Skirmishes on Greenland

First of all a disclaimer; The heading must not be mistaken and has nothing to do with President Trump's recent (strategic) interests in the territory belonging to another NATO allied. I actually planned and started to work on this scenario a very long time ago and long before 'Greeland' made headlines in the news.

This wargame however is based on WW2. While Denmark was occupied by Germany in 1940, the Danish territory of Greenland wasn't. But Greenland was important for both the Allies and Germany due to it's location and the possibilities to predict the weather in the Northern Atlantic and Arctic waters, which again was crucial information for warfare, convoys etc. in those areas. To guarantee Greenland's important position it became an American protectorate to secure the Allies this important information and at the same time fends off any Germans trying the same.

Due to this Germany illegally established several temporary weather-stations along the Greenland coast to radio back and support German forces with weather forecasts for the North Atlantic and Arctic waters. To counter them the U.S. established 'The Greenland Patrol' and deployed the U.S. Coast Guard to patrol the Greenland coast and possibly fight any German resistance. For long range patrolling and fighting ashore there were also established a complete new unit of local Danes, Norwegians and Inuits called 'The North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol', which operated dog-sleds and used U.S. equipment. They were involved in several small skirmishes with German units operating secret weather-stations. This unit was later developed into the post-war Sirius Patrol.

These are a series of periodic drawings made by a USCG serviceman which I used as inspiration for my setup:

The Rules

The fact that small units of Danes, Norwegians and Inuits in The North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol was involved in several small skirmishes with small German units operating secret weather-stations intrigued me to create a small skirmish and semi-fictional wargame to play outside in the snow (which I usually tries to do around this time of the year if weather permits).

I already have some Airfix 40mm-ish knock-offs I've used for outdoor wargames earlier. The Germans can be used as is, and I think the Americans can double up as U.S. equipped Danish/ Norwegian Dog-sledge patrols.

The rules for this game is one of my absolute favorites for small skirmish infantry wargames; 1BC (One Brain Cell Toy Soldier Rules by Pete Kautz. Last year I also made them fit a single page for ease of use and faster reference.

Preparing the game 

To play this wargame I needed a 40mm-ish scale weather-station, dogs and dog-sleights to set the scene. The weather-station was hastily improvised from an upscaled (from 00) lineside hut and a vertical tank I 3D-printed:

The dogs and dog-sleights and dogs were also re-scaled and 3D-printed for this scenario:

Then everything was given a quick coat of paint. The hut also got an overspray of 'snow spray' for Christmas decorations:

The Scenario

Late January 1945 a long range reconnaissance patrol from The North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol consisting of 4 members was patrolling the Eastern coast of Greenland. They will fight in teams of two (like they did in real life) and all are armed with rifles. Due to their dog sleighs with high maneuverability under these challenging conditions I let them move double distances while using their sleighs. I planned to give them a +1 for shooting as being experienced hunters and great shooters and have another +1 in melee for being 'elite'. Without spoiling to much of the game, they didn't actually need the +1 for shooting:

When the Sledge patrol observed a hut not marked on their map, they decided to approach it to check it out.

What they did not know at the time was that the hut was the secret weather-station Edelweiss III, which were the base of a unit of 5 armed German 'meteorologists'. The Germans will also fight in teams of 2, except for one guard on duty who will fight individually. All the Germans are also armed with rifles only:

The Game 

Turn 1

When the members from the 2 dog-sleight teams approach the hut... 

...they're observed by the German guard outside and above the hut who open fire on them and alert his 'Kameraden' in the hut:

He is not a good shoot and misses. The both Danish/Norwegian dog-sleight teams exploit the chance and hurries towards the hut to seek cover behind some large snow drifts:

The 2 first Germans exit the cabin and run into cover...

...and opens fire upon the Dog Sleight team closest to them. Both missed:

The 2 last Germans exit the cabin and seeks cover behind the corner of the hut (as else they would be in open range for the other Dog Sleight team):

They open fire upon the other Dog Sleight team but misses:

Turn 2

In the next turn the German sentry opens fire on the Dog Sleight team again, and misses again. The Dog Sleight soldiers opens fire... 

... and stuns one of the Germans who exited the hut first. The other Dog Sleight team advances closer to the hut and seek cover behind another snow drift:

Turn 3

The German sentry opens fire against those advancing Dog Sleight soldier, but misses:

The Dog Sleight soldiers uses the opportunity to rush into the German position and open fire...

...and daze both the German soldiers who exited the hut first:

The second team of Germans returns fire:

And permanently take out one of the Dog Sleight soldiers:

The other Dog Sleight team moves into a better position and open fire upon that annoying German sentry:

-And takes him out:

Turn 4

After taking out the German sentry the Dog Sleight team moves into another position and fall that other German team from behind...

... and opens fire...

...and kill them both:

That last soldier from the other Dog Sleight team approaches the (now) stunned German soldiers to seize control and take them prisoner:

Turn 5

For the German soldiers it would be reasonable to surrender at this point as they were surrounded by Dog Sleight soldiers. They must have been fanatics or something as they opened fire on their attacker as soon as they got on their feet again. The other Dog Sleight team saw what was about to happen and rushed into a better position and opened fire on the Germans:

The Germans hit the Dog Sleight soldier they open fire upon, then one of them was killed and the other dazed by the other Dog Sleight team:

Turn 6

The remaining Dog Sleight team took control on that last stunned German soldier and took him prisoner of war:

As I wrote earlier I planned to give the Dog Sleight soldiers a +1 for shooting as they were hunters and experienced marksmen. When I started to roll dice for them I found out that they didn't actually need that +1 for shooting as they were mostly rolling 5's and 6's anyway. As always when using the 1 BC (One Brain-Cell) Toy Soldier Rules this was a great game. Due to small and few units (to keep it to the prototype) it was also a very fast played skirmish wargame in only 6 turns taking some 30 minutes. -Which was long enough considering the outside temperature. 

Thanks for reading! 

Making New Military Train Loads for Winter Warfare

In our Garden Railway society we usually runs trains during the winter season as well. Winters in Norway are usually snowy and it's very intriguing to run trains in the snow. During winter the rails get Icey and very slippery so my locomotives can't haul so long or heavy train rakes in the inclines during the winter. Therefore I usually runs a little shorter trains than I do the rest of the year. When running fewer wagons I like to make them to a 'winter theme' or with winter purposed loads:

•  This is the 'winter train' I made for the winter 2023
• Here are some wagons and loads I made for last winter
• On this link there are some photos of the train in action and some updates. 

This winter I wanted to make some new winter related car loads to add to my existing wagons (as adding more wagons won't help on those icey inclines).

I wanted my new car loads to look so 'winterish' that it would be a loaded with items that could only be used during winter. - like a sleight or something, but I already have a sleight. When searching for suitable prototypes I found some Soviet ones from WW2 that would look good. Since my German Heeresfeldbahn is the same type as were used on the Eastern Front, I guess it could carry captured Soviet equipment back from the front for evaluation, or to be sendt back to the Reich to show off. When studying this prototype further, I found that when captured, these had been used by German forces and their Finnish Axis for transports, communications, patrolling and reconnaissance. The Finnish forces even used them for raidings and in combat roles. So these had actually been used by both sides on the Eastern Front during WW2, and would work as a plausible 'winter car loads' in my German train since Heeresfeldbahns also supported Finnish forces. Due to maneuverability and economics I guess vehicles like these were transported to and from the front and not driving there themselves, and therefore plausible train loads. Even for a narrow gauge train. Since my 'summer' trains are sometimes loaded with motorcycles suggesting transporting some reconnaissance unit, these Aerosans would replace the motorcycles for a winter reconnaissance unit.

The Prototype

Although being an older invention, it was the WW2 that led to a further development of Russian military Aerosledes, or Aerosans. An Aerosan is a propeller driven military vehicle that was operationally used in the snowbound parts of Northern Europe under conditions wheeled vehicles were restricted due to snow. To keep them light the Aerosans were often constructed of aviation plywood, had large skis instead of wheels and were powered by a truck- or 'obsolete' aircraft engine. The crew compartment was also often of typical aviation design with a 2 man crew sitting in tandem, with a driver and a machine gunner.

The Model

Not only because of the print size restrictions in my 3D-printer to 15x15x15 cm, but that I also should be able to fit then on my narrow gauge open LGB-wagons, I chose 2 smaller Russian Aerosans; The RF-8 and NKL-26 (which had an armored front plate to protect the driver). I found a couple of free printable STL-files for them in 1:100 scale at Thingiverse (link 1 and Link 2) which I resized before 3D-printing them. I opted to make them to 1:19 scale, but I had to make them slightly smaller to make them fit the wagons. Perhaps they're closer to 1:20th scale:

 

The Aerosans were printed in 3 parts each to make them fit my 3D-printer:

Then they were assembled...

...and coated with car body spray filler...

...then primed with regular car primer...

...and given a couple of coats of matt white:

I usually use spray paints to save time, but this time the painting prosess was very time-consuming and slow. I don't have a spray both and usually do my spraying outside. That was impossible for about 2 months due to constant rain. At the end I got impatient and improvised some spraying facilities in our dark and cold garage just to regain some progress on this slow project again. Details are painted with cheap acrylics and could be done at my workbench inside however:

When painting them I decided to go for just plain white winter camouflage without any insignias, as spectators can find the (Finnish) svastikas offending. -Which also can cause trouble posting photos of these models online. Besides, without any insignias they can double as recently captured Russian Aerosans going from the front, or captured Aerosans going back to the front in Axis service.

Since there is still no snow outside to use as a photographic background (as originally planned), I asked ChatGPT to place my Aerosans in the snow just to get an idea:

Fitting the loads to the wagons

Many of LGB's different goods wagons (which I uses some of in my Heeresfeldbahn train) have standarised sizes and share the same base measures. This means it's possible to make fake floors for some of those wagons to easily remove or change loads between them:

The Aerosans are typically 'winter loads' and I wanted to be able to remove them and use the wagons for other loads the rest of the year, so I made false floors or decks for them.

At this point it had finally stopped raining and we got some cold days again. Still no snow though. Perhaps this is the most 'winterish' weather we get in this part of the country this winter, so I took them out for a couple of photos during a running session in Heine's garden between Christmas and New Years eve:

More seasonal cargo

I already have a couple of soldiers sitting in one of my winter themed open wagons, and I think they're the crew for my reindeer pulled sleigh:

Last winter we had snow 

To make it easier for them to follow the sleigh I decided to 3D-print some skis for them:

While making a new 'Christmas tree-load' for my small Yule-Pizza...

...I decided to resize it and make a large scale 'Weinachtbaum' for a Christmas in the trenches as well. The 3D-file is actually meant for tabletop gaming, but works as seasonal loads as too:

This project revealed how much bad weather can slow down a project if spray painting is involved. To prevent similar situations in the future I've established a more propper facilities and a spray both at our model railway club house.

This photo also reveals another WIP for an upcoming project 

Despite preparing my train loads for warfare in the snow, it looks like 'Murphy's Law of Combat' are striking again...

Of the very same reasons I had to do my spray paints in our garage and the warmest December ever, there were no prospects for a white Christmas and I wonder whenever it will be possible to take photos of this rake in the snow?

Please become one of this blog followers, if you are not already, and find out.

Blog PostScript 

Despite not being 'super scale models' with photo-etch etc. they made it to a casual get-together for scale modellers in the city where I live yesterday. This was the first get-together for modellers in Moss and people brought mostly IPMS-quality scale models.