Ferdinands or possibly Elefants
These are the stragglers from the great German army muster. They were collected with the battles around Ponyri in mind - though I note that these have machine guns, which marks them as Elefants rather than the Ferdinand's that were used at Kursk.
Jadgpanzer IV & JadgTiger
These two make up the last of my German armour (for now!) and were a purchase from EBay. The Jadgpanzer IV saw enough service to justify having one in the stash.
The same can not be said for its friend with the 12cm gun. I'm pretty sure that the Jadgtiger came bundled with these in an eBay lot as I can't imagine there are that many scenarios that it would be suited for.
Next the Soviets I think.
Your 'JagdPanzer IV' is actually a JagdPanzer V - a Hunting Panther. Superb vehicle: I have at least 4 myself...
ReplyDeleteYour looks like a Matchbox one but with numbers from another source.
I reckon now I must have upwards of 50 German tanks of WW2, but if you think this collection large, you would reckon without some local acquaintances of mine. One, Gary, turned up at my house one day a few years ago and laid out on my lounge floor an entire Regiment of T34 tanks: all 47 AFVs. Then he laid out a further 20-odd other Red Army tanks and assault guns...
And then there is Nick. Apparently from childhood he had been engaged in an on-going arms race with his elder brother. He had Russians, the brother Germans. Last I saw he had well over 70 Russian AFVs.
This collection - and the fortuitous appearance of a boxing ring platform pushed against the club wall from the night before - led to a huge pick-up WW2 game (Panzer Marsch rules) one day. Who could resist the sudden appearance of a playing surface that size? At that time my whole Russian armour comprised 9 T34s and 4 KVs. With 16 more of Nick's vehicles, I commanded 29 of the about 100 Russian tanks we had on our side. I had the extreme right end of the line.
The Germans had about 70 tanks, 16 of which were facing my 'battalion'. I believe there were infantry and artillery also in this action but recollect very little of their role in the battle.
At any rate, at the end of the day, I had forced a crossing of the stream in front of my position, and of the 16 enemy tanks facing me (mostly panthers as I recall), barely three remained to contest my further advance. I had taken a few dings myself, of course, coincidentally also losing 13 tanks. But at 16 to 3 the odds had tilted markedly in my favour!
On the other flank, our guys made little enough progress, but even so, the battle of attrition was working well and truly in our favour. Of course we reported to Generalissimo Stalin an overwhelming victory, suitably celebrated by a 473-gun salute in the Red Square...
Za Rodina!
DeleteI still recollect that day as one of the best wargaming days I ever had.
DeleteI can think of one scenario that the big 12cm gun
ReplyDeletecould be used for "Herman at the bridge" it's blocking
a Soviet advance at a river crossing with some scratch
units and home guard. It would be bloody but brief...)
True - it might be a while before I get to that one.
DeleteSomething of the sort happened to reinhardt's Panzer Corps in 1941. They ran into a KV1 sitting astride a causeway through a swamp. It took something like 48 hours (I believe) before 'Ivan at the causeway' became 'Ivan no longer at the causeway,'
DeleteThat's a Jagdpanther, rather than a Jagdpanzer IV. You can tell by the colour of the epaulettes.
ReplyDeleteYou can hardly see them in this scale though.
DeleteThat's a JagdPanther, not Jpz.IV
ReplyDeleteI'm getting mixed signals here.
DeleteJagdpanther. Jagdpanzer IV was on a Pzkw IV chassis.
ReplyDeleteYou know - I think your right.
DeleteDear Conrad,
ReplyDeletePlease do not be offedned by the following question but here goes....I was wondering if there was any place in Eire where Roman Catholic mass is celebrated in Irish Gaelic. I know that the folks in the west counties still speak gaelic on a day to day basis but wonder if it has percolated into the liturgy.
On a separate note, you might want o use the heavy German armor to lead a break out from a just completed Russian encirclement. Use of the Jagd Tiger and Jagd Panther would be particularly apt.
Jerry
A/K/A The Celtic Curmudgeon
Jerry,
ReplyDeleteMass is celebrated in Irish in special services. I've no idea how it is in the rest of the country, but you'll find a complete listing of churches offering Irish language services in Dublin here.
http://www.dublinchurches.com/cgi-bin/churchdb/churchdb.cgi?Category=Services%20(in%20languages%20other%20than%20English)&Searchterm=Irish
Regards,
Conrad