5-vehicle T-35 platoons?

[Afro Thunder]

So, does anyone else find it a little... unusual, and maybe even bizarre that T-35 platoons come with a strength of 5? They surely can't have 5 tanks in each platoon, can they? That would mean that there would be 15 tanks to a company, which seems very excessive to me, especially since there were less than a hundred of those beasts in existence.

Maybe the 5 SP's represents the many turrets, and one platoon is actually just vehicle. Anyone else have any opinions?

[Legion]

Thunder,

Hehe, who knows what the Russians were thinking when they took these land-whales into action....but keep in mind, in the early-war period Russian tanks rarely had radios and command was excercised by the use of hand-signals or even flags! Larger platoons made it easier to implement this follow-the-leader approach to command.

As for your age - It warms my heart that there are young guys still taking up our great hobby! I was younger than you when I first started, and while I may not have grandkids yet, if I ever do I hope to be their first game partner! Welcome!

Legion

[Afro Thunder]

Hey, thanks for the welcome. Man, I really need to get some more PBEM games in.

Any way, as to the T-35s, I read on battlefield.ru that these vehicles were assigned to one heavy tank brigade before the war began, so I guess I can see how they can have 5-vehicle platoons.

[Digger]

They actually made around 61 T-35's. 59 were listed as operational on June 22nd 1941. Most (38) were allocated to the 34th TD which was engaged in the SouthWest Front, (11) were allocated to the 12th TD, both of 8th Mech Corps. The remainder (8-10)were kept around Moscow.

90% actually broke down before seeing action, due to transmission failure or other mechanical issues. All of the 34th TD and most of the 12 TD T-35's were listed as non-operational or lost by 9th July 41.

2 surviving 8th Mech Corps T-35's were were used as Static pillboxes in the defense of Kharkov. The T-35's in Moscow were not used in combat, though several still managed to break down

After 1941 only 4 of the original 59 remained, these stayed in Moscow for the duration of the war.

5 Vehicles was pretty much a Russian standard in 1941, with a few exceptions, for a heavy or light tank company. In reality though you would be lucky to see more than 1-2 at once in combat, as the rest would most likely be non-starters.

There is little doubt these vehicles are over represented in CS EF scenarios. Not surprisingly the Germans made no attempt to use these heaps of junk. Regardless of the actual OOB, these vehicles were so bad that they really should only be represented as 2 vehicle platoons in CS IMHO, though 1 would be more realistic as it is doubtful that vehicles of this size would have been able to cooridinate in any real fashion.

Perhaps a 1 and a 2 vehicle platoon could be added for the Matrix edition.

Great for parades, but in reality little else.

Matt