I agree with this. The Russians actually got together whole squads of close assault weaponed units. I don't know about the ratio in their normal sections though. That could go I imagine from no rifles, to some rifles, to some rifles and autos... it would have been all over the shop in stalingrad.
However the Russian side will be crying when the maps become more open later on and ranges increase....
Historically A Russian Rifle platoon in fact had less SMGs than it's German counter part.
Both sides had platoons with four rifle squads of about 10 men each, with each of these squads having a squad leader with a SMG, and a single LMG.
Thew platoon commander on the German side had a SMG the Russian only had a Pistol (at lest until the December OOBs) -
at lest from what I can see he may of had acquired a rifle as well.
The German Rifle platoon
A Rifle platoon of the time was comprised of 49 officers and men
it was comprised of a platoon HQ of an Officer an NCO and four enlisted men, a light mortar troop of a NCO and two enlisted men and four rifle squads of ten men, comprised of a squad leader (NCO) and nine enlisted men, the Platoon leader and squad leaders had SMGs, each squad had a three man MG section manning the squad(s) sole light machinegun, the Machine gunner, his assistant and a ammo carrier, the latter had a Rifle the two former men had pistols. The six remaining members of the squad had Rifles, the Platoon NCO and two members of the mortar troop had only pistols as well, the rest had rifles
Totals
1 Officer, 6 NCOs, 42 enlisted
5x SMGs, 4x LMGs, 33x Rifles, 12x pistols, a 50mm light mortar and a horse with a cart.
The Russians However where using three different OOBs at the time.
The Oldest was from December 1941 It was a 47 man platoon with four squads of 11 men each, This OOB only had three SMGs and LMGs to arm it's squad leaders and MG gunners, the "fourth" squad it seems was a pure rifle squad (or they scrounged).
The Next OOB is from the Spring of 1942, and the OOB was largely unchanged, though an extra LMG arrived.
The July Tables saw that all squad leaders got their SMGs (officially at lest), but it also saw a significant reduction in the platoon size. As each squad lost two rifle men (the squad went from 11 to 9 men), a extra Runner was added to the platoon HQ though making the platoon have 40 men in all, this runner seemed to have been issued a sniper rifle.
However none of these tables truly replaced each other, and only equipped some of the units. So in December of 1942 the Russians came out with a New OOB that would supersede all of the older ones.
It was based off the July Tables but with a noticeable change, two of the squads got an extra LMG (for a total of six).
Thus the platoon at the end of 1942 in theory was supposed to have, four SMGs, six LMGs, and some 14 Semi auto rifles, with some 16 bolt actions (also two sniper rifles where available). Though the Semi autos supposedly where not popular.
At lest thats what the Red army hand book says.
Note: In August to December 1941 the Russian infantry platoons had four squads but just two each of LMGs and SMGs,
due to shortages. Though they did create a 100man SMG company in November...
Also note the German motorized formations all had six LMGs.
Some other interesting facts, a German infantry regiment was supposed to have some 16 or so radios at this time (split evenly between it's battalions and regimental), it's Russian counter part just four (and all at regimental).
The Germans authorized enough AT Rifles to allow one to support each platoon, the Russians well they had two or three, though they only arrived in numbers in the spring of 1942. The Russian 50mm mortars started as a platoon level asset, they got dumped to regimental in late 1941 (with every other mortar in the btln) than being sent back down to company level by mid 1942.
