Blitzkrieg Germans in 10mm

In recent years the focus of my wargaming has been on WWII, notably the Normandy campaign of 1944 for which I’ve got large numbers of 15mm forces.  I’ve also got lots of stuff for the early part of the desert war in both 15mm and 6mm and a decent sized force of 15mm Japanese for the war in Burma.  I mostly play with these toys using Dave Brown’s Battlegroup Panzergrenadier (BGPG) rules, firm favourites at the South East Scotland Wargames Club.

One of the things I really like about WWII wargaming is the way that you can use the same toys for many rules sets and my forces have also done duty for Crossfire, PBI, Spearhead and various versions of Command Decision.  Recently I’ve become a big fan of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (IABSM) from TooFatLardies.

As if all that’s not enough I decided early last year that I wanted to start off some new forces for the 1940 campaign in France.   I wanted to do this period in 10mm, which I am now convinced is the ideal size for WWII.  The toys are just big enough that you can tell the difference between various types of infantry stands and they’re about one third the price of 15mm.  You can build big forces really quite cheaply.

I succeeded in getting a few people from the club interested but they all wanted to do Allies and I got landed with the Germans.  Jack has already put together a small force of Belgians, but several of the others never actually bought anything and Jim, who bought some British, never started painting them  and I bought his starter force off him just before Christmas.

Here’s what I’ve got painted so far for the Germans.    The core of the force is  nine units each with three stands of infantry sections/squads  for IABSM or PBI,  platoons for BGPG, or companies for Spearhead and Command Decision).  That gives me a full company, battalion or brigade depending on the rules I’m playing.  I’ve got enough Opel Blitzes to motorise two infantry units and enough motorbikes to use another unit as motorcycle infantry.  Support comes from a unit of HMGs, two anti-tank guns and a unit of tanks.

Figures are mostly from Pendraken, though there’s a couple of Pithead Kfz69 Protzes in there.  I’ve just sent off another order to Pendraken and I will soon be receiving 24 Horsh Kfz70 cars (to allow me to use them as a company/battalion/regiment from 7th Panzer Division).  Also on the way are tanks and  armoured cars from Pendraken and  some PKW Kfz 15 trucks from Pithead (the Kubelwagens I bought weren’t actually available in 1940)

Here’s some pictures of the individual units.

A squad/platoon/company of infantry (Pendraken GR212 & GR218 Early War Riflemen, GR219 Early War MG34 and GR220 Early War, MP40 for the NCO)

Motorbike squad/platoon/company (Pendraken GR65 BMW with sidecar )

Pak 36 with Protz Kfz69 tow (Pendraken GR215 37mm AT gun, early war crew & Pithead Gv87 Krupp Protze tractor Kfz 69)

HMG  and Horsh Kfz70 for transport (Pendraken GR4 MG42 team  and GR11 Horsh 4×4)   It’s an MG42 rather than an MG34, but nobody seems to do a tripod mounted MG34 in 10mm and at this scale I can live with it.  .

Pz 38t Tanks (Pendraken GR128)