Page 1 of 1
Russian-Polish War OOBs
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 8:19 pm
by Jagger2013
I have spent the last few days trying to locate OOB's for the Russian-Polish War of 1920 on the internet. I have found a complete snapshot of the Polish Army with commanders down to the division level at the time of the battle of Warsaw in Wiki but almost nothing beyond Army fronts/commanders and armies for the Reds. So does anyone have one or more OOB's for the Red army? In particular, I am most interested in the corps commanders but the more information the better. Any additional OOB information on the Polish army would also be appreciated.
Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 9:02 pm
by Jonathan Pollard
Although I sold my copy a long time ago, the Red Star/White Eagle boardgame by GDW seemed to have a very detailed OOB. I don't remember now if it included corps commanders.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11111/red-starwhite-eagle-the-russo-polish-war-1920
Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 10:24 am
by James D Burns
I have no idea if it’s in his OOB collection or not, but George Nafziger recently donated his compiled OOB’s to the Combined Arms Research Library. Here’s a link to a PDF download that lists all the OOB’s in the collection, sift through that and see if what you need is in there. The PDF can be downloaded near the top left area of the page, don’t look for the link in the description area like me and waste a bunch of time lol.
http://cdm16040.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll11/id/1277
Did a little search using the CARL digital libraries and found this, a quick glance revealed some tables in the text with strength numbers and unit names, might be of help.
http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p4013coll14/id/978/rec/14
Jim
Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 2:54 pm
by Jagger2013
Thanks Jim! I did check Nafzigers OOB's out a couple days back and no luck. I just downloaded the document in your second link. I haven't read it yet but skimmed a couple pages and it looks like it will be very useful.
I have actually found quite a bit of information on both the Polish and Russian armies through the web and White Eagle, Red Star by Norman Davies. Tonight or sometime this week, I will post a summary of the information I have found.
Main point is the Russian "army" is a western "corps". A Red army was typically 4-5 divisions. Same as a western corps. So a Red "Army commander" is equivalent to a White "Corps commander". Polish army used same naming convention as the Red Army. A Red army is approximately the same size as a White Corps in terms of number of divisions and manpower. Reds did have some special units termed as "Corps" but they were for special semi-independent organizations of an army and were rare. For example, Tukhachevsky's Minsk army front in 1920 Poland had 4 armies totallying 18 divisions and 1 corps of 2 cavalry divisions (attached to the right flank army but often operating independently) plus one special detachment of 2 divisions (protecting the army front left flank). Thus only two "corps" commanders necessary for his army: the cavalry corps and the left flank special detachment.
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 2:44 am
by Jagger2013
Here is an interesting link on total number of Red divisions during the civil war. There were only 47 numbered divisions. It appears 9 other early war divisions were formed and then either disbanded or absorbed into one of the other 47 divisions. Not a huge number of divisions. If you assumed 10,000 men per division (on the high side), you would have a max strength of 470-560,000 men in division formations for all of Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_infantry_divisions_of_the_Soviet_Union_1917%E2%80%931957
Here is a link on the Kolchak Siberian offensive of 1919. Red army 111,000 men and White 113,000. Reds had 7 armies of which the largest appeared to be 27,000 men. Whites had 3 armies, 52,000, 48,000 and 13,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolchak_army_offensive
Posted: Wed May 21, 2014 3:01 am
by Jagger2013
Interesting. And it is only $8. I might get it for the OOB. Sadly, I don't think I could play a boardgame again.