Re: [GZG] [DS] A real world battlegroup

[Mark Kinsey <Kinseym@xxxxxxx>]

Christopher Downes-Ward wrote:
> I have just been reading "Dusty Warriors" by Richard Holmes which 
> describes the actions of 1st Battaltion Princess Of Wales Royal 
> Regiment in Al Amarah in 2004. One aspect that might be interesting to 
> the dirtside players on the list is the difference between their 
> theoretical Table of Organistion and Equipment and the one they 
> actually fought with.
>
> 1 PWRR is an armoured role infantry battalion so their theoretical 
> TO&E is something like this:
>
> Headquarters
>
>     Signals Platoon
>     Light Aid Detachment
>     Intelligence Platoon
>     Medical Section 
>
> 3 armoured infantry companies (A, B and C) each with:
>
>     2 warriors (command variant)
>     2 warriors (for the REME section)
>     3 FV432 tracked APCs (1 for the REME, 1 for the CSM, 1 as an
>     ambulance)
>     3 platoons each of 4 warriors
>
> A support company (Y) with:
>
>     6x81mm mortar
>     6 MILAN firing posts
>     Reconnaissance platoon (8 Sabre CVR(T))
>     Sniper platoon 
>
> When the battalion deployed to Iraq;the following changes were made:
>
>     * A Company was detached as the brigade reserve.
>     * B Company was detached to another battlegroup.
>     * A company of 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers was attached equipped
>       with 13 Saxon wheeled APCs.
>     * A squadron of the Queen's Royal Lancers was attached equipped
>       with 14 Challenger 2 MBTs.
>     * 1 platoon of the Lowland Regiment attached to Y Company equipped
>       with armoured land rovers.
>     * K battery Royal Horse Artillery (mortar location radar) was
>       attached.
>
> For those of you who are not familiar with current British army 
> equipment a Warrior is a tracked infantry fighting vehicle with a 30mm 
> cannon and a 7.62mm coax MG. Each Warrior has a driver, a gunner, a 
> commander and 7 infantry dismounts. A Sabre is effectively a tracked 
> armoured car "Combat Vehicle Reconnaisance (Tracked)" with a 30mm 
> cannon and a 7.62mm coax MG. An FV432 is effectively a box on tracks 
> similar to an M113. Challenger 2 is the current main British Army tank 
> equipped with a 120mm gun. A Saxon is a wheeled APC with enough armour 
> to keep out splinters based on truck parts.
>
> All of which shows that you can justify just about any combination of 
> kit and call it a mission tailored battle group although I find that I 
> like to have some basic idea of the kind of resources the base of the 
> battle group has as well as what the next level up can provide as support.
>
> Of course this is a pretty asymetrical conflict with the opposition 
> equipped basically as light infantry with RPGs, AKs and Mortars, on 
> the other hand one of the C Company Warrior drivers was Johnson 
> Beharry - who got the VC.
>
> Chris Downes-Ward
>
>
> --
>
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It's funny to see this now. I've been spending the last couple of weeks 
building a BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) force for the Early 80's in 
6mm. My (not so local) gaming group games using the Fist Full of TOWS 2 
ruleset. We do some games from the 80's WWIII that never happened.

So it's interesting trying to figure out what the TO&E was at the time. 
You do print and web research and then go to discussion groups and ask a 
few questions. What you find is that units rotated back home all the 
time, units were being refurbished, etc. Some were skeleton units in 
cadre form that would be backfilled with units from UK if war started. 
In the event of war, battlegroups would be formed with whatever was 
available to meet the threat. With many NATO forces, including the BAOR 
stationed well behind the front, the initial engagement would begin with 
whatever survived the initial air attack and could get to the front quickly.

It's kind of amusing to read the GHQ forums with certain people bitching 
about how a WW2 Panzer Battalion had a TO&E of 16 tanks and how hard it 
is to get to that point when GHQ sells their vehicles 5 to a pack. Other 
people point out that number is not only purely theoretical but 
depending on battle losses and replacements, the actual number could 
easily vary from 9 to 22.

-Mark





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