"Organisation of IS2s " Topic

I am a complete novice when it comes to Russian Armour but having obtained quite a few Cheap IS2s and SU76s , I need some help on how to organise them.

My intention here is to cobble together a large force for FotR as we tend to play large games using the excellent Battlegroup system .

I have around 34 IS2s at my disposal and around 10 SU76s but need some guidance on how to organise them into a brigade .

Thanks guys

Iirc it was usually 21 vehicles for a heavy tank regiment, often attached to a tank corps. However larger formations were used later, sure someone will give you the full details

Wow – That's a lot of IS2s.

I think they were in independent heavy tank units.

5 to a company. 2 platoons of 2 and 5th tank as company hq.

Small units but the Soviets only put 10 medium tanks in a company so it seems reasonable.

I don't know home many companies per battalion/brigade.

Hopefully someone who does will be along shortly.

Yeah that is a lot of IS2s . But at £2.00 GBP per model ( see thread Cheap Russian Armour) They didn't cost a lot. That's why I want to get them organised so I can get rid of any surplus or buy some more if needed whilst they are still available.

Thanks for your input so far guys

Blimey, that's some dedicated The Works visiting… ;-)

As above, IS-2s were organised into independant heavy tank regiments, 4 companies of 2 x 2 tank platoons plus 1 company HQ tank (so 5 in total per company) plus 1 Bn HQ for 21 in the whole regiment.

Later in the war, some heavy breakthrough brigades were formed, with three such 21 tank regiments plus 2 in Bde HQ for a total of 65.

iirc SU-76s operated in batteries of four, five such batteries to a battalion but I can't actually remeber.

On the money Martin. :-) SU-76 organisations varied a bit by date and whether they were independent or not, but most boiled down to 5 batteries of 4 or later 4 batteries of 5, with an RHQ vehicle for 21 in total, although later a T-70 tank often replaced the command one. The armchair general site has a great page on them:

link

Thanks guys. decisions decisions . I may try and push for that breakthrough brigade as I am over half way there as I havn't included the Pegasus models that I have in my stash as well.

At the moment I would say I have enough for 2 heavy tank regiments.

There really weren't many breakthrough brigades, iirc three or something like that. The independant regiments were vastly more common.

The IS-2s were commonly split up among the units they were supporting….

(so e.g. a Tank Corps with an attached IS-2 regiment may well end up with a company of IS-2s with each tank brigade).

That does seem to make a lot of sense. Hordes of IS2s would seem to be overkill and a waste of resources.

That said – if the OP wants to build and field a brigade of IS2s why not. No more unlikely than the large units of Tigers and Panthers we see all the time.

In 20mm, they're going to need a lot of table space!

Bear in mind, as always, that "Regiment of 21 tanks on paper" doesn't always translate to "21 tanks in the field" after a few weeks of combat :-)

We do play on a very large table in the club house when we have our large battles . I have always wanted to do a 1 to 1 scale large unit and I think the cheapness of the models now makes it a reality rather than fantasy . If I could have got enough T34/85s together then this would have been my preferred choice.

I also think it would look quite impressive as well. It could also be used in campaigns as well .

Thanks again guys for your input much appreciated.