In my last post I showed a picture of my first Paperboys tanks, modelled as No 1 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, who along with the Infantry of 3 Irish Guards were the leading element of XXX Corps during the initial Market Garden breakout. I have now completed the rest of 2 Irish Guards and here is No 2 Squadron.
Most Armoured Regiments and Infantry Battalions lettered their squadrons and companies as A, B, C etc, however the Guards used the nomenclature No 1 Squadron, No 2 Squadron etc for their armoured battalions and No 1 Company, No 2 Company etc for their infantry battalions. This was the structure used by the Irish Guards and there were some further modifications in some of the other Guards Regiments (eg King’s Company in 1 Grenadier Guards).
I did make one alteration in that the Rapid Fire vehicle characteristics do not show a hull mounted machine gun on the Fireflys. I researched this and found that that was correct, they were hardly ever fitted to Fireflys, so I left the hull mounted machine gun off the No 2 Sqn Firefly and retrospectively removed it from the No 1 Sqn Firefly.
I thought I would mention a few tips which I used when modelling these tanks. I weighted the hull of the tank using magnetic tape, not because it is magnetic, but because it is heavy. It is 12mm wide and I stuck three 50mm long strips on top of each other inside each tank lower hull section.
I used a selection of tools to make holes for guns and the turret axle. Initially a dressmakers pin, then to widen the hole, a map pin. Then to widen it still further a cocktail stick and finally a pencil. I discovered when making the turret axles that by gently pushing the cone shaped plastic base of map pin right into the hole it was the correct size for the turret axle.
The Paperboys instructions say wrap the gun barrel around a cocktail stick, but because I had reduced my tanks from 28mm to 20mm, that was too thick, so I used a cut-off section of hairpin.
Here is No 3 Squadron which looks identical to No 1 Squadron and No 2 Squadron apart from the sub-unit markings on the sides of the turrets and the callsigns on the rear of the turrets.
All units in the Guards Armoured Division used their distinctive “eye” badge on their vehicles and 2 Irish Guards had the unit Tactical Sign of a red square with the white number 53 in it.
The Paperboys Sherman models originally had a red square with 52 in it, which is the code for 1 Coldstream Guards. The tactical signs followed the original organisation (ie before they formed Regimental Groups), with 5 Guards Armoured Brigade having three armoured regiments, in seniority order, 2 Grenadier Guards (51), 1 Coldstream Guards (52) and 2 Irish Guards (53).
The sub-unit signs on the turrets followed this same seniority as red, yellow and blue signs, so 2 Irish Guards sub-unit signs were blue. The sub-unit signs themselves were a diamond for the HQ and HQ Squadron, triangle for No 1 Squadron, square for No 2 Squadron and circle for Number 3 Squadron. We used that same system one level down to identify Troops in our Engineer Squadrons in Germany in the 1960s. We had three squadrons in our Regiment, 29, 30 and 42. I was commanding 1 Troop 30 Field Squadron so we used yellow triangles for my two Ferret scout cars and four Armoured Personnel Carriers.
I have put tank callsigns on the rear of the tank turret boxes. These were the radio callsigns used to identify each individual tank. I have been unable to find a definitive source for the system used during World War II but, judging by photos, it seems to be the same system which we used during my time in my Army from 1962-1992. This is callsign 11 (1st Troop No 1 Squadron).
In real life there were four tanks in an Armoured Regiment Headquarters. The Commanding Officer would have used callsign 9, and the other three would have been alternate command tanks with callsigns 0A, 0B and 0C (Zero Able, Zero Baker and Zero Charlie, using the World War II phonetic alphabet), but these are not represented in Rapid Fire.
The three Squadron’s callsigns would each start with 1, 2 or 3. The Squadron Commanders would be 19, 29 and 39. Their SHQ Command tanks would be 10A, 20A & 30A etc. Their Troops would be 11, 12, 13 & 14 etc, with individual tanks in each Troop being 11A, 11B, 11C & 11D etc. Since Rapid Fire only has three tanks per Squadron, I have given them the callsigns No 1 Sqn – 11, 12 & 13, No 2 Sqn – 21, 22 & 23 and No 3 Sqn – 31, 32 & 33. The Fireflys are 13, 23 and 33. Incidentally these callsigns are pronounced as one-two, two-two and three-two and not as twelve, twenty-two and thirty-two.
Here is the 2nd Irish Guards Commanding Officer’s tank, with Lt Col Giles Vandeleur in the open turret. Paperboys do make a conversion for an open turret hatch, but it is a bit flat and I have made all of the other tank hatches three dimensional. I therefore converted a three dimensional hatch to make it open. Giles Vandeleur’s cousin, Joe Vandeleur, commanded the Irish Guards Regimental Group and I will cover him in a future post.
Each Armoured Regiment had a HQ Squadron comprising a number of specialised Troops. I have assumed that all of their callsigns started in 5, since 2 Irish Guards was originally a four company Infantry Battalion, so I think that they would have kept callsign 4 unallocated for their disbanded 4th Company/Squadron.
The first Troop of HQ Sqn shown on the Establishment Table is the Admin Troop with over 30 soft-skinned vehicles (3 ton trucks, 15cwt trucks and jeeps) carrying supplies (ammunition, fuel, rations etc). Rapid Fire Reloaded and the latest Market Garden scenarios do not include resupply, but the Rapid Fire Reloaded Extra rules do include it so I will model 2 x 3 ton trucks as supply vehicles in future, with callsigns 51A and 51B.
The second Troop of the HQ Sqn was the AA Troop, which in reality had 6 Crusader AA tanks. The Normandy Rapid Fire scenarios represent that Troop with a single AA tank, but this Troop was disbanded in August 1944 due to the reduced German air threat and the need to redeploy the AA tank crews to other tanks. I don’t therefore need that for my Market Garden scenarios, but will model it in future for earlier Normandy scenarios with the callsign 52.
The third Troop of the HQ Sqn was the Recce Troop which had 11 x Stuart 37mm tanks. Rapid Fire represents this Troop with two tanks. I have used the Czech company R & P models for these and have given them callsigns 53A and 53B.
The Stuart tank model originally came with US markings so I electronically removed those before cutting the model out then replaced them with normal British markings (from the Paperboys tanks).
Rapid Fire Market Garden scenarios include Sherman Dozer tanks. These were not extra tanks but a relatively easy bolt-on of a dozer blade to normal Sherman tanks. The British had purchased 100 kits from the Americans before D-Day and they were very successful in smashing through bocage hedges. During Market Garden they were used to push damaged or destroyed vehicles off the highway.
The Rapid Fire scenario “XXX Corps Breakout” has one such dozer tank with No 2 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, so I decided to model one of these dozer tanks per Armoured Regiment. I have assumed that they would have centralised them all under the HQ Sqn so gave given this model the callsign 55. It is a standard Paperboys Sherman 75 with a dozer blade which I modelled myself.
In reality each of the three Sqns had a Sherman ARV (Armoured Recovery Vehicle) and the Rapid Fire Reloaded Extra rules includes vehicle repairs. I will model one Sherman ARV per Armoured Regiment in the future and give it callsign 58.
Here is the whole of 2 Irish Guards, ready for the Rapid Fire Market Garden scenarios. The three squadrons each have their Firefly in the centre. The Commanding Officer’s tank is in front of the Regiment, with the Recce Troop on his right and the Dozer tank on his left. Everything is Paperboys apart from the Stuart tanks in the Recce Troop. Each tank model took only 3-4 hours to make, although I just made one per day and didn’t do that every day. They are of course also incredibly cheap and once you have bought one model you can print as many as you want, so you can build a really large army for a fraction of the cost of plastic or metal alternatives.
Next I will model 3 Irish Guards, their Infantry Battalion. My longer term plans are to model the rest of 5 Guards Armoured Brigade comprising the Grenadier Guards Group (1st Motor Battalion and 2nd Armoured Battalion) plus 2nd Household Cavalry Regiment in their armoured cars, Artillery, Engineers and all of the other units of the Brigade.
I will get around to German troops as well and aim to model all of their troops in the various Rapid Fire Market Garden scenarios. I am waiting for Paperboys to produce their German tanks (their first models are nearly complete and comprise a Panther, Jagdpanther and Hanomag APC). I also have several German tanks, vehicles and artillery from other manufacturers.
Paperboys have already produced some British, American and German Antitank guns, each with normal and Para crews. They are also about to release sets of British, American and German Paras, plus Resistance Fighters and German Security Troops.