Bolt action: Historically Normandy 1944 project

Time for an update again. 😀

So after I had a little inspirational chat with Oriskany, I have decide to go with either the 21st Panzer Division or Grossdeutschland Divison. The reasons for this is that:

21 Panzer Division, was part of the African campaign and the Normandy defence. After taking alot of casualties in france, the division ended it days fighting a hard battle on the eastern front against the russians. because it is a panzer division it gives me a lot of opportunities to collect some interesting units and vehicles. And because of its interesting service records it gives me an opportunity in the future to take and expand my army to other “theatres of war”. Africa, France and last days of germany on the eastern front.

Großdeutschland Division, is a very interesting unit as a gaming army. It was highly prioritised in the german army, and had alot of the “new toys”. It gives me an opportunity to really game with some of the elite german stuff. It mainly served on the eastern front. But as @oriskany pointed out to me elements of Division Grossdeutschland, were pulled out of Russia for leave and rearmament in France, when operation Overlord hit. So eastern front (Russia, East Prussia) and Normandy.

However without getting in to a big discussion, there are some evidence that elements of this unit did commit war crimes on the eastern front. Maybe that’s worth taking into account.

What do you guys think, which of these two units would you make as an army?

I have been painting some german soldiers just to test out the colour scheme. It is based on pictures and historical sources for how the uniform looked during Normandy campaign.

I will as I promised earlier go more into how a german squad fought in one of the next posts.  And I will look more at the german insignia on the uniform and vehicles, relating to one of units I decide to go with.