Falschirmjaeger defeat at Triomphe-de-Luc

Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day: 

Falschirmjaeger defeated by Allies at Triomphe-de-Luc.

The KWC had its 2nd open day on 30 June 2013. It was a great success, with many visitors and a range of games being played, from StarWars X-Wing through to the 7 Years'War.

I fielded my 20mm Falschirmjaeger with Divisional support against Luc's Brit Motorised Infantry, again with plenty of support. We played a FoW game, Fortress Europe, with approx 2800 points a side.

Brigadier Luc ably assisted by Major Cameron deploying the British forces

(Photo credits first 3 images  Jack Penman Photography)

Balance of photographs my own photography

Deploying the Falschirmjaeger

Vue de La ville D'Armand

 Being mostly a display game we though to load the table (which was probably too small for the scale of the game and number of points) with models.

Falschirmjaeger with divisional support: Tigers and Flak Vierling 20mm AA guns

My Falschirmjaeger were garrisoned in the town of Armandville (Hermanville in German), a town in France, defending across a river, with three access points, a road bridge, a rail bridge at the west and ford to the east. The Falschirmjaeger were well dug in, with 4 heavy machine-guns in Tobruk pits, light mortars, a battery of 4 Nebelwerfer and a battery of 2 LeFH 18 Howitzers supplied by Divisional Command. 4 Tiger Panzers and 4 PAK 40s were holding the village square and access to the Scientific research station and fuel dump in the Industrial area at the North end of the town.Reinforcements by rail in the shape of 3 PzKfw IVs has been promised, and the Luftwaffe supplied sporadic air support. A troop of Falschirmjaeger were also arriving as reserves from the neighbouring village.

View to the South: Nebelwerfer and leFH 18s

The ford at the south was relatively weakly defended, by 4 LMGs and supported by 2 Stug Gs

Reserves were deployed in a random fashion, arriving from a table edge designated by the roll of the dice, and on a roll of 6 in the first turn, 5 in the next, 4, etc, etc.

The Brits deployed in pincer fashion, with 3 Churchills leading the charge, followed by 6 M3 Halftracks, each with 2 50 cal machineguns. The Brits deployed  six x 6-pounders towed by universal carriers, backed up by 3 Sherman 75s on the other flank. The centre was held by 4 shermans led by a firefly gun-tank.The Royal engineers raced towards the railway line, set on destroying this avenue of resupply for the German garrison. Australian Field artillery in the shape of 4x 25-pounder guns provided bombardment clout. Of course, RAF  typhoons provided priority air cover.

Guarding the bridge approaches: Tiger, Pak 40s and MGs in Tobruk pits

The German garrison rolled to have the first turn, essentially stayed put, maneuvred to get better line of sight of the approaching forces. Only the nebelwerfers and 105mm Howitzers were in range. The Stukas arrived, and delivered death to 2 squads of the Royal Engineers attempting to blow up the railway line.

The Nebelwerfer took out two bren carriers with their 6pdrs still in tow. The LeF18s took care of 2 of the 25pdrs. The Falschirmjaeger watched, and waited...

Nebelwerfers locked and loaded...

The Royal Engineers immediately laid charges on the railway line, detonating 4 successfully. Needing another 2 demolitions they seemed well set to deprive the German garrison of more Panzers.

The 25 pounders found their mark on the StuGs and supporting infantry, killing several MP34 teams outright, but failing to damage the StuG or the Horch Field Car of their unit commander. The Churchills, Shermans and M3s closed in, attempted to take out the artillery observation teams, but failed at this.The typhoons arrived, but were seen off by the quad vierling AckAck batteries. The UK units who had not fired yet then laid down a massive smoke screen across the road bridge, obscuring the view of all but one of the Tigers, all of the Pak 40s and all of the Tobruk pits. A very tactically sound move by Brigadier Luc!

Turn 2 saw the StuGs advance through the ford, one Tiger probe the smoke screen, and take possession of the road bridge. The advancing allied infantry were now within range of the stummelwerfer mortars, who rained oblivion on the advancing Tommies.

The Tiger supporting the Company commander fired at extreme range,but the 88mm kanone failed to damage the advancing Churchills. The reinforcements from Ville d'Jeanette arrived on the East side of the board, and reinforced the advancing StuGs. The Nebelwerfers ranged in, but failed to do any damage, and the LeF18s destroyed one more of the 25-pounders. The StuGs destroyed another 2 of the 6-pounders, now unlimbered, leaving one only, who found that discretion was the better part of valour.

Turns 1 and 2: Result of the Nebelwerfer salvo and Stug Fire

The smoke screen laid down by the Tommies prevented any further significant action, and the Stukas were driven off by the infernal RAF!

Luc's Turn 2 saw the Royal Engineers destroying the railway approach to Hermanville.

PzKfw IVs on rail cars, never made it to Armandville due to Royal Engineer action

 The M3's charged forward, decimating the Falschirmjaeger dug in on the river bank. The MGs on the Churchills and Sherman adding to the annihilation of my elite troops.

He rolled for his reinforcements, and they arrived in the rear of the German Forces! 5 M10 Tank destroyers rumbled into the town. 2 took the fuel depot and 3 ground their way into the square.

The Tigers stood no chance!

 Volley upon volley of AP rounds crashed into the unprotected rear of the Tigers, destroying 3 outright! The Shermans and Churchils poured their fire onto the remaining Tiger, positioned on the bridge and scored several hits. The Tiger failed his armour save!

Caught in a vice, with their armour gone, and the fuel dump (Objective)  in British hands, the decimated Falschirmjaeger had no choice but to surrender.

The towns-people rejoiced, and renamed the town of Armandville to Triomphe-de-Luc in recognition of the deeds of their Liberators.

But not enough...

Falschirmjaeger just about ready for action in 20 mm FOW

I have been slowly building up my 20mm WW2 armies over the last year, switching from Warhammer WW2 rules to Flames of War. This meant re-basing my entire collection.

The Normandy Brits are done, as are my original Falschirmjaeger, and now I am working on expanding my force. Planning on a game against Luc at the Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day on Sunday.

Early war (R) and late war uniforms. In Crete a Sand-coloured uniform was worn.

As mentioned before I decided to go with an autumn theme rather than the more usual summer or winter. This makes the range of figures that are useful larger, being able to field both winter and summer uniforms (I.e. guys that are cold, and ones that are not so cold, and still wearing the summer uniforms, albeit with the autumn camouflage outside)

My elite troops are painted in the Autumn Oak or planatin Camo, and my Falschirmjaeger in the yellower variant of the Splintermunster camo smocks, with the blue luftwaffe trousers and blue or luftwaffe camo green helmets.

Images from across the net. Reproduction uniform images from Spearhead Militaria
This is also a good site for info on uniforms in general.

This enlarges the scope of games that can be played authentically dramatically, with both winter and summer terrain becoming useful. I used red "iron ore: ballast from the railway miniatures range as the base, and added  lichen in various colours. The result is quite pleasing to they eye, but also vividly illustrates how effective the German Late-war autumn camo was.

"Blurred Edge Autumn Scheme"

"Autumn Oak A Camo"

"Oak B" Camo

Autumn Plantain Leaf no 4

Autumn Plantain Leaf no 2

Plantain leaf no 5 Autumn side

Pea Dot 44 Camo

Horsing around: Revell's German Horse-drawn artillery leFH 18 and Cossacks

Horsing Around: German WW2 Horse-drawn 105mm Light Field Artillery

Modelling Revell's leFH 18 Horsedrawn kit and Cossacks

I seem to have developed a Russian/East front theme to my modelling and painting in the last week. First the IS-2s and now the Revell Cossacks, throwing in the Cossack with a horse on foot strangely included in their Infantry set. 

Have been basing the infantry for FoW, then worked on the Cossack Cavalry. Whilst most modelers will bemoan the presence of the Cossack on foot in the infantry set, I found it useful. The Cossacks can dismount in FoW, send their horses to the rear, and fight on as regular infantry. The dismounted guy will be useful for this, and can also double as an officer with the seated officer with binoculars from the Cossack set for  unit command .

Photographs nicked from Plastic Soldier Review. 

An excellent site about our passion. Recommended reference.

Having built and based these guys I thought I'd stick with the horse theme, and proceeded to work on the German Field Artillery with the LeFH 18 10.5cm field guns. Much to my delight the guns are very detailed, more so than the Zvezda kits I have used before. 

In fact on the table it can be hard to distinguish the Zvezda LeFH 18 from a PAK 40. With the Revell kits there are no doubts.The reason is that two different carraiges are modeled, the earlier model with spoked wheel, the latter with the Pak 40s carriage. The Revell kit also does not have the muzzle brake.

See details below.

German leFH18: 

The 10.5 cm leFH 18 (German: leichte FeldHaubitze "light field howitzer") was a German light howitzer used in World War II.

The 10.5 cm leFH 18 was the standard divisional field howitzer used by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. It was designed and developed by Rheinmetall in 1929-30 and entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1935. Generally it did not equip independent artillery battalions until after the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Before 1938 the leFH 18 was exported to Hungary and Spain. 53 were also exported to Finland.

It had a heavy, simple breech mechanism with a hydro-pneumatic recoil system. The 10.5 cm leFH 18 had wood-spoked or pressed steel wheels. The former were only suitable for horse traction. Initially, it was not fitted with a muzzle brake. In 1941 a muzzle brake was fitted to allow longer range charges to be fired. This increased the range by about 1,800 yards and was known as the leFH 18M. 

In March 1942 a requirement was issued for a lighter howitzer. This led to a second modification, known as the leFH 18/40. This modification consisted of mounting the barrel of an leFH 18M on the carriage for a 7.5 cm PaK 40 antitank gun. The new carriage increased the rate of fire as well as making the howitzer lighter. Additionally, a more efficient muzzle brake was added, decreasing the recoil. Ballistically, the 10.5 cm leFH 18M and the leFH 18/40 are identical.

During the French campaign the leFH 18 was often pressed into service in the anti-tank role when isolated pockets of heavily armoured French tanks, like the Char B and Somua, made breakthroughs. The 10.cm leFH 18 and the famed "88" were often the only weapons available.

While its weight proved useful in its sturdy construction and as a stable firing platform, it was a draw back when it came to manoeuvrability. It weighed 1985 kgs, which increased to 2050 kgs once the muzzle brake was added. During the Russian winter of 1941/42 the mud proved too much for many leFH 18. Many were abandoned to be captured by the Soviets when their crews could not drag them from the mud. Despite being designed with motor traction in mind, the German artillery still relied heavily on horse drawn limbers as it’s main means of motive power.

During 1942 thought was put into how to over come this design flaw. The final result was the leFH 18/40 which utilised the much lighter PaK 40 trail and wheels (wider wheels were introduced later) for its carriage, though the result wasn’t substantially lighter than its predecessor, 1900 kgs, its was put into production in 1942. The leFH 18 continued to be the main form of artillery in the German army, the introduction of the leFH 18/40 merely supplementing those already in service.

A total of 6986 leFH 18s and 10265 leFH 18/40s were manufactured during the war to add to those already in service in 1939.

The Germans did consider a complete redesign, Krupp, Rheinmetall and Skoda put new designs forward, but none of these designs were adopted.The 10.5 cm leFH 18 howitzer was a good weapon that served the Wehrmacht well. It maybe thought of as the plain Jane of the German gun arsenal when compared to more glamorous contenders like the 8.8cm FlaK 36 and the 7.5 cm PaK 40, but in overall damage done to the Allies the leFH 18 would be hard to beat.  

Russian stash growing: Unexpected Divisional reinforcements for the CCCP

Divisional Support for Strelkovy and Tankovy (...and more Germans)

I purchased a grab-box of German and Soviet models from TradeMe (EBay equivalent in NZ) this week, collected it from the trader on Fiday. It turns out that he is as badly afflicted by Model Obsession as I am!

 And he also deals in models! Mostly Italeri. Everything from figures through armour. Mostly WW2 German, but some Italian and  Soviet too.

(I always smile at the term gun  "servants" on Italeri and Zvezda kits)

The grab-box contained the Nebelwerfers (mostly built) I was mostly after. (Think they may be Hasegawa Correction: ESCI kits); a number of 88 mm Flak guns some built, some unbuilt, a 25 pounder field gun and limber (No Tractor, though), 2 IS-2 Heavy tanks (Yay!) 2 x Zis 3 AT guns and crews, 10 (yes ten) built but not painted Panthers, 4 Tigers, a painted Puma armoured car, King Tiger and Panther. 

Unfortunately these are painted in Western Front Summer Camo, and won't fit with my Autumn themed armies, so out came the spray can last night, and they are already base-coated panzer grey. I am also still working on the Armourfast Jagdpanthers and Cromwells.

 

(More about the Nebelwerfers in a later post)

Further contents of the box turned out to be a wad of sprues with really useful bits on them, unbuilt Panther (I now have Panthers coming out my ears...) several Hasegawa German Infantry sets, a partly painted Russian Winter Infantry set, and, and...

Couldn't stop myself, and bought another 2 sets of ZIS-3  guns to make up a whole company of 6 guns and 2 more IS-2s, which will bring the number of these in my Tankovy up to 7 now.

Got all of the built models out on the bench last night, and resolved to get out the airbrush!

 As usual this also inspired me to look up the history of the ZIS gun:

The 76-mm divisional gun M1942 (ZiS-3) (Russian: 76-мм дивизионная пушка обр. 1942 г. (ЗиС-3)) was a Soviet 76.2 mm divisional field gun used during World War II. ZiS was a factory designation and stood for Zavod imeni Stalina ("factory named after Stalin"), the honorific title of Artillery Factory No. 92, which first constructed this gun.

The design of ZiS-3 started in the end of 1940 on the Artillery Factory No. 92 under supervision of V. G. Grabin, the chief designer of medium caliber Soviet guns. There was no order for this work; moreover, at this time the attitude toward such development programs on the part of artillery commanders, such as Marshal Kulik, the head officer of Soviet artillery, was extremely negative. 

The project was run purely on the initiative of Grabin, his design bureau and the Artillery Factory No. 92 head and his deputies. None of them informed state authorities (i.e. Marshal Kulik) about the ZiS-3 project.

The ZiS-3 was a combination of the light carriage from the 57 mm ZiS-2 anti-tank gun and a powerful 76.2 mm barrel from the previous divisional field gun F-22USV. In order to decrease the gun's recoil a muzzle brake was installed. This allowed the barrel to be mounted on a relatively light carriage without the risk of mechanical damage when firing. Many parts of the gun were cast, stamped or welded in order to reduce the amount of machine work. As a result, the amount of work required to construct a single ZiS-3 gun was three times less than that of the F-22USV gun. Furthermore, the cost to produce a ZiS-3 gun was only two thirds that of an F-22USV.

After having been built, the first ZiS-3 gun was hidden from the watchful eyes of state authorities, who continued to ignore the Red Army's need for light and medium field guns. The authorities' main argument was the information that German heavy tanks carried exceptionally strong armour. In reality Germany did not have such tanks in early 1941 and this misinformation was the result of successful Nazi propaganda.. Marshal Kulik had believed the propaganda and sent orders to stop the production of light 45 mm anti-tank guns and 76.2 mm divisional field guns.

Early in the war German tanks had weaker armour than was anticipated. Some were even vulnerable to large caliber DShK machine guns. Pre-war models of 76 mm divisional guns penetrated German vehicles with ease, but almost all these guns were lost in battles or captured by Germans in holding facilities. Some of them were later used against Soviet forces as different kinds of Panzerjaeger tank-hunter self-propelled guns. 

Tiger Tank and captured ZiS 3 guns late-war

Marshal Kulik ordered that mass production of 76.2 mm divisional field F-22USV guns be relaunched. Grabin and the head staff of Artillery Factory No. 92 decided to organize the mass production of ZiS-3 guns instead of F-22USVs. They succeeded, but ZiS-3 was not officially tested and adopted for Red Army service.

Red Army soldiers were in urgent need of these guns, the guns themselves were fine and numerous due to improved production technology, but all of them were in stock at Artillery Factory No. 92, since the military representatives refused to receive non-official guns. After some internal struggle between Grabin's team and military representatives, ZiS-3 guns were finally transferred to the Red Army under personal responsibility of Grabin and Artillery Factory No. 92 head staff.

Combat experience showed the superiority of ZiS-3 over all other types of divisional level field guns. This allowed the ZiS-3 to be presented to a group of state authorities headed by Joseph Stalin and thus obtain all the needed approval. After the demonstration was over Stalin said: "This gun is a masterpiece of artillery systems design." 

There was a five-day official state test run in February 1942. The result of this test was quite clear - ZiS-3 was adopted by the Red Army as divisional field gun model 1942 (full official name).

Grabin and his team soon begun to improve on the technology used in the ZiS-3 mass production. Artillery Factory No. 92 was equipped by conveyor assembly lines, which allowed the factory to produce ZiS-3 in even greater numbers with a low qualification workforce but without significant quality loss. Experienced laborers and engineers worked on complicated equipment and served as brigade leaders. Some of the young men who worked on Artillery Factory No. 92 were exempt from conscription. They learned the production process well and became high quality workers and engineers. This was yet another boost for the ZiS-3 production volume. As a result, at the end of World War II, ZiS-3 was the most numerous Soviet Army field gun. The total number of ZiS-3s produced exceeded 103,000 pieces.

Soviet soldiers liked ZiS-3 guns for their extreme reliability, durability, and accuracy. It was easy to maintain these guns and train novice crews with them. Light carriage allowed the ZiS-3 to be towed by trucks and heavy jeeps (such as the American lend-leased Dodge 3/4) or even hauled by the crew.

ZiS-3 had good anti-armour capabilities, it could knock out any German light and medium tank with its armour-piercing round. The appearance of the Tiger I and later the Panther, however, made the lives of ZiS-3 crews much harder, for their frontal armour was immune except for some small ballistic windows.

A battery of ZiS-3 consisted of four guns, with three batteries combined into a division, or battalion. Independent anti-tank regiments consisted of six batteries with no divisions. In addition to the gun batteries there was a staff battery which included a fire control section.

Kapiti Wargames Club Open Day, Call for help from FoWers

Kapiti Wargaming Club Open Day:

  Call for Help from FoWers

Hi everyone. The Kapiti Wargames Club will be having an Open Day on Saturday 30 June 2013.

We hope to promote Wargaming regionally as a hobby and pastime as a whole, not just our club.

The event will be our second, with our first visit attracting well over a 100 visitors last year. 

(Infant steps yet) We plan to feature Warhammer Fantasy and 40K games, Flames of War in 20mm, Napoleonics/7-year war, and Starwars X-Wing games, and more

BUT we have run into a bit of difficulty finding members who are able to do a FoW Demo game in 15mm.

The date seems to clash with the FoW tournament schedule. :(

This is an appeal to regional FoW players not involved in the tournament. Would any of you be interested in doing a demo game on the day ? Any other period or scale is  of course also welcome. Just drop me a comment and we can discuss details.