Mountain Rifle Division (01 July 1941)

[Jeff Leach]

I've have been looking at the Mountain Rifle Division (01 July 1941) diagram in Альбом № 49: схем организации часшей и соединений Красной Армии мирного времени (1941-1942) on page 13. I have a couple of qestions

1.) In the diagram for the Mountain Rifle Regiment on the far right is Школа мл. к/с. (School for Junior ?). Is this about the same as a German Field-Replacement unit?

2.) Next to the above entry is Вьючно-горн., 6-я 76 мм пуш., 4-76 мм пуш. (first word misspelled?). It is the Gun Battery of the regiment. What does it say really? Do the Soviet differ between a 76 mm Infantry Gun and a 76 mm Field Gun? The equipment holding only have one entry for 76 mm guns.

I have referred to Steven J. Zaloga, "Companion to the Red Army" (about the best thing you have on the Soviet Army in English) but it seem the book hasn't been updated with all the new Soviet material available nowadays. The tables in the book don't really match up to the Soviet diagram.

[Art]

1.) In the diagram for the Mountain Rifle Regiment on the far right is Школа мл. к/с. (School for Junior ?).

Peace-time school for training NCO candidates.

2.) Next to the above entry is Вьючно-горн., 6-я 76 мм пуш., 4-76 мм пуш. (first word misspelled?). It is the Gun Battery of the regiment. What does it say really? Do the Soviet differ between a 76 mm Infantry Gun and a 76 mm Field Gun? The equipment holding only have one entry for 76 mm guns.

I guess, it must be Вьючно-горн.,б-я 76 мм пуш., 4-76 мм пуш.
б-я being an abbreviation for battery
So mountain pack battery with 4 76-mm guns. From a common sense the materiel was a 76-mm mountain gun, actually there were different types of them - model 1909 and model 1938 which also used different ammunition.

[Jeff Leach]

1.) In the diagram for the Mountain Rifle Regiment on the far right is Школа мл. к/с. (School for Junior ?).

Peace-time school for training NCO candidates.

So these aren't the divisional NCO candidates, "23.06.1941 г. Поцковая школа полка, как десантная группа, была выброшена на помош, 176 стр. дивизии, в этот же день школа приняла первый бой под м. СКУЛЕНь."? Could also wonder what 'десантная группа' is. The division moved forward by road and there were not any major obstacles in its path.

[Gary Kennedy]

Nafziger has a translation of a German estimation of the Red Army Mountain Div from a little later on, Oct41;

https://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/CGSC/CARL/ ... 41RJXA.PDF

Note, I always get a security warning when going to the US CARL website, I'm reasonably sure they aren't hackers though ;>

Not the formation you're looking at I know, and I appreciate there is plenty of scope for error given source and the typist, however it shows the same artillery layout I think and as Art says makes a differentiation between infantry guns with the Mountain Inf Regts and mountain guns with the Arty Regt.

Gary

[Art]

So these aren't the divisional NCO candidates

What do you mean?

Could also wonder what 'десантная группа' is

Vanguard on trucks probably.

[Jeff Leach]

Maybe I should have asked: what does 'Поцковая школа полка' mean?

To me it sounds like part of the regiment. I checked the division diagram and there was a section titled 'школа' and I figured they were the same. It can also be that I have completely missunderstood the Soviet sentence.


It is kind of important to me because I have written a narrative of the German operations in Bessarabia in June - July 1941 and how now found a number of Soviet documents covering the same operations. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

[Art]

A school training NCOs for the respective regiment.
The diagram for the mountain rifle division shows several schools: at rifle regiments, artillery regiments, signal and sapper battalions.