The Forces deployed at Waidhaus by the Germans represent the concept of a forward Screen or covering force established in order to Identify, Monitor and Delay the enemy such that the main defensive positions could be prepared. As such it would be unusual for that force to become decisively engaged and it would be supported by Air Aviation and Artillery assets to enable it to achieve its mission. The covering force would consist of elements of the Divisional Recconaisance and Divisional and Corps Reserves. in this case:
- Elements of Panzeraufklärungsbataillon 4
- A reinforced battle group from Falschirmjagerbattalion 251
- A Company from Panzerbataillon 123 part of Panzergrenadierdivision 4's reserve Panzerbrigade 12
- elements of the covering force for Panzergrenadierbrigade 10 in the form of Panzerjagerkompanie 100 and Panzeraufklarungkompanie 100
- Air defence assets from Flugabwehrregiment 4 (Gepard) and Flugabwehrregiment 200 (Roland)
The Remainder of the Recce Regiment was deployed to cover the Cham gap whilst the Recce Company of 12 Panzer Brigade covered the difficult terrain between Waidhause and Cham. The off board elements of Panzerbataillon 123 and Panzerbataillon 124 were being held as an armoured reserve to be deployed as the situation developed.
The guilds Mausman provided all the German forces used on the day and built a number of the forces for the event. Falschirmjagerbattalion 251 consisted of two Luftlandepanzerabwehrkompanie each equipped with 3 TOW armed Weisels and 2 20mm Armed Weisels, The Weisel was just starting to enter service at the time of the scenario. The two Falschirmjagerkompanie are provided with Krakas for the use of their Milan teams. This was part of the earlier Kraka only equipped unit but it is not clear if these carried forward into the weasel equipped units
The Weisels are 1/72 models all from S&S and painted by the skilled hand of Mausman, in standard NATO 3 Tone, airbrushed using Tamiya XF-67 NATO Green, XF-69 NATO Black and XF - 68 NATO Brown
The Figures are 20mm from Elhiems Cold War German range and liberation miniatures Bundeswehr. The Krakas are by S&S and run up by Shaun to help John put his force together. As well as the cargo variants shown here S&S also do, TOW, 20mm and Milan armed variants, in fact just about all you need to represent the Falschirmjager units of the Bundeswehr in the 80's and early 90's.
As well as Falschirmjagerbattalion 251, the Germans deployed two of the Panzeraufklarungkompanies available to Panzeraufklärungsbataillon 4. One representing a heavy company reinforced by a Fuchs detachment with GSR and the other a light company with two Leopard platoons of 3 vehicles and 1 Luchs Platoon of 8 Vehicles. The Luchs are from 1/72 Revell kits and the Leopard 1 A3/4s are the Italeri 1/72 kit which has just been re released BTW. The Leopard 1 A2s shown below are Altaya resparays and the Fuchs from Revell. The Green Leopards are painted in a mix of Tamiya XF-69 NATO Green and XF-65 Field Grey
Panzerbrigade 12 provided two Panzer battalions as an armoured reserve to the covering force of Panzergrenadierdivision 4 with Panzerkompanie 1 of leopard 2s from Panzerbatallion 123 being deployed on board. a further 2 Companies from Panzerbatallion 123 and 1 from Panzerbatallion 124 were available as reinforcements during the game. The Leopard 2 A4s are from Dragon.
The final components of the onboard force were elements of Flugabwehrregiment 4 and Rolands from Heersflackbrigade 2's Flugabwehrregiment 200 The Gepards are altaya repaints the Unimog from S&S. The Marder Roland uses the missile unit from an Altaya AMX 30 Roland and the Hull from an Altaya Marder.
Confined to deploying at the rear of the area was Panzerjagerkompanie 100 from Panzergrenadierbrigade 10 Mausman converted these from the S&S Jagdpanzer Kanone with TOWs missiles provided from the S&S range as well. All vehicle markings were either suppliesd with the kits or possibly Prieser.
There is a wealth of German Orbat information on the web, particularly if your not afraid to wade into German language sources. Rationalising it all can be fun and inevitably you are left making a number of assumptions. listed below are some of the References I have used in compiling the German orbats for our last couple of games.
References:
Armies Of NATOS Central Front D Isbey
Scenario - Storming The Waidhaus Gap
AAR - Storming the Waidhaus Gap, part 1 Ground and Deployment
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability Part 1, Overview and Lift Assets
ORBAT - Soviet Air Assault Capability Part 2, Army Air Assault Battalion
ORBAT - Soviet Task Org, Fronts in the Western TVD
TTP-Forward Detachments and Tactical Air Assault
Wargames Unit - Soviet Late 80's, Independent DShV Battalion
Wargames Unit - Soviet Late 80's, MRB
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That's some gorgeous kit!
ReplyDeletesadly not mine but Mausman has a superb collection and its pretty flexible in terms of the unit types he can make out of it.
DeleteHi andy. Which are the table dimension suggested?
ReplyDeleteHi Marco, the table we played on was 18 feet by 8 feet, this was not the whole german force just one of each type of unit. 3 more Tank Companies were available as reinforcement, there was an additional AA battery and a platoon of Luchs along with some artillery and a couple of flights of MBB 105.
Deletereally cool models but arrh a dylexics night mare to read all those names. I enjoy learning about this stuff but it sure does hurt my head. then again I see they do have nice shortened versions for the names.
ReplyDeleteanyway as with all these battles looking fowards to the action!
there are some really nice looking german vehicles... I think the cold war stuff has a nicer look to some of the more modern vehicles, for instance the boxer does look hightech but it looks so similar to all the other new vehicles... where has all this character gone?
Hi Andy
ReplyDeleteYou will be pleased to learn that S&S is preparing a Marder Roland for imminent release. I mastered it over the summer and a photo of the first prototype appeared on his facbook page. The hull is a conversion of his existing Marder hull and the turret is a mix of resin and white metal. I also mastered for them the 5 most common version of the Hotchkiss Kurz. I already got my prototypes, but no photos on the S&S website yet.
Sounds good, I think I have seen the pics of the Roland on his Facebook site, not seen the Hotchkiss though, the 11-2 was a great looking wagon
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