Quote:
Originally Posted by Suhiir
I generally try to research the equipment/manpower in particular units when I reference them directly in a scenario. Of course you rarely get everything 100%, but one must try.
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Yeah, and I assume there is maybe not that much availiable, and especially not in English...
Anti-Air on Gotland relied on RBS-70 and older 40mm lvakan (Bofors guns) in 1989. Most of these had only day/good weather capability.
There was one RBS 70 Bn - the 37th. And if IIRC about three or four companies with 40mm. The Brigade 18th AA Company had Rb 69 Red Eye SAMs.
The RBS-90 (which I served with in northern Sweden) was more capable, could be used at night and did at this time not trigger the aircraft warning systems – but they first arrived on Gotland in the mid 90s. Because of this shortage in range - on a number of occasions – the high altitude RBS 67/77 (HAWK/IHAWK) was deployed temporarily on Gotland to provide better SAM range.
Bunge was a World War II era air strip. It was too short for modern jets but figured in the planing for use as a (naval) helicopter base. Also, an airmobile assault – maybe using a large number of helicopters - against Gotland in a coup like fashion was a particular concern for the officers of MKG (“Military Command Gotland”), it being the closest territory to the Soviet Union. Counterattacks against airfields, esp. Visby, was a standard type of exercise.
Normally the armoured battalions (Bn:s 1, 2 and 3) of the brigade was deployed independently in order to avoid being tied up needlessly in combat before the counterattack. Ideally it was to attack with two battalions abreast, and one trailing against an enemy bridge head or landing zone. It could draw on heavy artillery support as the brigade wielded as many 10,5cm batteries as it had tank or mech inf companies. Other artillery support was also possible from the local defence (tractor drawn, less mobile than the brigade artillery but with the same calibre), or the Coastal Artillery which had the strongest concentration in the north of Gotland, some with heavier guns. Depending on the situation this supposedly decisive counterattack could also be reinforced with a fourth armoured battalion (each of the three territorial areas – GK, 701. Combat Group, 703. Combat Group – fielded their own armoured battalion in addition to a number of local defence units. The ambition was to win quickly in a very offensive manner. The officers on Gotland were not great believers in a war of attrition with the WP.