Opinions about "Game rules as used by players"

[wulfir]

And as AFV also covers armored cars, I wonder what their usual way of operating was as their main purpose wasn't combat but recon. I have never paid much attention to that vehicle class as I'm grateful for any enlightenment.

Eike Middeldorf's 1956 book Taktik im Russlandfeldzug has some text on the use of German and Soviet Armoured Recon.

Middeldorf argues that:

1) Armoured Recon is combat.
2) The Armoured Recon Battalion must always be used as a unit, never divided up.
3) The Armoured Recon Battalion in both defence and attack is to find the strong and weak deployments of the enemy.
4) The Armoured Recon Battlion must never stubbornly hold ground where the enemy is strong but if it finds the enemy weak spot it is to hang on and create a start point for the division attack.

German Armoured Recon on the Eastern Front:

During the initial fighting in the east the Armoured Recon Battalion was too weak and often had to be paired up with the Division Motorcycle-infantry Battalion. Later Battalion organisations were established where the idea was to have a mixed unit capable of independent action. Because the German industrial capacity was insufficient the battalion organisation was still a sort of emergency solution. Often (esp. late war) the battalion was wrongly used - not for Recon - but as a mobile battlegroup or had elements detached which eroded the battalion strength and ability to perform the recon mission. Panzer-Divisions that tried to attack with weak or no recon effort usually suffered heavy losses.

The Soviet Armoured Recon on the Eastern Front:

Normally used witin a limited geographic location, and divided up into smaller recon detachments. Although fairly strong the battalion was not used for mobile operations over bigger distances.