Marine Platoon organization 1941-45

[plloyd1010]

I lit that particular fire. It is contextual argument within the game system. My issue was with the Saipan marines getting a 10-3 DF rating.

The reference point is a F-series platoon having 46 men, armed with 6 BARs and 2 .30 Brownings. Most of the rest of the men are armed with M1 Garands. Those not probably have M1 carbines. Some extra Browning MGs are available as needed, I assume most of these weapons are not present in the platoon, otherwise the platoon should have movement of 2 and a first round assault penalty (i.e. it would be more like a MMG/HMG platoon).

The established counterpoints are the Soviet Guards AK47 platoons at 10-2 and the Sturm infantry platoon (from GD 1946) coming in at 8-3.

The Soviets come in with just over 30 men; armed with 6 LMGs & about 20 AK47s. These are 2 light & 2 heavy sections. Light sections have 1 LMG and 6 AK47s, heavy sections nave 2 LMGs and 4 AK47s. They also have a couple snipers in the mix.

The German Strum infantry (per Mike Bennighof) are a full sized platoon. I expect that means 36 men with 6 LMGs, leaving 20-22 men with StG44 assault rifles. The StG44 is similar to AK47, the auto fire rate is a little less, but the muzzle velocity is higher. Still lots of lead down range.

For a general reference, I'll go the US riffle platoon. 39 men armed 3 BARs and 2 .30 Brownings. Mostly everyone else has M1 Garandas, there are potentially 3 snipers (not usually), and a couple Thompsons or M3s.

I never said that the USMC F-series platoons shouldn't have a better DF value than the D-series platoons from Guadalcanal. I just commented that, within the context of the game system, 10-3 seems a little high.