Helping Test New Danube Front Update

[JDR Dragoon]

Suggested corrections to the WAPA parts of the OOB. Some of these are definite musts (like the TIS equipped T80s....), others are more points of debate.

WAPA in general:


-There are quite a lot of Army Group HQs (Fronts) hanging around. The OOB has a grand total of 5 Front HQs for WAPA that starts the game on-table (HQ Maritime Front is off-map). 2 Soviet (HQ GSFG, HQ CGF), 1 East German, 1 Polish, and 1 Czechoslovakian. The soviet HQs of course leads soviet units, while the WAPA allies each leads their respective national contingents. The problem here is, that this leads to over-utilization of one front HQs, who have a larger span of control than most of the others combined (HQ GSFG, controlling 5 armies), while some of the other Front HQs are barely utilized (HQ NVA as the best example, followed by HQ CGF). In addition, having each allied contingent under its own nationl Front HQ also presents problems, since these units might be advancing in radically different strategic directions. For instance, the NVA Front HQ starts near Berlin, controlling some of the units there, but also exercises control over an NVA army advancing to the north or west, up into the Jutland peninsula or along the North Sea coast, plus another NVA army advancing directly west in direction Bonn. Needless to say, this Front HQ cannot exercise efficient control over its constituent parts. This goes for almost all Front HQs apart from the Czechoslovakian and the CGF, whose divisions and armies start conveniently close to each other and are unlikely to stray. A likely solution here would be to change the allegiance of some of these armies to other Front HQs, so that each front on average controls 3 armies depending on strategic direction (so the polish front HQ might get the polish 1st army, the NVA 5th Army, the soviet 2 GTA and possibly the NGF as well). Nothing in our extant exercises suggests that the NVA was supposed to form its own Front by the way.


Soviet specific:

-The presence of the soviet Maritime units (Baltic Naval Infantry Brigade, Naval Spetznaz battalion) on this part of the map and in this context is contentious. We know from east German and polish exercises, that from the 1970s and onwards, the Naval Infantry brigade had no planned contingency mission in the western baltic. This might mean, that it would be used against Sweden or Finland, or possibly reserved for an invasion of southern Norway during the later parts of the war. The same goes for the Naval Spetznaz: They are much more likely found trying to fix limpet mines to danish minelayers or scouting out likely landing beaches than swanning around the Jutland Peninsula (besides, if soviet naval special forces are present, why are their NATO counterparts not?). Besides, given the current setup of the stock scenarios, there are more than enough WAPA deception units to go around.

-It is likely that some of the army level 130mm M46 gun battalions would have been replaced with 2S5 self-propelled or 2a36 towed 152mm guns by 1985, but I do not know which units.

-T80 equipped battalions in Motorrifle Regiments have Thermal Sights (example: 94th GMRD/2GTA, 39GMRD/8GA), whereas the ones in Tank Regiments doesn´t. Surely this is an oversight, and the THermal Sights should be deleted.



Polish specific:

-In most of the exercises we have extant, both the polish Airborne Division and Naval Division had no wartime role on this part of the map. They might profitably be left out of scenarios untill the relevant parts of the map has been included in the game (danish islands east of the Great Belt).

-One of the polish mechanized division (plus attending army/front level engineer and artillery assets) would likely have been earmarked as a follow on force for the invasion of the danish isles east of the Great Belt. Units commensurate with this number can thus be left out of the main scenario(s).



East German Specific:

-In most exercises from the late 1960s and forward, the East German units with amphibious training were slated for another war destination (invasion of danish isles south of Zealand). They can thus be left out of the current scenario untill this part of the map is present. If they are to be seperated from their parent division in this way, they should get their own HQ or simply be directly subordinated to a superior HQ with a long command range.

-Nothing, apart from the notorius defector and liar "Suvorov", suggests that the so called "Diversionary Battalion 40" equipped with NATO equipment ever existed. Very few of the vechiles this unit was supposed to have has been found after 1990 either, and no trace of it exists in NVA OOBs. It can thus be deleted (due to the current setup it starts too far away from the NVA Front HQ as well, and thus has no way of recuperating from "Low/Fuel" ammo when playing w. VST).

-The number of NVA Mi-24 Hinds is about twice as big as it should (KHG-3 had 19 Mi-24 and 13 Mi-8TB in 1986 for instance).

-The army level artillery of both NVA armies represents peacetime strenghts. Mobilization should add another two 130mm gun battalions plus two additional rocket artillery battalions (I don´t know for how long the NVA persisted in using the BM-240 though).