Soviet soldiers and tankers inspect captured Japanese equipment
Today is another post from dev blog series. This time we'll talk about weapons and vehicles available with Khalkhin-Gol DLC.
As usually, everything we mention or describe below is a work in progress. Any methods, numbers, figures and visuals posted in devblogs are not final and may change by the time DLC will be released officially.
Intro
Khalkhin-Gol pack will be using new "Eastern Front 1930-1940" estab. This estab we plan to utilize not only for Khalkhin-Gol, but also for other (possible) DLCs of that era, like Soviet-Finnish War, Blitzkrieg in Poland, hypothetical campaigns wars like Soviet-Polish war in 1930s etc.
For now we'll be limiting the scope of Estab to the systems which were used at Khalkhin-Gol (however there are few exceptions to this rule).
Infantry Weapons and Autocannons
Japanese light infantry weapons are remarkable for being represented with two distinct calibres: 6.5mm and 7.7mm. Although all Japanese units at Khalkhin-Gol probably have used 6.5mm weapons, 7.7mm weapons will be included into Estab as well.
Players will surely value 13.2mm Type 93 AAMGs, 20mm Type 97 AT rifles and Type 98 AA guns high. Even if they are relatively short-ranged, they are still quite effective against hordes of Soviet lightly-armored tanks and armored cars.
Soviet arsenal is probably well-known to most of you military history fans, so there should be no surprises. Weapons there are ranging from old Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifles to devastating M4 quad AAMGs.
Artillery
Japanese field artillery are ranging from elderly pre-WWI pieces like 75mm Type 38 and Type 41, to modern and very effective Type 92 105mm and Type 90 75mm guns. The latter also proved to be very efficient in AT role, although Japanese had only few of them at Khalkhin-Gol.
Japanese dedicated AT guns are limited to 37mm Type 94, which are, despite their caliber, nevertheless very effective against thin Soviet armor.
Like Japanese, Soviet players will have to use both older and newer weapon systems alike. The backbone of Soviet artillery are 45mm AT guns and 76mm obr.1927 (regimental) and obr.1902/30 (divisional) guns.
One may miss notorious 122mm M-30 howitzers and 6-inch ML-20 gun-howitzers which will become a symbols of Soviet artillery in WW2, but there were none of these at Khalkin-Gol. Older 122mm obr.1910/30 howitzer and 152mm obr.1910/34 gun were used instead.
Last, but not least, are 122mm obr.1931 guns. Just one battery of these rare and valuable (at the time) guns was present at the Khalkhin-Gol. Soviets had to bring these from Transbaikal District to Mongolia later in conflict to counter deadly Japanese Type 92 105mm guns, whose range was far superior to any other Soviet artillery system available.
Armored Fighting Vehicles
Japenese tank designs are well known to lag behind many other tank-building nations. Khalkhin-Gol conflict was no exception: slow and thin armoured Japanese tanks were easy preys to Soviet rapid-firing 45mm tank and AT guns. Inadequate armament contributed to this sad story as well: the most advanced of Japanese tanks, Chi-Ha, was armed with short-barreled 57mm gun which was very ineffective against tanks.
Most of the time Soviet players will enjoy their technical superiority over Japanese armor. That said, they also have inadequately armed systems (like BAI or BA-27 armored cars armed with short-barreled 37mm which is much worse than even Japanese guns) and the armor of all Soviet tanks and armored is no better than that of Japanese tanks. Some of Soviet tanks, e.g. T-37A or T-38, can even be penned using armor-piercing bullets and standard infantry rifles (this ability we will model in the Estab, too).
What may be immediately visible also from the picture is that Soviets will have many different armored car designs available. These were playing very important role at Khalkhin-Gol, but that I'll explain in the dedicated dev blog next time.
Transport and Armed Trucks
Although Japanese 23rd Infantry Division had some special ToE changes to better fit for distant Manchurian theater (compared to other IJA divisions), and had its two Draft Companies replaced with two Truck Companies (32 trucks each), this proved to be absolutely not enough.
Japanese high command completely underestimated the level of Soviet motorization. They did not anticipate Soviets to be able to concentrate that much forces within that short time, nor were they able to assemble there a sizeable force themselves.
Soviet transport supremacy was one of the key reasons why they finally prevailed over Japanese. Not only they were able to quickly reinforce the conflict area with a lot of troops and armored vehicles, but also to effeciently supply them throughout the conflict as far as 1400 km away from Soviet bases (5 days one-way road). This was achieved thankfully to as much as 4 000 regular trucks and 375 tanker trucks amassed to supply Soviet forces.
Some of designs shown below were not used at Khalkhin-Gol, but we've nevertheless added them for future releases.
That's all for tonight, folks!