The battle of Stonne in 1/32

The battle of Stonne is not the most well-known battle of WWII but it is an interesting one.

As quoted in Wikipedia:

On 13-14 May 1940, German tanks crossed the Meuse River under the command of General Heinz Guderian. The town of Stonne and the woody hills of Mont-Dieu were the single area where it was possible to try to stop this German advance. On the night of 13 May, the French moved various elements to this area to attack the Germans;

Operations near the town involved 90,000 German troops and 300 German tanks, opposed by 42,500 French soldiers and 130 French tanks. The Germans lost 26,500 men (wounded and killed) and 24 tanks, while the French lost 7,500 men (wounded and killed) and 33 tanks.

Some historians call it the Verdun of WWII:

The village changed hands 17 times over the course of three days of fighting between 15 May and 17 May 1940.

The battle of Stonne; setting up the village

We built the village with our first "destructible buildings".  The houses are made of wood pieces.  The other buildings are made of foam panels.  Both are "totally destructible " as you will see.  We also had a public market to increase the number of buildings.

The battle of Stonne; French troops going forward

In the real historical event, there were B1bis tank battalion deployed.  Unfortunately, we haven’t done any yet.

The French tanks used are a mixed of real tanks (like the Renault D2) and "out of our twisted mind" tanks.  Only for the French army, we did create some.

The battle of Stonne; fighting for the town.

 

The battle of Stonne, the end.

The russian 152 mm ML20 gun

Original idea behind the 152 mm ML20

I chose to build the 152 mm ML 20 for Petite Infanterie Red army.  Ours was poorly equipped compare to its German counterpart.

Considering that the historical Red army artillery was a powerful one (it actually contributed a lot to Russian victory), we cannot live with the status quo.

The choice of that model is based on a simple thing: it’s both aggressive and slender.

History of the 152 mm ML20

The original designation of the 152 mm ML was 152 mm gun-howitzer model 1937.

This gun was design to replace the old 152 mm Pushka obr. 1910 which was unsuited for mobile warfare because of its weight.  Like many other Russian guns, the 152 mm ML20 was the result of continuous improvements, baby steps by baby steps and not any kind of quantum leap revolution.  

Source: The Encyclopedia of weapons of World War II. Metrobooks Publishing, 2002.

 

 

 

The best way to describe the 152 mm ML20 can be found in this Wikipedia quotation:

"The ML-20 was one of the most successful Soviet artillery pieces of World War II. Its characteristics positioned it between classical short-range howitzers and special long-range guns. Compared to the former, the ML-20 has better range (e.g. the German 15 cm sFH 18 had range of 13.3 km), which often allowed it to shell positions of enemy artillery while remaining immune to enemy fire. Its advantage over the latter was in weight and cost, and therefore in mobility and production rate. For example, the German 15 cm K 39 with range of 24.7 km weighed 12.2 tons and only 61 pieces were built; of the excellent 17 cm K 18 (23.4 t, 29.6 km) 338 pieces were manufactured; lighter 10.5 cm sK 18 (5.6 t, 19.1 km) was more common (2,135 pieces) but its 15 kg shell was much less powerful than a 44 kg shell of ML-20. German attempts to produce an analogue to the ML-20 were unsuccessful. The 15 cm sFH 40 was never produced due to construction defects; the 15 сm sFH 42 had insufficient range and only 46 pieces were built. In 1943 and 1944 Wehrmacht announced requirements for a 15 cm howitzer with a range of 18 km, but none reached production."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/152_mm_howitzer-gun_M1937_(ML-20)

 

 

Source of pictures of the  152 mm ML20

Original drawing of the gun can be found here

http://www.o5m6.de/152mm_ML-20.html

I strongly recommend that Engine of the Red Army for any scratch builders.  Even though, the drawing is not at scale, you have everything else.   

 

Building of the 152 mm ML 20 Fact sheets

Made of wood, plastic and rubber

Barrel

• Barrel made with a birch wood rod.

• Muzzle brake made of a plastic tube

• Offsets  in the barrel made with heat shrink tubing (the ones use for electrical wiring)

 

 

Carriage

• Wheel of the carriage made of pills cap container

• Rubber band of the wheel made of hair elastic (the flat model)

 
 
 

• Shield made of thin veneer (the one use to make furniture)

 

 

 

limber

• Wheel of the carriage made of pills cap container

• Rubber band of the wheel made of hair elastic (the round model)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all folks!  

We are ready to do wargaming with our brand new 152 mm ML20.

 

 

 

 

Russian 203 mm howitzer m1931

 

 The russian 203 mm howitzer  model B4.

The idea: built an 203  mm howitzer for the Petite Infanterie line-up

I knew the weapon but I hadn't any intend to actually built one until I found ..tracks! As you can notice, this gun is on caterpillars which is not common.  It's seems that only russian gun were mounted on a track chassis.  The reason?  The russian state factories had invested a lot in tractor production in the 1920s so to use tracks for a gun was an obvious choice. 

 

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The "beast" on the field somewhere in Europe

Russian 203 mm heavy howitzer in a museum in Russia

The built: a scale model of the russian 203 mm howitzer 

The tracks on the gun come from a kit bought at a dollar store.  The backhoe kit was at the right scale and a used the tracks to built the gun.  Eventhough, I hadn't any scale drawing, the rest of the work was pretty easy to do.  I think the overal result is quite good.

 

 

 

For more détails (in french) , please  Petite Infanterie blog



Once upon a time in a distant country...Petite Infanterie

This blog is, a priori, impossible to classify.  Our philosophy can be summed up by "serious fun".  It is a heterogeneous mixture of “game” and “history”; “fiction” and “reality”.  The “us” referes to my brother and I.  We both share this hobby and it’s our work which is exposed on those pages.

Genesis of a passion.
In 2004, I received an email from my brother with a hyperlink to a manufacturer's website of 1/32 figures.  Those “plastic men” were from the First World War. Immediately, the memories of our childhood resurface.  The epic battles fought in the sandbox in the back of the family home with "green men" were back alive.  The great adventure of Small Infantry begins!

Although originally made ​​the first purchases based on the theaters of WWI, our consuming passion for DIY quickly led us to evolve.   WWII was the beginning of mecanized warfare and it became our new playground.  What could be better than an endless list of guns, trucks and tanks ready to be scratchbuilt out of wood by your humble servants?

In summary.

If you have any interest in miniatures, wargaming, military history and strategy, you should appreciate our blog.  We apologize in advance for the quality of writing in English. Shakespears language is not our mother tongue.  This being said, pictures is an universel language and our blog is full of them.  Enjoy!