Wargames Units - The German Army At Waidhaus

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:

Fire and Fury German Cold War Orbat

Micromark G98M West German 2 Korps

Micromark G170M West German Paratroop Brigade, 1984 - 1990

4 Panzergrenidier Division

12 Panzer Brigade

25 Luftlande Brigade 

4 Panzeraufklarungs Battalion

NATO Order of Battle 1989

Die Bundeswehr 1989, Teil 2.1, Heer, I Korps, II Korps, III Korps

Armies Of NATOS Central Front D Isbey

Other Related Posts:

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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Review - Models 1/72, Airfix FV107 Scimitar

The CVR(T) series of vehicles are one of the more enduring vehicles on the planet with their design origins back in the Malayan Campaign and enduring still with our deployed forces in Afganistan. This particular beast is the Scimeter which with Scorpion provide the mainstay of formation and close reconaisance throughout the back end of the cold war. The Scimitar equipped the close reconaisance platoons of Mechanised track and Armoured Infantry Battalions and always needed to carry more equipment than you could possibly get in it.  This lead to a degree of central and local modification of external stowage solutions throughout this period which radically altered the shape of the base vehicle.

The kit itself is relativly straight forward to construct except for the tracks which were particularly painful to get to stick.  The principal problem is that the kit represents an early version, devoid of external stowage and including the floatation screen which was abandoned quite early in the vehicles existance when the British Army gave up swimming rivers having realised that the main issue was getting out on the other side. Leaving the flotation screen in place inhibits the ability to build and attach correctly the various stowage bins and containers that were added. Compare the build from box picture above with the vehicles as used that it sits between.  Effort is required to adapt the kit to be more representative of vehicles deployed in the mid to late 80s.

Having built the hull and basic turret I removed the flotation screen with Knife and file.  The vehicles were then crewed and stowed.  Crews came from SHQs gulf war range which being quite small 20mm figures make good crew.

The principle stowage items added were external stowage boxes simply constructed from plasticard.  The main one being the large box on the hull rear.  Webbing items which were draped over the hatches were built from green stuff and antennas from brass rod.  Ammo boxes, jerry cans, sleeping matts and canvas rolls came from Goffy.

The vehicle had cam nets added from non elasticated bandage soaked in white glue and hessian rolls attached to various parts of the lower hull which were draped over the track and front of vehicle to eliminate deep shadow when the vehicle was static and cammed up. Painting was in line with the guide provided in the FV 432 post and the crews DPM uniforms are in line with the DPM painting guide.  Markings came from the model trans British decal set.

The CVR(T) series are some of my favourite vehicles but require a bit of effort to get the period look and feel right. No British cold war army should really be without them and there are numerous models on the market in addition to the Airfix one.  It is not however particularly difficult to take the basic Airfix model and turn it into something more representative of the period.  Currently the kit is quite difficult to find a few are still popping up on e-bay, hopefully Airfix will get it back in production sometime soon.

References:

FV 101 Scorpion (better example of the cold war hull)
LEP Scimitar (post cold war hull stowage, reasonable example of turret)
ORBAT 1980's British BG - Part 4 Recce Group
Review - Model 1/72, Britannia FV432 Painting Guide for British Vehicles
Painting British Army DPM
Review FV107 Scimetar Review @ Miniatures.de

Modelling - Converting a BRDM2Rkh

The BRDM 2 was the primary scout car operated by the Soviet Union in the later part of the cold war, it was produced between 1962 - 1989, it had a crew of 4 and mounted a 14.5mm KPVT HMG in the same turret as the BTR 60PB.  The BRDM 2 Rkh is an NBC Reconaisance version of the vehicle with flag planting, soil sampling and environment monitoring capabilities, two versions of this vehicle exist one with a standard turret and the other with a 7.62mm MG and a small sensing port in the turret.

The basic model was S&S's BRDM2 which is a good representation of the vehicle requiring minor amounts of filling on the raised detail on the back decks, front headlight clusters and around the rear left wheel.  It is now supplied with a turret with rear mounted smoke grenade discharger units representing a Russian BRDM 2M, these are easily removed with a sharp knife and file for those like me requiring an earlier version, for those requiring something operated by the Russian Federation, you get it for no effort.  I like this model the hull and turret shapes are good although it is a little smaller than the ACE model, sadly no longer available. As well as filling and filling I added a search light at the commanders position out of the spares box.

I wanted two BRDM 2Rkh, so I decided to use an Elhiem NBC clad figure in the commanders position on each vehicle, so removed the moulded hatch detail and and amended the figure to remove the weapon and add representation of the soil sampling kit using brass wire and green stuff.  Hatches and the window covers were made from thin plasticard.

The main recognition feature of the BRDM 2 Rkh are the racks of flags mounted on either side of the vehicle and covered and stowed over the back decks when the vehicle is traveling between tasks.  The alternative is to model them down and in operation. Stowed looked easier so stowed it was.  The Dischargers were made from card stock using square rod cut to size and caped with an oblong piece of card to represent the elongated top of the discharger unit.  The other components required are the rests near the turret and the uprights again produced from card stock.

I decided not to represent the covers at any level of detail and added what looks like some reactive cloth to the sides of the vehicle using green stuff as represented in the 2nd of the two black and white images.

The vehicle will be painted and marked in line with the rest of the Soviets and will become part of the Mobility Support Detachment for the MRR as outlined in this post here

References:

FM 100 3-1, The Soviet Army, Troops, Organisation and Equipment
Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army
War Wheels BRDM 2Rkh
ORBAT - 1980s Soviet MRR and TR, Part 3 Engineers

Wargames Unit - 1980s British BG, Support Company

Support Company owns the bulk of the combat power in an infantry battalion providing, Recce, Anti-Tank and Mortar platoons. I have also included my GPMG SF Guns in this post though they were more often an HQ Company asset. Support companies platoons either worked directly for the battle group HQ or were attached to the companies. Recce and Mortar platoons generally worked direct to battle group whist Anti-tank tended to be grouped with the rifle companies although for certain missions, defence, they were more likely to work for battle group HQ. The Support Company HQ provided a staff and planning function into BGHQ which by the late 90s was focused on covering the ISTAR function.

Recce Platoon

The Recce Platoon is represented by two Airfix CVR(T) Scimitars, these have had the flotation screens removed and are crewed with SHQ Gulf War Infantry, considerable extra stowage has been added as this was not unusual for these vehicles which had limited space and a lot of equipment to carry. Stowage is either Goffy or scratch built from Green Stuff or card stock.

Milan Platoon

The Milan Platoon was large comprising 4 sections of 3 vehicles, a Milan Mobile section of 4 vehicles and an HQ of 2 Vehicles. I have physically represented two sections, but provided them each with two posts representing 12 real life posts, so they incorporate the working assets of the third section. The other section is assumed to be deployed with the third rifle company so is not represented.

The milan posts are scratch built using card stock and the figures are converted SHQ WW2 SS or Britania/liberation mixes. The FV432s are Brittania and stowed in line with the post on stowing cold war british vehicles here.

The Milan Mobile Section is represented by a single CVR(T) Milan Compact Turret (MCT) which is a conversion of the S&S CVR(T) Spartan.  S&S now produce a MCT so creating the mobile section is somewhat easier.

Mortar Platoon

The Mortar platoon is represented by 2 Britania FV 432 Mortar carriers and a CVR(T) Spartan carrying a Mortar Fire Controller (MFC). The FV 432s are crewed with the figures provided and the Spartan is crewed with an SHQ Gulf War figure and armed with a liberation GPMG, with the butt removed. As MFCs were frequently on the BG command radio net, the supported sub unit radio net and the mortar platoon net, the vehicle has the I am a target number of antennas mounted.

SF, Drums Platoon

The Drums platoon was double hatted as the SF platoon in the battalion I served in and provided three sections of two guns, I have represented them as two guns, they had no organic transport and were reliant on the people they were supporting to provide them with lifts in order to get around the Battle field.

The figures are a mix of Britannia and liberation, the Guns are liberation and the tripods from one of the Dragon TOW HMMWV kits. All vehicles are painted in line with painting modelling and model reviews referenced below.

References:

ORBAT 1980s British Battle Group, Part 3, Part 4, Part 7

Painting - British Army DPM

Review - Model 1/72, S&S FV 103 CVR(T) Sparten

Review - Model 1/72, Britannia FV432

Modelling - Stowing Cold War British Vehicles