The Great Patriotic War

wuffer said:

Liked your concept of recruiting some garrisons before, even as an emergency-built second-line-unit they could be valuable in the defense of strategic important cities and surrounding hexes. But they have to rely on tsaristic rifles, I'm afraid?

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One of the many things I like about HOI is the way you can set up feedback loops. In this case the garrison units are useful in their own right, but so is the ability to generate a load of cheap Militia units that are little but speed bumps in combat - the advantage is especially in areas where the front gets spread out they can hinder the German advance just by sitting on the flanks of their offensives.

I tend to use the Garrisons in ports, so the only tech they get is defensiveness. My logic is they are not really there to win a battle but to be an annoyance and survive as long as poss. Decent defense techs+naval forts and decent terrain adds up to something that is quite hard to shift. If the Militia survive, I'll upgrade to rifle divisions later on.

wuffer said:

@ VVS
in the right hands a hornets' nest... BTW, a lot of otherwise superb AARs of a well known WW2-game suffer from the absurd high stacking penalities by default: Was the VVS handicaped by 10 % or 2,5 %?

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Stuyvesant said:

The airforce... Well, you have the technology. Can you overcome the deficit in doctrines by concentrating your planes, or does that run afoul of the aforementioned stacking penalties?

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I tend to use airwings of 3 which is a reasonable trade off between not being bounced for being too small and escaping the worst stacking penalties. Then if two wings end up in the same province its tolerable.

In the early stages of the war, I've managed not to lose air superiority, which isn't bad as the Luftwaffe is not having to defend the Reich against British bombers. It means in practice that I get bombed a lot but never to the extent that I lose a battle I'd have otherwise won, so not too bad.

Stuyvesant said:

So I take it from your comments that the submarines will perform to satisfaction.

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Enewald said:

Sell your navy for supplies.

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I'm surprised how useful they are, the Rumanians in particular are very vulnerable to having their convoys sunk, so that must be a good diversion of their IC to replace the lost shipping.
Ummh, problem with the 'sell the navy' model is my only allies are Mongolia, Tannu and Sinkiang, none of whom have much of a coastline . Anyway I may yet get to try an invasion of the USA for the third time and for that I do need ships ... or a very friendly Mexico, or both?

Soviet Industrial and Research Policy

Editors notes –The bulk of this chapter has been extracted from an Economic History of the USSR, 1918-1974: Volume 2: The Impact of War 1939-1950, edited by I. Danilov and P. Vinogradov. In particular from their chapter: To the edge of War, September 1939 – July 1941

In theory the USSR commenced a third Five Year plan in 1938. In effect it soon became little more than a build up of the Soviet armed forces in anticipation of war. The emphasis was less on the creation of new industrial plants especially once the decree of 4 September shifted production to the military equipment. However, the party leadership held off removing the last vestiges of civilian production until after the German invasion in June 1941.

The first two plans had seen the creation of new factories, industrial centres and sources of power, across the USSR.


(Dniepr Dam)

(Magnitogorsk Steel Works)

This new industrial plant and power production led to a substantial level of industrial output.


(Soviet Industrial Output: 1940, selected items)

However, there were several weaknesses in how this new capacity was located. Partly, too much was still concentrated around Leningrad, Moscow and along the lower Dneipr. A secondary weakness was that the new industrial centres in the Urals and Central Asia were only poorly connected by rail to the rest of the USSR. This led to inefficiencies in both assigning raw materials and extracting completed production.


(Rail Net, Western USSR)

This shows the two main problems with the Soviet rail network in 1940. That everything was effectively linked through Moscow and the very poor network stretching down into Central Asia.

At the Eighteenth Party Congress in February 1941, emphasis had been placed on the need to increase both output and productive efficiency so as to meet the escalating demands of the RKKA. This led to a considerable research effort designed to extract more production from existing plant:


(Soviet Industrial Technology July 1941)

This table shows the considerable effort that was expanded on industrial technologies from 1939 to 1941. This, and changes to labour discipline, led to a steady expansion of the Industrial Capacity available to support the Soviet armed forces:


(Growth in Industrial Capacity Sept 39-June 41)

Slowly, even despite almost 30% of all production being allocated to upgrading existing formations, Soviet industry geared up for war. The practical experience of the Winter War was a boost to production of new aircraft and the decision to upgrade many existing armoured brigades forced Soviet industry to learn how to mass produce armour.


(this table shows the gains from both production and research as well as experience gained in the Winter War)

In general, the pre-war build up of infantry, armour and artillery all led to significant gains in practical expertise that in turn led to new equipment being developed.

One area of continued problem was the production of oil. Even in peace-time, current production was too low to maintain stockpiles. This was due to the poor state of the Baku oil-fields that had seen little investment since the 1900s.




To address this, despite the many demands on the Soviet scientific establishment, time was found to improve the quality of oil extraction and refining so as to reduce wastage.

Overall, Soviet industry was incapable of meeting all the demands placed on it by the armed forces. The focus on upgrade and re-equipment made sense in terms of improving the quality of existing divisions. However, this meant less new formations were deployed. The summer of 1941 was to call into doubt the wisdom of this decision, where all too often Soviet commanders were unable to carry out operations due to a lack of formations.

The other major weakness facing the USSR was in terms of the available skilled leadership. The various competing demands included the need to sustain a major research programme, expand the NKVD, improve the number of officers in the armed forces and sustain the Soviet diplomatic efforts in Mexico and China. Consistently, the priority was research and officers for the armed forces.


[leadership allocations]

Enewald said:

Your industry fares well, but can it be protected...

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Nope ...

wuffer said:

I found GAR in a deep defense front astonishing efficient, definitly better than militia. (I used to emphasize their defensive strenghs too - unless I made some interesting calculations, that is!)
Both terms are surprising, esp. the 2nd.

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actually in combat, esp when mixed with standard rifle divisions and in good terrain, the militia worked out pretty well, but I was also able to use them on weakly held shoulders of German bulges. Which was handy as its stopped the Germans pushing too deep in lightly held areas.

re - air. My feeling is that in the first summer I didn't lose any ground battles just because of being bombed so given the likely doctrinal gap between the VVS and the Luftwaffe that was pretty good. I suspect quite a lot of their IC ended up going on repairing chewed up airwings.

The NKVD, Sept 39-June 41

In military terms in this period the NKVD (Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del - People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) had three roles. The defence of the Soviet Union against foreign espionage (SMERSH - Smert Shpionam - Death to Spies), espionage outside the Soviet Union and, increasingly, a role within the RKKA with the raising of a number of NKVD rifle formations in the period up to June 1941.

Domestic Role

In September 1939, foreign espionage was a major problem, in particular seeking to undermine the unity of the Soviet state.



Initially, despite other demands considerable resources were put into building up SMERSH so as to defeat these efforts and by January 1941 activity was down to:



Nonetheless foreign attempts at sabotage remained at a high level, especially once Germany invaded.

International Role

In the period up to the German invasion, NKVD cadres were built up in Germany, Japan and the UK. For the most part these carried out passive intelligence missions with the Soviet leadership content to create a potential threat. The result was considerable intelligence was received in terms of industrial capacity and military deployments.






(if this intelligence report was correct then the Germans had 419 IC as opposed to the 249 available to the USSR, better news was the apparent running down of German oil and fuel stocks - the reason for this became clear in the opening days of war when they deployed large numbers of heavy 'Tiger' tanks)

However, the Soviet leadership, despite immediate pre-occupation with the threat from Germany was seeking ways to extend Soviet influence to North America. In this period, the only practical option was covert and it had been decided to target Mexico and build up the local Communist Party. The installation of a pro-Soviet regime in North America could change the long term balance of power between the USSR and the USA.







Thus by the time this effort was scaled down, the Mexican Communist Party was the largest single party in the country - a satisfactory outcome and a useful gain if war ever broke out between the USA and the USSR

Military Role

By June 1941, 3 special NKVD rifle divisions had been raised and deployed to critical spots in the Western USSR. Having studied the war in Poland, the Soviet leadership was convinced of the importance of major urban zones in bolstering the defence. These formations were designed to encourage the RKKA to maintain resistance so as to delay any German advance. Their first use at Minsk in early July confirmed the value of these formations, it was the first major defeat the Germans had faced and was a significant factor in delaying their drive to Moscow. By August 1941, 5 such rifle divisions had been raised.

In addition, smaller detachments were allocated to various sensitive border regions.



Once the famous ‘sabotage’ order was signed in August 1941, the NKVD shifted its role in the whole of German occupied Europe to actively encouraging partisan uprisings and sabotage of German communication lines. However, this phase of operations is best handled in the context of the development of the actual German offensive.

Enewald said:

Well, partisan activity in Poland definitely worsens the supply throughput percentage, quite clever!

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Must admit I was inspired to this (if inspired is the word) by Surt's struggles. On Hard the AI gets a supply transit bonus but I'm still hopeful that going for their supply lines will slow their offensive and give my battered (as you'll see when I finally get there) rifle divisions a bit of a respite

wuffer said:

Wondered about the (expensive) POL in your OOB - they boost the moral 'a bit'?
Quite curious if your partisans will worth the effort.

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I'm using DiDays little mod (not the full one) so I have two different types of police brigades. One is the conventional brigade that suppresses dissent but little else. The other is a rather nifty NKVD formation that has very high org (50 before any modifiers) and morale (80) so it sticks in combat a long time and recovers quite well. Given everything else in June-Aug 41 its the only thing I have that can stand toe to toe with the Germans given the officer ratio and doctrinal advantages they have.

wuffer said:

a deep strategy indeed, viva Mexico!

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morningSIDEr said:

Very interesting information, and an excellent long-term plan to create a sympathetic Mexico. Russia need then merely defeat Germany's invasion and then launch a counter-attack before making landings in America, should the US declare war...uhm...good luck!

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If I survive, and the Germans have nothing else to do with their army but invade the Socialist Motherland, then it could pay off. My logic is to get the CP into power and then try & attract Mexico towards the Comintern (in part by raising the US threat). If I do anything diplomatic the AI responds so I can't influence them directly, but the bonus for a sympathetic govt plus perceived Yankee Imperialist threat might produce a very useful ally.

Stuyvesant said:

Lots of good, solid info. But then... You held the Germans at Minsk?!? In July?!?
Game-wise, I'm not so sure what I think of that <nervously checks over his shoulder> but given that the glorious NKVD is fulfilling all its roles gloriously, I'll make up my mind here and now that it is a great victory for Socialism In Our Time. Yes, indeed.

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Should perhaps have been a bit clearer. I won a major battle at Minsk, in part due to the NKVD formations that did indeed put a small spanner in the axis war machine. I then hightailed it out of town just in time to escape a major encirclement. I've played to late Aug 41 and Minsk is now a long way to their rear.

Van5 said:

Is finland a puppet if not this should be changed!

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I've tried to be reasonably historic in my choices so at the end of the Winter War I took the historic outcome - my logic was, to the Soviets, it was almost a classic 19th C war - we wanted some land, we beat them, we took that land.

The diplomatic process now generally works a lot better. There are a few countries fully aligned to one or the other faction (US to allies, Yugo/Bulg, Fin to axis) but who won't actually join due to high neutrality. Equally the German call to arms seems to be rejected by some countries (as will be clear very soon). So as with the reply to Stuyvesant above, I'm ahead by playing to mid-Aug and the situation with Finland is quite tense but so far, fortunately, that front is quiet.

Next up China, either later today (possibly) or tomororw (plausibly) ... then a final days of peace and then the start of the main course.

The Far East Sept 1939-July 1941

In September 1939 it appeared as if the Soviet Union had secured its borders both to the West and East. Germany was bound in by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and 3 years of near open warfare with Japan had been resolved by the Soviet victory at Khalkin-Gol in August 1939. One result of that victory seemed to be to focus Japan's attention on resolving their war with the Nationalist Chinese regime that had been conducted intermittently since 1937.

The Chinese troops fought well (in part with Soviet supplied weaponry)


but were no match for their Japanese opponents assisted by their puppets in Mengkukuo and Manchuria.


The main Nationalist regime collapsed in December 1939, even as Soviet troops were ending the war with Finland.



The consequences were complex and were to have long term ramifications. First the two regimes allied to the Nationalists (the southern Guanxi Clique and the Xibei San Ma group in central China) both opted to join the Axis as full members. Soviet intelligence suggested that both saw a full alliance with Germany as their best hope of escaping direct conquest by Japan. Unfortunately for the Guanxi regime most of their army had been destroyed and their state was immediately occupied and split between the British and French imperialists. The British striking from Hong Kong took the South West and the French moving from Indochina the North and East.

The biggest problem for the USSR was the intransigence and opportunism of the renegade clique in charge of the Chinese Communist Party. Not only did this group stay aloof from the anti-Japanese war, they, at least initially, were prepared to accept Japanese overtures. Only their desire to retain their own independence stopped them from fully joining the Imperialists. Thus a long series of Soviet mistakes (mostly stemming from Stalin's control over the Comintern) that stretched back to the late 1920s came to their disastrous, and inevitable, end.

With the fall of France in August 1940, the Japanese imperialists seized Indochina from the Vichy collaborationists.


Oddly, the small French force deployed in what had been Guanxi territory had declared against Vichy and remained independent of the Japanese.

On the eve of the German invasion the situation in China was tense. Soviet and Japanese troops were facing each other in an arc around Manchuria. The Soviet leadership had various reasons for wanting to intervene in China but lacked the military or diplomatic power to do so. Japan seemed to be content to absorb its recent conquests but could at any stage either strike into the Soviet Far East or at the weakened British positions in Burma and India.



Amongst the rubble of this foreign policy disaster came one bright spot. The leftist regime in Sinkiang sought membership of the Comintern


in part as a means to protect themselves against any further Japanese expansion. Due to the earlier decision of Xibei to seek full German alliance, this meant that an often forgotten front in the Great Patriotic War opened in the deserts on Central Asia between Xibei on the one hand and Mongolia and Sinkiang on the other. Soviet troops deployed at Alma Alty were sent to Sinkiang as a fraternal gesture.

Quick Note - the new map has, quite correctly, blocked off the route from Soviet Central Asia directly into India (a glance at the map indicates why this is right), so any Soviet invasion of India has to go through Afghanistan or via Iran - this may become relevant at a later stage