Operation Market Garden - 9th Aufklärungs-Abteilung

A Bridge Too Far - Arnhem

Design Choices

As many of you will be familiar with the film 'A Bridge Too Far' which depicted the events of Operation Market Garden. For those of you unfamiliar, this was an Allied military operation during the Second World War fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. 

The whole force

Essentially the Allies tried to capture and hold three key bridgeheads with paratroopers landings and link these up with armoured forces. The furthest of these paratrooper landings, at Arnhem, managed to capture one side of the bridge. As mentioned, some of this, is depicted in the film. I remember growing up in a military family, watching this film many times when I was a kid. 

The Act of Heroism

One part of the film that stuck in my mind was that of the German assault on British positions at the bridge. Of course as a kid it was always interesting to see the vehicles blown up and the action of the movie. However, I was really intrigued by the act of heroism of a NCO within the German unit.

Objective Marker - Checkpoint

The unit in question was the 9th SS Reconnaissance Battalion, a 40-vehicle unit commanded by Hauptsturmführer Viktor Eberhard Gräbner. Having been brought up to know these were not nice people (which is still my view), this movie made me think for myself and accept that not everything is so black and white (I note that in this day and age, this is scene is cut from the movie entirely, and I will not say anymore on the subject). 

Objective Marker - Kompaine HQ

So when I came to painting WWII, I wanted to paint and recreate the action from the film. Also from the artistic point of view, the camo smocks worn would be the most extreme challenge of my painting skills to date. There are many different types of camo used from this period, and they were often mixed and matched at this time due to supply shortages. In the main I settled on using Oak Leaf Spring and Autumn variants but, as I got more confident you might see more styles having crept in. See Artizan Desgins for not only more German miniatures, but also a wonderful guide on camo types.

Colourised Photo taken from Pinterest 

To compliment the camo I also wanted to do something different with the bases, often I see WWII bases either grass or snow, sometime basic rubble, and while there is nothing at all wrong with these approaches there is also nothing that make those great armies stand out from the next. So after lots of research about the roads in Holland during the war, I found many references to red brick roads in Holland so I had an idea to reuse that theme. See an illiratrate example above taken from Pinterest account Scorpion Knight.

Objective Marker - Supply Dump

I don't claim that all roads were like this, nor do I even claim the picture is real, this is only illistrative, and there are tones of photos in black and white where the familiar brick pattern is visible, so essentially this picture is for artistic reference only (what might it have looked like?).

Squad One

So onto the actual artwork, I started by collecting Warlord Range of metal Germans in camo smocks and for squad one. I can tell you upfront I failed about 5 times, 5 different miniatures were painted, one by one, and then stripped as I was unhappy with the camo finish. I was finding it particularly hard to highlight over the camo blotches I had painted on the smocks. Even when I forced myself it didn't come out very well. 

Squad One - Tank Hunter Section

So I started looking for guides on the internet and I can recommend these guides; Warlord Games, or this one Moiterei's who I have been following nearly 10 years i think, or finally Paint all the Minis guide. These three are all amazing, and they finally helped me crack the highlighting and blueish wash tint over the model that really let it pop on the table top.

Squad One 

I don't propose listing all the paints I used, as the above guides do so much of that for you. I would be wasting your time, but all the paints I did use were all Vallejo with Games Workshop washes, basically matched to these guides. 

Squad One - LMG Section

Squad Two

Elsewhere on this blog, I also go into detail about how I made the bases here, I am really pleased with how the red brick and darker rubble compliments each other, they provide a really nice frame to the model. Another thing to mention is I have given every model a few coats of Matt Varnish that really help with the look, something I haven’t always done in the past, yet another thing I have learnt from others. 

Squad Two - Rifle Section

As mentioned above the unit comprised of about 40 mixed vehicles, some of which were quite rare and provide a nice opportunity in the future for interesting paint work, however not quiet as special as the mockups used in the film. Either way I haven’t yet painted anywhere close to 40, these will follow in a later post once I have finished them. But as surmised that this unit would have been roughly company sized. So to meet that expectation I have 2 full Platoons of 3 Squads of 8 men. The first Platoon is showcased here in order, finishing with a HQ section. 

Squad Two 

There is also a second platoon, further below, which is nearly identical in formation and paint scheme, but by this time I am now adding Offensive Miniatures into the mix and a few Warlord plastics. Basically whichever poses I like the look of and want to paint, therefore you might see a few odd ones but they are for fun, and I can still field a whole platoon of historical stuff if I need to.

Squad Two - LMG Section

Squad Three

Squad three is led by a Empress Miniature I think with a nice little eye patch. Also of note is me trying to mix in a Luftwaffe Camo jacket for fun at the back. 

Squad Three - LMG at the back left, Luftwaffe Camo back right

Squad Three - Mixed Assault Squad

HQ Section

The HQ Section is a Warlord tank crew officer and two Empress Miniatures I think. This forms a nice little Panzerschreck team. Overall the finished platoon is the next picture.

HQ Section - C/O and Panzerschreck Team

1st Platoon from above

I was going to split these posts into a few separate posts, but I think I prefer to keep them all in the one post as provide the one stop shop for everyone. So below is some photos of 2nd & 3rd Platoons.

Squad Four

Squad 4 - Standard Rifle Squad with LMG

2nd Platoon continues along the same lines as the first. Here we start to see more mix of manufactures and a few Warlord Games plastics. 

Squad Five

Squad 5 - Standard Rifle Squad with LMG

The main aim I had with the whole of 2nd Platoon was to provide enough figures with different weapons to replace those in first Platoon to enable different period of the war to be played if required. For example for early war I can just replace assault rifles with the basic riflemen, or vice versa for later war. 

Squad Six

Squad 6 - At least two Plastics here

2iC HQ Section

HQ Section - 2iC and Panzerschreck Team

A little thing to mention is the Officers uniform here is not painted by me. This miniature was brought from ebay already with a 1944 Pea Dot Camo. The rest of him is over painted by myself. I like to show sometimes when you are pushing your own skill boundaries any route to success is ok.  

3rd Platoon - Heavy Weapons

Mortar and two HMG Teams

All three objective markers, and the four heavy weapons teams were painted last. These were fun to paint as I used a mix of spare bits and artistic licence to make the bases, even a spare bit of old plastic sprue on the HMG at the back! Plus mixing the crew up from different manufactures, for the reason to simply make all of the crew fit on one 40mm round base. The last heavy weapon is an infantry gun, good for clearing out enemy squads.

Infantry Gun

Well many thanks for reading this weeks blog, I think it will be of some use to everyone. Certainly the links to other resources gives the reader a nice handy one stop shop for everything that might be required. 

Have a nice weekend everyone, I will leave you with some casualty markers for my squads.

Casualty Markers