"Separate Assault Rifle Battalions of the Red Army" Topic

(not by me, quoting--this is from a longer piece)

By John Astell

I've recently discovered a new type of Red Army unit I was not familiar with: special assault rifle battalions. The fall into a special category between the shtraf units and regular Red Army units.

The shtraf units contained soldiers who had committed serious offenses but could redeem their honor "through blood". These units were given extremely hazardous missions, such as spearheading the opening assaults of offensive. They already exist in Scorched Earth as 1-6 Punitive units, and I've covered their history previously.

After the Soviets won the Battle of Kursk in 1943, the Red Army went over to the offensive and soon began permanently liberating territory that the Germans had occupied for some time. The NKVD set up filtration camps to screen Soviet citizens in the liberated territory. People who had collaborated with the enemy were punished (including execution, internal exile, or being sent to the GULag sentenced to two consecutive 10-year terms). Others were simply drafted into the Red Army. Many were judged not guilty of offenses against the USSR and remained in place.

There was one group, however, that was rather suspect: Red Army officers who had lived in the occupied territories who had not joined the partisans but were not found to have collaborated, either. In the Soviet view, there was no good reason why these trained military officers did not join the partisans. On 1 August 1943, Stalin issued a decree ordering the Red Army to form separate assault rifle battalions composed of these officers. The battalions were intended "for use on the most active sectors of the front" and would give the officers the opportunity to "prove their loyalty to the Motherland with weapons in their hands". The NKVD was tasked with finding these officers and sending them to the Red Army for service in the battalions. Sometimes, the Soviets discovered that the NKVD sent an officer to a battalion only later to discover he had actually collaborated with the enemy. He would be removed from the battalion and subjected to punishment for treason.

…

(Many more details and TO&E follow.)

Thanks EMCKinney, I am looking forward to the rest of the story!

From part 2:

People serving in these battalions were informally known as sturmbatovtsy, meaning "assault-battalionists". Since even the privates were trained officers, the assault battalions had very good combat abilities. However, the battalions were given the most hazardous mission combat and suffered high losses. One battalion supposedly lost 75% of its personnel after just a few days of combat. Another battalion took 90% casualties (killed or wounded) in a battle. The remaining 10% were then all processed for release back to regular Red Army units.

TBeyer, that was a fragment of the article. You can join the classiceuropa group on groups.io or what for John to publish it, somewhere, someday, maybe.

You can also find his magnum opus on Soviet Energy During the Great Patriotic War in the group archive. It's effectively a small book, and incredibly revealing.

That is fascinating, thanks, although Tbh I'd probably just treat them as other punishment battalions for game purposes although I guess they rate a higher quality rating.