TAMIYA
TAMIYA WWII RUSSIAN INFANTRY AND TANK CREW SET – 32521 SCALA 1:48
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In the 1920s and – especially – the 1930s, the Red Army experienced rapid development in terms of increasing its assignments, as well as increasing saturation with technical weapons, mainly armored weapons. However, the infantry was the main and numerically largest element of the Red Army. Intense quantitative development of this type of weapon began at the turn of 1929 and 1930. In 1939, even before the aggression against Poland, the Soviet infantry was formed into 173 divisions (the so-called rifle divisions), most of which they were grouped into 43 bodies. It is worth adding that after the September campaign of 1939, this number increased even more. The Soviet rifle division in 1941 consisted of three rifle regiments (three battalions each), an artillery regiment, after a division of anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, as well as reconnaissance and communication battalions. In total it numbered around 14,500 people. However, in 1945, this position underwent significant changes, leading to a division of approximately 11,500–12,000 personnel, consisting of three infantry regiments, an artillery brigade consisting of three regiments, a self-propelled artillery squadron and many support units, including including anti-tanks, anti-aircraft weapons and communications. The saturation of infantry units with machine guns also increased significantly, for example with the APsZ 41 and later APsZ 43 submachine guns. Armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army began to form on a larger scale in the late 1920s It's 30's. Especially in the 1930s they developed dynamically. This was reflected in both the organizational structure and equipment. On the first of these aircraft, the formation of mechanized corps began in 1932, the structure of which developed until the outbreak of the Second World War. As for equipment, new types of tanks were introduced, such as the BT-5, BT-7, T-26 and the T-28 multi-turret tank. Even very successful tanks came into line shortly before the start of the war with the Third Reich - of course, we are talking about the KW-1 and T-34. However, despite the fact that at the time of the German aggression the Soviet armored forces had a quantitative advantage over the aggressor, they suffered huge losses of men and equipment in the first period of the war. They can be explained by the deficiencies of well-trained officer cadres (after the Stalinist purges of the 1930s), the inferior individual training of Soviet tankers compared to their German adversaries, or the inferior tactics used by Soviet tank crews. Furthermore, the doctrine of their use was not as consistent and well-founded in training as in the German army. We can also add to this the rather poor ergonomics of Soviet vehicles or the shortage of short- and long-range radio stations in the armed forces. Over time, however, these errors began to be corrected more or less successfully. For example - from the spring of 1942, armored armies began to form, which were supposed to perform mainly offensive tasks and which constituted a slightly more ergonomic structure than the previous mechanized corps. However, it seems reasonable to say that until the end of the war, the Red Army emphasized quantitative advantage rather than qualitative advantage over the enemy, although it introduced successful tanks such as the T-34/85 or the IS- 2 during the war. This is clearly visible, for example, during the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.
