Second World War British Army for NW Europe in 20mm

In many ways the standard British rifle platoon is one of the easiest to put together and one of the most versatile of any nationality. This is due to the ubiquitous nature of the 'battledress' uniform - the standardised dress created by the British War Office in the 1930s. With only minor variations this remained the army uniform for temperate climates for the duration of the war. Unlike German infantry uniforms, which went through a number of changes and patterns between 1939 and 1945, or American uniforms, which changed within an even shorter period, the British infantry uniform remained much the same.

In terms of Chain of Command, the British infantry platoon for the late war in NW Europe is made up of a platoon HQ and three sections. The platoon HQ is composed of a Lieutenant armed with a pistol and a platoon sergeant with a rifle. 

Both have an optional support choice to replace their weapon with a sten gun. 

They are accompanied by a two man PIAT team and a three man 2" mortar team - these below are all from AB Figures.

 

The sections are led by a corporal armed with a sten gun and are composed of a six man rifle team and a three man Bren gun team. My normal practice is to base weapons teams with two figures and any additional members of the crew are based individually (to allow for removal of casualties).

Senior leaders are on 20x25mm rectangular bases and are armed with either pistol, rifle or sten gun.

Junior leaders are based on 20mm rounds, the same as the riflemen, but in this case the figures are armed with sten guns and I've added rocks to the base to identify them as leaders. Initially, I based my junior leaders on 25mm rounds, but I now use the same 20mm size as the riflemen and prefer the smaller footprint (there’s a blog post on how I’ve gone about rebasing my figures and teams here).

I couldn't help notice a likeness between the AB figure at front right above and this mannequin kitted out in 1944 uniform in the Hampshire Regiment Museum.

This has become my default basing style for leaders and I think it makes it easy to distinguish the senior leaders from the junior.

I do like the Lieutenant with his pistol, there's something very understated about the pose.

When a leader suffers a wound I place the figure in a single sabot bases with a small medic's satchel attached. 

The plain satchel indicates a light wound, one that is in effect for the rest of the game. Those marked with an 'S' indicate a leader who is temporarily stunned.

That works well for the junior leaders on 20mm rounds but doesn't solve the issue for the senior leaders. One solution I've come up with is to use casualty figures or convert existing figures. These play more to the narrative and look so much better than a marker. I simply replace the existing leader figure with one of these.

The Bren teams have the gunner and loader (no.2) on the same base and these are roughly 30x40mm. I say roughly because I don't feel the need to make these a standard size, if the pose allows I'm happy to use a smaller base for a smaller footprint.

A couple of additional prone teams come from the often forgotten 20mm range sold by Wargames Foundry and sculpted by the Perrys.

Aside from making the base work with the figures and a smaller footprint, it allows space for a third crew member to fit to make up the three man team.

The same approach to basing applies to the 2" mortar and PIAT teams.

The third member of the 2" mortar team is simply an individual prone figure.

I've tried to capture some of the distinctive markings on the PIAT rounds to help them stand out, although I'm not sure it's ever going to be that clear at this scale. There is a good example on display in the Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester.

The 2" mortar is a fairly small and basic bit of kit, so once again it's hard to represent clearly in this scale. Here is one on display in the Imperial War Museum in London.

I can find the AB prone set of figures difficult to distinguish from a PIAT team and so I do like the other choice AB offer, which is this kneeling crew, who are posed in a way that could only be a team operating a 2" mortar. 

A third 2” mortar team also comes from the Wargames Foundry 20mm range. Size wise they fit very well with the AB figures, the only noticeable difference is the lack of camouflage scrim on the helmets. This choice of pose for the loader is noticeably different from one lying prone next to the main gunner and so, once again, makes the crew easier to distinguish. 

In Chain of Command v2 weapons like the PIAT and 2" mortar have limited ammunition and players can select a 'replen point' as a support option to provide additional supplies. I've used a spare ammo carrier from one of the AB sets to make up a suitable marker.

The AB riflemen have some lovely poses and I particularly like the look of this rifle team advancing.

AB have a wide range of figures in different poses and for games where the British are on the defensive I have these more suitable figures. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but I find that with all the fairly close up pictures in all the AARs for the Chain of Command campaigns having figures in poses that suit the narrative always help tell the story.

Once upon a time I stuck so rigidly to my basing conventions that I insisted on putting prone figures on 20mm rounds no matter how much their arms and legs dangled over the sides. It could look ridiculous and served no function whatsoever. Now they are based on whatever works for their size, which is generally around 20mmx25mm rectangles.

These prone figures often work well as the third member of a Bren team or the 2" mortar team.

That provides the figures for the core platoon. These figures are all dressed for warmer months and work fine for Normandy or Operation Market Garden, but the winter of 1944/45 was a particularly cold one and so I wanted to add a few figures dressed in leather jerkins. My intention wasn't to create an entire new platoon, but more to have enough figures to mix in with the current ones to give a flavour of winter. Once again these are all AB Figures.

The AB range has supplied most of the additional support troops that I'm likely to need. Like an engineer flamethrower team.

Another important engineer support is the mine clearance team. These are part of a set from AB Figures.

While AB has a very wide range for the British I've had to look elsewhere to fill some of the engineer teams like this demolition team from SHQ. 

This well camouflaged sniper is also from AB Figures.

AB do a wonderful set for a British aid station that provides a very useful mix of poses. There are two figures that work well as medics.

And a number of figures that can be used as casualties.

There are various combinations of officers and radio operators that work well as FOO or as a command base if needed.

The second edition of Chain of Command has altered the way forward observers function in the game. Previously, they were placed on the table, which made them obvious and very vulnerable targets. Considering FOs went to great lengths to remain concealed this never felt right, so the v2 rules has abstracted this. That means you no longer need figures for the observer on the table, but you do need a way to record the number of fire missions left available. Hence the mini dice and frame. 

A common support is a Vickers MMG team and, once again, this set is from AB.

I take every opportunity I can to visit military museums and for many years my job involved a great deal of travel, which enabled me to see far more than I might otherwise. I spend so much time reading about the conflicts where the weapons are used and then recreating them in miniature it is always rewarding (and often illuminating) to see the original. Here's a Vickers on display at the Canadian War Museum.

When it comes to anti-tank guns the British relied on two models in the later years of the war. The most powerful being the 17 pounder and this one is in metal from Early War Miniatures with a crew from AB.

There are two members of the crew permanently fixed to the base. The remaining crew and the commander are based individually to allow for casualty removal.

Here is one in the Canadian War Museum.

The more common gun to be seen on a Chain of Command table is the six pounder. This one is from the Plastic Soldier Company and also has a crew from AB.

Here's a 6 pounder on display at the Canadian War Museum.

And another in the collection in Saumur.

The 40mm Bofors was designed as an anti aircraft weapon, however, as the Allies came close to total air superiority towards the latter stages of the war it was being turned against ground targets. This is a plastic kit from Zvezda with a crew from AB Figures.

As the war progressed the British made more and more use of armoured vehicles to transport their infantry. Initially they planned to use M5 halftracks supplied by the US under lend lease. These below are from the Plastic Soldier Company and were used by Motor Rifle platoons that were inherent parts of the armoured divisions.

American demand for the halftracks meant not enough could be supplied to the British or Canadians, so they took matters into their own hands. One solution was a conversion of the M7 Priest self propelled guns. These were 'defrocked', with the guns removed and space created to hold a section of men and were renamed 'Kangaroos'.

Italeri's Kangaroo plastic kit, which comes in a boxed set of two can be made up either as a Priest self propelled gun or the Kangaroo. These are made with wargaming in mind, so are fairly simple, but Italeri have done a good job with the level of detail. I've added passengers and crew from a number of different Plastic Soldier Company sets. I made these specifically to use when we played the Road to Bremen campaign for Chain of Command, although in the end they didn’t see that much action.

This is the old Airfix Buffalo kit (first released in 1965) which I made up about ten years ago as part of a project to see what I could do using my current modelling skills to improve the kits I made in my childhood. I've yet to use it for a game, but it's there just in case.

This is the LVT4 on display at the Musee des Blindes:

The Wasp Universal Carrier flamethrower was a Canadian conversion of the MkII carrier. This model is in resin and comes from the Rapid Fire 'Ready-to-roll' range. A distinctive feature of the range is that nearly all the models come with a base attached, not something I particularly like, but it is one of the few models available of the Wasp.

I've seen a couple of Wasps. This one, perhaps unsurprisingly, is in the Canadian War Museum.

The other is in the military museum in Beijing.

There is another post here on the blog that goes into similar detail with the British armour in my collection. You can find that post here.

Finally, I made use of spare figures from a number of different manufacturers including AB, PSC, Dixon and Esci to make up themed jump-off-points for Chain of Command.