Quote:
Originally Posted by Ts4EVER
Quite a bit like that. The Soviet ToE in my scenario is based on the recent Osprey Book about the battle and that one claims that while ISU 152s were roughly in that area, none were used by the units engaged. Because of that I went with the SU 76.
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I don't have the Osprey title, but several other titles on the topic, including Erkki Käkelä's combat history of the Finnish assault gun battalion, from 2005 - some information could be dated.
Käkelä mentions that the Finns knocked out a IS-2 that was wrongly called a "Klim" in the war diary during the battle. He also claims the Finns used the term JS-122 for the IS-2.
Käkelä also claims that the initial contact on the LIIKOLA-KUUTERSELKÄ road was with five T-34/85 that were all knocked out.
Following this Lt Aulanko's platoon is to have been ordered forward by Kvikant, and after he had switched assault guns (his own having a mechanical problem) ran into a ISU-152 that was also knocked out.
Could be cases of mis-identification of course.
As for the defence of KUUTERSELKÄ Käkelä gives:
- bulk of the Soviet 72. Rifle Division
- 185. Tank Regiment
- 351. Assault Gun Regiment
- 46. Anti-tank Brigade
- 119. Seperate Anti-Tank Section (in Finnish terminology a section in the artillery branch is a battalion size formation)
He does not go into what state the Soviet units where, they were not very shy about using heavily worn/understrength formations...