Five Soviet T-60s capture Tiger 100, 18 January 1943, by Peter Dennis © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Campaign 215: Leningrad 1941–44.
Armies went to great lengths to maintain their armoured forces, and the recovery of damaged or broken down vehicles was an important part of keeping units in service. The crews of Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARVs) were often exposed to danger as they went about their jobs, recovering precious tanks from the battlefield.
ARVS AND FORCE SELECTION
ARVs were very specialized, and as such fit into the force structure in a special way. You may include up to one ARV in your army for every two non-ARV vehicles of damage value 8 or greater you have. This limitation is in addition to the requisition point cost of the ARVs themselves.
ARMOURED RECOVERY
Towing a tank is hard to do under the best conditions; towing it while being shot at is another matter entirely! We are aware that in reality it was sometimes necessary to use several towing vehicles together to move the heaviest of tanks, but for the sake of simplicity we have chosen to ignore this.
FIELD EXPEDIENT
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said ‘no battle plan survives contact with the enemy’. This truism has been the bane and boon of many an armed conflict for thousands of years. Sent into the field with partial or simply incorrect information, the boots on the ground are forced to improvise.
Of course, soldiers can’t call it improvisation, that wouldn’t sound very professional! That’s where a term that is near and dear to anyone with dirty boots comes in: ‘field expedient’.
It’s a fancy term, to be sure, but it simply means ‘having been improvised or jury-rigged’. One of the most famous tank-related examples is the Culin hedgerow cutter, ironically using the German’s own tank obstacles and turning them into hedgerow-chopping blades affixed to the front of tanks. Their effectiveness might be in question, but the fact that the idea was hatched in the heat of battle, using items scattered around the battlefield by the enemy, ensured it achieved legendary status.
Another, perhaps more amusing story, came from a US tank crew in France just after the Normandy invasion. Their intercom system was notoriously unreliable, and the extreme noise on the inside of the tank made its existence all the more questionable. The crew came up with a field expedient solution: the commander tied ropes to the driver, and, as one crew member put it, ‘steered him like a horse. Pull left to go left, right to go right, pull back to stop – and kick him in the back to go forward’.
Given a tough mission and limited resources, the average ground-pounder will figure out a way to get it done. As one officer was quoted as saying: ‘Tell a private to do something, just don’t ask how he did it.’
ARVs can only be used to recover vehicles with a damage value of 8 or greater – anything less is not deemed worthy of risking the ARV. ARVs can only tow immobilized or knocked out friendly vehicles and knocked out enemy vehicles.
To tow a vehicle, the ARV must use an advance order to get into contact with the debilitated vehicle, or begin its activation in contact with it. The ARV must then pass an order test. This is in addition to any test it had to take to do the advance move, and uses the same modifiers.
If it fails, nothing happens. The ARV crew is still trying to get the vehicle hooked up to its winches, is having some sort of trouble, or are simply keeping their heads down for the time being.
If it passes, the ARV crew has successfully latched on to the affected vehicle. Turn the ARV 180°, then line up the affected vehicle right behind it to show that it is being towed.
While an ARV is towing a vehicle, it may not be given a run order. Also, if it fails an order test or a morale check, it has lost its connection to the towed vehicle and must re-attach. Separate the two models by an inch to show this. At the end of its move, the ARV may voluntarily stop towing; simply separate the two models just like you would if it failed a test.
If an ARV touches your table edge while towing a vehicle, remove both of them from the table. If your vehicle was knocked out, the opponent loses any victory points they got for destroying the vehicle. The ARV may not re-enter the table after it leaves, but does not count as a casualty.
At the end of the game, if your ARV is still towing a knocked-out friendly vehicle, your opponent loses half the attrition or VPs he got from destroying it.
If you somehow manage to tow an enemy’s knocked out vehicle off the table, you score its victory points value again (this is in addition to the points you scored for knocking it out). At the end of the game, if one of your vehicles is towing a knocked out enemy vehicle, you get half that vehicle’s victory points again.
GERMANY
It is often said that World War II was a war of supply. The Allies had the resources of a whole planet while the Axis had to use what was already within their borders or conquered territory to wage war. For this reason, each German tank lost on the battlefield was doubly painful for the Wehrmacht. As a result, the Germans had to continually re-evaluate their recovery capabilities.
BERGEPANTHER
A common theme among German ARVs was to use a tank chassis and put the prefix ‘Berge’ on it. The Bergepanther was based on the Panther tank chassis, and was produced from 1943 until nearly the end of the war.
Cost: 102pts (Inexperienced), 128pts (Regular), 154pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing pintle-mounted MMG covering the front arc
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
Options:
• May replace the MMG with a forward-facing 20mm Light Automatic Cannon for +20pts
Special Rules:
• Open-topped (in the place of the turret there was a wooden box configuration, so even if it is closed it still counts as open-topped)
• It retains the heavy frontal armour that its battle version carried. It has the same frontal value as a heavy tank (10+)
BERGEPANZER T-34
When the Germans first encountered the superb Russian T-34 back in 1941, they were taken by surprise and very impressed by its quality. As a result, many captured T-34s were repainted and used against their former comrades. If a captured T-34s turret was inoperable, but the chassis could still move, it was sometimes converted into a Bergepanzer T-34.
Cost: 70pts (Inexperienced), 88pts (Regular), 106pts (Veteran)
Weapons: None
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
SD.KFZ 9 ‘FAMO’ HALF-TRACK
This vehicle was the heaviest half-track built by the Germans during World War II. It was used to tow the heaviest artillery pieces and as a powerful though unarmoured recovery vehicle.
Cost: 14pts (Inexperienced), 17pts (Regular), 20pts (Veteran)
Weapons: None
Damage Value: 6+ (soft-skinned)
Special Rules:
• Half-track
Polish defenders prepare to face the invading German forces
UNITED STATES
The US had so many tanks on the battlefield that recovery was sometimes more about clearing the way for assaulting forces rather than recovering the specific vehicle in question. The US also had the practice of fitting dummy guns to their ARVs, to confuse the enemy and assist the ARV in its mission.
M31 ARV
Based on the M3 Lee chassis, the M31 was a workhorse vehicle, outlasting its battle counterpart in the service. It was first fielded by the US Army 1st Armoured Division in Tunisia during the 1943 campaign.
Cost: 74pts (Inexperienced), 92pts (Regular), 110pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
Special Rules:
• Open-topped
M32 ARV
The more commonly used M32 ARV was also introduced in 1943. It was based on the M4 Sherman chassis.
Cost: 77pts (Inexperienced), 96pts (Regular), 115pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
W IS FOR…
Even before the fall of France, the Panzer generals realized that their armour was outstripping their artillery support in rapid advances, much of the German artillery still being horse-drawn at this point. What was needed was a vehicle that could keep up with the tanks and hit hard. The Panzer II was rapidly losing its effectiveness in tank combat, so it was decided to mount the excellent 105mm howitzer on to the chassis of the Mk 2F. This superb marriage was called the Wespe, or Wasp.
The engine was moved to the front, and just enough armour to keep out small arms fire was fashioned into an open-toppped armoured box. The crew of five then had a small but mobile armoured vehicle to shoot and move, meaning they could give close support to advancing forces. Altogether 676 Wespe self-propelled guns and ammunition carriers were built.
Wheels of Steel – an M26 Pershing looking for trouble
BRITAIN AND COMMONWEALTH
While many countries had taken to modifying their tanks for special missions, the British excelled at it. Recognizing the impending need for specialized tanks on D-Day, Major General Sir Percy Hobart was put in charge of the 79th Armoured Division and tasked with changing it to a unit of specialized armour. Soon ‘Hobart’s Funnies’ would be born.
In addition to the vehicles listed below, the British also had access to the Sherman-based M32 ARV listed above.
CHURCHILL ARV
The massive Churchill tank was slow, but powerful, and as such made for an excellent ARV.
Cost: 122pts (Inexperienced), 152pts (Regular), 182pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 10+ (heavy tank)
Special Rules:
• Slow
CROMWELL ARV
As the Cromwell started replacing the Sherman in British armoured units, so too would the ARV variant find a home.
Cost: 77pts (Inexperienced), 96pts (Regular), 115pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 9+ (medium tank)
Churchill Mk VII
A continuation of hostilities as the Finns strike
SOVIET UNION
The staggering scale of the onslaught the Soviets faced as the German war machine swept into them in 1941 meant the Soviets needed all the tanks they could get into battle. One would surmise that recovery vehicles would subsequently be more valuable, but the opposite happened; the resources needed to construct an ARV were seen as wasted. As a result, Soviet ARVs were more often converted from damaged T-34s and stolen German ARVs, as well as American M31s on lend-lease.
In addition to the vehicles listed below, the Soviets also had access to the German Bergepanther as well as the American M31 ARV.
SALVAGED T-34 ARV
A battle-damaged T-34 sometimes gained new life as an ARV. As was the case with many other converted ARVs, the turret was removed and replaced with recovery equipment. It is presented here with a lower damage value than a normal T-34 to represent its salvaged status.
Cost: 64pts (Inexperienced), 80pts (Regular), 96pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 8+ (light tank)
Special Rules:
• The T-34 ARV’s front armour was rebuilt, giving it the same frontal value as a medium tank (9+)
KV-1T ARV
Based on the massive KV-1 tank, the KV-1T turned some of the KV-1’s drawbacks into advantages; its powerful engine and large chassis helped it tow tanks that other tractors and ARVs would have to double or triple tow.
Cost: 128pts (Inexperienced), 160pts (Regular), 192pts (Veteran)
Weapons: 1 forward-facing hull-mounted MMG
Damage Value: 10+ (heavy tank)
Special Rules:
• Slow
• Armoured all round – no modifiers apply for penetration when shooting at the sides, rear or from above. All shots count the full armour value
X IS FOR…
German rocketry was the best in the world in World War II. There are many secret weapons that may have helped the Germans prolong the war, and a good few others that were absurd flights of fancy. One weapon that at least reached test trials was the extraordinary X-7 Rotkäppchen, or Little Red Riding Hood. It was an anti-tank rocket with a shaped charge warhead that was to be launched from a sled-type trailer crewed by three men. It was about a metre long, weighed nine kilos and had a range of 1,200 metres.
The cunning idea behind the X7 was that as the missile flew towards its target, two wires unwound from it, connected to a guidance system controlled by the firer. Using a tracer flare in the rear of the rocket, he had vertical and lateral control of its flight, making corrections as he saw fit. If a hit was made, never easy in combat conditions, the tank was most likely to be knocked out as the charge was sufficient even to kill heavy tanks.
Three hundred were produced, but it is unlikely they saw action, which may well have been a relief to Allied tankers.
ALL NATIONS
While each country had their own ARV types, each of them also had one in common: the humble tractor. Since it was available to each army, and their capabilities were virtually the same, it is listed here rather than repeated in each army’s list.
TANK RECOVERY TRACTOR
Cost: 10pts (Inexperienced), 12pts (Regular), 14pts (Veteran)
Weapons: None
Damage Value: 6+ (soft-skinned)
Special Rules:
• Slow
T-34/76