"Russian Commissar Units question" Topic

At what point did the Soviets start putting MG squads in the rear of troop formations to "encourage" them to fight harder?
Do I need to incorporate them into my Barbarossa game?

I think you certainly could – Stalin's Order No 270 in August 1941 essentially tells the commissars to use lethal force to keep the troops fighting

They certainly existed, though I'd be careful about making it a "Every time the russians take the field" thing. I've read memoirs by pretty ordinary soldiers who never saw one.

Glanz covers it a bit in one of the books I read recently that while the "blocking detachments" certainly were in use, they weren't supposed to fire on sight. If retreating troops could be rallied normally and brought back in the fight, then that was preferable.

He also mentions that as the war went on, the detachments essentially became a dumping ground for unreliable or deficient troops who would be too much of a burden in the front lines anyways.

As an interesting aside … I read a first-hand account of similar tactics used by the US Army in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor.

By the afternoon of December 7, 1941, the US Army units in Hawaii isolated the troops of the 298th and 299th Infantry (Hawaiian National Guard) and placed them under guard. These units were comprised mostly of nisei -- individuals born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrant parents.

But troops were required for deployment to the beaches to repel the Japanese invasion that was expected within hours. Of course only the most likely invasion beaches could be defended, and even then it was a pretty thin line. So all able bodies were needed.

The 298th troops were re-issued their gear and deployed to the beaches, with the 1st Battalion deploying near Bellows Field and the 2nd Battalion going to the beaches near Schoffield Barracks, under command of the 22nd Infantry Brigade. The Hawaiian guardsmen were instructed to dig-in along the fringe of the beach. They were told not to leave their foxholes due to the risk of "friendly fire" from Regular Army troops manning MGs, who were dug in 100 yards behind them.

While I have never seen any record of the orders given to the machine gunners, nor seen any first hand accounts from the non-nisei troops involved, the first hand account I have seen from one of the nisei troopers in the foxholes was quite explicit on the point that they were told those MGs were behind them to keep them in their foxholes.

Fortunately the "friendly fire" was never tested, even though a couple of the 1st Battalion nisei troops did leave their foxhole at dawn the next morning to rescue and capture Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki in the surf, an IJN midget sub commander and the only POW taken from the Pearl Harbor attack force.

*Note: Hawaiian National Guard units were primarily "nisei" -- Hawaiian-born children of Japanese immigrants. There were very few actual native Hawaiians in the military, and even fewer of European decent who had been born in the islands at that point in time.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Ok, thanx. Sounds like if I use them it might be more of a campaign type rule. (% chance that they are represented on the table, add +10% per year of the war) i.e. 10% chance in 1941, 50% chance by 1945. How does that sound?
In use, they could give ROUTED infantry +1 on their rally rolls. (remove one stand if they fail) repeat every rally phase.
I plan to play Germans in a solo campaign, one battle per every month or so of game time.

I would expect the blocking units to be more common earlier in the war. By the second half of 1943 the Red Army was always advancing. There was little need to invest forces in "creative" ways to prevent units from making unauthorized retreats.

Most of the "blocking forces" were, I believe, NKVD troops (not "commissar" units). These were a military police force. NKVD troops made up the border guards (pre-war), and during the war served as internal security troops. They also served in several sensitive military roles, such as manning the BM-8 and BM-13 salvo rocket launchers. They tended to be armed as light infantry.

So in the later half of the war you might still well see some NKVD troops guarding a bridge, a crossroads or a rail yard, or some other important transit or supply point. One might debate whether they were present to give some added backbone to the front line troops, to give depth to the line in case of enemy counter-attacks, or to defend against partisan activities. In truth it was probably a little of all, but more of the latter than the former.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Advanced Squad Leader has an option where a Commissar rallying a unit gives it a bonus (and lets it rally in circumstances where normal troops would be hard pressed to) but they get their quality downgraded if they fail.

What Mark said. These blocking detachments served a similar role to Military Police in other armies: the detachment set up a collecting point for stragglers who were then reorganized and put back into the fight. NKVD detachments were found in rear areas and guarding sensitive points; the front line blocking detachments were composed of reliable, experienced divisional troops – again, like the MP's of other armies.

Yes they interrogated anyone suspected of cowardice or desertion and the punishment wasn't a stoppage of the vodka ration, but by and large, most enlisted men lived to fight again. But woe betide you if you were an officer or showed up without your weapon and a note from your mother. "The dog ate my machine gun" wasn't considered a reasonable excuse…. link

Got it. Thanx. I think I'll give Blocking Detachments a 50% chance to be represented on board in 1941 and decrease the odds by 10% every year till 1944. They could give retreating or routing infantry a one-time +1 on their rally roll if within so many meters (100?). This would make them non-lethal (to their own troops)on the board and not be overly representative of their function in game terms. I'm not looking for a game changing role for them, but I thought it would add a little flavor to include them.