ChalkLine's Desiderata

[ChalkLine]

Distinctive Soviet Tactics developed in the Soviet-Afghanistan War.

Most of the standard soviet tactics are the same as those of the west. However during and after the Soviet-Afghanistan War many innovations and idiosyncratic tactics turned up that are little known outside some tactical appraisal documents. Here's a few:

- Carrying heavy weapons forward.
After dismounting from their carriers soviet troops will lug their 12.7mm HMGs and 30mm AGLs along with them. This extra-heavy weapons group is attached to the normal heavy weapons group. Lightening these weapons and their ammunition has become something of an obsession in Russia since then.

- Bronnegruppa
"The bronegruppa is a temporary grouping of four-five tanks, BMPs or BTRs-or any combination of such vehicles. The BMPs (tracked combat vehicles) or BTRs (wheeled combat vehicles) are deployed without their normally assigned infantry squad on board and fight away from their dismounted troops. The grouping has a significant direct-fire capability and serves as a manoeuvre reserve."

- Enveloping detachments (obkhodiashchii otriad)
A fast moving, hard hitting group designed to sweep around and block avenues. Now, every force does this but this unit was specifically trained in the task. While they might mount an attack from an unexpected direction the emphasis of these troops was speed.
The soviets also radically changed their doctrine and when possible emphasised training in switching rapidly from pre-Soviet-Afghanistan War tactics to post-war ones. This includes armoured columns quickly reorganising into combined arms units for other purposes.

Many of the other innovations don't really carry over into the Twilight War phase. Note that after the Soviet-Afghanistan War there was a heavier emphasis on training for small unit actions, flexible logistics and units operating away from parent units due to the lessons learned in that war.

[ChalkLine]

I'm reading up on Armoured Reconnaissance and I just encountered probably the most blunt statement of military reality:

"It's pointless to strive for risk-free scouting. Small scout teams are to be sent forward into traps in order to avoid that the whole formation walks into that trap."

[ChalkLine]

The following is for discussion. It's not a hate-on against GDW and as it's for discussion "it's just a game" is not a valid answer. The point is at the end of the post that we might have something to think about the demise of the 5th Infantry, Mechanised (US) that may not have occurred to other GMs.

Over the decades (sigh, I'm old) I've constantly wondered about aspects of the game. One that's been bothering me a bit lately is the 5th Infantry Division's doomed ride into Poland in what became an unsupported attack that couldn't possibly be sustained.

There are a few main problems. Warfare runs on the trinity of Strategy, Tactics and Logistics and it fails on this basic level in at least two of the points.

The first is that supply-wise it's just not doable and even 17 year old me suspected this back in the old days.

"A typical US armoured division was composed of 350 tanks, 200 Bradley fighting vehicles and 16,000 soldiers. Together their daily supply requirement could amount to 5,000 tons (4,350+ tonnes) of ammunition, 555,000 gallons (2,081,976 litres) of fuel, 300,000 gallons (1,135,624 litres) of water, and 80,000 meals".

Now, obviously the 5th Infantry Division is a shadow of its former self but it's still going to consume a torrent of supplies that people underestimate by orders of magnitude. Remember that the divisions' logistical base will probably have a maximum of five 83 ton stills and all the gathering, monitoring, storage, forage, guarding and so on that takes to maintain all the while the division is actively using that fuel while making it. That goes for all the other stuff as well. Yes, the division was hoarding its supplies but it still looks impossible even then.

Secondly it just looks like they can't hold what they take. Reading up on The Red Ball Express, the logistics of the western allied push into continental Europe, it becomes apparent that your logistical train even using brand new vehicles with fresh lubricants and proper fuel suffer horrific wastage. Fatigue alone killed many drivers and their vehicles before you take into account bad roads and infrastructure and that's before the enemy takes an interest. Just one blown bridge or ambush means this lifeline clogs up. A single division pushing into Indian Country can't secure this line and it probably would have ground to a halt long before the soviets hit it.

Thirdly we have to think for a minute in the context of the situation. That tank ammunition will never be replenished and the troops knew it. Same with the artillery fuzes in the ammo and so on and so on. Driving into a largely static enemy country where the soviets and Poles seem generally happy to stick to their side of the Oder and expending these precious resources seems to make no strategic sense when they should be eliminating Marauders in Germany and rebuilding their side of Europe.

Okay, I've argued why it wouldn't work. But actually in the game it doesn't.

Maybe it was planned that way.

What on earth would make the NATO forces lurch into Poland in an unsustained and unsustainable attack

Perhaps NATO knew that the soviets were coming with a mobile, well-equipped force that could locally overmatch any units in Germany If a single division could be placed forwards in its path it's possible that they could knock the momentum out of it and stall it long enough to allow for interior forces to be deployed where it could strike from there. If you think this is insane it actually happened in the Korean War when the US 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division was forward deployed to buy time to allow the US forces and this unit was utterly was destroyed at the Battle of Pyongtaek, although the heroic men of the 34th went in knowing full well what was about to happen. Reading Death of a Division it's obvious that the 5th didn't know they'd end up unsupported and floundering around in Poland without a vital logistical lifeline.

Or maybe some MilGov/CivGov bastardry is involved Could the preparations for Operation Omega be underway and CivGov is worried that MilGov is about to return several heavily armed, well equipped and battle hardened divisions from Europe Those units could well decide the whole question in one campaign season. Regardless of that's not actually what Operation Omega was it could easily and probably would be perceived that way. Did some local CivGov supporters organise for at least one division to get so mired in Poland that it couldn't get out

Did the Soviets pull off an espionage coup Have they managed to suborn some general somewhere to pull that logistical tail out from under the 5th
Or did NATO simply panic and cut the 5th loose Was some higher-up overpromoted past his or her ability and when the 5th wandered off they lost their bottle and drew everyone back over the Oder leaving them out there without support and logistics

You can bet your PCs are going to suspect just a few of these things.

[ChalkLine]

Horse Drawn Wagons

This is kinda over-detailed and probably would never feature in a campaign, but it's just some thoughts on why you won't see old-style wooden construction wagons in the Twilight World.

Wooden wagons are insanely complex and require wood crafting skills that simply don't exist on a large scale and take far too long to relearn or teach in the time period. During a national emergency you don't take a huge amount of people out of the workforce and teach them an ancient, almost forgotten-at-the-time massive array of skills. Many years ago as a re-enactor I wanted to make a comparatively crude wagon wheel and I was amazed at the amount of knowledge and equipment it took to make a proper wooden wheel let alone a functioning axle.

But that's not important because welded mild steel is lighter, in some ways more flexible and also more rigid where needed and well understood. Light rubber tyred-wheels are widespread and motorcycle and off-road vehicles make these wheels and axles. There's only a short window where criteria and perhaps even standard plans can be created but I think this would happen.

What would a "developed" version look like
First off, unless it's cargo-bearing it might not be a rigid frame but rather two articulated units for better manoeuvrability such as some German examples from The Second World War.
Simple box steel frames support a lightweight cargo bed if fitted, probably wooden but thin steel isn't that different in weight. Drop down sides for some cargo versions might be fitted and users could experience the joy of having their fingers mashed when the other person suddenly drops one.
A standard width would allow bows and covers from existing cargo vehicles for light weight weather protection. A lightweight small generator platform under the cargo bed allows for radios and a standard aerial mount would go somewhere, probably forward and just behind the front passenger, however this puts it at risk in fording procedures and a space between operators and payload area might be better. For local protection a small frame between the driver and assistant would hold individual weapons and under their vehicle seats, probably the same all-weather seats from some light vehicle, would be space for ammunition and personal storage. If a battery is fitted (and I can't see why not) there'd probably be convoy marker lights for low visibility mounted on the extremities of the vehicle.
There has to be space for pioneer tools and also to store the horse tack and harness and this usually goes between the payload and operators as well, shifting the power to one side in a metal box.

Obligatory German versions:

[ChalkLine]

So, we talked about the upgraded Super M60, the T-55M2 and others, but there's still a whole lot of ironware that'll be dragged out of reserve and upgraded before being thrown to the front. Two of the big things I like to emphasise with these jobs is that it both won't be an even process, some will have stuff others don't have, and also that no one sends out 1960s vehicles into combat in 1995 without as many upgrades as they can jam in.

There's oodles of the venerable and successful M48 still around in the timeline. After a rocky start (like every vehicle really) it became a bedrock of NATO and really the M60 is only an upgrade of it. However there's aftermarket industries that can be called to the colours to bring these things close to standard and send them into battle (undoubtedly driving the logistics people insane).

The Super M48

Like the Super M60, this is a bringing together of the upgrade kits to a new standard. I think this is a really attractive vehicle.
The hardness of the base M48 armour, a mere 200 BHN, was extremely underwhelming but this actually has a payoff in that low BHN armour spalls less and the comprehensive spall management package in the Super M48 might make this the least spall-prone vehicle of this class in the theatre.

Essentially they take the already upgraded M48 and strip it bare before rebuilding it and replacing everything that can be updated. Forget everything you know about these vehicles and look at some of these fine features . . .

MOLF 48 Fire Control System
L7A3 105mm Rifled Main Gun (this is the Low Recoil Force gun also used on the Stingray)
New electro-hydraulic gun/turret drive and weapon stabilisation system
New roof-mounted primary gunners sight with day and night channels
New power pack comprised of a 1000hp MTU MB 837 Ea-500 V12 diesel engine and Renk RK-304 automatic transmission with 4 forward and 4 reverse gears
MG3 coaxial machine gun
Modular appliqu armour
Smoke grenade launchers

These tanks would probably be backing up German and US (the US still had gazillions of them) formations as second line vehicles. Most of the Super M48 package is German manufactured so it'd probably not see use in other theatres.

[ChalkLine]

I posted about the impressive Dutch M41 DK-1 Walker Bulldog a while back, but Tank Encyclopedia as has just put up an article about the 90mm Cockerill-armed Belgian M41 LCTS 90. This popped up in 1994 and is perfect timing for armies wanting to upgrade their M41s (I'm modelling a Spanish one modified for T2K one now but not with the LCTS turret).

Essentially it just drops the LCTS 90 turret on the basic M41 hull and gives it a gruntier motor.

https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/m41-lcts-90/

[ChalkLine]

More of those things . . .

Textron "Jaguar"

A weird 1996 prototype, the Jaguar was made by a Textron/NORINCO cooperative effort on the Type 59 chassis, the Type 59 being a Chinese T-54/55 with a local flavour and being even more rudimentary. Textron did their magic and you see the creature before you. The Chinese pulled out in 1989 after the Tiananmen Square atrocity and Textron went on without them, developing the critter you see here. Here's what the magic wand did:

-Applique armour
- Upgraded torsion bars, hydropneumatic suspension optional.
- Modified M68/L7 105mm gun firing standard NATO ammunition.
- M240C 7.26mm coaxial MG and M2HB 12.7mm pintle HMG
- Fully stabilised with electrohydraulic gun control and stabilisation system.
- Laser rangefinder and digital fire control
- Detroit Diesel 8V-92TA eight-cylinder diesel developing 750 hp coupled to an Allison Transmission XTG-411 fully automatic transmission

So, where would this sort of thing turn up
Well, perhaps in the Chinese Theatre as part of the military aid package given to China. You could if you want have a bunch sent over to the European Theatre in some small batches when the supply lines are cut as part of that last throw-over-what-we-can-scrape-up effort if they're sitting around idle and they might even trundle about in the CONUS. Finally, they might be given to forces formerly in the Soviet orbit who were used to working the the T-55s.

http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product4406.html

[ChalkLine]

Having played Metro: Exodus recently a good thing was when the party started out with just the engine and tender itself rather than the whole train and then added cars they found elsewhere.

Now, you can't actually do it like in the game as trains nearly never have a big enough platform for the operators and any meaningful load, it would be less than the inside of a humvee. However if you gave them say just the engine/tender combination and a flatcar they could start off with perhaps a box formwork and sandbags and then you can let them add carriages as they go. This actually makes sense as rolling stock is immensely valuable and usually salvaged within an inch of its life if damaged so it should be very rare.

Now add cars. The first car would probably be a boxcar or a passenger carriage. As they don't have the workcar yet they can't do fancy armour but don't forget a flat car can carry about 80 tonnes (80,000kg) when pulled by a steam train and Poland is very flat, so the problem here isn't going to be weight but rather width of armour and internal area. As one of our posters pointed out some time ago it takes a three sandbag thickness wall to be reasonably safe from rifle calibre (7.62mm) rounds, that leaves very little room inside.

Casting about there's an obvious answer; concrete. Concrete only needs 75mm/3" to stop 7.62 x 51mm rounds and if the concrete has a high density of aggregate reinforcement this will break up the rounds and be even more effective (this system was used in WW2 "plastic armour" for merchant ships and was bitumen containing heavy amounts of dolorite road base chips, all held against the superstructure with plywood formboards. It not only stopped the rounds but also snapped off the tips of AP rounds). Remember that automatic weapons attack cover like a jackhammer, they smash the wall until they chew away the protection so embrasures should eventually have metal reinforcement. While simple letter box slits can be made (these are what give pillboxes, a contraction of the term "pillar box", its name) but the firing ports from early IFVs can be chopped out and installed as well. The BMP 3 has them for PKMs!

After the players have built this, tasks involving civil/combat engineering, carpentry and metalworking skills, let them find the work car. This should be the culmination of a hard adventure involving detective work, diplomacy and serious fighting. Once they have this prize they can do some serious armouring and chopping up MBTs and APC/IFVs for armour, mounting turrets and other rail-based battleship stuff is within their reach.

An artillery car usually had two guns in rotating turrets if possible, however one gun and a local defence station was common as well. These guns are run like a battery and need a battery command car (which can replace a local defence station) for targeting and so on. Similarly a mortar car, probably more useful than a howitzer car as the ammo is more abundant, is possible and once again the mighty 2B9M Vasilek screams to be used here but the French Brandt 60mm gun/mortar would be good as well if the GM feels the 2B9M is too powerful. Nearly all these cars, like all cars, also had LMG embrasures and rifle embrasures. Yugoslav trains had twin aero rocket pods in open mounts for serious area saturation (if you've never seen these Soviet monsters been fired check out one of the many youtube videos. They're more like a shotgun)

Twilight 2000 being what it is a medical bay will be needed. If clearly marked all main force enemies will try and refrain from targeting this car but marauders or stragglers should be handled on a case by case basis. It needs wide doors to get stretcher cases in and should also have the living quarters for the medical staff. Of all cars this and the engine should be gasproofed first.

The command car can be part of the passenger car. Here the train is "conned", targets are identified and threats assessed. This is where an officer NPC should be as they fight their battle and update the tactical specialists to the shifting battle conditions and keep them on-mission. This individual makes the call when the train is moved.

Those flatbeds that can carry 80,000kg Yes, there's no MBT that weighs that much. An MBT can be dragged along at the rear of the train and with the right ramp gear can detrain itself although usually an unloading team and ground guides are needed. Even if they don't have the fuel to manouevre they can be unloaded and driven to an overwatch position with an accompanying security team of infantry. This is one of the few ways you can keep your Abrams in play. Of course if you have the length you can drag all sorts of vehicles along to extend the reach of the characters, but having never unloaded a train I'll leave the process to some of the wise people here.

A flat car of rail ties and timbers gets added at some point.

A horse box gives the players a cavalry contingent that is sheltered from splinters and small arms fire.

Finally, you must have a scout vehicle(s).
Due to the nature of the vehicles they should have originally been four wheeled vehicles, 6x6 or 8x8 don't really work and tracks require making an entirely new lower chassis, and should ideally be former APCs or IFVs. These can also drag rail trailers of up to 10 tonnes (10,000kg) load and use a tiny amount of fuel. Nazi Germany would have two to four of these little things that worked in teams, a scout team and a support team of which two would have turrets. These check out the tracks ahead, go down side rails to see what's there and also which line of track is the least dangerous or damaged. Stations, always a danger spot, should be carefully checked out and a foot sweep is almost mandatory.

Back to Metro: Exodus.
While I like the game you can't really lounge against the side of the engine, that thing is full of pipes of boiling steam and even spaced armour will get absurdly hot.

[ChalkLine]

Blockhouses

A "blocking house" is an outmoded term for any singular strongpoint that allows a small amount if troops to hold down the approaches to any area. A blockhouse differs from most positions due to its heavy nature and the small amount of troops it holds. Notably a blockhouse does not hold the element that patrols its area.
The primary role of a Blockhouse is domination. A Blockhouse can restrict avenues of approach, they can overawe settlements and they minimise the numbers of troops needed in these roles.

They suffer from some serious problems in Twilight 2000 in that light automatic cannon on mobile platforms are still common as are rocket propelled grenades. As these systems are all mobile and have engagement ranges far in excess of the average 1,300m engagement range of the Polish theatre* they can be engaged by direct fire with destructive effect. This means the standard military Blockhouse will change in form but not role.

The need for a two or more story structure remains. However the lower element will be the main fighting position and the upper element will be a lighter observation platform. Due to the prevalence of accurate point fire systems such as designated marksman rifles all observation should be by either periscope or camouflaged observation positions. During combat these positions should be evacuated.

Blockhouses differ from many positions in that they do not have external supporting works. There are usually no external fire trenches or gun pits to cover the work's flanks as there is simply too small a garrison to occupy them. A blockhouse instead usually relies heavily on belts of mines and obstacles to delay attackers until a ready reserve can arrive or the position falls .

Blockhouses are not a universal answer to low troops numbers. In many cases a commander will prefer a normal position designed to be evacuated when under pressure as a delaying and alert measure. A Blockhouse is usually only erected when a small unit must fight in place and cannot retreat while awaiting relief.

Use in the game.

The enemy will erect Blockhouses on the final approaches to vital settlements or along supply routes. Players will encounter these tough nuts when they're getting too close to a main force unit. As blockhouses are often resupply points for patrols and radio relay stations they will be defended with more than usual persistence.

These positions make a good starting point for non-Kalisz campaigns. The players can be a patrol checking in on a Blockhouse or the tiny microcosm of mismatched troops dropped in the Blockhouse and told hold down a sector. Later they hear that their parent unit is being overrun, has an internal revolution or some other thing that pushes them out of the position and onto the road. They can also be a position the players are put in if they make it back to allied lines and you are not using something similar to Operation Omega. This keeps them in a good spot, gives them a forward fighting position largely up to their own devices and still lets them go to the parent unit for some R&R.

(*This is from a Cold War Warsaw Pact estimate)

[ChalkLine]

2000ad Winter Die-Off

In our nice, well supported lives with amazing just-in-time civilian logistical systems and established infrastructure we tend to view winter as an interesting turning of the seasons whereas for people in a devastated world without support, stores or communications the implacable onset of winter, nuclear or not, is viewed with a sense of sick, helpless dread.

Currently I'm thinking the death rate from exposure, illness and malnutrition among survivors across nuclear Poland will be on the order of 25%+ and in some regions far higher. This should be the worst winter in human history for death, exceeding such times as various famines and epidemics. This is due to the fact that in many places the extreme effects of no-holds-barred Hot War will have wiped the landscape clean of not only life but the means of supporting life. Simply put, anyone who tries to stay in these zones is doomed.

Gas attacks contaminate the ground, not only making cropping poisonous if even possible (and the survivors have no way of knowing their meagre crops are contaminated) but also incapable of supporting game. Nuclear strikes litter the areas with heavy metals such as iodine, cobalt and others that continue to contaminate the area. This hidden killer, undetectable without equipment (although the OCP, Poland's Civil Defence Units, had a large amount of these) will kill for centuries. Finally the much underestimated bioweapons and mother nature's homegrown horrors tend to thrive in winter environments as sanitation is generally poorer, survivors huddle together in small environments and desperate and infected people are made into refugees who flee famine and infect others until they are literally met with violence.

Yet it is famine that kills the most. Marauder groups almost never have enough supplies and by definition their survival tactic is purely to take what little anyone else has until they scour the area around them and then have to move on. Food preservation is a difficult and dangerous science, before the modern era it was one of the vital tasks of the female gender role to the point where armies took their women with them on the march, and getting it wrong means trying to reclaim spoiled food: often a lethal "Hobbe's Choice". Military units who's main concept of interaction with the world is often brute force tend to stock up on food by viewing it as the strategic resource it is. They might ruthlessly triage civilians and even troops as "useful mouths" and "useless mouths", expelling those that threaten the whole, adding to those adrift in the snows.

For those on the move seeking food there is usually no good outcomes no matter what actions they take. Some of the harsh winters during The Hundred Years Wars saw the annihilation of entire regions that along with the Black Plague did not recover even thin population densities for three centuries. Attempting to fight for food puts these people up against those who are willing to fight to keep it. Looking for food is pointless; the secret of success is finding, producing and holding onto food well in advance of winter.

So what do the players do in this dismal setting

Hopefully they will only be dimly aware of most of it, much of what they discover of the situation will only be apparent in the spring. However they will constantly come across three situations, all similar. This is either civilians, marauders or military units looking for food.

As noted above they are vectors of disease. In a previous post I also mentioned that food intake has to be higher for combat situations, so players will want to limit these at all costs. Finally there's some simply awful choices to make.

Marauders are easy; everyone hates bandits no matter where they come from and they can be dealt with out of hand. Military units are more of a problem, they will view the players as a tactical problem and of course can choose when and how to attack within a certain window, giving them the tactical initiative. Attacking civilians are rare, instead they will simply implore the players to help and may just try and stay as at least under the player's defence area it is safer than elsewhere.

Some things can happen to the players to force them out into the countryside. Raids aimed at their supplies might penetrate their position and even if they don't take any supplies the food store might be damaged in the process. Food spoilage might occur, even "domestic food" has a shelf life and sudden levels of wastage might force the players to head off to a rumoured food source. Finally they might take pity on another group and seek out food for them (I would immensely reward players risking themselves for this)

[ChalkLine]

Safe at last!

So, the PCs have fought their way across the hell of Twilight 2000 and have re-joined a military unit. Now, they can rest and get back to soldiering, getting ordered around and inevitably losing a lot of their agency . . . .

We can't have that now, can we

First off, the good bits. The PCs should be rewarded. They shouldn't strive for something and be penalised for doing what they were expected to do. They probably have a lot of stuff they've accumulated and you want to prune that away. I'd do so but reward them by upgrading a significant bit of kit. Have the unit gift them something hardcore like an M2 Bradley if you feel the need to take a bunch of stuff away so they don't feel cheated.

Now, do some housecleaning. Players operate best when they are mean and lean. Cutting away NPCs and excess vehicles/kit makes them have to actually get out in the weeds and adventure again rather than just detailing a bunch of drones to do stuff for them. Don't kill these people off, send them elsewhere so the players are a small tight unit once again.

Now, time to pull the house down.

The unit they rejoin has a much-respected commander and a few sub commanders. You can crib wildly off RE Howard's Conan books here by making each of these sub commanders either a NATO national and/or specialist troop type. Each of them has adherents, fiercely loyal to themselves (this is in all Conan's intrigues). Take the time to let the PCs get to know these people. Now, something happens. Maybe Spetznaz/partisans get in and kill the commander. Maybe there's an internal revolution. Maybe one sub commander kills another and the overall commander dies in the crossfire. However the CO is dead and that's vital as he was the glue that held everyone together.

At some point one guy who may or may not be the guilty party fingers the players as the cause. The unit dissolves into internecine fighting but significantly all parties are gunning for the players. The fact that a civil war is going on means they can't combine to take the players out in a coherent fashion and gives the PCs time to slip away and hit the road again, maybe whacking one of the treacherous bastards on the way out and increasing the mayhem.

[ChalkLine]

Remember the "Giraffe" Abrams 🙂

If you like things like that there was also a slew of oddities on the other side, probably the closest that came to fruition was Obyekt 195 "T-95", a truly frightening monster of an MBT mounting a 152mm smoothbore gun and featuring many of the aspects that would come to pass on the T-14 "Armata" such as the turbocharged diesel engine and remote turret.

While it seemed fairly unlikely at the time it was a possible rare tank that might have been fielded in small numbers. It's unknown if it was to have the same heavy IFV and APC versions that the T-14 has it but would definitely work in close coordination with the most up to date Soviet versions.

It would have featured either a prototype Relikt ERA or the existing Kontakt-5 ERA. It had a funky 30mm co-axial automatic cannon, Shtora-1 laser jammer and Drozd active counter measures as well as the first Russian thermographic system.

Its backbone is the 152 mm 2A83 smoothbore gun, now awaiting further development. This is no low velocity gun but a special system with a long-throw autoloader so it could fire very long-rod APFSDS rounds, heavy ATGMs equal to Hellfire or TOW and honking great HE or HEAT rounds.

All in all it would have been a bad thing to have on the other side. In real life it was deferred as too many parts were sourced from successor states so a total redesign was done that put it back until now.

(Note that Paul Mulcahy's site has old data but the armour should be right)

[ChalkLine]

Q: What sort of tents did the Soviets use
A: None.

Actually, that's a lie. The Soviet army did use tents but they were mandated for use only in night marches.

Instead they used Dugouts.

(Note these are not fortifications but accommodation even though they do allow some protection from fragments.)

Each Motor Rifle Section would prepare a dugout and it should be able to be completed within 24 hours while still standing watches etc. It requires a total of 100 man hours work using the following components:

12 x 2.5 m poles (sourced locally)
70 x 6.0 m poles (sourced locally)
120 x 5.5 m planks (sourced locally)
12 x 2.0m poles (sourced locally)
5m3 spruce branches (sourced locally)
8 kg wire
2 x roofing iron
1 x field oven
1 x door
1 x window

These 1 metre-deep positions had a triangular roof made of 3cm to 5cm round logs laid over 5cm to 11cm supports and then covered by a layer of clay 15cm to 25cm thick and then covered by turf. The supports would be either nailed or wired together.

A normal individual can stand upright inside the dugout and each bed is 30cm to 60cm wide and 1.8m long. Duffel bags are placed at the head of the bed.

Winterisation is achieved by the application of more clay on the end walls and drainage ditches around the position. Many dugouts had electrical power sourced form a generator position.

While this dugout was standard other sizes existed, some capable of housing a motorised rifle platoon.

[ChalkLine]

The Vistula to Warta water route.

Next time your PCs are playing through Pirates of the Vistula they might want to know that at Bydgoszcz on the Vistula there's a canal that runs in a dead straight east-west line towards the Notec River. The Notec is a tributary of the Warta which is a tributary of the Oder and at that point they're back in friendly lines (or so they think).

Now, this isn't going to be easy. For a start this looks like a really good supply line for Warsaw Pact units. Bydgoszcz is listed as a devastated ruin (nearly always a campaign in their own right) and is 50km downriver from (ie: they have to go past) the Soviet 22nd Cavalry Army HQ at Torun along with the Soviet 96th Cav. If they somehow get past this impressive force and its widespread reinforcements then they can sneak into Bydgoszcz and see if the canal is still open. Now, Bydgoszcz and the canal is where the Soviet 207th Motorized Rifle Division fell to bits. According to the rules only a few of the components became marauders and the rest seem to have realised the realities of the situation and have just became locals. This makes a good place to transit.

The river continues on east through wild country and then suddenly heads south. During this phase you start to meet Polish units. Now, as there's Polish Free legion activity in this area it might be pretty hostile to say the least as these two powers vie for control with the balance of power being on the Polish People's Army's side. Unfortunately the Notec runs right past Czarnkow where it heads west again and under a town bridge, Czarnkow being the home turf of the 2nd Polish Army HQ! (I told you this might be a supply line . . . ) The 2nd Poles have only their own security units with them but the surrounding region is soaked with Polish units. This might still be doable if the players have evaded any previous pursuit, kept a low profile recently and go hard and don't stop until they're out of the location. However the Poles certainly aren't stupid and if the players are detected at all they'll know a boat can't get off the river and they will go looking for them. However the Notec often has little parallel courses running alongside it on Google Maps and the players can pull some cool cat and mouse stuff here. If they are detected though they're going through the AO of the Polish 17th Cav who will not be happy to see them. However the 17th are light on heavy units and spread thin so once again not getting bogged down might work here.

However, all good things must pass. After this the river runs a west south west course and runs straight into some of the heavier Soviet units in the barrier positions and almost certainly becomes a supply line if it already isn't. The hard part is done though, once through the Polish 17th Cav the way north west to NATO lines is free of known WarPact units and is only a howling desolation of ruins that is the Oder-Warta Valley.

Now, if this is a supply line as I've been talking about it can still be done. Supply lines are not only goodies going forwards but they are also goodies going back, and these might be NATO equipment both large and small and even NATO POWs. A bit of actual river piracy suits most PCs quite well and lying up before storming WarPact vessels for some gripping boarding actions to get resupply might be fun. Actions do get reactions though and if you want to see quick reactions from a unit just interdict its supply line and see what happens. Even if these lines are only token things they are still vital, I'd say a lot of these units that fragment had supply cut off shortly beforehand.

[ChalkLine]

A universal Player Character Vehicle Table as an alternative to the other excellent one already here