Soviet Scouts (Razvedchiki) in some of their many roles:
Plate01:This photograph evokes the fighting in the streets of Stalingrad, as a reconnaissance section engages the enemy from a ruined building in July 1942. They are wearing M40 helmets and M41 camouflage smocks and trousers, carry blanket-rolls over their shoulders, and are all armed with PPSh-41 sub-machine guns.
Plate02:Two soldiers of an engineer-sapper battalion fighting in urban ruins, 1943. Both are wearing M40 helmets, and M41 camouflage smocks and trousers. The sapper on the right has SN-42 body armour and carries a PPSh-41 submachinegun, while his comrade from a flamethrower company is taking aim with the lance of his LPO-50 ‘light infantry flamethrower’. The SN-42 (Stalynoi Nagrudnik – ‘steel vest’), introduced in 1942, comprised a khaki-painted iron breastplate and groin protector with a padded lining and collar, and a brown canvas belt. (Of note here, sappers and scouts were often interchanged as the Soviets did not ‘fill-in’ gaps of a division, they would instead replace the entire division.)
PLate03:Autumn 1942: two artillery spotters reporting by radio from a forward position. They wear M41 pilotka sidecaps rather than helmets, for ease of using earphones, and havebeen issued with M41 hooded camouflage smocks and trousers in one of the six colour variations of the ‘amoeba’ pattern.