Bolt Action, Partisans

[Tim Haslam]

Inspired by Crusaders new range of Eastern Front partisans.
I'm thinking of building a bolt action force.
Sadly I'm lacking in knowledge in this area.

Any ideas on force building or history?
What captured tanks or vehicles were used?
I'm not going down the Polish uprising, I'm thinking a bit more obscure than that?

Thanks
Tim

[Truscott Trotter]

AFAIK captured vehicles were rare as hens teeth with Soviet Partizans - they relied on hiding in forests and swamps and so had to move lightly and fast.

If you wanted a BA list with more heavy equipment I would use a standard reinforced Soviet Platoon and choose several partisan squads as you main infantry.

You could then add scouts, cavalry or Airborne as they sometimes operated in support of Partisans and add in some armoured cars or tanks - usually light or T-34 as these were used by forward detachments that were tasked with breaking through to partisans.

Equally when airdrops were made often Partisans were tasked to operate with the paratroops,  google operations like Demyansk 1942 or Vyazma  1943

[cuprum]

Originally, the base of the Soviet partisans was a very large number of Soviet servicemen from the defeated military units that remained in the German rear during the battles of 1941. They were joined by Soviet civil activists, party workers, police officers and other services. After the start of mass repression by the German authorities, the influx of volunteers into the partisans strengthened.
In view of the large number of former servicemen among the guerrillas, they trained volunteers who did not have the necessary skills. Also, there were no problems with the use of various Soviet and captured weapons. The source of replenishment of weapons and ammunition was originally equipment thrown on the battlefields and also trophies taken from the Nazis and their allies.
In 1942, the Soviet leadership decided to create a centralized management of the partisan movement. The well-trained groups of saboteurs from the NKVD, weapons, ammunition and, most importantly, radio stations began to be sent to the partisans.
The task of the partisans was the violation of the supply of German troops on the front, the destruction of collaborators and small enemy garrisons for the difficulty of controlling the invaders by the seized territory, reconnaissance in the enemy's rear. There were stationary partisan detachments in hard-to-reach regions (forests and swamps), where Soviet power was completely revived and civil Soviet administration operated in populated areas. There were also special raiding partisan detachments, which carried out long-distance raids in the rear of the invaders. Sometimes these detachments went beyond the borders of the USSR, for example, in the territory of Poland or Slovakia, disorganizing the enemy rear and in these territories.
Organizationally partisans sought to preserve the military structure of the Red Army. This was greatly helped by the presence in the partisans of a large number of cadre officers from the Soviet units that were defeated in 1941. In composition it was light infantry, also armed with mortars and light cannons. Heavy weapons were used only sporadically (for example, I know of the use of two German tanks directly in battle, where they were captured, but after the battle these tanks were destroyed as unnecessary). As vehicles, partisans used horses, because this removed the problem of the need for fuel.
At the time of the arrival of the Red Army, the guerrillas were pouring into its composition.
The real front-line units of the German army were rarely used against partisans. Usually their opponents were security and police units, local collaborators, units of German allies - Hungarians, Slovaks.

Here is a photo of partisan artillery: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=99607.msg1235664#msg1235664


Armored artillery tractor "Komsomolets", used by partisans as a light tank.


The crew of the partisan armored car BA-10 about its combat vehicle.

[Tim Haslam]

Good information, thanks.

I'm now thinking cavalry... So where would I buy anything remotely like eastern Partizan cavalry!!?
Maybe there are some VBCW figures on horses that could stand in?
Plus a horse drawn light howitzer, which I'm told would most likely be a WWI French piece.

Plus a couple of civilian trucks with MMG mounted on them?

[Skip2a]

Easy Army is your friend for creating Bolt Action army lists.  http://boltaction.easyarmy.com/     Make an account, decide on your point total and then see what you need in regards to forces.

For cavalry I have seen several people on FB comment that they are using ACW horses and legs with WG Russian torsos. With some creativity you can get some nice looking figures.   Link to Perry Miniatures/WG Soviet conversion:  http://www.wwpd.net/2014/04/hobby-converting-soviet-cavalry.html

Nice picts of finished pieces from Copplestone Casting: http://evilbobs.blogspot.com/2014/06/28mm-wwii-soviet-partisan-cavalry.html

Hope this helps,

Skip

[cuprum]

I think that cavalrymen, armed with sabers, are not very suitable for depicting partisans. Horses were used by them for riding, and that is not often. Rather, they moved on peasant carts.

[Tim Haslam]

That's ashame, I've just been looking at the cool figures on the Copplestone web page 

However peasant carts sound interesting?

[Truscott Trotter]

Hi Tim,

I would add one squad of Cossacks - operating behind the enemy lines in conjunction with partisans - fairly common occurrence especially around the Forests and marsh areas eg Pripet or Pinsk Marshes.

In BA V2 Cavalry are pretty poor so one section  for coolness factor is OK
The partisans would definitely dismount before combat as cuprum indicated.

Cheers
TT

[cuprum]

Cossacks among the partisans - it's unlikely. There is no point. The people in the partisan detachments were enough. Partisans needed radio operators, specialists - professional saboteurs.
Cavalry in the USSR was intended for action together with tanks, especially in off-road conditions - as an analogue of motorized infantry ...
In partisans raiding detachments (sometimes very large - several thousand fighters), there were cavalry reconnaissance platoons. They studied the terrain in the way of movement of such a detachment. But their weapons are not a saber, but rather a submachine gun...

A village cart is quite easy to make by yourself or pick up something from, for example, a medieval assortment.

[Truscott Trotter]

I have read of at least 2 accounts of Soviet Airborne drops behind German lines where Partisans operated with them and Cavalry were tasked with (amongst other troops - armour etc) breaking through to the Airborne
So they were in same area and battles although the reports do not specifically mention Partisans and Cavalry operating closely - as they concentrate on the Airborne I think that is more than sufficient for Bolt Action purposes 

1.) The actions of 4-th Airborne Corps in the rear of the enemy's operational
Appended material is the operational-tactical short essay on the steps 4 Airborne Corps. Vyazma, then the Yukhnov direction in the second half of February 1942

2.) March 9 1943  Demyansk Operation

Both of these docs are translated by Google from Russian sources but mention Cav, guerillas and Airborne

[cuprum]

But these were the usual army operations in the enemy's rear, and the partisans played no special role in them.
Try to find these operations among the known actions of the Soviet partisans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisans

[Truscott Trotter]

Don't know how special their role was but they were operation in those battles
Also mentioned here
The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944: A Critical Historiographical Analysis
By Leonid D. Grenkevich p 181
also P 56 The Soviet Airborne Experience by D Glantz
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Ieci0eVv8EEC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=Soviet+Cavalry+operating+with+partisans&source=bl&ots=rVyImbZ5Ut&sig=2ePOmHpywFS6MttgighrdfKysok&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj2r29qp3bAhVHVbwKHUrwCK04ChDoAQhSMAg#v=onepage&q=Soviet%20Cavalry%20operating%20with%20partisans&f=false

talks of Airborne , partisans and 1st Guards Cav operating together - "A 1st Guards Cavalry. Corps regiment reinforced these units, which for several months held Dorogobuzh as a major base for Partisan operations."

also
["To a question by the President regarding guerrilla operations, Mr. Molotov replied that the
partisans were most active in the Moscow-Smolensk-Mozhaisk (Dorogobuzh) sector. They
numbered 9,000 irregulars and parts of 2-3 cavalry divisions under General Belov. They were in
absolute control of an egg-shaped area measuring some 60 kilometers east and west by 20-30
kilometers north and south. They were, however, less conspicuous in other areas."
[Memorandum of conversation among Roosevelt, Molotov, and others on 30 May 1942, quoted
by Robert E. Sherwood in Roosevelt and Hopkins, An Intimate History (New York: Harpers,
1948), p. 567.]]
from SOVIET PARTISANS IN WORLD WAR II
EDITED BY JOHN A. ARMSTRONG WITH A
FOREWORD BY PHILIP E. MOSELY
MADISON 1964 THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN PRESS

[cuprum]

I repeat - these are the usual military operations, in which partisans played a supporting role simply because of their presence in these areas.

[Truscott Trotter]

Ummm the game the OP is talking about is a fantasy WW2 game at platoon level where the sections can come from completely different units 

[cuprum]

OK. But I thought he was interested in "guerrilla" scenarios-for example, an attack on enemy communications with the aim of destroying them (for example, a bridge), a military warehouse with the purpose of seizing equipment, or, for example, an attack on a high-ranking German officer with the aim of destroying it or captivity...