Which units have which tanks in 1989?

Armored Brigade is a real-time tactical wargame, focusing on realism and playability
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Centurian42
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2018 4:40 pm

Which units have which tanks in 1989?

Post by Centurian42 »

I have a, possibly unhealthy, obsession with realism and historical accuracy (although not so unhealthy, as I have learned a LOT of military history in pursuit of highly realistic scenarios). With this game finally out that has taken the form of me trying to build a highly plausible campaign covering a hypothetical Battle for the Fulda Gap* in June/July(ish) 1989 (because 1989 is the classic World in Conflict setting of course). I have been able to dig up several documents to help out. To tell me how the opposing sides would have used their forces I have 'NATO battlefield strategy for the conventional defense of Central Europe' and 'FM 100-2-1 The Soviet Army: Operations and Tactics'. For organization, orders of battle, and locations of each unit I have 'FM 100-2-3 The Soviet Army: Troops, Organization and Equipment', 'Warsaw Pact Order of Battle - June 1989', and 'NATO Order of Battle 1989 V8.6'. All of those together should make for some very plausible engagements!

But there is one small problem. The OOB docs will tell me (for example) that the 79th Guards Tank Division was equipped with T-80s. But what kind of T-80s? Did they have T-80Us, T-80BVs, or T-80Bs? I simply have no idea. Likewise I can see that 11th Cav was equipped with M1A1 Abrams and M3 Bradleys. But I have no idea if those M1A1s have the HA upgrade or not**. And I have no idea if those M3s are plain M3s or M3A1s or M3A2s (same goes for the M2s of the 3rd Armored and 8th Infantry divisions).

So my question is this. Does anyone know (or know of some documents that can tell me) which units were equipped with which combat vehicle subtypes (U, BV, B, HA, A1, A2...) in Central Europe at the time (specifically I am concerned with units of the US V Corps and the Soviet 8th Guards Army)? Thank you so much in advance!


*Frankly I think the North German Plain is a bit more plausible than the Fulda Gap, but the NGP map that has been released is in the Dutch AOR (and we don't have Dutch forces to play with yet) and doesn't quite include the border (NATO was following a strategy of forward defense, so the earliest clashes would have been on the border), meaning I can't quite simulate the initial clashes in the NGP.

**The US started producing M1A1HAs in May 1988, so by mid-1989 some units should definitely be equipped with them. But which ones? 'NATO Order of Battle 1989 V8.6' gives each unit's tank inventory as 'M1', 'M1A1', or 'M60A3'. So the M1A1HAs must be included in the M1A1 counts.
Centurian42
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2018 4:40 pm

RE: Which units have which tanks in 1989?

Post by Centurian42 »

Af1352pasha. Thank you, but I already have the first source. The issue is that it doesn't give information on what kind of M2 or M3 a unit is equipped with (is it an M2A1? M2A2?) and M1A1HAs don't appear anywhere with any unit (maybe no units have been equipped with M1A1HAs yet, but I suspect it is more likely that the document is just showing them all as M1A1s).

This second link is a new source to me and there is some new useful information in here. Thank you very much for this! But for the current question it has the same issue as the previous source.
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