Friday 27 July 2018

Rapid Fire! Operation Lüttich (Mortain Counterattack) 1944 in 20mm, Part 5 - 17th Pz Gren. Div. Götz von Berlichingen

 
The 17th Pz Grenadier Division was a shadow of itself in the begginning of August 1944 with its forces gathered in Kampfgruppe Fick. Only ten of the StugIV of SS Panzerabteilung 17 remained from the original 42 and all units within the division were as depleted.
As I have 7 StugIV for this division, that I showed you in an older post, I used 6 of them (equals to 30 in RF! terms) to give a bit more colour to this faded group that ended in Mortain under the orders of Pz SS 'Das Reich' division.
 
 
The StugIV are Revell with one Altaya in the middle.
 
 
Another anti tank asset of this division was the 17th PzjägerAbt. I found conflicting references to the kind of Marder in this unit, wether Marder I or Marder III. I ended up by alocating these two Marder III from Altaya with plastic crew to this also depleted unit.
 
 
 This division still had a battery of IG18 at Mortain. The models are Britannia. The 120mm mortar must still have existed by then also.
 
 
 The 17th SS Flak Abt. had 88mm guns and Sdkfz 7/1's. The 88mm and crew are SHQ.
 
 
And the Sdkfz 7/1 is Hasegawa with crew from Atlantic.
 
 
The Rocket battery had three sections of Nebelwerfer NW41 and NW42.
 
 
The Nebelwerfer models are old Esci and one Altaya. The tow is an Esci Sdkfz 11 with Hasegawa and Atlantic crew.
 
 
I equipped the leftovers of the artillery with ex-Russian 122mm model 1936 as this division had some in replacement of the FH105mm. The 17th Pz Gren. Div. didn't have SPG's in its artillery.  Crew and guns are Irregular Miniatures.
 
 
The much depleted SS Pz Aufkl.Abt 17 is represented here by a Skytrex Sdkfz 231, a Britannia Sdkfz 250/1 and a converted Sdkfz 263 based on the strange Airfix Sdkfz 234. Not sure if this one was in this division though.
 
 
No SS infantry as I'm finished with it for the moment. Instead a battalion of Fallschirmjäger Reg.14 (from 5th FJ. Div.) is supporting the SS troops as it happened in Mortain.
 
 
 The figures are mostly Esci with a few Revell. I converted a few in order to have LMG's and Panzerschreck teams. The arms holding the Panzerschreck are Valiant.

 
Finally a deadly SS Sniper from Britannia is lurking in the middle of the bocage... but no problem as you are seeing it.
 
Next: The end of this series with the remnants of the once mighty Panzer Lehr.
 
 

10 comments:

  1. Hi Joäo: As allways, very nice stuff. I'm planning the conversion of the Airfix "234!?" to a 263... Yours is wonderfull. How do you do it?

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    1. OK. Next post will be that conversion. It will be only pics of the finished thing but hope it helps.

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  2. Another great force. Lovely conversions and paint jobs.

    Cheers, Andy

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  3. Just amazing stuff mate, very, very impressive :)

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    1. Thanks Richard.A little bit Impossible to wargame but may be one day.

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  4. Thanks Andrew. Eager to get to my Risk minis for South America wars of liberation.

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  5. A wonderful collection.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  6. excellent mate, I have a new book on the 17th SS with vehicles available!

    cheers
    Matt

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