Thursday 10 February 2011

KGB Barrage Battalion

If you were paying close attention to some of the earlier photos in my recent Soviet Air Assault Brigade saga, you may have noticed a few vehicles on the table which clearly didn't belong to that unit. 
These included a pair of BTR-50PKs (CinC models) which were destined to form a KGB Barrage Battalion.  This unit is rather speculative, and is based on the assumption that like their WW2 predecessors the NKVD, the KGB would in wartime field battalion-sized 'barrage' units, the purpose of which was to take station behind Army units as they advanced, and 'encourage' them by firing on anyone who failed to show the required quantity of 'political will'.
For my KGB troops I used HMGs and an NCO from GHQ's 'Brushfire Warriors' pack (code TW9 in the GHQ catalogue).  These chaps are wearing berets which I painted a dark blue.  I also added an officer (or commissar?) from the WW2 Russian Infantry pack.  He is the guy in the peaked cap on the nearer stand.
The photo was taken on my 'desert' Hexon as I already had it deployed to photograph the Paras.

2 comments:

Conrad Kinch said...

Typical capitalist propaganda Gow - the Workers of the Soviet State need nothing more than the inspiration of their ideals to propell them into battle.

Tim Gow said...

I'm sure that's true Comrade Kinch - the machine gun bullets will only hit those who shirk their duty or deviate from the true path of the revolution. Basically a 20th Century version of 'God will know his own'...