WWI Middle East: Battalion level artillery support

[NeilCFord]

I'm hoping someone has either already done the research on this, or can point me at a good starting point.

So, due to space constraints, I'm limited to doing games of no larger than a batallion a side. How many companies that is, is easy, as is how many MG units I should allow, but what I haven't yet been able to figure out is how much, or how little artillery support I should allow and of what kind? And whether I should even bother with models and just consider it all off table.

Anyone got any thoughts on this? Or can point me at appropriate sources to go looking for information?

TIA

- Neil.

[DanJ]

Hi,  to some extent it depends on what figure scale you want.

The British and Empire forces in the Middle East would have been organised the same as those on the Western Front.

A British battalion had four companies, each of 4 platoons.  My WW1 British are based on 15x30mm bases with three infantry figures on each, this gives me 4 bases to a company, with twelve figures and 16 bases to a battalion with a total of 48 figures.  I generally play brigade or bigger games so add a small battalion command base to round the figures up to 50 per battalion.

As for MGs, it depends on date, up to mid/late 1915 there were 2 Vickers MGs integral to each battalion, I use one machine gun model per battalion, which is a different figure scale to the infantry but does emphasise the importance of the MGs.  After early 1916 the heavy MGs were grouped at Brigade then Corps level (forming the MG Corps) with the battalions being issued with more and more Lewis LMGs to increase local firepower.  Any rules you use should reflect this change.

Mortar sections were added during the war and by 1916 I add a 3" mortar model to each battalion and a 2" for each brigade.  This might be a bit generous in absolute terms but works fine in practice and looks right on the table.

The French and German armies were organised along similar lines although details differed, I don't know about the Ottomans.

[NeilCFord]

I'm most likely going to use the new Trial by Fire rules where 3 bases equals a company, so 12 bases equals a battalion. Because I already have a load these will be 50 x 25mm. I was going with a single 25 x 25mm base for the MGs.

From some more reading, it would seem that at most a single 2 gun battery is most appropriate. That gives me something to work from.

- Neil.

[DanJ]

That sounds fine although only having 3 bases to a company strikes me as odd when historically there were 4 platoons but if the rules treat a company as the basic fighting unit it probably doesn't matter.

The support artillery sounds right, 1 battery of 18 pounder field artillery is probably the maximum for support of a battalion, so one or two gun models is probably all you'll need

[WeeWars]

From ITLSU:

The "standard unit sizes quoted here are calculated on field strength rather than on textbook organisational complements and so some variation would not be out of order. In general, we use the following:


British/Empire Infantry Battalion:

Four companies each of 4 bases
One Battalion HQ (1 base)
It would not be too unusual for one or more companies to be absent or indeed for companies to be three or even five bases.


Turkish Infantry Battalion
(also applies to fire brigade battalions)
Four companies each of 3 bases (or 4 in some cases)
One Battalion HQ (1 base)

In 1914 most Battalions also had a four gun machine gun company attached.
Note: I have chosen three bases per company as most units were under strength, some very badly. Often, the units were so weak that three weak companies would be about right for a
normal battalion in the field, and this is what I often use for my own games."

[WeeWars]

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Nice one!