AIRCRAFT, ARMOR, FIGURES, SHIPS - D-Day Group Build, 5-8 June 1944

Rebel, my name's spelled right on the list.

just wanted to let everyone who doesn't know yet, that FSM magazine is going to featureD-Day in the next issue. There's probably going to be some good ideas in it. i t will also feature a guide to armor vehicle used onD-Day.

hehehe, lawrence let me in on that in January..............

That will be great, I can't wait to see what kind of information they'll have.

Ryan I have been checking on the info about villars bocage and the Horseshoe. I have a book called "Tiger Ace" the biography of Micheal Wittmann. I am hoping to find the answers in there for you. hopefully by tonight.

feldgrau23,

You may be right - one place I was looking at said six Tigers and another said two Tigers

I don't know about the horshoe. My pic's kinda blurry, but it kinda resembles the shape of a horseshoe... I'm now officially lost....

Ok after searching diligantly I have some answers. First Wittman went into Villars Bocage with atleast 3 Tigers and 1 Pz IVH. It was the London County Yoemanry A Squadron that he atttacked. As far as the Horseshoe goes if I am looking at the same picture you are I cant see anything that resembles a horse shoe and having read the book about 2 years ago I dont remember any mention of that. The name of the book that I have is called "Tiger Ace" By Gary L Simpson,, Published by Schiffer Military History. Hope that helps

Thanks for the research feldgrau23. I don't know if I was tired when I looked at it or what, but for some reason I could see a horseshoe on it, but it's not there, so thanks!

well here's hoping that I won't have to drop out of this GB......... I took a summer job today and I should be able to do modeling at night, but it'll be nip and tuck with the other things I have going on this summer.

QUOTE: Originaly posted by me, ArmorMaster I went to a website where some guy had done a renactment of the villers-bocage encounter with what looked like 1/72 tanks and cotton balls in a little town he made. He obviously wasn't a serious model maker, but he replicated whittman's exact moves with his little models. Gotta find it, looked cool!

Hey everyone, did some digging and found the site that I was talking about. Here it is, enjoy! I guess I shorted him on his ability. He makes good buildings and tanks, but the figures and groundwork killed it.
www.flagshipgames.com/ cgc-pm1.htm

HAVING MASS CONFUSION!!! -can somebody help me? I know I've allready stretched this villers-bocage thing pretty far, but I have one more question on Whittman's tiger. I have 2 pics of whitmans tiger in villers-bocage. The divisional markings are different in each pic! Of the same Tiger! check it out. Any help would be nice
we have subject A, which is Whittman's abandoned tiger at the end of the battle.

Now we have subject B, which has all 3 of whittman's tigers at bocage with different markings than subject A.
One of these three is whittman's tiger, but I know that the tiger in subject A is whittman's, so I don't know what to do! I'm sorry we have a whole page devoted to this, but I'm planning on taking this model very seriously and I want all the facts straight, and I can't figure it out. If we had a reference forum, I'd take it there, but I figured since were allready in the topic I'd ask one more. Any help would be nice, thanks!

Ok Ryan in the First picture the marking on the left is the army tactical marking for Armoured unit. In it is a S outside it is a 1. The S in the Box indicates that it was a heavy armoured unit and the 1 indicates that it belonged to the 1st company. The mark on the left is the 1st SS unit crest. Whittman borrowed this Tank from First company for the battle. Why he borrowed it I dont know. As for your second Pic,,, I have never seen that one so I cant make coment on it.

How sure are you that the second picture is of Wittman's tiger? I'm wondering if there might be a number of pictures floating around that are suppose to represent a famous figure such as Wittman. Just a thought...

Both pics are from a mag that specialized specifically on d-day and the 2nd pic's caption says (these are NOT my own words) "The Tigers of Oberstumfuher Micheal Wittman's 2nd Company of the 101st SS Heay Tank Battalion round a curve on their way to the front."-WW2 history magazine, 2004 summer edition. The front being villers-bocage. It was a 2 week battle, correct? I don't think they could repaint their vehicals in 2 weeks, along with fighting in a battle too. But thanks for the info on the divisional markings feldgrau23. My guess is he started the battle with 1 tank, then once it blew up, got another and that one blew up too. I'll model wittman's one rounding the curve. too bad he's not alive today so researchers could get an interview or something...

Just got my Tamiya tiger 1 late version today! I'm armed with my finely molded tamiya model and some celluclay and Shep Paine's book "how to build dioramas". Counting the days till June 6th...

I can't wait until june 6th either! No SHCOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait for school to end!!! Then, for the summer, I'll be a full-time model-builder!!!

Somedays, I wish I were back in school (sniff sniff). Aren't any summer vacations at work.

Found some info that may help some of you guys. These are the German units that participated in the D-day invasion and the breakout. Gives dates when they showed up.

Mike

German Divisions in Normandy

Army Groups B and G


June 6th - August 28th, 1944
(with dates of arrival)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seventh Army
77th Infantry Division
352nd Infantry Division
91st Infantry Division
353rd Infantry Division
243rd Infantry Division
709th Infantry Division

265th Infantry Division
716th Infantry Division

266th Infantry Division
2nd Parachute Division

275th Infantry Division
3rd Parachute Division

343rd Infantry Division
5th Parachute Division

Fifteenth Army
48th Infantry Division
mid-August

84th Infantry Division
by July 30th

85th Infantry Division
August 5th

326st Infantry Division
by July 30th

331st Infantry Division
by July 30th

344th Infantry Division
mid-August

346th Infantry Division
by June 29th

711th Infantry Division
by June 29th

17th Luftwaffe Field Division
mid-August

Nineteenth Army
271st Infantry Division
July 24th

272 Infantry Division
July 24th

277th Infantry Division
June 29th

338th Infantry Division
mid-August

First Army
276th Infantry Division
June 29th

708th Infantry Division
by July 30th

From outside France and Belgium
89th Infantry Division (Norway)
early August

363rd Infantry Division (Denmark)
by July 30th

16th Luftwaffe Field Division (Netherlands)
mid-June

Armoured Divisions
1st SS Panzer Division
in Normandy

2nd Panzer Division
late June

2nd SS Panzer Division
late June

9th Panzer Division
early August

9th SS Panzer Division - from Russia
June 25th

10th SS Panzer Division - from Russia
June 25th

12 SS Panzer Division
In Normandy

17th SS Panzergrenadier Division
June 12th

21 Panzer Division
in Normandy

116th Panzer Division
July 20th

Panzer Lehr Division
June 8th

Good info Mike, that narrows down the dates nicely.

QUOTE: Then, for the summer, I'll be a full-time model-builder!!!

When I finish this year, I'll probably have much less time to model. Don't do it that much in summer. Gf and other things tend to get in the way.

I can't wait for the next issue of FSM to come out. I really want to get in on this, but I'm still completely lost as to what to build. I definitely want to do something different, so maybe I'll go with that t34...

Want something different, try a Lorraine Schlepper or something French.

ArmorMaster, I've just read your " Tiger 1 confusion " thread and posted an answer.
Its quite long so I won't post it here.
But an answer to your question on the numbers on the Tigers in Villers-Bocage:
222: Belongs to Unterscharfûhrer Sowa but is used by Wittmann this day. The tank is knocked out in Villers-Bocage.
112: Oberscharfûhrer Ernst. Knocked out by a Firefly.
121: Obersturmfûhrer Lukasius. Knocked out by Firefly.

I've got the info from Wolfgang Schneiders " Tigers in combat II "

Wittmanns Tigers not in this photo

the Tigers are 204 (Uscha. Seifert), 211 (Ostuf. Wessel) and 212 (Ustuf. Hantusch)
Wittmann is in his Tiger 205 in another part of the film this photos taken from

if you have "Tiger on the western front by Jean Restayn" the photos on page 97 in the seam

I'm half the way done. I know...I'm supposed to be June, but, I cant wait for June. I'll be in the middle of vacation...


Its a Fw-190 A-8 (Dragon)Decal are Priller. And the other one is a Bf 110 G-2 (Revell Germany) Its not for the GB.

So Wittman was in tank 205 and then switched to 222? Did he encounter any action in 205, or did he do all the whooping in tank 222? I'm doing 222, but it would be nice to know... Thanks for the info!

Have we established parameters for this group build yet? I have a choice of three kits I would like to build. 1) Academy's Mid Pro Tiger 1 (my research show Tigers did not see combat until about 13 Jun) 2) Tamiya Marder III 3) Academy's M-10 Duckbill. Those are in order of preference. I cannot find out for sure if any of the German Units had the Marder III's in service during the invasion portion. As far as the M-10, I know an anti tank unit was put ashore on 7 Jun, but I am not sure what types of M-10's they had. Please let me know if any of these vehicles are in/out of the parameters already established. I still have time to get another kit.

Which Marder III is it ? they had the Marder IIIM around Normandy

It will be the Marder M. I have not found any evidence of the Marder with the Russian 76 mm gun in Normandy. There may have been a few of the 76 mm ones around, but there are confirmed reports of the Marder M in use with several units in Normandy.