The vast majority of the German army relied on horse drawn equipment and the infantry marched into battle. I wanted to represent these troops. Then as the end of the war drew closer to Berlin the last levy took place - old men and young boys were called upon to defend the homeland. See the page "Defenders of the Reich" for the mobilised women and other forces.
The standard Infantry Division and VolksGrenadier Divisions were similar in terms of equipment. Many were equipped with captured weapons and vehicles.
Infantry Regiment HQ - ESCI Opel Blitz Ambulance acting as the HQ vehicle, Edai FlaK Halftrack, Matchbox gun tractor, scratch built 15cm sIG33 infantry gun and a die cast Citroen staff car.
Regimental supply train - limbers and caissons from Revell ACW artillery set (converted)
Divisional Supply Train
Mounted Infantry (recce) detachment HaT Industrie mounted infantry and a mix of Airfix and Revell figures on foot.
VolksGrenadier Regiment HQ - dicast Matchbox Austin Radio Truck, Airfix Kubel, Diecast 2cm FlaK, Scratch built limbers, 12cm mortars and crews from Pegasus, Pnzerschreck teams from Revell and the Panzerjager from an Airfix Universal Carrier.
Sometimes I replace the 12cm mortars with one or two infantry guns. These are typical - scratch built 15cm sIG33 and 7.5cm leIG 18, limbers pulled by Revell horse teams. The guns are card, plastic sprue and paper models with wheels from the spares box. I have another 7.5cm leIG18 and an ex Russian 7.62cm Infantry gun as well. These were made long before kits of them became available. And when my eyesight was better.
One of two companies of 5cm PaK 38s I have. The Guns are Reiver Castings and the limbers are conversions.
Each of my 2 battalions has a heavy company and small battalion HQ with 8cm mortars and machine guns (HaT Industrie), snipers by Revell and scratch built carts. Both are seen here.
1st Battalion with our normal organisation - Revell figures
2nd Battalion - companies are half rifle and half Stgw44 Assault Rifles (Revell)
The Artillery Regiment of a VolksGrenadier Division has a battalion with 75mm guns. These were supposed to be 7.5cm PaK 40 anti-tank guns and since I already had those I decided to give them scratch built 7.5cm FK 38. The limbers and gun wheels are from the Revell American Civil War Artillery set.
10.5cm leFH18 artillery - Revell - the box has a gun with trails together for towing but I have used parts of them in conversions.
The Heavy battalion had 15cm sFH 18. These are converted from Airfix British 5.5" guns.
OTHER EQUIPMENT
Motorcyle recce unit
VW Kubelwagen Recce (Airfix)
VW Kubelwagens for artillery OPs, staff cars and other duties (Airfix and Fujimi)
Armed Schwimmwagens (Fujimi)
The Germans made great use of field fortifications and here are Panther, Pz 38(t), Pz I and French Char B1bis turrets on ground mounts. The Bus is a Britannia/Grubby Tanks model, the fuel tanker is Millicast, an ESCI Opel Blitz truck. The ex-French UE with 3.7cm PaK is balsa and paper with a left over Fujimi gun. The HQ trailer is the body from a Matchbox Monty's Caravan mounted on a card base with Airfix wheels from the RAF Emergency Set. I used the chassis to make my British pontoon trucks. Nothing wasted.
A battalion equipped with captured French tanks. All are Matcbox with 2 Char B1bis converted to SP 10.5cm Howitzers ans one to a flame thrower and of the FT-17s 2 have balsa and card "artillery" turrets (75mm guns), 3 have MGs and 2 have 37mm guns. I have spare turrets for them so I can change the proportions of MG and 37mm armed tanks.
