Prepping for a Guards Division, Normandy 1944 - Part 2 Updated

Guards Division build part 2 is about what forces and vehicles I am going to use based on the Beyond The Beaches lists by Battle Group Kursk.
And Yay my transfers arrived!!!

My Armoured Teeth of the Division is going to consist an HQ, 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, Elements of the 1st Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards, A/T Regiment RA, A/A Regiment RA, Field Regiments RA, Elements of an Armoured car Regiment, and Elements of the 2nd RECCE Battalion the Welsh Guards, along with Engineering, Supply, REME, and Medical Assets.

 First up is the Divisional HQ:

There is no actual Divisional HQ as such just a Forward HQ. We have the choice of multiple vehicles such as a Jeep, M5 Halftrack, White Scout Car, Dingo Scout Car, Humber Scout Car, M4 Sherman and Cromwell, with the last two having an HQ version option. I have Tentively decided to use the Humber for the Senior Officers mode of transport, I can also use one of the tanks from the HQ Squadrons of either the Coldstream Guards or Welsh Guards.


Humber Scout Car, and Forward Signals Unit

The Forward Signals unit which in reality is the Artillery rear radio link can use a Radio truck, M5 Half-track or a Dorchester ACV (Hmmmm). Their markings was the same as the HQ they were allocated to but in this case my Radio truck has the signals Tac marking with the number 40 on. The Dorchester ACV looks appealing and I have the ability to add one to the army which may give a more unique feel to the over all HQ troops.

UPDATE: The HQ gets its Armoured Command Vehicle an AEC 6x6 ACV

3D Printed ACV

Next HQ unit to add will be the Forward Air Controller who can have either a Jeep, Radio Truck, M5 Half-track, Bren Carrier, Dingo Scout car or a Humber LRC Mk1. At the moment I will be using a Jeep but toying with the idea of the Humber LRC Mk1. The markings for this vehicle are a little different in that it used the Division marking and a small RAF roundel as the Tac Markings.

The Motor Rifle elements from the Grenadier Guards will be mounted in M5 Half-tracks, with The supports being in Bren (Universal)
 and Loyd Carriers. These will all carry the Red 54 and Green Squadron Markings on the side of the Half-tracks.

Now for the Teeth of the Division the Tanks. I am going to mark mine up as the 1st Battalion Cold stream Guards, as I had in part 1 purchased a tank squadron marked up as this battalion but it was pointed out the wrong type of Sherman's. This has been rectified by raiding my Italy Sherman's and quick ebay purchases which will provide enough Sherman's for the missing Troops and HQ vehicles. These have duly arrived and have turned out to be Battlefronts new plastics which I must say do not fit together well and are not a patch on the older resin models.
In addition the HQ Squadron will have Crusader AA Tanks and a Light Recce troop of 3 "Honey" Stuart 3's which by late '44 were replaced by Stuart V's.



HQ Squadron vehicles, Sherman IV, Crusader AA, and M3 Light Tanks.

UPDATE:  The 3 M3A1 Stuarts have now been replaced by M3A3's Stuart V's which are more inkeeping with the Guards Division. The M3A1's are going to my BattleAxe Division for Tunisia.

HQ Squadron 3D printed Stuart V as to cut down on costs although detail is not as good on these, they will do.Awaiting Squadron Markings.

Instead of marking them up as one Squadron, each  troop will represent a Squadron. The HQ Squadron will consist of AA and light Recce tanks. Whilst the normal Troops will be 3 Sherman IV/A4 and 1 Sherman VC. The Squadron markings will also have black centres


Late '44 Squadron markings without the Black centre.



First of 3 Troops ready for Squadron markings

Troop markings now applied.

The other armoured option are Cromwell's, which under the lists can not be used in conjunction with the Sherman's (Oh Pooh, said Piglet), another reason for doing the Guards Division. Along comes the Recce Squadrons of the Welsh Guards. In the list each Cromwell Troop can have 2 Cromwell's and 1 Sherman VC, with one troop allowed an Challenger.
They can also supply Individual Cromwell's as RECCE Tanks. At the moment I have enough Cromwell's to make up 2 Troops.

UPDATE: The Welsh Guards did not get Firefly's so will not be used in a Teeth role but consigned to the role for which they were used for; Reconnaissance . At the moment I have 4 Cromwell's and re-enforced them with a Challenger and 3 Stuart V's. This means that if I wanted to field as Teeth Troops, one can have the Challenger, and the other Troop will get support from a firefly from one of the Cold stream Troops. Under BGK tanks can run around independently to the rest of the troop.

Again 3D printed to save costs, a Challenger and another 3 Stuart V's. Although as time goes by they may be updated with newer models.

One of my First completed units is the Anti Tank Battery, Royal Artillery, which will provide additional SP 17pdr A/T support in the form of half Troop of M10 Achilles. These can also aid the Infantry along with some 17pdr towed guns from the same regiment.

M10 Achilles

Now onto the Artillery. The Senior Regiment equipped with Sextons and an Sherman IV AOP. Support from the regiment is going to be two Troops of two Sextons. An optional AOP Tank is the Cromwell which now has been done.

First Sexton Troop



Sherman FO. All Marked up.

Taster of what else is on the bench

I modified a damaged Sherman to an ARV, a little more stowage needs adding.

Scotts Guards M4 Dozer tank  with a 3D printed Dozer blade, and an Scotts Guards Objective 

Royal Artillery, SP Artillery, SP and Towed Anti-tank, OP's and Ambulance Jeep.

HQ Units, along with some lorries for the infantry, The Stuarts are going back to Tunisia, Notice the difference in quality between the old resin Sherman and the New plastic Sherman (Left)

Well that's all for now, watch out for part 3.



WW2 Infantry Basing for multiple rules

Most of my 15mm WW2 armies are based as per FOW, but now I have moved away from FOW and onto Battlegroup Kursk and back to Rapid Fire, I realised that I could not easily convert the infantry with out debasing the already based to FOW infantry which I wanted to keep based that way in case I went back to FOW.
So an Ingenious (Well to me) Plan came about using the small FOW base and 15mm round bases.

Below is a 3 man through to 10 man units. Casualties on the larger bases can be handled either through  Splat markers, Curtain rings, Small Dice or using spare figures based on the smaller bases.

HMG, Mortars, etc.  are based as per FOW with 3 crew each, Light mortars , AT teams on Small bases as they are usually 2 men. The German 3 Man MG team for BGK are in my units based on a Medium FOW base, as well as all my AT Guns up to 76mm which need 3 man crews are all on Medium FOW bases and the 4 man crewed larger Guns on the Large FOW base

Prepping for a Guards Armoured Division - France 1944. Part-1

The other year I purchased on a whim a British Sherman Squadron off E(Vil)Bay. For a very good price. It duly arrived and the company was marked up as a Guards Division. Having got the Battlegroup Kursk WW2 Rules bug, I have decided to do the British lists from the book Beyond the Beaches, which at the time of purchase was included in the hard back Overlord book. As I am interested in the fighting around Caen and operation Bluecoat.

I have also gone OCD on all my 15mm WW2 armies in that I have got the transfer the hell outa them bug which has resulted in me researching markings and in the end remembering I had a book on British markings purchased 30 years ago, with mine being republished 49 Years ago (1971) OMG one year after I was born, how time flies. Also Battlefront and their Gale Force 9 website have some very good info on markings although further research is always needed, This is what they have to say:
"Guards Armoured Division
The Guards Armoured Division was formed on 17 June 1941. The division remained in the United Kingdom training until 26 June 1944, when it landed in Normandy as part of VIII Corps. Its first major engagement was Operation Goodwood. The attack by three armoured divisions towards Bourguebus Ridge was an attempt to break out of the Normandy beachhead and get beyond the city of Caen. That was followed by Operation Bluecoat, the advance east of Caen as the Falaise pocket formed.
The armoured element of the Guards Armoured Division consisted of the 5 Guards Armoured Brigade: 2nd Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards (Sherman V & Firefly VC) 1st Armoured Battalion Coldstream Guards (Sherman V & Firefly VC) 2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards (Sherman V & Firefly VC) 1st Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards, Its Armoured Recce Regiment was the 2nd Armoured Recce Battalion Welsh Guards (Cromwells)."

Guards Division Markings

So having found the basic unit tac markings, I ordered a load of transfers from Skytrex, but as I write this they have not turned up, fingers crossed it will be soon.
The Army that I am building will consist of elements from all the services; HQ, Signals, FAC, FAO, Tank Squadron, Motor rifle platoon, Infantry platoons, A/T, Artillery, Recce, Engineering assets, Logistics, and REME. The Infantry Division side of the lists I was going to do a separate Division but I have decided to make them Guards as well.

Guards Battalion or is it

My Guards Squadron is actually marked up to represent the whole 1st Armoured Battalion Coldstream Guards, with the corresponding squadron markings for Regimental HQ, A,B and C Squadrons

Spot the error

Also thanks to the TMP thread I have discovered I have an transfer issue, as the Squadron markings for the Division should not be on the turrets but on the hull, I have two options, the first is to wet the transfers in the hope that they are not sealed on and move them to the hull. The second is to paint over the transfer and buy new squadron markings and place them on the hull, either depicting the whole battalion as purchased or making it one squadron. I will also consider painting the centre of the Squadron marking black.  I also have an transfer issue with some Recce Stuarts I recently marked up in white squares on the turret sides, time to redo them as they should be in the HQ Yellow diamond, same as the AA tanks.

Edit: An additional spanner in the works cropped up when a fellow player pointed out that the Guards did not use the Sherman II or IIC... Uh OH... Think fast... plan Delta Six... Logs onto E(Vil)bay.

Sexton troops

Above are two Sexton troops and Armoured spotter awaiting transfers. I do have another two Troops but I think they will go into the surplus box for disposal.

In Part 2, I will be going through the make up of my Division along with the  units and vehicles I will be intending to use.


References:
[1] Vehicle markings: Division Markings
[2] Guards Division Article: Gale Force 9 article
[3]Army build: opmktgdn.blogspot.com
[4] TMP thread: theminiaturespage.com
[5] British Military Markings, 1939 - 1945 ISBN 085524298 (Hardback) or 085524296 (Paperback)

Storage wars
Warbases RUB trays modification to allow easy removal from boxes

Linky to Warbases RUB trays: https://warbases.co.uk/product/rub-tray/

I'm Still Here

Hi Everyone, I'm still here.
Didn't post much over the Christmas period and New-year as I had a decline in my Mental Health, Meds are now helping...Mwahhahahahhahaha.

Well What had I been doing, well not much until lockdown that is, As I have mentioned previously I have a 3D printer. It has allowed me to expand armies in ways I could not imagine and print vehicles that are not available for my chosen scale 15mm.

Polish WW2 that was on the back burner suddenly became viable as files to print the soft skins appeared like magic on Thingiverse along with files for the different tanks. I started thinking I would get my Poles up to Flames of War Standard but no, I have decided to go with Battlegroup Kursk Rules. I had a few games before Christmas and I liked what I saw, and my Friend gave me back my books that I had lent to him a few years previous...LOL

SO what of Flames of War and my Armies. Well in the main the British Tunisia Army and my Germans will still exist but with a few additional troops and units for BGK. I was originally going to go down the TFL Chain of Command route but not many play it in my area and I liked the freedom that BGK gave. Don't get me wrong FOW is a good system but it was geared for tournaments and fast play, so it is now moved in to my Fast play section.  BGK gives you more flexibility in the troops you select and how you use them. The Order system is a laugh and when you don't get the orders can hinder you but I do not find that distracting from the game and is a challenge. The down side are some of the rules especially for artillery is complicated, but the more games you play the better and easier the rules become. I seem to pick complicated lists and scenarios.

Flames of War Armies are now: British which is able to do EW through to Late War, as I purchased a Sherman Squadron and a Churchill Squadron off Evilbay at good prices. My Germans again can do and have always been able to do Early war right through to late war. I have decided mainly to concentrate on 1939 to 1943. With Two exceptions,

Polish: No longer will be FOW but BGK, so infantry will be rebased and spare artillery sold off
British: Early War, Tunisia, Italy, and Caen, I may go to a Bridge too far, so really All war.
Germans: Every where they went although they are not really set up for Desert combat but I have enough assets to do so.
I also want to do 21st Panzer as I love the modified French vehicles, again this will be mainly 3d Printed around November time for use only with BGK.
Russians: I have through an accidental Evilbay purchase as a side bonus acquired a Rifle Company, This is for use with BGK only and will only be up to 1943 Kursk. I have almost completed the 1941 list, and will work on the Kursk lists around September. There are no plans to use this with FOW.
Americans: Originally these were for Tunisia but they will be repurposed as to do Ardennes. As I have just ordered the BGK Ardennes supplement. I used to have under Command Decision in 1/300th scale both Germans and Americans organised for the Battle of the Bulge Campaign. I had these forces from when I was 16 until around 25 years later I had to sell them due to lack of income as I was on a low wage. It was a sad moment for me.
French: I have a substantial French EW Army for FOW and I will keep it that way but also add extra figures and vehicles to use under BGK. The Infantry will also double up as Belgium's.
Belgium: A BGK Blitzkrieg army, using my French Infantry with some additional printed vehicles.

So I've been busy with painting and basing armies. And I got two lockdown games in of  BGK using the Internet. The first scenario was Orliks Cockroaches from the BG Blitzkrieg book and the second longer game over 8 hours was the battle of Hondeghem, which has featured previously on my blog.
This time the game was more entertaining and defently gave a good feel to the battle. And is under development as a BGK scenario.

Well that's all for now I will bring you the picture of the armies later.
Cio Jon