German Forces 1944 - 1945
Kampfgruppe Müllhalde – October 1944
Kapitan Gert Mehnding answered the field telephone, it was
the Battalion Commander,“ Come to my office,“ was all he said.
Leaving the comparative comfort of his command post in the Village of
Nirgends he walked swiftly to HQ.
He was ushered into the CO’s office, saluted and stood to
attention. The CO looked up and
smiled thinly, “Orders for you,” he said fingering the brown envelope on his
desk. “You are promoted to Major
and you are to proceed to the depot tomorrow morning.
You will take command of the replacements there and form a mobile
battlegroup. Unfortunately you will
need to find your own vehicles and heavy weapons.
You have authority to take any vehicles and weapons you can get running
from the repair and replacement park. The
General wants the battlegroup fighting fit in 3 weeks.
Good luck and I think you will need it.”
“A fine gift for my birthday,” the newly promoted Major
thought as he put his new rank badges on his grubby uniform.
This
From the wreckage two SdKfz 234/6 Armoured Personnel Carriers made from two badly broken Airfix Armoured Cars
one SdKfz 234/7 with 8cm mortar made from an Airfix Armoured car with scratch built mortar
One Airfix SdKfz 222
Two Panther Chassis acquired Matchbox Puma turrets to become AufklarungsPanthers
Two heavily damaged Airfix Stug III had their guns fixed and a new mantlet fitted on one, Both had missing track lengths so card schurtzen (bazooka plates) fitted to become a StuG III and a StuH III
In the box was a few bits of a PaK-40. Not quite enough to make a gun but I have plenty of them. There was also the hull of a Matchbox Firefly lacking some suspension units but there were a couple of Airfix ones so I mocked up a self propelled gun. Ans also tried the gun on an RSO. Not sure yet which I'll use.
The leftover Pak-40 bits combined with a Revell 10.5cm leFH18 to become (nearly) a leFH 18/40. It needs a bit of work yet and a muzzle brake.
It was pointed out to me that the trails on my 10.5cm leFH18/40 were upside down so I fixed that. Now it needed a gun tractor. The scrap heap yielded an Airfix Bedford chassis from the RAF Recovery set and an Eidai Krupp Boxer bodywork. These were fitted together and became the gun tractor.
The Battle Group received some military light transport
And some commadeered civilian trucks. These were in a dreadful state and restoration really did not improve them very much.
British Softskins and Artillery
German VolksGrenadiers, VolksSturm and horse drawn vehicles