The Soviet Tank Corps, Kursk 1943, for Rapid Fire rules and 20mm size

These large two units, two Russian 1943 Tank Corps, have been on the making for ... hmmm, decades by now. It includes plastic kits made almost 40 years ago and 3d resin prints with a few weeks. The vehicles are Frontline Wargaming, Britannia, Esci, Matchbox, Fujimi, Dragon, MiniGeneral 3d prints, resin 3d prints, Kooperativa, Armoufast, Atlantic (these last two includes some crazy conversions) and Altaya die-cast. The artillery is mostly Irregular Miniatures, Altaya and conversions. The infantry is a mix of all available plastic brands with a few Irregular Miniatures and Skytrex.

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! WW2 Late War Eastern Front in 20mm - Soviet tank force up to now

A large Russian tank force gathers around the German village of Karl-Heinz-Rumenigge not far from the twin villages of Klaus Allofs and Horst Hrubesch on the way to Berlin (this one really exists!). 

Up to now this Tank corps has a full T-34/85 brigade, two JS-2 battalions, two SU-85 battalions and one ISU-152 battalion. The T-34 numbers are far from complete and I´ll try to find two more brigades. In fact I have seven other tank brigades that you can see in the Kursk posts about Mid-War made of T-34/42 and T-34/43. These were getting rarer in late war environments but that can still be used. All other material, artillery, infantry, etc can also be taken from my Kursk forces.

For reconnaissance you can see two Scout Companies with a White M3 all from the Lend-Lease program.

                             

The Ford GPA are repainted 1/72nd die-cast models quite common around here a few years ago. I found four and they are nice renderings of the true machines. The figures for this command version is Zvezda (driver), hard plastic Esci (commander) and soft plastic Esci (female radio operator). There must be a problem with the driver as he prefers to look at the Officer's ass instead of the beautiful blond on his back... well. 

This one got a Maxim HMG based on this picture from the fantastic site Engines of the Red Army in WW2 

https://www.o5m6.de/redarmy/index.php?fbclid=IwAR1YIiH-hwvLN70g-VYid83W-OnzLNoKEh7Iu-ub8zQqftntGoWS2p2iIKc

The Esci White M3 for the Recce command. 

Two of the battalions of T-34/85 are Pegasus 1/72nd scale double kits. For me they are the best way to portray these great machines, cheap and very detailed with very good tracks waving along the wheels. 

"01" is the command tank of the brigade and has extra Esci and Matchbox hard plastic figures as Desant infantry and a Fujimi tanker. 

The third battlion is Fujimi. "203" is Frontline Wargaming and joined the Fujimi models as all are 1/76th scale.

The two battalions of SU-85 from Fujimi. The tankers are Fujimi and Skytrex.

This battalion of JS-2 is Italeri from the its double box. The DShK Mg's are scratch built (c'mon, I had to scratch built something here). 

The other JS-2 battalion is made of beautiful repainted Altaya models. The tank commander is Britannia.

Finally, the ISU-152 are Italeri also from a double model box. 

Next: wether WW2 Soviet naval forces, Part 3 of Arnhem oddities or France 1940.

Rapid Fire! Late WW2 Germans in 20mm: 88mm KwK43 SPG's.

As I told you before the idea of having all Mortain units was to have the ability to wargame any of the big campaigns in the West and even in the East. Before the Mortain series of posts I already had showed  a number of full units that had the Goodwood operation as background like the 21st PD, the 16th LFD, the Tiger Tank Abt.503, or the British 7th AD, a Sherman based Division or a Churchill Tank Brigade. Having the 21st PD in particular, which had over 100 Pz IV (20 + in RF! terms) allows you to have enough Pz IV to distribute along the Germans divisions at Mortain (21st PD was not at Mortain) or any group of divisions for many other campaigns of late WW2. 

But Normandy is not over with Goodwood and Mortain. And if you want to be able to play all late war possible scenarios you need a few more things. Today I'll show you my German units for other sectors of the Normandy front and a few for late 1944. 

The s.Pz.Jag.Abt. 654 was equipped with one of the most deadly SPG's of WW2, the Jagdpanther, and became famous both in the Eastern and Western fronts. In the latter its first action was against British Churchills in Normandy which could do little against the terrifying 88mm KwK 43. The battalion never acted as a full force so I'm representing it with two companies of 2 models each with a Befehlspanzer Panther as the command vehicle of the unit. 

The models are a mixture of Esci (L) and repainted Altaya (R). Both are 1/72nd scale and the only visible small difference between the two brands is the length of the main gun that is slightly longer in the Esci version. 

Another interesting characteristic of this unit is the German AFV cross painted at the front. I'm not sure if it was used in Normandy but it shows up in pictures of this battalion later in the war. 

The Befehlspanzer Panther is an Hasegawa model with a new scratch built star antenna. 

These two Nashorn are Britannia. The Nashorn was the first solution the Germans used to place the 88mm Kwk 43 in the chassis of a tank. Used at Kursk for the first time it was built up to the end of the war due to its success as a Tank-killer.  This SPG was not used in Normandy but Italy, Eastern Front and Western Front closer to Germany's border are all possible scenarios for these models. 

Just based and crewed and slightly weathered this Altaya Nashorn is ready for Winter war against both T-34 and Sherman or even against late Pershing tanks like the one destroyed at close range in March 1945 close to Cologne...

The gun barrel of the Britannia model is much shorter and thicker than the one from Altaya. The Britannia model is typical of the brand with a model that captures the main characteristics of the real thing and then uses sturdy details almost indestructibles on the table. On the other hand the Altaya version is all about accuracy and elegance. 

Next: a return to Sekigahara 1600 before more late Panzers. 

Rapid Fire! Operation Lüttich (Mortain Counterattack) 1944 in 20mm, Part 6 and last - Panzer Lehr

This series is finishing in the beginning of August, about the time of the Mortain battles just by mere luck not on purpose. Here you have the two Kampfgruppe in which Panzer Lehr was divided after Operation Cobra, KG Von Hauser and KG Ritgen. The CO of Pz Lehr. Generalleutnant Fritz Bayerlein reported catastrophic casualties from the carpet bombing of Cobra and the following assault by two US tank divisions. But it seems they were exaggerated as other officers from the division reported much smaller casualties. Apparently Bayerlein was trying to save the division from further damage. Thus the two KG of the division played only a small role at Mortain with Von Hauser behind the main assault and Ritgen  much to the rear. 

In the top picture the two KG are forming. The Panther battalion is reduced to 3 (RF!) tanks, same with the PzIV battalion as the Lehr tanks were only a bit more than 30 around the 5th of August. On the right you have the AA assets of FlakAbt. 130 close to the remnants of the Pioneer battalion. In line at the rear the Recce bat.130 has its eight wheeled vehicles ready for action. To the left the SP's are providing some fire support while the AA half-tracks of the Pz.Gren. regiments are waiting on the side of an hedgerow. The Fallschirmjäger of II Corps gives the necessary infantry and PAK for this advance with Pz Lehr being subordinated to this Corps during the Mortain actions. 

This Nitto/Fujimi Panther has its big white and red number painted over the turret protective track pieces. Another typical characteristic of Pz Lehr Panthers were the white painted front mudguards. A PSC crewman was the only addition to the model. 

Now this one is a work of art. It was gift from my friend Jorge Faria, the 2nd biggest wargamer and model maker of this country. He carefully used a hot steel to carve the Zimmerit on this Matchbox model, something that many of us thought about but few had the ability to do. I only repainted it in order to have the same tones of colour in all models. 

The PzIV are Esci built straight from the box with the usual add-ons.

The Pz38t AA are Altaya with plastic crews.

This Bergepanzer III is a conversion from the Matchbox Pz III. 

Two Hasegawa Sdkfz 7/1 and 2 from the Flak Abt.311.

Probably Pz Lehr still had some of the 25 Sdkfz 234/2 'Puma' of Panzeraufklärungs-Lehr-Abteilung 130. I used three to represent approximately half of 4th company still  in existence a number probably exaggerated as the reconnaissance units of WW2 had the higher percentage of casualties.   

Another asset of the Recce battalion is this Britannia Sdkfz 233 with SHQ crew. 

Two more Britannia Sdkfz 10/4 makes the Flak for the 901 and 902 Pz Gren. regiments. One day I will make this figures from the available ones in the Valiant box. 

Panzer-Artillerie-Regiment 130 still has these two matchbox Wespe.

General Bayerlein watches the direction of the attack he thinks being a total mistake. But its Hitler's orders so its better to do something about it. The light car and Stoewer are Frontline Wargaming. 

The FJ manning this Airfix Pak40 are also old Airfix and Preiser. 

The main body of the two battalions of  FJ are Esci with a few Valiant conversions. 

The MMG are Armourfast with Airfix heads. The Radio stand is Revell. 

Now for some bibliography used in this series. To the right you have the Victory at Mortain book from M.J. Reardon. For me its the best account of the battles of the Mortain counteroffensive even if lacking detail on the German OB's. To the right  R. Weiss Fire Mission book centers its text on the 'lost Battalion' actions around hill 314. 

The 1947 Michelin map of Mortain is a very useful guide for the terrain were everything happened. I used this one I found in the internet. When all pages are placed like this and wrapped with tape it measures around 70cm X 40cm.

A quick map of the actions make you understand you need a table around 8 meters X 4 meters to cope with all units involved. 

Along the years I built these helpful charts to keep a registration of all details I could find of the six big German units present at Mortain. Also wrapped in tape it was essential to add constant changes in numbers and weapons to the German lists as I was finding more references on this difficult matter and far from conclusion.

Next: More German units for late WW2. 

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.