SOVIET INFANTRY SQUAD TACTICS IN WORLD WAR II

Introduction

The following is a brief survey of squad-level tactics employed by the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The survey is designed to help re-enactors accurately portray operations of Russian infantry soldiers; it is not intended to be a comprehensive manual for military training.

Not a lot of material on tactics has been included, due to the fact that not many Soviet soldiers got a lot of tactical training. As the course of the war ground along, men were drafted into the army, given a uniform and where possible weapons and sent straight to the front. Any training he received, the Soviet soldier got in transit to a front-line unit or upon assignment to a squad at the front. The attrition rate was so high, there was just time to get men to front-line units, training was on a strict catch-as-can-catch basis. The end of the war killed an estimated 29 million Russian soldiers killed in action.

Military Formations
The Squad Rank

The first thing soldiers in any army do after being rolled out of bed is to fall in for morning Formation. Formation is the start of the official army day. This is where the basic leader of any military system - the squad leader - finds out how many men he has available, where the missing ones are, who's sick, lame or lazy, and reports this information up to the next higher level of the unit, the platoon, which then passes this information up to the company commander.

The soldier's world, as far as he can see, begins with the squad and ends with the company. Everything else, from battalion level on up to the Chairman of Stavka (Soviet equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is a distraction with generally unpleasant results for him.

It follows then; that the first thing the soldier learns is the squad rank, in which he finds himself first thing in the military morning. Upon hearing the command "Fall in" he stumbles out of the barracks after taking care of the various bodily functions and grooming, the soldier sees his squad leader standing in the company street, holding his left arm straight out to his side at shoulder level. This is an invitation and order from the squad leader for the soldier to move up alongside the squad leader, so that his right shoulder touches the squad leaders out held fingertips.

The soldier then imitates his squad leader's action by holding out his arm to the side at shoulder height so that his comrade next in line can for-mate on him in the same manner - and so it goes until all nine men of the squad are fallen in.

When the whole company has performed this feat, it has achieved the Morning Formation. At this Formation, all are accounted for, information on the day's activities are passed to the troops, and jobs are assigned. The company is then dismissed for breakfast, after which it is formed again, then the day's activities commence.

It is important to know that the order of the squad formation is not random, based upon the speed of members getting out of the barracks and into line. The first position in the squad rank is that of the squad leader, naturally enough. Falling in on the squad leader's left is the machine gunner, and next to him, his assistant gunner. Immediately to the left of the assistant machine-gunned, the squad guide/observer, and the assistant squad leader falls in. Then the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth riflemen fall in, resulting in the squad rank of nine men.

Here we have our infantry squad neatly dressed, and at the correct interval of one arms-length between each member. The rule invariably is fall in on the left of the man preceding you in position. If you are rifleman #3, fall in to the left of rifleman #2.

At any time, anywhere, the command "fall in" is heard this sequence is repeated. It is the basic military evolution.

Assuming that every other squad in the platoon has achieved this level of military competence, the platoon formation of four nine-man rifle squads - four squad ranks could be formatted within one minute of the command "fall in" being given.

This brings us to the next level of military competence required of the rifleman; the Squad Column.

The Squad Column or File

The column is the basic movement formation for military units.

The column or file involves getting all personnel in a formation in the situation of following behind the man ahead of him in the formation.

This is accomplished very simply by giving the command "Right Face" while the squad is in the facing-to-the-front squad rank formation.

All facing commands are two-part commands. That is, there is a preparatory command alerting the formation, to which direction it will be turning, then a command of execution telling the formation to execute the command.

For the movement Right Face, the preparatory command is "Right....", followed by the execution command "Face."

Upon hearing the preparatory command "Right....", the soldier prepares to pivot on his right heel and left toes by slightly lifting his right toes and left heel.

At the execution command "Face", the soldier swivels on his right heel and left toes, through a 90-degree (right) angle to his right. Immediately upon achieving this quarter-circle movement, the soldier brings his left heel up level with and in contact with his right heel in a smart that is smart, movement.

The former rank, with all soldiers facing to the front, has been converted into a column or file, with all soldiers in line behind their formation precedents. The column or columns may now be given the "Forward March" command, putting the formation into motion.