Wargaming

Well it took a little bit longer to finish the remaining troops and vehicles of the WW2 US 4th Arm. Div. than I anticipated. Now that they are done, I can finally start the offensive against the German SS holding the town. My American Army consists of 2 company size combat commands with support elements.

Tank Companies

The Tank strength of the division is 37 medium tanks (Sherman), 13 light and 11 Tank Destroyers for a total of 61.

Like the German army, there is a mix of tanks and weapons that span over a couple of years to be able to play different battles and to reflect a realistic attrition. Out of all the tanks and vehicles in this army my favourite are the M36 and M10 tank destroyers from Eduard despite some historical inaccuracies. When this army was started several years ago, there wasn’t the selection available today.

Armored Infantry Companies.

The two armored Infantry Companies have 254 men each in their ranks. Even though the organization is complete  most of the soldiers are plastic from multiple manufacturers. As time and new products become available I am slowly starting to replace those with metal figures such as AB miniatures. For example, my next project with these companies is to replace the current platoon mortar squad with the correct 60mm mortars and move the 81mm mortars to HQ.

Artillery, HQ and Support

As you can see from the pictures below, I do have a small sampling of 105mm M7 Priests and 155mm Long Tom artillery pieces. Even though I enjoy building the artillery I usually do not collect full units because of the pieces being off table during a battle.

The next picture shows an orders group with the commanding officers of Combat Command A and B with the General and some staff.

Finally the angle of the picture below shows a Medics jeep, Military Police and recovery vehicles.

The Battle

Now that the pictures have been taken it is time to start using the troops. The units will be shelved until they are called upon in the battle. Most of the area where the Armored infantry are displayed above will be replaced with trees with a gap going down the main road. These 2 scaled down Combat Commands will be tasked with pushing the Germans out of the town. The Germans have a motorized Panzer Grenadier company in the town with the support of armor and artillery. Even though the US Army has a 3 to 1 advantage in men and armor it is going to be a tough fight. I will be taken some pictures as the battle progresses so stay tuned.