Tuesday 23 July 2019

Density

The concept of density of fire per minute was a very important one in Soviet strategic planning. Effective offense and defence hedges on first and foremost having enough bullets that can fly at the enemy, and some units went so far as to illustrate their abilities.

Here is a map of the 354th Rifle Division's lines with the available volume of fire that can be sent the enemy's way per linear meter in November of 1944.


The data is also broken down in a table.

Weapon
Amount
400 m
600 m
800 m
1000 m
1200 m
Rifle
332
3320
3320
3320


SMG
317
31700
31700



Light MG
22-45
6360
6360
6360
6360

Heavy MG
23-25
14400
14400
14400
14400
14400
Antitank rifle
7, 14
210
210
210
210
210

The range of the SMGs is very optimistic, out to 600 meters. It's also interesting that the types of anti-tank rifles are separated, but both have the same effective rate of fire. The venerable Maxim gun also shows the value of a heavy stable mount, with an effective range rivalling the high velocity anti-tank rifles.

In December, another table is drawn up, this one a little more conservative. A significant amount of reinforcements had arrived in the meantime, so some of the numbers are much higher.


Weapon
Amount
Practical ROF
100
200
300
400
600
800
1000
Rifle
1054
10
10540
10540
10540
10540
10540
10540

SMG
712
100
71200
71200
71200




Light MG
119
80
9520
9520
9520
9520
9520
9520

Heavy MG
63
250
15750
15750
15750
15750
15750
15750
15750
Antitank rifle
19
10
190
190
190
190
190
190


The Maxim is still the longest hitting weapon out there, the anti-tank rifles took a bit of a hit to their range. 

4 comments:

  1. That's a tiny number of rifles for a division.

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    Replies
    1. TBF eyeballing the aggregate numbers the division seems to have been at something like 30% or less effective strength for the first one, though I vaguely recall reading Soviet formations on the whole also tended to be smaller than equivalent denominations in other Great Power armies of the period.

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    2. At the beginning of November, the division gives its strength as:

      633 officers
      952 NCOs
      2655 privates

      Armament is:
      1732 rifles of all types
      900 PPSh
      71 light machineguns
      22 heavy machineguns
      16 AA machineguns
      29 82 mm mortars
      12 120 mm mortars
      10 45 mm guns
      8 76 mm regimental guns
      22 76 mm divisional guns
      5 122 mm howitzers
      6 anti-tank rifles

      Total loss for November was 570 men of all ranks, but that's still not that many. The division spent most of the month digging in and studying, so perhaps they are only counting the soldiers that are directly on the front lines with a gun at their hands at the moment.

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    3. Makes sense, plus ofc the artillery guys aren't going to be blazing away with small arms too much and the assorted REMs have different job descriptions to begin with.

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