The little known battle of Brody-Dubno pitted the highly proficient German Wehrmacht against the unproven Red Army colossus, both supported by their own air forces.

Let’s take a look at both sides’ forces and how they are modeled into Dubno ’41.

The Soviets

By summer 1941, Soviet forces were in the middle of a gigantic enlargement and transformation process. The Red Army comprised of 303 divisions, 217 of which were deployed in the West—including the occupations forces in the territories conquered since 1939 (Bessarabia, Poland, Baltic States, and Finland). Its huge size was matched by its equipment: more than 20,000 tanks and 7,133 combat aircraft were deployed along the Western frontiers. Stalin had no desire to be the aggressor in the upcoming war against Nazi Germany, so he kept the units on peaceful footing, many with low manpower and most below establishment in vehicles and support echelons.

The “Plan for the Defense of the State” (DP’41) foresaw an initial defensive period for the formations stationed along the Western frontiers followed by massive armored counterattacks to defeat the enemy penetrations and to bring the war to enemy soil as soon as possible. Those massive counterattacks were to be conducted by the also massive Mechanized Corps, re-created in 1940. After the uncompleted operational trials of peace maneuvers conducted during the 30’s, the purges of 1936 (which doomed Marshal Tujachevski), the wrong lessons learned from the Spanish Civil War about tank employment and tank-infantry cooperation, and the dismal performance of the Tank Corps in Poland in September of 1939, the existing Tank Corps were disbanded, and all the tanks were split up into big independent brigades for direct infantry support. The idea of full mechanized independent formations seeking their objectives in the operational depths of the enemy deployment was abandoned and banned. However, German exploits during 1940 convinced Soviet High Command that the old “Deep Battle” doctrine developed by the deceased Tujachevski and Triandafillov was not all wishful thinking but could really be put into practice. They just needed the tool for applying it. The Mechanized Corps were the response. 

In July 1940, orders were given to create new Mechanized Corps comprised of two tank divisions and one motorized infantry division, summing up to 1,031 tanks and 36,080 men. Up to 126 tanks would be from the new KV series and 420 T-34. Each tank division was composed of two tanks and one infantry regiment, and the motorized division was made of two infantry regiments and one light tank regiment. Both types of formations would have their own organic artillery, anti-tank, anti-air, pioneer, signals, reconnaissance, pontoon bridges, and supply columns. The objective was to complete the formation of that massive 25 Mechanized Corps fleet for the summer of 1942, but by June 22^nd, 1941 the task was totally uncompleted: Mechanized Corps lacked 39% of their vehicles (in Dubno ’41, Soviet motorized infantry is only nominally motorized—they move on foot as any other foot infantry), 44% of their tractors (in Dubno ’41, Mechanized Corps do not have artillery support, as most of them did not have the transports to haul the artillery pieces out of the barracks), and 17% of their motorcycles, not to mention personnel, staff officers, forges, repair shops, and spare parts. The personnel’s training and knowledge of the equipment was also lacking as many of the Mechanized Corps were formed from old cavalry formations; many officers and men lacked knowledge about both armored warfare and armored equipment, so they had to go to war with an incomplete tool they did not fully understand. In DUBNO’41, Soviet Command & Control problems are depicted in several ways; the first is the proper counter mix. Here you can see the full array of blocks and assets that form one of the average Mechanized Corps present in the battle, the 19^th. You can see all of them have a colored stripe through the middle to identify to which Corps they belong. This is important as you can ONLY use assets (artillery or battle) in combat if they are from the SAME Corps involved in the battle. If you mix blocks from two Corps in the same combat, you cannot use ANY assets…

Of course, you also can see the abysmal Troop Quality…no elites for the Soviets in this game…

In addition, some events introduce elements from the dysfunctional performance of the Soviet Army in this battle into the game:

This “asset delayed” chit counts as one for the turn once drawn from the cup but is totally useless and is eliminated from play as soon as it is drawn.

Others reflect the plentiful mechanical failures that hampered the Soviet armor during this battle or the lack of fuel stocks for large armored operations. These events are not only in the Soviet cup; the German cup also contains events that hampered the Soviet war effort.

Nonetheless, the Soviet infantry and artillery will show in this battle the tenacity and strength they exhibited during the whole war. Soviet rifle division TO&E had 14,483 men, but the rifle divisions at the front were below establishment (averaging 10,000 men) and the divisions further to the rear were even below in personnel (near 8,000 men per division) and equipment, so they were sent into the battle as they arrived without much chance of victory. Their role in the battle was to absorb the initial German attack and then anchor the flanks of the counterattacking Soviet armor into the enemy penetrations. They fought for a week, unbalanced and against an enemy more capable than them, and fought hard for every inch of ground they were forced to yield.

Notwithstanding the huge amount of cavalry units the Red Army possessed, only two cavalry divisions took part in this battle. A Soviet cavalry division was a small mounted infantry force (9,000 men) with tanks and artillery in support. Unlike infantry and armor units, cavalry units were very experienced with many veterans from the Russian Civil War in their ranks, and they were well manned (85%-90%) when the war broke out. As was the case with the infantry support tanks, cavalry divisions lacked their organic tanks as they had been withdrawn to equip the new Mechanized Corps. Infantry and cavalry were left without tank support and little antitank capability due to the formation of the Mechanized Corps. Cavalry units were expected to operate along the Mechanized Corps due to its high mobility, so in Dubno ’41, they will move more than infantry and will be able to Exploit like tanks during the Breakthrough Phase.

Soviet forces in the battle composed the Northern wing of the South-Western Front (from the Kiev Special Military District), formed by the 5^th and 6^th Armies (the two Soviet Higher Echelons in Dubno ’41). There are several infantry and cavalry units that form the Front Reserves and will be able to operate with any of the frontline armies.

The Soviet Air Force suffered enormously due to German air attacks during the first days of the offensive, but it was capable of putting forth strong resistance against the invaders, in air combat as well as bombarding the advancing German troops. The Soviet Air Force in the Kiev Special Military District consisted of 1,166 fighters and 784 bombers plus 53 reconnaissance aircrafts for a total of 2,003 planes. Many of those planes, especially in the fighter wings, were obsolete and very inferior to the German planes, but from the initial stages of the German offensive, they bombed and intercepted the advancing Germans constantly. The 11^th Panzer Division lost more vehicles to Soviet air attacks than to any other source during this battle. For a week, the Soviet Air Force did its best to fight the skies and support their own troops, but in the end, their airfields were overrun. They had to re-base at the beginning of July, yielding the fight and losing more planes grounded by damage or mechanical failures…

As David Glantz has stated, the Soviet Armed Forces were a Stumbling Colossus, with such an impressive size that it seemed invincible. In the battle depicted in Dubno ’41, you, as Soviet Commander, will have at your disposal 33 divisions (plus other units) against only 19 German divisions. Numbers are on your side, but you will find it difficult to make them count and to counter the flexible and agile German way of war. You will need to amass your units and launch all-out powerful assaults to make the Germans pay for their advances. Your more than 3,000 tanks will have to make a difference…

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