East German 20th Motor Rifle Division, Part 1

A few posts ago (Aug. 16, 2014), I gave a general outline of East German, Polish, and Soviet forces that would've been involved in the LANDJUT area of operations in early 1981. In that post, I mentioned the East German 20th Motor Rifle Division, which was headquartered at Bredenfelde, as the reserve unit that would have reinforced the NVA frontline units on the Baltic coast of the North German Plain.

As a reserve division, only a relatively small cadre were "regular army" and the unit served as a nucleus for training reservists, akin to the US National Guard, West German Heimatschütz, and British Territorial Army. Prior to a large training exercise (or the commencement of hostilities), all reserve troops assigned to the 20th would have been called to active duty.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the most up-to-date equipment was never in lavish supply in any WarPac army, and what was available to the East Germans went to the regular NVA units, which then filled in any shortfalls with the most recently superseded vehicles, i.e. the least obsolete. This meant that the five reserve motor rifle divisions were left with vehicles that ranged from "significantly outdated" to "antiquated death-traps". 

The 20th Motor Rifle Division will feature prominently in my LANDJUT campaign, as the bulk of WarPac forces in the area would have been devoted to the attack on Hamburg and the push on to the North Sea. The seizure of the Kiel Canal/River Eider was not as high up the Soviet list of priorities and so it would have had a larger proportion of second line units assigned to capturing it. 

So what vehicles would the 20th have been using? Frontline NVA units were equipped with BTR-60PB's:

and BMP-1's:

for their motor rifles. Where necessary, BTR-60P's:

and BTR-60PA's:

as well as BTR-50PK's:

were used to fill in. Then whatever stocks of these vehicles that were left, went to the reserve divisions. However, this would still have left significant shortages, so APC's that were older yet had to be used. Fairly large numbers of BTR-152's:

and some even older BTR-40's:

would have been pressed into service. There also would've been a number of troops left completely without APC's and they would have been motorized, likely in ZIL-157 trucks:

or ZIL-131's:

For armor, the 20th would have been equipped with T-54's and older models of T-55, but to supply enough tanks, East Germany would have been forced to use a not inconsiderable number of T-34/85M's that had been retired 20 years previously:

Basically a 1944 model T-34/85 that had been built in the 1950's in Poland and Czechoslovakia and had extra armor plating added to the glasis (the "M" stood for "modernized"). The West German and Danish Leopards would have massacred these tanks by the dozens. Another Marianas Turkey Shoot. 

This same general problem with obsolescence would have applied to any WarPac army, though to a lesser extent with the Soviets, who generally tended to have a smaller proportion of seriously outdated equipment. That's not to say that they had none; just proportionally less. 

Today, I made a Picoarmor order so that I can begin getting some of the 20th represented in my East German force. When it arrives, Part 2 of this post will be some of 20th Motor Rifle Division painted and based. More from me next time!

Maybe now I've got enough artillery?, Part 2

I must admit that I've not gotten as much painting done this weekend as I actually could have and honestly, it's solely due to pure, unadulterated sloth. However, I have finally managed to finish off my East German towed 152mm battery. 

First, the guns themselves:

The KrAZ-255B prime movers:

The 1V18 forward observer vehicle:

And finally, the BTR-60PU for the battery commander:

And the whole battery:

Do I have enough artillery now? Umm...no. I still need some 2S3 152mm self-propelled guns and a battery of M-30 122mm howitzers, then I can sleep more secure. More from me next post!

"You might as well use grains of rice!"

As the Presidency was for Teddy Roosevelt, this blog is for me - my "Bully Pulpit". That being the case, I would like to address a wargaming issue. 

More than once, I've heard a comment made by the more boorish class of wargamer (we all know them). When I, or anyone else who games in 3mm, brings out their minis, there's always at least one (generally quite rotund) individual who guffaws overly loudly and says "you might as well use grains of rice!! I can't tell the difference!!" I feel that, in an effort to address this sort of egregious and pernicious ignorance, I should dispel any lack of clarity between rice and 1/600 scale miniatures.

Below, I will mix together several photos of a platoon of 1/600 East German T-55 tanks, as well as photos of a suitably painted East German armored rice platoon. I'm not going to say which is which. See if you can spot any difference:

So that everything would be perfectly fair, I have painted the rice to match the T-55's. I don't want any accusations of favoritism. If you guessed that this:

is the rice, you are correct. 

I'm not sure about you, but even with 52 year old eyes, I have zero problem picking out the rice 100% of the time. 

Thank you for your attention to this public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress....

I'll never hear the end of this!

This evening, my wife had a wee peek at "our" blog's (I'm told the whole blog is now OURS!) viewing stats by post. You should've heard the shriek of triumph:

The post about what she painted has more than double the views of any post I've ever done.

The upside is that she's asked for something more to paint for "her public", but still...

It's just beginner's luck, Aor!! 

Maybe now I've got enough artillery?, Part 1

During the long holiday weekend, I'm adding to my East German artillery. Lord, I really need to get a bigger apartment for all of this stuff before Mrs. HistoryPhD has a coronary!

I'm working on a 152mm towed howitzer battery. In the early 80's, these were often seen in place of self-propelled 2S3 152mm guns, as tracked vehicles were in such short supply in all WarPac armies:

Given that it was a much heavier gun than the 122mm and had heavier ammunition, it was often towed by a 7.5 ton KrAZ-255B:

So that's what I'll use for my battery too (and there's that grey canvas cover again). If the battery was part of one of the two armored divisions, an MT-LB would often have been the prime mover:

The battery was rounded out with the usual 1V18 forward observer vehicle:

And a BTR-60PU for the battery commander:

And here's my progress of this weekend thus far. The guns have been glued to their bases, textured, and given the "mud" base coat:

As you can see, I've made a start on the tires.

Secondly, the KrAZ-255B's have been painted with East German green and their tires have also been done. The bases for them are finished, including flocking:

I've yet to start painting the tarpaulins.

The BTR-60PU has its base coat, but:

The 1V18 hasn't even been primed yet. It'll get done with a batch of other things arriving from Picoarmor in the first mail after the holiday. Priming just one thing is too wasteful, and I'm nearly out of primer again, dammit!! Another need which is clamoring for money. Sigh. 

Where has the long weekend gone!?!  Mrs. HistoryPhD has been very successful at keeping me buried under chores and household projects, so not nearly as much painting done as I wanted, at least not painting of minis! Stand by for Part 2 of this post, where I'll show you the finished battery. Hope you had a good holiday!

Danish Armored Reconnaissance Squadron

After the past weekend's break from my regular painting routine, it's back to the salt mine this week. East Germans and Danes. Danes and East Germans. 

This week, I'm finishing off a Danish armored reconnaissance squadron. In 1981, it would have consisted of two troops of light tanks; unmodernized M41 Walker Bulldogs:

Also three squads of infantry (some squadrons had four), each mounted in an M113A1:

And a platoon of six reconnaissance Land Rovers (likely to be 88's):

This particular photo is of a British Army reconnaissance 88, but the Danish ones would be configured more or less identically, but substituting MG3's for the L7 GPMG's:

As usual, O8 doesn't have armed Land Rovers, other than the 110 SOV, so I have to grit my teeth and use it. And they don't have 88's period.

The squadron commander would be mounted in a Danish home grown M113A1 command vehicle, as Denmark never bought M577's:

The only differences from a standard M113A1 were extra radios, a 1kw generator mounted on the top deck, and the internal bay was converted into a small "office". 

And everyone together for the obligatory group shot:

Officers in the rear. Isn't that always the way?

The upcoming three day weekend has me full of plans to get loads of painting done, while it has Mrs. HistoryPhD full of plans to prevent me from getting that accomplished. Need I say whose plans will win out?  See you next time!

If I were a rich man....

Ok, this isn't "Fiddler On The Roof" and I'm not Zero Mostel (nor Topol either, for that matter), but my mind has drifted onto the topic of what periods I would game if I had all the money and spare-time I could want. 

I think all wargamers nurse desires to expand their interests into new time periods or theaters (theatres), and would eagerly do so, but for the constraints of limited funds and/or time. So, what are mine?  My hope here is that discussing them will have something of a cathartic affect, thus forestalling any attempt to throw money at them. 

Obviously, my first desire would be to reopen areas that I've shut down due to budgetary concerns: 1/2400 WWII naval, 6mm Napoleonics, and 3mm ACW. Apart from reviving old interests, let's look at wholly new things I'd love to do. 

I'm not sure why, but I'm really very taken with samurai and I often slaver (what a wonderful Scottish word) over Baccus' lovely 6mm sculpts and the fantastic resin buildings made by Mura Miniatures. The vibrant colors of the samurai armies really appeal quite strongly to me. I mean honestly, how can you not have heart palpitations when you see stuff like this?:

I already game the Cold War in 3mm, but I'd love to add the little known or noticed Mediterranean front; Bulgaria (and potentially Romania) v Greece & Turkey (with a significant contribution by Italy): 

I love the Bersaglieri! They run everywhere they go: http://youtu.be/tNHOLMRoMK4. This area would've been something of a backwater and realistically a holding action on the part of the WarPac. Bulgaria was only expected to occupied the Greeks and draw in as many Turks as possible, allowing the Soviets more of a free hand along their eastern border with Turkey. 

I'm also quite interested in the Italian invasion of France in June of 1940. Although the campaign lasted only 11 days and the French were heavily outnumbered, they gave the Italians something of a mauling. Historically it was an infantry battle, given that the terrain is quite rugged:

Except along the coastal strip. Mountain troops versus mountain troops, so I'd have to tweak it a bit and add in armor, etc to make it a bit more interesting. 

I'd also quite like to expand my present interest in 3mm North Africa to include the Allied invasion of the Vichy French Levant. This one is actually quite affordably do-able, as almost all my desert terrain and British troops are usable. I'd just need to add in some suitably painted French:

Hmmmm, this one bears closer scrutiny.

The Boxer Rebellion really intrigues me: 

I probably watched "55 Days At Peking" too many times as a kid. However, this period seems to only be available in the larger scales, ie: 15mm +, which interest me not a whit. 6mm seems a perfect scale for it, but it's sadly lacking. There are only the wretched offerings by Irregular Miniatures in this scale. Sad. 

I must say that photos of Roman, Dark Age, and Medieval troops definitely appeal to me:

But only as a painting exercise. I don't really feel interested in gaming those periods. 

"If I were a rich, rich man...."

I'd love to hear your "I wish I could" list. More from me next time!