued steel helmets. They conducted amphibious operations, though they are not really marines.

The 79th Naval Infantry Brigade has the following:

Bde Headquarters, Polkovnik A. S. Potapov, Commanding (plus the usual commissar)

1st Rifle Battalion

2nd Rifle Battalion

3rd Rifle Battalion

The 3 Infantry Battalions together have 94 Light machineguns, 38 Heavy (Maxim) machineguns and 35 50mm Mortars.

Mortar Battalion (26 82mm Mortars and 8 120mm Mortars)

Artillery Battalion (8 76mm ZIS 3 field guns and 4 122mm Howitzers)

Anti-Tank Battery (6 45mm AT guns)

Okay, now how to make this into a Flames of War force? With the scale of Flames of War, it was an easy decision to base the force on a Soviet Infantry Battalion. We already had one company of regular Soviet Infantry painted so we will add to it a Naval Infantry Company.

After looking again at what we already had, we decided to make a modification and have them be Guards Naval Infantyr So here's the force we are planning:

Bn HQ: 35 points

1st Company: 3 Platoons with Kommissar and MG Platoon: 300 points.

2nd Company: 3 Platoons with Kommissar and MG Platoon: 300 points.

3rd Company: 2 Platoons with Kommissar and MG Platoon: 230 points.

Submachinegun Company: 2 Platoons with Kommissar: 190 points

Tank Company: 10 T-34/85 obr 1943 with cupolas: 565 points.

Guards Rocket Mortar Battalion: 135 points.

Shock Scout Platoon: 165 points.

Total: 1985.

Let the painting begin.