Diary of a 1944 Normandy Fallschirmjäger Army Part I

Rationale and Inspiration

I’ve always been interested in building a late war Fallschirmjäger army, mostly as a result of reading about their exploits in Carentan, Cassino and the defence of Aachen. It helped that along the way I’ve played three tourneys using a 1942/43 Flames of War FJ army (Evan Allen’s original Battlefront one as featured in Diving Eagles) and that inspired me to paint and model a unit as it would have appeared in Normandy.

For me, it’s not the armour that fascinates me in a late war German army but the rich mix of weaponry, equipment , uniforms and organisational changes betweren the various service branches. Such distinctive weapons as the FG42, the Sturmgewehr 43 and the Panzerschreck always seemed to epitomise the Fallschirmjäger in Normandy, a view reinforced by the various Dragon 1/35th scale figue sets, particularly in association with the heavier weaponry like the LG40 Recoilless Rifles and the GebG36 mountain guns.

A force based on the Normandy campaign wiould allow me to model all these variations in kit yet depart from the FOW canon in terms of absolute adherence to the Diving Eagles TOE as there was very much a make-do/can-do attitude to equipment usage in June-September 1944. In this case I feel justified in using PaK 97/38(f) guns instead of the PaK 38s to equip the Anti-Tank Platoon as by setting the unit in France/North West Europe usage of such second-line equipment is plausible given the execrable logistics at this stage of the war in terms of equipment allocatiion. I’m also looking at using a mix of Civilian, captured French, appropriated Italian softskins and some of the more style point friendly transports such as schwimmwagens and Horch cars instead of the usual Opel Blitzes. If anything building this army will mean a veritable smorgasbord of options for transport models.

One of the defining factors in choosing this army was the availability of figures. I already have a sizable number of the first generation Battlefront FJ miniatures to complete 90% of the units and with a bit of judicious and enterprising selection and purchase of the more recent FJ minis, I should be able to fill any major gaps. This also allows me to dedicate some funds from the budget template for this army towards a few smaples of the Peter Pig Fallschirmjäger range as well as fully populate the vehicles with full crews and passengers to get that lived-in look that can really distinguish the army from its peers.

Following on from this, I can also look at constructing Pinned and Entrenched status markers that look better than the Gale Force equivalents and don’t detract from the aesthetics of the tabletop. Thus my dug-in FJs will actually look dug-in rather than standing behind berms and chest high sandbag walls. A lot more work but something significantly more impressive to look at.

Composition and Organisation

This is about the only area that is plain vanilla FOW for the most part. I’ll be taking this army to Natcon or Panzerschreck VII initially (I think my Late War Brits are looking more likely to be ready for Natcon anyway) so the first core part of this army will be arranged into a tourney-legal, 1500 point ground force and I can play around with the canon stuff beyond that one-off event (I’m thinking of the PaK 97/38s here in particular).

So here’s the initial force:

Company HQ: 55
Upgrade to Panzerfaust Teams: 10
Add 3 x 8.8cm panzerschreck teams: 135
Add 3 x ‘Stummelwerfer’ GrW42 8cm: 120 320 points

Fallschirmjäger Platoon I (3 squads) 280
Upgrade 6 teams to StG44: 45
Upgrade 3 teams to FG42: 30
Upgrade all to Panzerfaust teams: 50 405 points [725]

Fallschirmjäger Platoon II (3 squads) 280
Upgrade 6 teams to StG44: 45
Upgrade 3 teams to FG42: 30
Upgrade all to Panzerfaust teams: 50 405 points [1130]

Fallschirmjäger MG Platoon I (1 section) 105
Upgrade to Panzerknacker team 5 110 points [1240]

Fallschirmjägerpionier Platoon (1 squad) 140
Upgrade to Panzerfaust 20
Upgrade 2 teams to FG42 20
Upgrade 1 team to Flamethrower 30 210 points [1450]

Sniper 50 50 points [1500]

A very small force but then again I’m not looking to field this exact force except at a tourney and only the one time. It’s all a matter of style, I expect to get hammered in terms of results but wow them with painting hopefully. Beyond this initial core I intend to flesh out the platoons to full strength and add a 3rd FJ platoon; a Light Gun (7.5cm LG40 plus 10.5cm NbW35 mortars) platoon; two heavy mortar (12cm) platoons; an Anti Tank (PaK 97/38) platoon; an Anti-Aircraft (2cm FlaK38) platoon; and a Artillery Battery (4 x GebG36 7.5cm/LG40 10.5cm) along with one Tank-Hunter Platoon (Stug III). No doubt I’ll add some variations as I’ll not be constrained by the tourney canon either but that’s the workload for the next 9 weeks with priority given to the tourney force.

Aside from the GebG36s, Flak38s, the various Mortars, PaK 38/97s and the StuGs, everything is first gen Battlefront FJ. These figures match nicely with the newer scuplts by Evan and fulfil a very important criterion; they’re effectively costing nothing from the current budget as I already have them here. The StuGs will feature Peter Pig StuG crew with replacement Battlefront FJ heads while the pinned markers will feature casualty figures from both BF and Peter Pig. The good thing about buying the PaK 97/38s is that the standard Heer crew minis will go straight into the spares box where I’ll be able to use them for future projects and order lots more FJ crew figures to fill gaps.

Naturally it being a 1944 force there will be lots of Panzerfaust armed figures sprinkled hroughout the bases (Given I have around 80 PF figures already this is not an issue). Of course the Command teams will look the part with panzerknacker figures and SMGs added although the FG42/StG44 is an easy option to add as well. Because I’ll not be bothering with Air Support for this army anyway, I can even do a non-canon Recce Unit mounted in softskin vehicles for sheer variety (hence tracking down Fiat Topolinos whereever possible).

Unlike previous armies where I went for a very plain and nondescript basing scheme, this is the start of a new era in basing for me, with a concentration on a much more verdant technique that better reflects the way the veteran FJs made use of every scrap of available cover in Normandy. Of course this means I’m really going to have to doll up my existing wargames terrain to match, which is needed and a worthwhile project in and of itself.

Next Instalment: References and some more thoughts on constructing the army

P-J