21st Panzer Division in 20mm for Rapid Fire! rules, Normandy 1944

This is a big unit made along many years. It was built around many brands and around the opinions of different authors and fellow collectors and wargamers. I hope it can be useful to someone making the 21st PD or any of its sub units or Kampfgruppe.

If you want you can go to this Blog´s tag '21st Panzer Division' a see more posts on the issue with plenty of pictures and explanations.

Rapid Fire! Normandy 44 in 20mm - One more Regimental command for the 21st Panzer Division

Close to the Bois de Anthony Martial the command group of the 192nd PzGrenadier Regiment is counting the models still missing to complete the 21st Panzer Division Normandy 1944. The report says:

 "No more models are necessary for the division as all units are Kampfwert I. The only thing it can still be done is the Nachschubtruppennhenhenhe 200 and such useless units for RapidFire." Then the report became more personnal: "Besides,  your wife (mine in this case) is not finding any fun in your relation with the mailman. Are you two having a case?".

This is how the report ended and it fell like a bomb!

Well, the prospect of having  made all possible models for my beloved Normandy 21st PD leaves me sad and distressed. It was a long journey of maybe more than 20 years interrupted of course by many other projects. But this one was special as there is no other division as the 21st PD in Normandy. 

These models are: figures- Simon´s Soldiers; Lorraine 38L - Minigeneral PLA print, Citröen CV11 - Resin print. The Lorraine 38L  follows the suggestion of Don McHugh and Alan Mcoubrey of these being used as radio vehicles. 

The figures of the command group are from two different sets of the excellent Simon´s Soldiers.

The Lorraine and trailer got supports for the canvas roofs and Simon´Soldiers figures. Pedro Pato designed this one without canvas covers which allows to put some nice figures inside. 

No the antenna is not a 20mm AA gun but is made of small pieces of broom stick attached with super glue and a tiny blob of GreenStuff. 

The CV11 is another great resin model from Mário Laranja. This group of vehicles got the same camouflage in dark yellow and green in contrast with the first group showed a few weeks ago painted in a more psychedelic style.

 

Here you can see Oberstleutnant Josef Rauch trying to convince a poor corporal to embark in the following mission:

"Look Gefreiter, the Mulberry harbours are here as you can see in this map, you just need to swim up to there and cut all cables connecting them. Quite easy!!"

Next: most probably more Russians for "Barbarossa and beyond". 

Rapid Fire! Normandy 44 in 20mm - Regimental command for the 21st Panzer Division

The Command Post of the PzGrenadier Reg.125 receives the visit of an officer from the Pz Regiment 22. The officer's driver is chatting with the radioman peeking from the Lorraine38L trailer only to discover that both were born in the same place, the village of Lothar Matthäus (not far from the City of Franz Beckenbauer, which is also the capital of Bavaria as you all know).

Four brands are here. The standing figures are Simon´s Soldiers, the peeking radioman is Airfix, the Lorraine and trailer are Lancer and the Citroën CV11 is a 3d resin print. 

The group is a shameless copy of Don McHugh's nice Schlepper 38L showed in the Rapid Fire! FB groups a few weeks ago. With this one I´m ready to make my first solo wargame in 10 years maybe, the fine scenario by the same Don McHugh, Von Oppeln Counter-Attack 6th June 1944, and free to download on the RF! official page. Now I just neded to find some courage to do it due to lack of habit. 

The Airfix figure comes from the Luftwaffe's set and its based on the figure carrying what looks to me as an axle bar. 

The figure is the second from the right and had its axle bar carved out and suffered an obliquous cut in the back to be as if looking from the opening of the trailer. 

The trailer had an antenna mount on the left side according to the pictures posted by Alan McCoubrey on the above FB page. 

The Citroën Traction Avant is one more faultless 3d resin print made in one single piece by my friend Mário Laranja. 

The command group is made of Simon´s Soldiers Panzer command set with very imaginative and detailed figures. 

Now for a bit of discussion. This picture and others from the same set of photographs are the ones used by Don McHugh and Alan McCoubrey to introduce to the RF! fans one more 21st PD  lovely vehicle. I also found the same picture in Normandie 1944 Hors-Série Number 6 "Les Panzers face au debarquement". Here is stated that the vehicle is an ammunition carrier and not a radio vehicle. The symbol that can be seen only means a tracked vehicle as far as I know. On a second picture posted by Alan McCoubrey on the RF! FB groups he shows a different angle in which in fact the small thin structures coming from the Lorraine really look like antennas and thus we have probably a radio vehicle. 

A big thank you to Don McHugh, Alan McCoubrey and Sally Gardner for the inspiration provided. With this article of mine they all found the path to fame for sure :)

Next: More Eastern Front around winter 42/43

Rapid Fire! Normandy 1944 in 20mm - The unarmoured Unic P107 of the 21st Panzer Division

Both 2nd battalions of 125th and 192nd PzGrenadier regiments meet at Carrefour-Courbé, not far from Caen under the protection of a self-propelled AA gun...

This group is intended to replace the mounts of the two Motorized battalions until now wrongly equipped with Frontline Wargaming Somuas. These ones on its turn will pull heavy weapons on the PzJager battalion or in the artillery battalions or be used as ammunition suppliers for several units of the 21st PD. 

The models are MiniGeneral 3d prints for the transport version of the P107 and Raventhorpe RTR for the AA version. 

The MiniGeneral P107 are detailed little pieces without any serious printing lines to be seen. I left side the front canvas cover supplied and finished them in the same way Don McHugh showed recently in a Fb post. 

The figures for the PzGrenadiers are from Caesar and the drivers and officers are mostly S&S. 

The P107 with a more Edvard Munch camouflage will go for the II/125th regiment. 

This will be the transport of the Grenadiers of the II/192nd regiment based on scheme I have in Batailles&Blindés magazine No39 related to everybody's favourite Panzer Division, the 21st. 

Now for my favourites, the ones that helped me solving the old question of medium mortars (8cm) for the German PzGrenadier companies. Since the 90s I have Alan Verwicht book on the 21st PD which mentions an annex of the Meldung for foreign weapons. He states that 64 X Gr.W. 8,14 of French making apparently can be found on that paper and they would be naturally distributed among the infantry (besides the Recce and Pioneer units) but this without absolute certainty. I remember reading this, making four stands of medium mortars - 1 per infantry battalion, later another for the Pioneers- and then forgetting the issue. The RF Normandy Battlegroups doesn't even mention them and Zetterling lists do the same and we may be tempted to exclude them but it would be very strange for the German infantry to exist without such weapon, the type responsible for the largest number of soldier's casualties in WW2. A few weeks ago when reading Martin Block information in the Axis Forum this author also places these mortars among the "subunits of the division". So it was time to have something to transport them and these unarmoured and covered Unic P107 are my way to do it. The model is the MiniGeneral model with a piece of RoofMate shaped and sanded in place as a cover for the cargo part.  By reading the same kind of threads its also possible that the German  8cm or the French 81,4mm (they could fire the same ammunition) was placed inside the SPW P107 of the two armoured battalions in the same style of the Sdkfz 251/2. 

Another Unic SPW 20mm AA was built alongside its infantry siblings. On the contrary of its metal version, this Raventhorpe RTR comes without trailer which was quickly built out of different types of styrene. 

The figures, with the exception of the driver which comes with the model, are plastics from different brands. You may recognize the pioneer from Revell without its spade, a DAK torso from Airfix aiming the gun and the famous DAK Airfix officer (Airfix Chinese copy) slightly bent with fire in order to look upwards. 

The crude trailer was disguised with plenty of stowage. The body was built from hard styrene foam so don't forget to cover it in PVA glue before priming. 

Now very few things are left to portray the 21st PD. Still missing are:

- 2x SPW Unic to carry the medium mortars in the Sdkfz 251/2 style. 

- 2x more SPW Unic with 20mm AA gun, like the one above. 

Unfortunatly, nothing else and unfortunately as this division  is for me the most interesting big unit of the entire NW campaign of 1944. 

Another nice aspect about modelling the 21st PD are its various vehicle camouflages making this unit something unique. 

The next captions were taken from the Magazine mentioned above and are a good guide for the 21st PD camouflages. 

The UE with rockets is an old idea. Don`t know really if its true and I would discount that one. 

 

Next: probably the D1 tanks for the 1940 French.

Rapid Fire! 1/72nd scale 21st PD Panzer-pionier Bataillon 220

And now, only now, 21st PD for Normandy is done. The pioneers are Valiant and a few Revell with Valiant heads.

The pics were taken in BleuVille somewhere near Caen...he,he... 

 

 

These are the Retrokit Somua MCG S307(f) (available by Milan Vins of Czech republic).

 Convoy Citroen with SHQ bridges, ESCI and SHQ crew.

Skytrex Laffly with a driver with Airfix body (the one in the SDKFZ 7) and Valiant head. The command stand is Valiant.

 

Mine searcher with Revell body and Valiant head.

 

Rapid Fire! 20mm - 21st Panzer Division, Normandy 1944 - Pt 2

125 Pz Grenadier Regiment:
P-107 armoured (several variants) - Raventhorpe metal and Ready to Roll;
P-107 75mm PAK - (DRW- Don´t Remember Well... but it´s a French resin company);
P-107 unarmoured - Frontline Wargaming;
Lorraine 105mm and Somua Multiple Mortar(x20) - Raventhorpe
Citroen car - Die-cast DRW...
BMW R/75 - Atlantic.

192 Pz Grenadier regiment:

- There are few alterations regarding the origin of these kits in relation to 125 Pz Gr. Reg. The BMW R/75 are Fujimi and the Somua Multiple Mortar(x16) is scratch built as I don't know any manufacturer that makes the 16 mortar version.

A metal Raventhorpe P-107 followed by a Ready to Roll one. The main difference is that the Ready to Roll carries incorporated basing and crew. Only the MG42 figure is metal.

The infantry are plastic (ESCI, Revell, from european boxes and Afrika Korps), with several conversions and Irregular Miniatures (the one with panzerfaust).

The Raventhorpe P-107 with a very nice camouflage that I first saw in photocopies sent by Richard Marsh some years ago when we used to discuss 21st PD organization on the phone .

The figures are metal: an Irregular Miniatures from their Modern African range (suits ok, no?) and a Britannia MG42 firer.

The Ready to Roll P-107 with cast-on crew. Nice idea!

The full 125th and 192nd Pz Grenadier Regiments.

The DRW P-107 75mm with SHQ crew.

Another camouflage for the DRW P-107 75mm PAK.

A support company with Skytrex MG42 crew and plastic mortar and crew.

A command company of a Pz grenadier Regiment.

Some Lorraine 155mm had a different camouflage as proposed and discussed by Mr. AlainVierwitch in Panzer Voran! 21st PD supplement. I placed the ones with Panzer Grey camo in the support companies of the Pz Grenadier Regiments.

The Raventhorpe Somua Multiple Mortar (x20) with crew from ESCI and Atlantic.

                           

Raventhorpe Somua Multiple Mortar (x20).

The Atlantic BMW R/75.

The Fujimi BMW R/75.

Several more infantry conversions in plastic.

The Somua Multiple Mortar (x16) don´t exist in kit form, at least to my knowledge. I made one in Evergreen with some plastic die-cast wheels I thought would fit in and a pair of tracks kindly sent to me by Tim Wade of Frontline Wargaming.

The figures are conversions from several hard plastic figures.

I used a bedroll to disguise my ignorance about the interior of these machines. 

I made the infantry some years ago with too large stands. If done nowadays they would be smaller.

Pz Grenadier Regimental HQ (metal Irregular Miniatures and ESCI plastic).

The three companies of the FLAK 305 batallion.

88mm gun from SHQ.

88mm gun from Hasegawa with crew from Atlantic and Skytrex.

The Sdkfz 7 4x20mm from Hasegawa.

The Britannia Sdkfz 10 20mm.

The Sdkfz 7 prime mover with Britannia crew.

The powerful 200 Panzerjäger  battalion of the 21st PD equipped with 88mm PAK (Skytrex metal). One of the stand bases (to the left) is smaller as it needs to fit a Bunker for the Omaha beach scenario.

General Feuchtinger arriving late at the battle front after a Cabaret hard night ...Staff car from Frontline Wargaming.

FCM 75 mm PAK and 105mm from Alby with Britannia crew. I don´t really know if these ones ever belonged to this division, so just in case...

The Famo probably did, but I have no information on its use by the 21st PD. As this Division had no Panther probably they didn't.

Same with Marder I on Lorraine chassis (Skytrex). these were the two first models for the 21st PD I found just to understand later they were no part of the divisions. These two can fight for a German Infantry Division though.

Lancia (Skytrex) from rear echelon units like the Nachschubtruppen 200.

Citröen trucks also from rear echelon units.

Beute Shermans. It seems that 21st PD used some 20 or so of these captured from both British and Canadians.

Sherman from Airfix with Matchbox Firefly barrel.

According to RF! rules, three Sherman will represent all the captured Beute Sherman.

The figure is a metal Britannia with a MG42. You can also see the effect of PVA glue on HO train foliage making a hard and long lasting finish.