Schnell wie ein Windhund, Zäh wie Leder, Hart wie Kruppstahl, Windhund Vor!

“Fast as a greyhound, tough as leather, hard as Kruppsteel, Greyhound forward!”

116 Panzer Division Motto

In mid-February I was fortunate to be able to coordinate a gaming trip to Evan’s humble abode. I’ll start off by saying thanks to his wife for letting me steal him for an awesome session of gaming over three days. I know she won’t read this, but hey, I tried!

Amongst the Adepticon play testing and honing of my tiny plane piloting skills we devoted a morning to trying out the Battlegroup ruleset from Iron Fist Publishing. Evan had been building two 15mm forces for Normandy and some appropriate terrain for the French countryside. In fact we were so excited I was able to make Evan break one of his cardinal rules for wargaming, never play with unpainted minis. So in order for him to plead the 5th to this offense there aren’t any photos of our game.

Now that the lack of photographic evidence is explained into the deets. We played a 450 point game which seemed like a good starting point. The game was set in the coastal region of France and featured Combat Command Evan, a United States armored infantry formation going against Kampgrouppe Ben, a force centered on a German Armored Panzer Grenadier force. The force dispositions were as follows:

Combat Command Evan

• One Armored Rifle Platoon in M3 Halftracks
• One Sherman Platoon of three tanks, two of which were upgraded to 76mm main guns
• One M8 Scott
• One M10 Tank Destroyer
• One Recon Jeep
• One Forward HQ
• One Supply Truck

Kampfgrouppe Ben

• One Armored Panzer Grenadier Platoon in Sdkfz 251/1s
• One Stug III G Battery of three
• One PaK40 Anti-Tank Gun
• One Jagdpanther (Evan’s choice)
• One Supply Truck

The armored forces clashed in a thunderstorm for control of the previously picturesque town of Vire Normandie. The town had been decimated by artillery earlier in the day leaving a good deal of the buildings in ruins. A platoon of Sherman tanks were still brewing up in the Church’s adjoining field. They were victims of the German Jagdpanther who managed to ambush them as they were parked during an operational pause. Anywho, we had fun pushing minis and flexing the rules. Ok ok, fun is an understatement we really enjoyed our game. The rules were relatively intuitive and more importantly they felt like WWII combat. Unknowingly we had both battered each other’s battle rating. I ended up losing but Evan’s Americans only had 3 battle rating left.

Now that we had blooded ourselves and justified our (heavy) investment in kit and books it was time to focus on an initial project. I work better when I have someone to hold me accountable. Enter Evan yet again. He’s not afraid to yell at me. Evan and I both have a variety of forces but when we considered them, flexibility was one of the top criteria. A force would get bonus points if it fought in France.

As I said if a force could fight in more than one major action, or better yet more than one theater, it really sells a force to me. Enter the 116th Panzer Division. While it didn’t fight on multiple fronts the unit was involved in Normandy, Falaise, Aachen, Hürtgen Forest, The Battle of the Bulge, the defense of the Westwall, and the late battles in Germany’s Ruhr Heartland. It has the distinction of being one of the only Panzer Divisions to only fight on the Western Front.

On the eve of D Day the 116th was stationed near Paris. It was a newly formed division being refitted from the 16th Panzer Grenadier Division which had served in the Eastern Front and sustained substantial losses. Veterans from several shattered units formed an experience core to build off of. The 179th Reserve Panzer Division was absorbed into the 116th for manpower and equipment. The unit also boosted its numbers by wrangling any un-utilized or malingering troops in the area.

The division was given to Rommel to be part of Panzer Group West, the mobile counter attacking force to be used if/when the Allied invasion occurred. While the division was formed around a veteran core it was not considered to be full strength on June 6th. It was however positioned in a relatively favorable position. This of course was on purpose as it was one of the 9 panzer and panzer grenadier units stationed in France to respond to an invasion somewhere along the coast. They first saw combat in early July 1944. In the end they still formed a pretty effective fighting force that saw near destruction in the Failaise Pocket. The division was rebuilt and saw action into the final days of the war.

With a unit chosen we had to sort out what forces to build. Evan and I liked the sound of halftracks so panzer grenadiers it was. The 116th had two battalions of panzer grenadiers, the 60th and 156th. Each had two regiments of mobilized infantry. Trucked infantry filled out the bulk of the mobile infantry power as only the 1st regiment of the 60th PG were mounted in 251 halftracks the other being mounted in Opel Blitzs. Both of the 156th PG battalion’s regiments used trucks for their mobile infantry. Fortunately, Evan has been my own personal miniature armament factory and I have about a dozen Opel Blitzs awaiting paint.

Evan wanted to do a regular unit of armored panzer grenadiers which is a good move as you get the bonus of being able to use them as a footslogging grenadiers sans the transports. I have always been interested in reconnaissance units and I had unburied a box of Plastic Soldier Company Sdkfz 250s so this seemed a perfect time to make my recon dreams come true.

At this point I have to give a huge shout out to District Miniatures. His webstore came on line earlier this year and he is producing some top notch decals. He was kind enough to do up a pack of 116th Panzer decals for Evan and I. DM has tactical numbers of all colors, national markings, and even Ace and unique markings. He has been busy adding new sets of decals almost every week. If you’re looking for 15mm or 28mm decals check his shop out!

Somewhere along my journey I happened across a pretty good deal on a Flames of War Late War German army bundle. I didn’t want to run them as the suggested SS force but all of the equipment is usable for a Heer Armored Company. With five Panthers, eight Sdkfz 250 neus, two eight wheeled armored cars ( Sdkfz 234 family), and two Tigers I had a bunch of armor to mess around with.

Battlegroup’s scouting mechanic rewards a reconnaissance force by allowing them to deploy any “scout” units in the scouting phase. It seems you can really get a jump on your opponent depending on the scenario. Having a whole force of recon units makes it easy to out scout your opponent and make them pull a chit before the game proper begins.

In any case I love the idea of small recon squads wheeling around the countryside probing their enemy’s defenses. Sdkfz 250s are hot. And so is a platoon of mobile support to back them up.

While the 116th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion will be the first chunk of the project I am also looking at expanding by adding both trucked and half tracked panzer grenadiers from the 60th Panzer Grenadier Regiment.

Panthers and Panzer IVs of the 16th Panzer Regiment will provide the main armored punch. STuGs were also used as stop gap equipment which adds a bit of variety to the force. I’ve seen documentation that Panzer III were also still kicking around in the unit’s inventory. The 116th didn’t have Panthers until August 1944 though a battalion of them was attached to the division from Grossdeutchland.

Evan and I had been chatting a lot about our forces and what looked like fun. On one of his page throughs of the Beyond the Beaches source book Evan noticed the Tiger Ace entry. Hoooooo boy. Moving and shooting with no penalties? Passing morale almost always? Sweet! Now I wasn’t a big kitty fan until recently. Maybe they were too main stream but I got bit by a little (big) kitty bug. While they weren’t in the 116th Panzer Division there were Tiger I Es in Normandy. Anthony had started to build and paint a beautiful British force and conveniently most of the Tigers in Normandy were in the British area of operations. So I’ll be gleefully putting the two Tigers to work soon enough.

As I said the main platoon will be a Panzer Reconassance Platoon consisting of four small four man teams and their Sdkfz 250/1 halftracks. The platoon commander gets a 250/1 to ride in as well. A 250/10 with a 37mm anti-tank gun provides a little organic punch. A medic team and panzershriek team are attached to the HQ as well. The eagle-eyed among you will notice there is a sniper team in the pile as well.

Armored recon support will be provided by specialized Sdkfz 250 halftracks (derivatives of the main version have a /# to denote them). As I have eight sprues of them three can be set up for these roles. One will be a 250/9 which sports a turreted 20mm autocannon. It’ll give a bit of anti-infantry and light anti-vehicle support. Finally the 250/7 armed with a 81mm mortar will provide some mobile indirect fire support.

Panzer IV Hs, Panther Gs, and Tiger Is will make up the first wave of armored support. STuGs, probably of the G variety, will come soon but they aren’t in my inventory yet. The big kitties get expensive in game points but they are iconic and can’t be left behind.

Two PaK40s will add an undeniable defensive punch to the platoon. Two 3 ton Opel Blitz trucks will be the tow vehicles for the AT guns as they are too heavy to manhandle.

Finally, and almost most excitingly, I have a 3 ton Opel Blitz supply truck and a mammoth Sdkfz 9 Famo. The Famo is huge. It had to be huge in order to yank Tigers of the mud. I really like that support vehicles play a tangible role in Battlegroup.

Here is the breakdown for my first wave.

Infantry

• 2 Man Reconnaissance Platoon HQ
• 2 man Stretcher Bearer team
• Four 4 man squads with MG
• Panzershriek Team (2 men)
• Sniper Team (2 men)

Combat Vehicles

• Five Sdkfz 250/1
• Sdfkz 250/10 3.7cm PaK
• Sdkfz 250/7 – Medium Mortar Track
• Sdkfz 250/9 – 20mm turreted half track
• Three Panther G
• Three Panzer IV H
• Two Tiger I E late version

Support

• Two PaK40 anti-tank guns
• Two Opel Blitz to tow the PaK40s
• Supply Opel Blitz
• Sdkfz 9 Famo recovery vehicle

Once the first batch of kits are done some mobile flak and a forward company HQ will be my next support options. I have a pair of sdkfz 10/4 AA halftracks and an sdkfz 251 for the company commander in the ready pile.

Whew! This article had been in construction since March. I have been enthusiasticly building plastic kits and cleaning up resin prints and I look forward to sharing the project as it evolves. Until next time, Windhund Vor!