First Legion: Back to Stalingrad!

More Stalingrad Germans from the fine fellows at FL, this time in the form of this workhorse of the German army, the SdKfz 251. Further information and images to do with these and other FL releases is available from the company website or from TSC

http://www.toysoldiersclub.com/2015-07-FL-EN.html

WWII - German Stalingrad

• GERSTAL059a German Soldier Firing 251 MG - Gray Helmet
• GERSTAL058b German Officer Reading Map - Helmet
• GERSTAL059a German Soldier Firing 251 MG - Gray Helmet
• GERSTAL059b German Soldier Firing 251 MG - Camo Helmet
• VEH013 SdKfz 251/1 Ausf C Half-Track - 24th Panzer Division - 
• This incredibly detailed vehicle adds to your Stalingrad German display options and a armored column is at this point, brought to life.   We have done several variants to allow for larger displays and though some are 16th and some are 24th Panzer Division, they can be combined in a single display as these divisions were combined during the battle due to heavy losses.  Additionally, we've done GERSTAL059 German Officer which is mean to be displayed either inside the back of the half-track or outside the open rear doors as well as GERSTAL059 German figure firing the machine rear machine gun.  Finally, it comes with a driver figure seated in place who can be seen from back as well as through the driver vision port.
• VEH014 SdKfz 251/3 Ausf C Command Half-Track - 24th Panzer Division - This incredibly detailed vehicle adds to your Stalingrad German display options and a armored column is at this point, brought to life.   We have done several variants of 251 Ausf C to allow for larger displays and though some are 16th and some are 24th Panzer Division, they can be combined in a single display as these divisions were combined during the battle due to heavy losses.  Additionally, we've done GERSTAL059 German Officer which is mean to be displayed either inside the back of the half-track or outside the open rear doors as well as GERSTAL059 German figure firing the machine rear machine gun.  The command variant 251/3 has one of the rear bench seats removed and fitted with communications equipment and comes complete with a Radio Operator figure.   The "bedstead" antenna can be removed to allow for figures to be placed in the rear as well.  Finally, it comes with a driver figure seated in place who can be seen from back as well as through the driver vision port. 
• VEH015 SdKfz 251/1 Ausf C Half-Track -16th Panzer Division

Stalingrad Germans

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John Jenkins Designs: July Germans

Just the one entry for JJD this month, a dramatic depiction of a rather spectacular fall from grace for a WW1 German pilot in the shape of this crashed Eindecker!

New July Releases!
Knights Of The Skies

The tactical, technological and training differences between Germany and the allied forces, ensured the British suffered a casualty rate nearly four times as great as their opponents. The losses were so disastrous that it threatened to undermine the morale of entire squadrons.

Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilot training was often cursory, especially in the early days of the war. Many recruits had only 2 to 3 hours of flying instruction before being expected to fly solo. Men were often sent to France having logged only 15 hours in the air. 8000 young men died in Britain during flight training, which means that more died from accidents and equipment failures than from enemy action.

Most RFC pilots lasted only an average of about 3 weeks once they arrived at the Western Front. Those who weren't killed, wounded, or taken prisoner might be posted out because of "nerves". Flying was extremely stressful and dangerous. Those who lived through the first few weeks acquired skills that helped them live longer or even survive the war.

RFC pilots were not allowed to use parachutes, although the men who were up in observation balloons had them and often used them to escape an attack. Towards the end of the war, German pilots were using parachutes.

According to H.A.Jones' War in the Air, a study of the UK's Royal Flying Corps in WW1, the amount of time a pilot could expect to fly before becoming a casualty (killed, wounded, or psychiatric) was a low of 92 hours in April 1917, and a high of 295 hours in August 1916. Note, in particular, that a much higher percentage of pilots became psychiatric casualties (modern-day PTSD) than would otherwise be expected (as high as 25% of all casualties), due to the radically higher stress of combat flight. Given that a typical combat flight lasted an hour or two at most, with an average number of mission at less than 1 per day, a pilot would last at least 4 weeks before becoming a casualty, to as many as 5 months.

• GGC-021 -- Crashed Eindecker - Model height 9 x length 13 1/4 x width 6 1/4 Inches

Knights Of The Skies - WWI

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William Britain: July Germans

The latest German releases for the First World War, Western Front theatre, with a focus this time on some of the goings on 'behind the lines'.

WWI German Forces 1916 -1918

• BR23090 -- "Forward" - 1916-18 German Infantry Prone Signaling & Kneeling with Grendade
• BR23097 -- "Attack" - 1916-18 German Infantry Assault Team

WWI German Forces 1916 -1918

WWI German Forces 1916 -1918

• BR23101 -- German 1908 Hf11 Limber, Field Kitchen, Figures & Accessories - 20 Piece Set (Limited Edition of 400 Sets)
• BR23102 -- "What's On the Menu Tonight?" - German Infantrymen with Mess Equipment - 4 Piece Set (Limited Edition of 400 Sets)
• BR23106 -- "Music to Peel By" - 1914-18 German Infantry Seated Peeling Potatoes and Seated Playing Concertina - 4 Piece Set (Limited Edition of 400)

WWI German Forces 1916 -1918

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Thomas Gunn Miniatures: July Germans

New Second World War Germans released by TGM in July, 2015. Enjoy!

New Releases for July!
WWII German

• FJ020A -- Anniversary Set - Fallshirmjager Team Manning an MG42 - Normandy - Reminiscent of our very first set released 6 years ago but this time with better sculpting and painting! A two figure Fallshirmjager team man an MG42 in distinctive camouflaged Jump smocks and prepare to take on the enemy. Limited to 100 in the Normandy version, 50 of the Winter and also 50 of the Desert version being available. 
• FJ020B -- Anniversary Set - Fallshirmjager Team Manning an MG42 - Winter
• FJ020C -- Anniversary Set - Fallshirmjager Team Manning an MG42 - Desert
• LUFT019A -- Erich 'Bubi' Hartmann playing cards with Theodor Weissenberger - Two of the greatest aces of WW2 with over 550 victories between the pair. A little history below for those of you not familiar with these 2 pilots: Hartmann (in the brown jacket) completed his fighter training in January 1942 and managed to rack up an amazing 352 kills, his last kill being a Soviet fighter on the 8th May, the very last day of the European war.
  Earlier as the war drew to a close Hartmann was ordered to fly to the West to avoid capture by the Soviets, but refused as he had a deep attachment for his ground crew. This was despite him being newly married with a young son waiting for him at home. Hartmann was handed over by the Americans to the Russians, who convicted Hartmann on trumped up war crimes. He was sentenced to 25 years in a Soviet Labour camp and suffered appalling treatment. Eventually the Russians tried to encourage Hartmann to join the fledgling East German Air force, but he refused and was eventually released in 1955. Hartmann joined the West German Air force but left in 1970 due to his concerns over the Lockheed Starfighter programme.
  Hartmann died peacefully in his sleep aged 71 in 1993 and is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fighter pilots of all time.
  Our second figure Theodor Weissenberger was a Knights Cross recipient with over 200 aerial victories mainly flying on the Eastern Front but with over 30 victories on the Western Front, including 3 flying Fortresses in one day over Berlin. Weissneberger flew a variety of aircraft including the ME 262 in which he claimed 8 of his victories.
  After the war Weissenberger went onto become a racing car driver but was unfortunately killed in 1950 racing on the Nurnburgring circuit.
  This beautifully painted set is limited to 100 in number, a B version with 2 generic Luftwaffe officers in tropical gear is also available but limited to 50 sets worldwide.
• LUFT019B -- Luftwaffe Officers playing cards (Tropical Gear)
• LUFT020A -- Rudi Sinner Lighting a Lady's Cigarette - Sinner Man! Rudi Sinner sweeps in for his latest kill whilst offering a light to a pretty young lady with a cigarette, could be occupied France, an airfield or the streets of Berlin. 
• LUFT020B -- Rudi Sinner Lighting a Lady's Cigarette (Tropical Dress) - the tropical version of the above set suitable for warmer climes or if you simply prefer your ladies in pink! Rudi Sinner was born in Austria in 1915 and enlisted into the Austrian artillery in 1936 but transferred into the Luftwaffe in 1940. He served in the Middle East before being posted back to the West where his final score stood at 39 kills in just over 300 missions. Sinner was awarded the Knights Cross and survived the war despite serious injuries inflicted by USAAF Mustangs in April 1945 when they downed his ME 262. Limited to 100 in the A version and 50 of the B version, these figures will look great in a diorama of your choice. 

WWII German forces

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King and Country: July Dispatches

A small selection of the German releases from K&C in July. Further information and images from the usual places; the company website and TSC to name but two

http://www.toysoldiersclub.com/2015-07-KC-EN.html

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John Jenkins Designs: June Germans

WWI - German Army

Although Germany was slow to develop its own tank force, there was a need to produce a range of methods aimed at neutralizing the effect of the Allied armour. This included concentrated charges, armour piercing bullets, individual field guns in a close combat role, and finally anti tank rifles.

Sharpshooters or snipers were often used to pick off tank crews or their accompanying infantry after the initial damage had been done by the other weapons.

• GWG-010 -- German Army, Sniper

German Army

Knights of the Skies

The Fokker E.III was the main variant of the Eindecker (monoplane) fighter aircraft of World War I. It entered service on the Western Front in December 1915 and was also supplied to Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

The E.III was the first type to arrive in sufficient numbers to form small specialist fighter units, Kampfeinsitzer Kommandos (KEK) in early 1916. Previously, Eindeckers had been allocated singly, just as the E.I and E.II had been, to the front-line Feldflieger Abteilungen that carried out reconnaissance duties. On 10 August 1916, the first German Jagdstaffeln (single-seat fighter squadrons) were formed, initially equipped with various early fighter types, including a few E.IIIs, which were by then outmoded and being replaced by more modern fighters. Standardisation in the Jagdstaffeln (and any real success) had to wait for the availability in numbers of the Albatros D.I and Albatros D.II in early 1917.

Fokker production figures state that 249 E.IIIs were manufactured

Developed in April 1915, the Eindecker ("Monoplane") was the first purpose-built German fighter aircraft and the first aircraft to be fitted with synchronizer gear, enabling the pilot to fire a machine gun through the arc of the propeller without striking the blades. The Eindecker granted the German Air Service a degree of air superiority from July 1915 until early 1916. This period was known as the "Fokker Scourge," during which Allied aviators regarded their poorly armed aircraft as "Fokker Fodder". The Eindecker was based on Fokker's unarmed A.III scout (itself following very closely the design of the French Morane-Saulnier H shoulder-wing monoplane) which was fitted with a synchronizer mechanism controlling a single Parabellum MG14 machine gun.

Anthony Fokker personally demonstrated the system on 23 May 1915, having towed the prototype aircraft behind his touring car to a military airfield near Berlin.

Max Immelmann scored his first victory flying the "Eindecker." Scourge of the air during the winter of 1915, the Fokker E.I was the first aircraft armed with a synchronized, forward firing machine gun. German pilots were ordered not to fly it across enemy lines for fear the Allies would capture the secrets of the synchronizing gear. Followed by the E.II, E.III and E.IV, the Eindecker was underpowered and slow but could out turn most of its opponents.

Allied aviators who faced it called themselves "Fokker Fodder" The Eindecker ruled the skies until the Nieuports and SPADs were developed.

• ACE-023 -- FOKKER EIII, 246/16, MAX IMMELMANN, KeK Douai, June 1916.

Knights Of The Skies - WWI

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King and Country: June Dispatches

A small selection of releases from K&C way back in June. Further information and pictures available from the usual places; the company website and TSC to name but two

http://www.toysoldiersclub.com/2015-06-KC-EN.html

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