{"id":264,"date":"2014-03-03T23:02:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T23:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/?p=264"},"modified":"2014-03-04T08:17:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T08:17:18","slug":"refighting-the-attack-on-bizory-19th-december-1944-part-one-creating-the-26th-volksgrenadier-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/refighting-the-attack-on-bizory-19th-december-1944-part-one-creating-the-26th-volksgrenadier-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Refighting the Attack on Bizory 19th December 1944: Part One Creating the 26th Volksgrenadier Division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A perhaps throwaway remark by Pete Gregory (a.k.a. Dr Doom) that the Burton club should maybe refight part of the Battle of the Bulge to commemorate its seventieth year, suddenly brought back memories of my first ever wargaming. In the early 80s, armed with a bunch of 20mm Airfix and Esci tanks and figures, the Ardennes was the first figure gaming I did. So I was more inspired by this proposition than I otherwise would be and threw myself into this project. OK, so Flames of War is a little more sophisticated than the rules I developed back in the heyday of the new Romantic movement, but no less valid nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p>This is the first in a series of projects setting out how I went about the project. The object of the project is to get both an army and terrain ready for shows in the latter half of 2014, as part of a demonstration game.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>The Choice of Battle<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Taking my lead from both the FoW supplement \u201cNuts\u201d, and also Steven Zaloga\u2019s contribution to the Osprey Campaign series \u201cBattle of the Bulge (2)\u201d, and of course episodes 6 and 7 of \u201cBand of Brothers\u201d, I decided that for me the scenario I chose had to be part of the larger Battle for Bastogne.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the fighting round Bastogne was grinding, a battle of artillery with little movement. However, one of the exceptions was the fight for the village of Bizory, which guarded the eastern approaches to Bastogne. This has quite an exciting narrative: an attack on the village by the 26<sup>th<\/sup> Volksgrenadier Division, supported by elements of Panzer Lehr. The village was defended by an Engineer Battalion, who managed to hold on until they were rescued by the 501<sup>st<\/sup> parachute Infantry Division of the 101<sup>st<\/sup> Airborne, supported by accurate artillery fire. This fight seems ideal for my purposes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Designing the Army List<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And not for me the glamorous Panzer Divisions or the SS\u2026no, I decided to go for the workhorses of the Wehrmacht in the Ardennes, one of the Volksgrenadier Divisions. The 26<sup>th<\/sup> VG Division was the one that attacked Bizory. There is no list for the 26<sup>th<\/sup> in \u201cNuts\u201d, but there are options for both the 12<sup>th<\/sup> VG Division (very good) and the 277<sup>th<\/sup> VG (poor). Given that the quality of the 26<sup>th<\/sup> seemed excellent (described by Danny Parker in \u201cHitler\u2019s Last Gamble\u201d as the \u201cbest German infantry Division in the Ardennes\u201d, I decided to model the list on the 12<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The army I\u2019m putting together comprises:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Volksgrenadier HQ (plus Panzershrek squads)<\/li>\n<li>A Sturn platoon (with 3 sections)<\/li>\n<li>A Sturm platoon (with 2 sections)<\/li>\n<li>A Schutzen platoon (with 2 sections)<\/li>\n<li>A Mortar platoon (80mm)<\/li>\n<li>A machine gun platoon<\/li>\n<li>A Volksgrenadier Scout platoon<\/li>\n<li>A Tank-hunter platoon with StuG G\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>A Panzer platoon with PzIV J\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>An Anti-tank platoon with Soviet PaK36(r) guns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is first and foremost an army for a demo game not a competition, hence many of the choices. So, the 26<sup>th<\/sup>, in its attack on Bizory, was supported by Kampfgruppe Fallois of Panzer Lehr (whose tanks were PzIVs, not Panthers. And the 26<sup>th<\/sup> had an embedded Panzer Jaeger Company, comprising StuGs, not Hetzers.<\/p>\n<p>An observer will also notice the lack of heavy artillery, aircraft and AA capabilities. Well, at 15mm scale, artillery always looks better off table. And the weather on the 19<sup>th<\/sup> December didn\u2019t permit any aircraft intervening.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Assembling the figures<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Keen to assemble an army at a modest price, I looked to see what I had already. I still have a horde of Peter Pig Germans from the late 90s. They formed the basis of the army, but to those I added a load more new Peter Pig\u2019s in Smocks and Greatcoats, to give a winter feel.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I was also fortunate enough to already possess the StuG\u2019s I needed. In fact all I had to get on the vehicle front were some PzIVs. And I\u2019ve already bought these, with the lovely panzers designed by the Plastic Soldier Company. Now all I have to do is paint the things!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_0106.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-265\" alt=\"IMG_0106\" src=\"http:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_0106-300x224.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_0106-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IMG_0106-1024x764.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background A perhaps throwaway remark by Pete Gregory (a.k.a. Dr Doom) that the Burton club should maybe refight part of the Battle of the Bulge to commemorate its seventieth year, suddenly brought back memories of my first ever wargaming. In the early 80s, armed with a bunch of 20mm Airfix and Esci tanks and figures, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/refighting-the-attack-on-bizory-19th-december-1944-part-one-creating-the-26th-volksgrenadier-division\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Refighting the Attack on Bizory 19th December 1944: Part One Creating the 26th Volksgrenadier Division<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flames-of-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/badwargamers.com\/bad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}