Main Project - The Jerries

`Okay – Now the German Forces. These will be representing the III Company of the 736. Grenadierregiment of the 716. Infanteriedivision, the unit defending quite a lot of the Normandy coast where the invasion took place.

I have a couple of variations of German forces already painted so part of the Main Project is to go back and work out which units are up to standard and which are not. If not can they be salvaged by a touch up and rebasing or simply pushed to the back of the shelf.

The make up is as follows:

Company HQ – 2 small infantry stands and 2 80cm mortar teams. Pretty sure I have these and fix them up easily.

3 Grenadier Platoons – each of 1 small infantry stand (Platoon commander) and 6 medium infantry stands (Rifle/MG teams). One will have to represent some Reluctant Trained Ost Troops (typically Russians who preferred joining the German Army to starving to death in a POW camp). For these I’ve ordered an Early/Mid war Grenadier platoon and I’ve just got a brand new Panzer-Grenadier platoon for one of the other units. Pretty much everything here has to be painted by June.

Scout Platoon - 1 small infantry stand and 2 medium infantry stands (Scout Rifle teams). I have a slightly different variation of these – in that mine have assault rifles – already done to a pretty good standard. So it just comes down to how pedantic I am!

Machine-gun Platoon – 1 small infantry stand and 4 medium infantry stands for the HMGs. I have all these painted and just need to bring them up to standard. OR – I may decide to model these as Tobruk MG posts instead. (This will be very easy).

Anti-tank Gun Platoon - 1 small infantry stand and 2 7.5cm PaK97/38 anti-tank guns. These are captured French guns fitted to PaK38 chassis and used by the Germans. I have them on order from Battlefront.

Artillery Battery - 3 small infantry stands (Battery Commander and 2 observer teams) and 1 medium infantry stand (staff team) plus 4 10cm leFH14/19(t) (100/17) howitzers. Strictly speaking all I need to do for this is paint the 2 observers as the battery is off table. However, I thought it would be cool to field this unit with its odd Czech guns and all even if I have to make a little board up to add onto the back of the table representing Strongpoint Daimler which was where the artillery were based further inland.

Panzer Platoon – 4 Panzer IV H tanks. COMPLETED!!

Next up...The Table!