Soviet reconnaissance, artillery, and Air defence

[JDR Dragoon]

The danish word for "Advance Guard" wouldn't that be "fortrop?"
I'm still civilian until next year, so just curious ? :)

Heh, no. The military term is "Forspids" (a platoon sized) which will then put out a squad sized "Forpatrulje". Fortrop is a general term which can be used for almost anything.

But does that mean that the different units (Recon group etc.) complement the regimental advance guard or do you mean they replace THE actual battalion sized advance guard?

You are mixing different things up. Let´s look it over:

At divisional and army level the soviet army deploy Reconnaisance Battalions. This consists of 2 companies equipped w. a 50/50 mix of BRMs and BMPs and a single company equipped w. BRDMs. The BRM/BMP have some combat capability from the BMPs missiles and dismounts. They elso employ ground search radar mounted on the BRMs ("Little Fred") and might also organizationally have a platoon of tanks each (used to be PT-76 light tanks, but more modern units might have better vehicles). The BRDM equipped unit has no combat power to speak of and relies solely on "stealth" and on its dismounted scouts sneaking about. Each company might be assigned one major route or area to scout out ahead of its parent formation. The job of this battalion is primarily to scout. It can fight (a bit) but it is not really capable of independent offensive action except against a weak opponent. If they meet any real resistance they radio in the contact and then either stops to monitor the enemy (dansk: Fastholde fjenden) or tries to go around (dansk:Omgå fjenden). The army and division commander can of course reinforce the battalion with extra tanks and motorrifle troops from his lead division/regiment or from an independent Tank Regiment/battalion if he wishes to increase its combat potential, but their primary organisational role remains reconnaisance. As a rule of thumb these units are far out ahead of the combat regiments and don´t really have much to do with them most of the time. Ideally their job will be to get behind the enemy frontline (especially the "stealthy" BRDMs) where they will then begin to send in reports about such things as helicopter FARPs, supply dumps, HQs, enemy reserves, ballistic missiles and suchlike.

Then you have the regiments of they division. This comes in either the Motorrifle or Tank variety. The lead regiment(s) of the division will typically be reinforced with divisional artillery and engineer support. This (or these) regiments will build the divisional Advance Guard. Either of these regiment types has a reconnaisance company with a platoon of mixed BRM/BMPs and a platoon of BRDMs (this unit is not represented in DF85). This recon company, plus the lead battalion of the regiment (reinforced with an attached company of tanks/infantry as applicable) plus an engineer platoon (not represented in the game), parts of the regimetal AA company (a couple of ZSU 23-4s) and a single artillery battery builds the regimental advance guard.

This Advance Guard (Or Reconnaisance Detachment if you will) then pushes out a Company (++) sized unit out in front of it (the Reconnaisance Group you talk about). This Company(+) sized unit consists of a cross reinforced Motorrifle/Tank company (w. a platoon of tanks/infantry attached), the Regimental Recon Company, 2 Howitzers, the engineer platoon and the ZSUs (leaving 2 cross reinforces companies plus 4 howitzers in reserve. One of these companies might be tasked with advancing as flank security on a parallel route).

The Advance Guard then pushes a further subunit out in front of itself (the seperate recon patrol). This consists of the entire recon company plus a reinforced tank/infantry platoon (reinforced by an engineer squad, plus 1-2 tanks/squads of infantry). The recon company spreads out ahead in "packets" of 1-2 vehicles and scouts out alternative secondary routes and areas of interest, while the reinforced platoon drives down the main route of advance.

But how does this work in practice?

Well, the commander of the lead regiment is listening on the divisional radio net (and perhaps even on the net of the divisional reconnaisance battalion). From this source he might get a hint of what lies ahead of him and he can deploy accordingly. But lets say that the dedicated army/divisional reconnaisance either misses the enemy or the enemy drives into the area/emerges after the reconnaisance have passed through the area, but before the regiment arrives:

-The regimental recon company might begin radioing in contact reports or parts of it might be engaged in outright combat.

-The seperate recon patrol will then try to "open up" the march route if it is blocked by enemy forces or obstacles discovered by the recon company or it might be engaged by enemy forces previously unspotted who are blocking the marchroute with their fire (and perhaps obstacles). If it is unable to do this a sort of pancake effect then happens, as the element coming up from behind reinforces the attack (the rest of the reinforced company, 2 howitzers, the engineers and the ZSUs). If these also fails to breakthrough the rest of the force then comes up and tries again (1-2 reinforced companie(s) plus the rest of the artillery). If they also fail, the Advance Guard will try to hold the enemy, while the regimental commander then decides what to do next. Typically he might try to flank the defenders or if the resistance is especially heavy he might want to switch his advance to another route of march (this has to be OK´ed with the divisional commander though)

Do you see the idea? The regimental commander only commits 1/3 of his assets at most and retains freedom of maneuver with the rest. The Advance Guard also scouts and does reconnaisance of course, but its primary job is to ensure that the regiment (or large parts of it) is not decisively engaged. Each of the above steps gives him the possibility of assessing the enemy force and take appropriate countermeasures without endangering the majority of his forces. This approach also prevents the combat power of the regiment being lost to an ambush or such that hits the regiment while it is still in travel mode on a single road and not spread out. The rest of the division coming up behind this regiment also retains freedom of maneuver.

In defence the principle is the same, only the units fall back on each other instead of advancing.

1. Is it better to have sources about Soviet Organisation before 1991 or after 1991? I know after the Cold War, much information from the Soviet Army was published.

Depends on the timeframe you are looking for information on ;)