Question about the Whermacht soldiers..... [:(]

The weapon you are refering to is the PPSh 41, and was a russian SMG. It was a 7.62mm pistol caliber weapon that had a high rate of fire of 900rpm. They were refered to as burp guns due to the sound they made. They were quite popular with the germans because they were very reliable, and had a large magazine capacity that was usefull against large waves of attacking infantry.

I find the discription of the figure odd, Russian Liberation Army 1944, are you sure this is not a russian figure? After all the germans were not doing very much liberating in 1944! If it is a german figure there are a couple of posts on this site about WW2 German uniform colours, try these for some advice.

The machine gun you are talking about may be a russian sub machine gun favoured by many german troops on the russian front who thought it to be more reliable than there mp 38/40's.I also think ammo was easier to come by.this is what i have read.
regards phil

Thank you NZGUNNIE and PHIL and yes , i am sure is a german soldier, it has the helmet and the uniform is very similar to those german ones, the kit was a pressent from a friend here in Mexico City and i dont know anything about german combat units and i dont know the brand of the kit, it only says in spanish "SOLDADO WHERMACHT - EJERCITO DE LIBERACION RUSA 1944" that would mean "whermacht soldier - russian liberation army 1944", i know Germany didnt do much in Russia, perhaps was a Whermacht combat unit made to resist the Russians or something, anyway do you have any suggestions on the colors that i should use to paint my model? also i dont really understand what Wermacht means, i guess it was something like Waffen SS or stuff like that, please give me a hand here...

Thank you very very much
My Best Regards
Hector Reymundo

Perhaps it is a german soldier depicted during the liberation of russia in 1944???
Actually germany did a lot of damage on that front, something like 20 million russians lost there lives there (Russian historians now say the real figure could be closer to 30 million). I'd go with field grey colour for the uniform. Wehrmacht roughly translates to regular army. Waffen SS is the 'armed' SS -considered an elite form of the army. The following from Ospery publishing: "The SS originated as Hitler's personal bodyguard and following his rise to power in 1933 the organisation divided into two: the Waffen-SS, which comprised the military wing, and the Allgemeine-SS, whose role was to support the police in maintaining order. The Allgemeine-SS had a wide-ranging effect on all aspects of life in Nazi Germany, from enforcing Hitler’s racial policies through to the running of over 500 factories in Germany and occupied Europe. While the more visible armed SS combat units naturally received all the publicity, especially during the war, it was the rather faceless Allgemeine-SS which wielded the real power."

Roger that! i got it, and jeap i guess the soldier was depicted during the liberation of russia in 1944, i know that germany did a lot of damage to russia and i know that then russia took revenge and the germans had a really bad time, i didnt know how badly the situation was, i didnt know about the 20 or 30 million lives lost, i guess i MUST read a bit more, or a bunch more!... Thank you very much for the information, i am gonna use the field gray and black belts and boots as well as the magazine pouch.. i think the helmet shuld be a darker color, like a dark green or olive perhaps....

Thank you very very much
My best Regards
Hector Reymundo

Hi Hector,
I have to say that the title of your kit does sound funny. But on the other hand everything went wrong for the German Wehrmacht after the end of 1943. Due to the fact that the German supply lines were wholly disrupted by the Russians, and the availability of arms and ammunition in this late stage of the war, the Germans often used Russian weapons. The submachine gun you refer to is the Ppsh 41 with a 70 round drum magazine. It fires a 7,62 X 25 mm M43 round, which is also fired by the TT-33 Tokarev semi-automatic pistol. The round is a bottleneck round and has a very high velocity. Due to the small calibre it has no recoil and could be fired quite accurately in automatic mode. The velocity is such that it can penetrate all known body armour during that era and most modern body armour.

With regard to the uniform, all German uniforms after 1943 were field grey in colour. The material used later in the war tended to fade easier than the earlier makes. This was due to the fact that Germany started running out of resources including dyes and they had to improvise.

It is also known that German POW's on the Eastern Front were given the choice of either fighting against their comrades and maybe surviving the war or perish in a POW camp. The situation at this stage of the war, for ordinary soldiers were so bad that quite a number took that option. The Russians did everything in their power to "liberate" the "Motherland" from the German Invader.

Greetings

I agree with the above. The german soldier you have is carrying a Ppsh, a russian gun that was easier to find ammo for than the MP40 (when in rome).

You should paint him with whatever colors the dirt and trenches are, after all that is where he found the russian gun....

On the other hand, you can put a mauser in his hand and send him to a different front..???

-Muzzleflash

Hi Hector,
I frorgot to add that the Second World War is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War and even in some instances as the War of Liberation - Your kit is most likely of Russian origin and repacked in Spain?

I have seen the term "russian liberation army" used to describe soldiers of Vlasov's Army of anti communist russian soldiers.

the russian liberation army was indeed a group of russian anti-communists who were backed by the germans. more info can be found here:

http://www.armymuseum.ru/roarus2_e.html

as far as uniform, their rank insignia where in the russian style but using gold piping and red lining on black. they received old stock german uniforms so the common feldgrau colour would probably be your best bet.

Marc Pasquin

Note if you decide to do field grey, use Tamiyas color, its more acurate than the others.