New 15mm German troops

Following on from my previous post where I showed additional troops to make my Soviet units CoC2 compliant, here are the German equivalents, again all by Peter Pig, plus a new Zug (platoon).

First, a three-man Engineer team and a sniper team;

Next a Volksgrenadier squad (see below also) supporting a three-man Flamethrower team;

Here are eight ammunition carriers because LMG teams now need more guys supporting the MG42 and I've also painted an extra Senior Leader. The figure was spare, so I painted him up;

And finally, my new unit, a Volksgrenadier Zug, equipped with the StG 44 assault rifle;

Volksgrenadier units weren't all supplied with the StG 44 because the bulk of the troops still had the Kar 98k rifle, because millions of them were produced during the war, with less than 500,000 StG 44s entering service. However, this is an assault Zug, with two assault squads and a heavy squad with two MG42 teams. That is a lot of firepower. The extra Volksgrenadier squad above will be a potential support choice for the Germans.

I'm pleased with the final photo, because I was able to use one of Jon Hodgson's SciFi backdrops as a battle-scarred cityscape.

Having reorganised all of my German units by mixing in the ammunition carriers and changing the structure of my Panzergrenadier Zug , I've managed to create two extra rifleman (Grenadier) squads and an extra Panzergrenadier squad as support options.

Looking at my Soviets and Germans, when I add in my Volkssturm and an earlier "green" Volksgrenadier squad I painted a few years ago, I reckon that I could put on a huge game with the Soviets and Germans fighting over the ruins of Berlin. Of course, I'd have to create a big pile of ruined buildings to add to the ones I've already got. Maybe a plan for the future?

 

More 15mm vehicles - a British recce troop

More models I've had for a while and finally got round to finishing off.

This is a British recce troop, part of a Reconnaissance Regiment in a British Armoured Division in the later war period.

The Troop consists of two Daimler armoured cars and two Daimler Dingo scout cars. The Troop commander is in one of the armoured cars. The troop would probably have operated in pairs, each pair being an armoured car and a scout car. 

These models are from Flames of War and are nice and simple to put together and paint. The box contains options for 2 pdr guns with Littlejohn squeeze bore adaptors, but I left them off, because it appears that the squeeze bore shells provided extra punch even when fired from a standard 2-pdr gun.

These are a nice addition to my 15mm Late War British and I've already put them on the table in a recce force scenario, where the armoured cars suffered heavily from Panzerfausts fired by their Volkssturm opponents.
 

My last post (and only the second) in July - Longues-sur-Mer.

July hasn't been great for me, to be honest. My arthritic hand issues haven't gone away and it looks as though they are going to be a permanent part of my life from now on. This has limited my painting massively, I've only completed four figures and have another eight on the painting table.

So, I'll post something else about my holiday instead - a trip to the Atlantic Wall battery at Longues-sur-Mer.

Above is one of the four large Type M272 casemates, each of which contains a 15 cm TbtsK C/36 naval gun, originally designed to be used on Zerstörer 1936A (Mob) destroyers, Mob meaning "Mobilisation". Seven of these destroyers were built. 

In addition to these large guns, which had a maximum range of around 20km and fired a 45kg shell, the site was also equipped with machine guns, mortars and anti-aircraft guns, all surrounded by barbed wire and a minefield. You can read more about the site HERE.

The battery was controlled by a fire control bunker near the cliffs overlooking the Channel. Below is a photo showing the view from just to the left of the bunker.

Below is a shot from the bunker looking back to the guns.

The guns were capable of firing at the invasion fleet and were able to reach ships off of both Omaha Beach to the west and Gold Beach to the east. The photo below shows the cliff path down to the port of Arromanches, which was key to the landings as it would be the site of the Mulberry Harbour.

The gun below is a Russian 76.2mm M1902 which formed part of the defences of the battery.

Following the surrender of the battery to troops from C Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment on 7th June, a temporary airstrip (B11) was constructed on the fields adjacent to the battery. This was used by Spitfires from the RAF 2nd Tactical Airforce. Below is a commemorative memorial to this, mentioning Free French ace Pierre Clostermann who flew for RAF 602 squadron from the airstrip. 

The whole site is fascinating and very well preserved. It is well worth a visit.