The Soviet Mountain Troops were a minor branch of the soviet military. Normally when I research a service branch of a country that fought in WWII, I find so much information that I spend several days summarizing the content so that it fits within a few paragraphs. That has not been the case with the Soviet Mountain Troops. As far as I can tell, there were only five Mountain Infantry divisions, and it does not seem like they were used much differently than regular infantry units. I came upon this topic after buying some figures meant to depict the troops which fought at Mt Elbrus, but even that seems like it was a very small action. So small in fact that apparently the first defenders were not mountain troops but just local militia that happened to be close by. There was so little resistance to capture the mountain that the Germans actually had the opportunity to climb to the top 3 times. The first time they forgot to bring a camera. The second time they took a camera, but the Reich's propaganda machine decided they needed film, so they were sent back up a third time. Later, after the Germans withdrew to shorten the front after the collapse of Stalingrad, the Soviet Army reclaimed the mountain, without any fighting. So this might be a situation in which the lore of the small Mt Elbrus action has aggrandized the role of the Soviet Mountain Troops. Here's a link to a site that analyzed in great detail the action at Mt Elbrus. As far as Mountain Infantry Divisions, the Soviets fielded the 60th, 63rd, 68th, 72nd and 83rd divisions. The 60th, based at the Carpathian Mountains, was destroyed in the Uman pocket within the first couple months of the war. The 63rd, was based at the Caucasus and fought in the Crimea. It was destroyed during the German offensive in the summer of '42. The 68th was used to occupy Iran in 1941 and remained there for the duration of the War. The 72nd was deployed in Ukraine and it was also destroyed in the Uman pocket at the start of the war. The 83rd division is the one that saw the most action. Initially deployed to Iran, it later helped liberate the Crimea and later on pushed through the Carpathian Mountains into Czechoslovakia where it ended the war. In terms of plastic toy soldiers, I am only aware of one manufacturer who has covered this subject - Hanomak. They are a recent entrant into the arena, but their debut set has been a welcome addition. Let's check it out.
I know we are always curious about how they compare size-wise to earlier sets, so here's a side by side comparison with the some of the figures from the previous set. As you can see they are fairly well matched. Perhaps a tiny bit taller, but nothing that will keep me from folding them into the unit, especially when you consider how few poses exist for this service branch!
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