From LeeH: Another Soviet LMG Squad (60 Pts)

This week, I finished my fourth Light Machine Gun squad for my 1939 Winter War Soviets, which means I’m finally within sight of the end of this Bolt Action painting run. Four squads lined up together give the force a real sense of cohesion. On the table, they look like what they’re meant to represent: mass infantry built around automatic fire.

Soviet infantry tactics of the period leaned heavily on firepower at the squad level. The light machine gun was the anchor, with riflemen supporting it rather than the other way around. In theory, this created a base of suppressive fire that allowed advances by weight and momentum. The Red Army’s pre-war doctrine emphasised aggression, coordination, and overwhelming force. In open terrain, backed by artillery, that approach could be brutally effective. On a Bolt Action table, four LMG squads make that doctrine tangible—steady, grinding pressure rather than elegant manoeuvre.

The reality in 1939, however, was far messier. The army that invaded Finland had been badly damaged by Stalin’s purges of the officer corps in the late 1930s. Experienced commanders were removed, imprisoned, or executed, and their replacements were often younger, less seasoned, and understandably cautious. Initiative became dangerous. Junior officers learned that independent action could end careers (or lives) if outcomes were unfavourable. The result was rigidity. Orders were followed, sometimes blindly, even when local conditions demanded flexibility. Against Finnish forces who excelled at small-unit tactics, mobility, and exploiting terrain, that lack of adaptability proved costly.

With this fourth squad complete, the core infantry element of the army is ready. I’m still waiting on an artillery crew and gun to round things out, and I have a handful of spare figures that may end up as smaller specialist teams if I can find a home for them. For now, though, these LMG squads capture both the theory and the tragedy of the 1939 Red Army: a force designed for massed firepower and relentless advance, but hampered by structural weakness and fear at the command level. 

12x28mm Foot = 60 Points

From DaveD.  Nice winter additions Lee , are you starting to get snow blindness yet ? The whole force will be looking like a proper mass when we see it . 60 it is .