Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 8); the German Gebirgsjäger company and MMG

 

This Ozereika landings have a very interesting bunch of different uints on both sides making a colorful table: you will field Soviet naval infantry with US tanks and jeeps against Romanians, German artillery and Gebirgsjäger. Particularly colorful are these Gebirgsjäger, with their light green parkas, and blue trousers. Initially I had the idea that the Gebirgsjägers were pretty close to standard infantry and in fact they are as they also used the helmet and field gtrey uniforms. The good thing about this ones is that the battle ocurred in February in the middle of a freezing cold and most probably these mountain troops wore, on top of the field grey uniform and field cap, a green parka and woolen blue trousers, something I´m trying to represent here. The painted glasses on the field cap finishes the thing. I decided to go this way after seeing a nice reconstruction of an original uniform in this YouTube clip: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oDStItpanM

The figures are decades old Airfix copies of the DAK set. They are bigger then the originals and made in a nice sturdy plastic. All figures got a big Milliput backpack typical of these units made. The DAK Airfix figures make very reasonable mountain troops as the positions are much more dynamic than the original Airfix mountain troops which are also a bit small in typical Airfix style and with few positions. 

All stands got one or two bycicles from Hat German cyclists as this was their mount at Ozereika. 

The MMG stand was the most interesting to make as the Gebirgsjäger tripod was apparently able to lower considerably the height of the gun and thus could be fired from a lying down position. I used small pieces of EverGreen rod and plate in order to replicate that. The base is the LMG firing figure of the Airfix DAK set. The No2 is a mix of the previous legs with the body of the classic Airfix German No2, finally with shaved helmet and glued cap. 

This is the Gebirgslafette 34 MMG tripod which looks that could be lowered considerably more then the infantry one. It also looks to me that the infantry model could somehow end up in the same position but I could only find one model for the infantry being fired from a lying down position and that is the small Zvezda set. 

Next: The Ozereika video (damn, Oscars already passed...). 

Rapid Fire! Eastern Front in 20mm - The South Ozereika landings (part 7); the last bits for the Soviet Shock Force

 

This post concludes the missing equipment for the Soviet Naval Infantry shock force that attacked by sea the Germans and Romanians at Ozereika beach in February 1943. There are three DB pr.165 that carried the artillery (45mm AT and 76,2mm IG) and the towing Jeeps (US made Willys jeeps). 

As usual I used the Pegasus figures to make crews for all these weapons and machines. Included here is a AA Maxim gun mounted on a tripod (left). 

The guns were all scratchbuilt. The 45mm AT guns were made from old Pak 36s that used to be on the top of some Sdkfz 251 until I found many years ago that they were not there in the 1939/40 campaigns. As the Soviet and German are very similar the Pak 36 makes a very reasonable 45mm gun. My only doubt is if the Soviet marines didn´t use the long barreled  M42 model at Ozereika which makes these ones a bit out of date. 

The wheels are 3D printed and the 76,2mm IG came from an assortment of plastics which includes the usual plastic broom bristles. 

The guns and crews in action. 

These kind of models are heavily influenced by the range of Really Useful Guns by Irregular Miniatures which used EverGreen plastics as matrix for many parts.

 The Pegasus figures have several parts and are small kits on its own. As they have detached arms they suit artillery crews very well since you only need to make news arms from Milliput and place some shells in some of them. 

The Maxim AA gun must have been somthing like this as apparently only had one tube. 

The base of the tripod is from FtF as well as the gun. You only need to make a longer support for the gun and some ammunition and box. This tripod is the Finnish M/21 design which I think some may have got through to the Red Army. 

The Willys jeeps are 4D models from China, sturdy and very accurate models. I didn´t use the trailer in the kits as I think they were not used in this action (were they even sent in the Lend and Lease program?). 

The small landing craft were possible to make thanks to the excellent

https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/db.php 

article in the Engines of the Red Army site which has very good drawings and period photos of this small boat. I made it a bit shorter as I did with the rest of the fleet. 

This boat could be used for a variety of usages but at ozereika it was used with wooden ramps in order to land jeeps and light artillery. 

The DB pr.165 boats were made from carved to shape blue board, pieces of wood, EverGreen and card. 

The drivers are cut down Pegasus figures.

All these boats,including the Bolinder, a Destroyer, the MO-4s, in a total of 10 different boats, are out of the scope of the article in the blue book. Our Masters start the Ozereika scenario with the naval brigade and support already landed, and with discounted casualties in the process. I will change a bit this and start the action with the full Soviet order of battle including all ships. This will force me to built a 3rd Naval infantry battalion in the future, which will be an obvious pleasure. Besides if the Soviets don´t have a third Naval Infantry battalion they will stand little chances against the defenders heavily armed with artillery, as it happened historically. 

Next: the German Gebirsjäger at Ozereika 1943. 

Rapid Fire! Dieppe 1942 in 20mm (part 6) - The Dieppe casino

 

With 14 people in the house in the last week I managed to sneak out in true Commando style for some period of time and build this model. The Dieppe casino was one of the many beach obstacles the Germans had at the main beach of Dieppe in order to hamper any allied landing. During the landings of August 1942 it was used as shelter for some Canadians and was thus destroyed after the failed Jubilee operation for the Germans to have a clear line of fire for an eventual second landing. 

This was another venture I was wanting to make since my teenage days but only when I got my hands on the excellent After the battle- Dieppe through the lens and Channel ports- Operation Jubilee books I really had enough reliable information for all this, from my Calgary tank regiment (already made) up to this one. 

This model became 60cm X 30cm. 

The casino was built in Moorish style, opening its doors in 1886,  and it became an imposing feature of the beach and an attraction for tourists during the French Belle Époque. 

Between 1926 and 1942 it gained this Art Déco style, with added galleries,  favoured by the 1936 first paid holidays in history which attracted even more bathers to its beach.

Then the Germans did this and it was in this conditions that the Canadians faced it. It got plenty of its structures changed and simplified and some AT bunkers in its extremities were added. All three last pictures are taken from the castle grounds, a typical photo shoot place at Dieppe. 

My interpretation of the building is a simplified one. The building was five floors tall and I only made three; the U-shaped galleries at the rear next to the gardens were heavily reduced as well as the overall size of the compound in what I hope to be true RF! style. 

The material used was my trusted BlueBoard 4cm sheets. Card was used for all openings, wood for the pipes on the left side roof and broom sticks for the railings. 

The tips of the casino were strenghtened with a 37mm gun (left) and a 47mm gun (right), both in bunkers. In fact the 37mm guns was placed more to the front and leaning on the sea wall. 

The rear part of the casino got shelled before the landing and had its western gallerie destroyed. I used pieces of BlueBoard and some pebbles to represent it. 

Some wooden beams were used to represent some tubing on the western roof (ventilation? water?). 

Just to break the structure some resin bundles of boxes and barrels were placed on the third floor. Its a bit the Call of Duty style but gives some detail to the model. 

The camouflage painting colors of the casino is not easy to understand and, in desperation and against my true beliefs, I asked Chat GPT what would it be and  green over sand showed up. The Osprey book shows it brown over sand and frankly the contrast looks more green over sand in the period pictures as AI said. 

The building´s front part is the most famous with its two oblique towers. The Germans look to have taken out most of the glass from the windows in order to avoid injuries on the defenders while being attacked. 

Some defensive weapons were made for the casino: the 20mm AA is 3d printed and both the 37mm and 47mm guns were scratchbuilt in EverGreen plastic card with some 3d printed wheels in both of them. The 37mm gun was made from memory and its shield became a bit too large. For not to try play the smart guy again I used a ShellHole scencics 47mm gun as a template and this one became nicer. The crews are Simon´s Soldiers and FtF. 

 An MG34 from FtF and a repainted Altaya Opel Blitz were added. The bases of the guns in particular had to have smaller sizes from the ones I already had due to the bunker openings. Besides the AT guns, there was a 20mm AA gun somewhere in the compound that I imagine to be on the roof and most probably some HMGs also. 

                                       

The guns when in the bunkers can be barely seen but the tips of their barrels add some drama to the action. 

These are the  three buildings for the Dieppe project made up to now. Their size has to do with its relative size with the gates being the smaller of the three and the casino, by far, the larger. 

In this picture you can see all three building and their relative position: the gates in the middle; the castle at the top and the casino galleries at the middle right. 

  

As I was probably a failed croupier in a previous life I like casinos. To the left you can see my approach to the Riva Bella/ Ouistreham casino of Sword fame made years ago.

Next: some YouTube shooting.  

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 7) - New trenches and one more AA truck for the Fusiliers Marins

 

A few more company trenches, 75mm emplacements and mortar/MG pits were finished in the last few days. Also added is the famous 13,2mm DAT gun on truck. 

The total made was 2X company trenches; 4x 75mm emplacements and 4x mortar/MG pits. Now I need to place everything together on the table and see exactly what is still missing for Bir Hakeim. While on holidays I took some books and magazines on Crete 1941 and that particular bug started to bite. The way I made the Bir Hakeim complex made me happy as it can be easily adapted to Crete, other NA scenarios or even Italy. In fact as they are simple things they can go everywhere as when you dig trenches you take out all foliage which make these ones fit for almost all theaters. The drop-on solution avoids the building of more complex terrain models which, if over detailed, will be only used in a specific scenario, with the problems of storage coming next. 

The 75mm emplacements have to be like this as the Free French wanted them to have 360 degrees rotation. Note the absence of sand bags. In fact most of the trenches for this project have sand bags while the ones on Bir Hakeim can hardly be seen in most of the period photographs. This is another compromise in order to allow its usage in other scenarios. 

These L-shaped company trenches are different from the T-shaped I made previously. They look quite Vauban style and thus clearly more French :) 

The mortar/MG pits are made for my 4cm poker disks. Besides the heavy weapons the battalion CO stand can also be fitted inside. 

The Fusiliers Marins at Bir Hakeim were in charge of the AA defences and had a number of truck mounted SP guns. This is my second version of the thing, this time with a  quad 13,2mm DAT gun...

... and based on this famous photo. 

The figures are heavily converted Airfix and Atlantic copies. 

Once again the cheap plastic truck is a bit too big but with a 1,5cm cut at the back it becomes reasonable sized for the big and complex gun. 

The gun is made totally from scratch with the help of a great Britmodeller article from their website. Also, if you want to avoid all this work, 3D print Shapeways makes this gun in 1/72nd scale. 

The figure manning the gun is the old wounded Atlantic British figure being carried at the back of his closest friend. Apparently it recovered from his wounds, joined the FFL and is now defending Bir Hakeim! 

The 3d one at the Britmodeller website (is it the same at Shapeways?) that I really can´t rival. 

Next: the 3rd battalion for my US PIR; Little Big Horn; King Porus army (yes, Don McHugh has something to do with this); photos of Bodrum castle; Plancenoit church in 1815 or Crete 1941. Let´s see what comes next.

Rapid Fire! rules - Bir Hakeim 1942 (part 6) - The Morris CS8 w/25mm AT gun at Les Mamelles

 

A "Jock" column makes a reconnaissance mission around the Bir Hakeim perimeter on the night of 25th May, 1942. In order to get some inspiration for the fight they know its coming  the group stop at Les Mamelles (the breasts) with some of them remembering the delights of the Moulin Rouge while others get into dirty talking. 

The Airfix six-wheeled Morris is, unfortunately, only good to tow the Bofors 40mm AA gun. I searched other usages but found nothing. On the contrary the gun itself can be used by many armies which is something that I´ve been doing but with different tows (Poland 39 with CP2; FFL with Ford/Dodge, etc) . After making a few combinations of tow and Bofors gun for the British, the pile of Morris CDSW was good only for conversion to its older and smaller brother, the Morris CS8. 

There were 18 25mm AT guns with the Free French at Bir hakeim. I suppose most of them were of the naval type with a larger shield than the infantry version. I don´t know how many of them were of the naval type or on SP mode like these ones but like this the FFL gets some interesting and rather unique vehicles. 

All figures are converted Hat with one Matchbox figure. 

The Morris CDSW got all the rear part changed with only one set of wheels (glued at the middle of the two sets of the original model version) and the construction of a new and shorter cargo bed. 

The gun itself is made from two types of hard plastic. I only mesure the lenght of the guns and work from within until the majority of the details are there. 

All trucks got a French FM 24/29, in fact 3d printed Bren but a close one. 

The windshields are again pieces of EverGreen plastic. 

Les Mamelles were carved from thick 10cm blocks of BlueBoard.  Frankly I don´t know the correct shape of Les Mamelles around summer 1942 as I can´t find proper images on the Web, books, or magazines. When you google it three big water cisternes shows up and connected to Bir Hakeim: 

I think this has nothing to do with Bir Hakeim but even so gives a reasonable idea of the Arab cisternes of the region. 

"No one will take from us les Mamelles"

Next: a few weeks off and then in late August more Bir Hakeim and the last of the three battalions of the late1944 US PIR.