Bolt Action: Soviet Army Weapons Teams

Infantry weapons teams are crucial for any Bolt Action army, offering a lot of tactical flexibility. Sniper teams, mortar teams, and flamethrower teams are common, presenting your opponent with various challenges.

The sniper became synonymous with the Red Army, especially during the grim sieges of Stalingrad and Leningrad. ‘Sniper schools’ were established in bombed-out buildings and cellars, where successful snipers taught their skills to a growing number of students, many of whom were women. Soviet propaganda celebrated successful snipers and encouraged a doctrine of ‘sniperism’ among the troops. Snipers used telescopic sights on either a bolt-action Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 or, less frequently, a Tokarev SVT-40 semi-automatic rifle. A variety of ammunition was used, including tracer and armor-piercing rounds. Soviet snipers were available at company level, working in teams or alone. Individual Red Army squads often had a designated marksman with a scoped rifle to compensate for the lack of long-range firepower due to the widespread use of submachine guns. Soviet snipers were renowned for their fieldcraft, stealth, and patience. The most successful snipers each accounted for hundreds of enemy soldiers, with the highest recorded tally by a single sniper being around 500.

The standard light mortar used by Russian infantry during World War II was the 50mm Infantry Mortar Model 1940 (50-PM 40), a cheaper version of the earlier Model 1938. The Soviet army also received a significant number of 2-inch mortars from Britain through Lend-Lease. The 50mm was considered a ‘company’ mortar, as opposed to the heavier 82mm battalion and 120mm regimental mortars. Initially, 50mm mortars were assigned to individual teams at the platoon level, but later they were often concentrated at the company level for mass use. The weapon was easily portable and could fire high explosives or smoke bombs at a range of over 800 yards.

The Soviets made extensive use of flamethrowers, including FOG-1 static types dug in to cover bunkers and trenches. Due to shortcomings in developing other credible anti-tank weapons, Red Army doctrine emphasized the use of flamethrowers against tanks as well as infantry. They even formed separate motorized anti-tank flamethrower battalions in 1943. The most common Russian flamethrowers were the man-packed ROKS types. The ROKS-2 was designed with a fuel tank that looked like a regular backpack and a nozzle resembling a rifle, making it less noticeable on the battlefield.