Review - Model, Cromwell 1/76, Tracked Rapier

Tracked Rapier entered service in 1983 following the cancellation of an order placed by the Shah of Iran. The Systems equipped 2 of the 4 Batteries in the 2 Germany based Air Defence Regiments and provided Area air defence in the forward areas where their enhanced mobility and time into action were seen as an advantage. With each launcher capable of covering 100 square kilometres the 48 systems offered considerable cover to the forward deployed divisions.

The Cromwell model is moulded in white resin, the parts are finely moulded and whilst there is a degree of flash on the smaller items this is easily removed. There were no air bubbles on either of the two copies I received and the level of detail and accuracy is high. The kit does not include the track guards but pictures show the vehicle deployed both with them with and without them. The track Gurads would be relatively Easy to scratch build or re use from one of the many M113 kits on the market.

Fit is generally good and the limited number of parts mean the model is quickly assembled, reference to images of the vehicle are helpful in construction. The only difficulty I experienced in construction was fitting the missile containers to the launcher this is done on a single resin peg and might be better drilled and pinned.

From pictures of the vehicle deployed on exercise they were well camouflaged but lightly stowed. I intended to do one in road mode and the other static and camouflaged in a fire position. Camouflage consisted of draped hessian and hessian roles with extensive draping of camouflage nets and hessian over both the cab and the launch unit. Most bulky items would probably have been carried in the accompanying M548.

After looking at the model it seemed a pity to conceal so much of the detail so the end result is not quite as drastic as those shown in the images. I am quite surprised by the cam nets on the launch units as fouling here would have a good chance of rendering the system inoperable.  The Crew and Stowage details are as follows:

• The crew figure is Britannia.
• The rolls of Hessian are made from green stuff, which is rolled, attached to the vehicle then marked using a wet knife.
• The Cam Nets are non elasticated bandage covered in white glue. The overall effect is built up using a number of different strips pasted over the top of each other.

I painted the vehicle in line with the Cam schemes previously described but having moved onto an airbrush and Tamiya paints I used the following colours

• Olive Drab XF- 67 as the base colour
• This was oversparyed with 50:50 XF -67 and XF- 65 Field grey.
• Nato Black XF-69 was used for the disruptive pattern.
• Pin wash used a mix of GW Badab Black and Agrix Earth Shade. 
• areas of the vehicle had filters applied that were dilute solutions of badab black
• Cam Netts were painted inVallejo Bronze Green and the Drapes were Vajello Olive grey, highlighted with Grey Green
• Reds, Yellows Oranges were all Tamiya paints

the vehicles was marked in line with the images in this post using the TS Modelblau 1/87 decal set.  The image above shows the markings on the missile well, whilst the vehicle markings are outlined in the Image below and included:

• Weight Classification
• VRN
• National Symbol
• Battery Symbol
• Warning Symbols

The RA Symbols on this vehicle are unlikely to have been used in the field during the Cold War so I have not included them.  All up a very pleasant build and a very nice model.

The vehicles were obtained via an excellent service provided by Charles Mclaren who can be contacted at charlesmclaren1@hotmail.com. The service is highly reliable and provides assured access to the Cromwell range with prompt and responsive communication. A lot of the Cromwell battle ready range is being discontinued which is a shame as their are some very useful models in the range that are difficult to source elsewhere.

References:

• Military Database, Germany based military exercise picture database
• walk round and description on Harvey Blacks website
• Armorama walk round
• Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army
• The British Army in Germany: An Organizational History 1947-2004
• Cromwell Kit list

Related Posts:

• Modelling - Stowing Cold War British Vehicles
• ORBAT - 1980s British Air Defence
• ORBAT - 1980's British BG Part 3, Equipment Change
• ORBAT - 1980's British BG Part 5, Artillery

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ORBAT - 1980's British Air Defence

The British Army in the 80s had three principal means of engaging hostile air targets:

• All Arms Air Defence
• Blowpipe/Javalin Low Level Air Defence Batteries
• Rapier Low Level Air Defence Batteries 

of these the first was largely an ad hoc response by units under attack although they would be subject to Air Defence weapons control states and the other two were units of the Royal Artillery and deployed as part of the wider Air Defence Plan.  Weapons used include, Machine Guns, Turret mounted canons, Blowpipe, Javelin and Rapier.

Rapier

Rapier was deployed as an area air defence system in tracked and towed varients it had a range of upto 6800m with a ceiling of 3000m and could be fired by day and night and in poor visibility.  The tracked variant was purchased following the cancellation in 1978 of an order for Iran and entered service with the British Army in the early 80s.

The primary advantage provided by the tracked varients was its rapid time into action 30 seconds against 15 minutes.  In addition the launcher deployed 8 missiles rather than the 4 carried on the towed system. Key updates to the system included:

• Tracked Rapier 1982-83
• Blind Fire Radar 1979, issued I believe @ 1 per 3 launchers
• Dark Fire IR Capability 1990

Blowpipe/Javalin

Blowpipe and Javelin were  low level point defence system deployed by both the regular Army and TA during the Cold War. After a lack luster performance in the Falklands conflict the MACLOS Blowpipe was replaced by the SACLOS Javelin amoungst the regular units in the early 80s and in the TA units by 1987. Javalin was replaced by the laser homing Javelin S 15 in 1993 which was inturn replaced by Starstreak in 1997. Javalin had a range of 4,500 m and a ceiling of 5500m.

All Arms Air Defence

All arms air defence was the third option available and largely involved firing bullets into the path of aircraft from shoulder controled and turret mounted machine guns and Cannon's. The canon fire included the 30mm Rardon weapons in Warrior and Scimeter that were provided with an air defence graticule. MGs included the GPMG mounted on Louch poles issued at a level of 1 per Platoon.

The firing of the GPMG in the air defence role from effectively the hip was also taught, hitting targets was always interesting.

Air Defence Units

A range of Air Defence units were deployed by the Royal Artillery to support the British Army of the Rhine and in Particular 1st British Corps.

Rapier equipped Units

• 12 and 22 Air Defence Regiment RA were the two Germany based Rapier Regiments. The regiments were equipped with 24 Towed Rapier and 24 Tracked Rapier in 4 Batteries. 
• Each Tracked Battery included 12 launchers 12 M548 and 2 Saxons.  I have assumed its organisation to be 3 troops of 4 launchers and 4 M548 with battery HQ in Saxons, 1 Blind Fire per Troop. 
• Each Towed Battery included 12 Launchers and 6 Blind fire Radars according to SOHB. towed by  1 Ton and 3/4 ton Land Rovers.  I have assumed its organisation to be in three troops of 4 launchers with 1 Blind fire per troop.
• Most likely deployment of blind fire to my mind is 1 per troop across the 6 troops.

• 16 AD Regt RA was a UK based Air defence Regiment.  The regiment deployed 48 x Towed Rapier (SOHB states 40) in 4 Batteries.  I have assumed that these are manned and equipped in line with the towed batteries in 12 and 22 Air Defence Regiments.

Javelin equipped units

• Regular Army Medium Artillery Regiment Javalin Batteries.  Each of the M109 field regiments included a Javelin Air Defence Battery. This had 36 launchers, I have assumed that these were organised in 3 troops each of 12 Launchers.  They were carried in CVR(T) whilst the Battery HQ used Saxons.  SOHB details 14 AFVs per Battery, which I would assume to be 12 CVR(T) and 2 Saxon. The units and Batteries were as follows:

• 40 Fd - 10 Assaye AD Battery, 1st Armd Div
• 2 Fd - 46 Talevera AD Battery, 3rd Armd Div
• 47 Fd - 43 Lloyds Company  AD Battery, 4th Armd Div
• 43 Gibralter Battery 24 Air Mobile Bde

• TA Air Defence Regiments.  Each of the TA Air defence Regiments equipped with Blowpipe or Javalin deployed 16 Launchers in a Battery.  I have assumed these batteries included 2 Troops each of two detachments of 4 Launchers.  Transport was land rover 3/4 ton vehicles with Trailers.  The units and their roles were as follows:

• 102 Ulster AD Regt RA (V) 2 Bateries only. BAOR Reinforcement role.
• 103 (Lancashire volunteer Artillery) AD Regt RA (V), 4 Bty, 2nd Infantry Division
• 104 light AD Regt RA (V) 4 Batteries,  BAOR Reinforcement role.
• 105 Sottish AD Regt RA (V) 4 Batteries BAOR Reinforcement role.

In addition The RAF regiment provided air defence of the Harrier sites and main airfields

Deployment options

Area Air Defence, The Rapier systems were area Air defence systems and as such did not come under control of units but provided a matrix of air defence assets that could cover a Brigade or Divison.  Rapier units would rarely be under operational control of units.

Point Air Defence.  Blowpipe and Javelin were for point defence of targets so would be allocated to the defence of a target. these could be units, or features such as Bridges Roads or supply dumps.  Javelin units would often see themselves placed under operational control of units.  This task organisation would be dependent on the unit mission.

Allocation of Assets

FEBA

Each of the Armoured Divisions received,:

• 1 Battery of 36 Javelin 
• 2 Battery of 12 Rapier 1 Tracked and 1 Towed.  

if this force deployed evenly then effectively each brigade would have:

•  1 Javelin Troop of 12 Launchers 3 Detachments of 4 Launchers 
• 2 Troops of Rapier one tracked and one towed (assumed). Each of 4 launchers

Whilst not necessarily allocated to units, it would seem reasonable to allocate a javelin detachment  and upto a maximum of 2  Rapier troops that might be considered to be capable of engaging targets overflying the battle groups air space depending on the detailed disposition of the Brigade and where the represented units sat in relation to the air defence assets. 

The Corps Rear Area

The Corps Rear Area was under 2 Divs control and would have the following units allocated to its air defence:

• 103 Air Defence Regiment 64 Javelin/Blowpipe
• 16 Air Defence Regiments 3 Towed Batteries, the other was not committed to BAOR. Batteries acceding to SOHB were each of 10 Rapier and 10 Blind fire Radar.
• 1 Towed and 1 Tracked Battery from 12 or 22 Regiment is suggested in the sources however  I suspect that the tracked units would have remained forward and that potentially the reserve division with the more mobile role might have been supported by two tracked Batteries whilst the Corps Rear Area took two towed batteries.

The remainder of the TA Batteries would be allocated as required so would reinforce over the top of the air defence pattern depending on what needed protecting.  This would provide an additional 40 reinforcing detachments of 4 launchers from the 10 Batteries within the 3 Regiments allocated to this role.  An even distribution would put roughly three additional detachments in each Brigade area to look at the protection of:

• gun lines reserves, 
• supply depots 
• routes 
• bridges 
• HQs 

So units deployed on specific tasks such as  reserve demolitions or as reserves might expect extra assistance.

UKLF, AMFL and the Commando brigade probably had their own assets though other than 20 Battery that supported the commandos I have yet to track this down.

So what am I doing from a gaming perspective? I will deploy the following assets in order to cover upto two battle groups from a Bde operating across a number of different scenarios.

• 2 Tracked Rapier Troops each @ 1 Tracked Rapier and 1 M548
• 1 Towed Rapier Troop @ 1 Rapier + 1 Ton LR, 1 Blindfire + 3/4 t LR
• 2 Regular Javelin AD Detachments each @ 1 CVR(T), 1 Javelin Team
• 2 TA Javelin AD Detachments each @ 1 3/4 T LR + Trailer, 1 Javelin/Blowpipe team
• 1 AD Battery HQ @ 1 Saxon

This will provide sufficient to cover a forward deployed or reserve Brigade in either of the forward divisions or to play out a game in the rear area covered by 2 Division.

There are a number of confusion factors when analysing the references but I suspect these are related to organisational change over time in a number of different organisational structures. As ever with un verified and conflicting data we can only make assumptions until better evidence surfaces.

References:

Internet

• NORTHAG wartime structure
• 103 Ret RA V
• 20 AD Bty RA
• 46 AD Bty RA
• Tracked Rapier
• Modern British TOEs
• NATO Orbat 1989
• Tazak, Understanding British Standard Orbats, Matrix Games Forum

Books and Publications:

• Staff Officers Hand Book (SOHB) 1988, amended 1990, in Basil Lidel Hart Collection, Kings College London.  SOHB as amended was showing transition to 1993 HVM organisation and potentially reflected some options for change end of Cold War reductions.
• Encyclopaedia of the Modern British Army
• Rats' Tales: Staffordshire Regiment at War in the Gulf,N Benson
• The British Army of the Rhine: An Organisational History 1947 - 2004
• Armies of NATO's Central Front

Other Posts of interest:

• ORBAT 1980s British Battle Group, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7
• ORBAT - 1980's British, Army Air Corps Aviation Regiment
• ORBAT - The RAF in Germany in the 1980s

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Cold Wargammer Hobby News - Winter 2014

When I started writing this I thought the Winter releases had been a bit sad but as I near the end its starting to look like a steady list and as ever I am not even looking at the Air and Aviation end of things. I do occasionally get a little wound up as yet another Panther is produced whilst hundreds of excellent and quite ubiquitous modern vehicles go un made in 1/72. It is of course a free market and companies not being charities tend to focus on what sells, so if we want to see more modern wagons I suppose we have to buy more.  On with the news:

S&S

S&S's prolific rate of production continues, sadly they got distracted by WW2 so only a couple of this winters output are of interest. The first is an M992 ammunition carrier nice one to team with your US M109 Batteries:

The second is a rework of the Engineer support book beautifully painted here by Iain R from the Guild and the Watching Paint Dry Blog

ACE

ACE have sadly announced that the 2S1 Godvika is now discontinued and whilst the new BMP2 and BMP 1 remain in production they are difficult to find. In their recently published catalogue they have identified 1 new modern release the BTR ZD.

Models Collect

Models Collect popped up on my radar over the Winter, they are based in China and working on a range of Soviet and Rusian vehicles primarily based on the T-72. Releases to date include a T-90 a Tos-1 Buratino, T-72B and T-72A and a range of Soviet decals one sheet of which is shown below.

Available for pre order but yet to be released is a T-72B with reactive armour and a T-72B1 with reactive armour.

T-72B1

I have ordered and received the TOS 1 which looks good though I have yet to build it and have ordered but not received a T-72B, in the hope that its an easier route to a late period tank fleet than ACE.

Black Dog

Black Dog have released a Centurion Mk 3, useful for early Brits and Canadians or mid - late Dutch and Danes.  I picked this up from Armourama it does not seem to be up on the Black dog Web site yet.

Zvezda

Zvezda win the prize for the most prolific releases of Modern 20mm or 1/72 kit over the Winter season being particularly prolific in the release of figures, all part of their Hot War Battle for Oil game, but useful none the less. I usually shy away from plastics but these cover a bunch of topics that have limited coverage in the metal world, notably the MANPADs and light ATGWs. The immages of the figures look good with the potential to generate a number of stands out of a single box

The Soviet packs cover the same functions, Infantry, SAM, HMG and ATGW

Of which the two hottest sets are the Dragon and the Metis as these are only produced by Liberation and under fire miniatures to my knowledge and liberation can be fun to get hold of and the under fire version is included in a pack with a mortar so a little difficult to consume.

Whilst not terribly useful from a gaming perspective the megalomaniac in me tells me to buy one the tool looks like a fairly amazing model in 20mm.  I find it easy to convince myself I should have one just in case NATO goes nuclear early :)

Cromwell Models ordering service

Cromwell Models have always been a little hit an miss on the ordering front but I have recently discovered a service offered by Charles Mclaren who lives close to Cromwell.  If you drop Charles a line @ charlesmclaren1@hotmail.co.uk he is pretty quick to respond, nips around to cromwell places the order lets you know if there are any issues and drops them in the post as soon as they are ready.  Brilliant service, I have so far put two orders through Charles and have not been disappointed and its giving me reliable access to some great models.

QRF

QRF re released this decal set back in December or January, great for numbering Soviet wagons and the range of number sizes accommodate the sides of BMPs amongst other wagons.  I for one have missed this set for a while.  Whilst QRF's products are designed for use with 15mm kits they work find with 20mm.

Mig

Mig's decal set for Modern Soviets and Russians looks interesting.  As well as numbers it contains some of the Regimental identification markings as does the model collect decal sets but in both these are in far two small a quantity to cover of the 50 - 60 vehicles I end up with in a Soviet Regiment.  I have been thinking about commissioning a Decal set for some time - think I will just have to bite the bullet.

as well as the decals Mig have dropped out a number of useful modern paint sets the two shown here cover modern Russian armour but are probably good for the end of the Cold War from 1987 onwards and Israleis.

DTIC on Line

 I found VG Reznichenko's Tactics a Soviet view as a download from the DTIC on line page.  Very useful work on Soviet Tactics.  Personally I find it a bit of a dull read but its got plenty of useful stuff in it and its free.  Which beats having to buy the book as that costs money consumes time as it is quiet difficult to find.

Tactics A Soviet View PDF

CWG on Facebook

You can still follow Cold War Gamer on Facebook, insane ramblings along with products and links to stuff of interest to the Modern Wargaming community covering a range of scales including 15mm, 28mm and 1/285 as well as material for later modern games in the Dragon Rising Bear Resurgent arena. 98 followers currently and keen to make it 200! If you have friends who are into Modern, either Cold War or later spread the word.

The Spring Magazine

Winter is a little inevitably my favourite part of the year. The long nights are great for blogging and painting and Christmas brings both time off and lots of goodies. As ever the Winter period also sees me embark on the set of projects that will be the core component of the summer campaign season and the Spring build. This years no different with expansion of both the British and Soviet armies focused on a set of scenarios that will be looking at a Soviet assault against British defensive positions.

As ever I get a bit carried away with the scope of these projects and I have in my mind two to four games that could become one big game that looks at the attack throughout the depth of the operational space from the Soviet approach march through to the deployment and disruption of the British reserve battle group. This would include action by the covering force against the Soviet advanced guard, NATO BAI against the main body and Soviet airmobile elements acting against NATO reserves as well as the traditional bloody punch up on the objective.

The components being built out are a bit of a challenge

• British
• Air Defence - Javelin Detachments, Rapier Battery
• Dug in Infantry - 2 Companies + Field Defences
• Armour Squadrons - Challenger 1
• Armoured Battle Group - This may not get done
• Soviet
• Ground Attack Aircraft with PGMs
• Break through artillery units - 2S4, BM30
• Army Flame thrower battalions - TOS-1, RPO-A
• Divisional Air Defence - SA-8
• BTR Regiment - this may not get done

could be a two year project? of which the British stuff is progressing well and the Soviet less well. So coming up over the next three months will be a variety of articles covering the scope of the scenarios and the units that will be needed to play them out.  Clearly a start to that has been made during the winter, upon which I shall now build.

AND FINALLY

A word of thanks to all the readers as we creep up to the 200,000 hits mark, thanks for reading and if you have friends interested in modern wargaming please recommend the Blog sites and the Facebook page. Hopefully spring will be a little less wet.

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