The model warrior

Just finished by Battlefront plastic Jagdpanther and I`m very

pleased with it. The cheaper plastic kit(there is a metal version) is

just as good and comes with a ruined building(not shown). Once again I

really could not be bothered getting the airbrush out for a couple of

minutes use and then spending an hour cleaning it so free hand time

with the camouflage.

Please click on pictures for larger size.

The interesting part about this small project for me was the bocage

itself. I knew what bocage was and have been all over Normandy and seen

the stuff first hand. What was compelling was the constant argument on

various forums about should bocage have stone at the bottom of it ? Well

the first hand and most accurate answer is yes and no. Some bocage is built

up on age old(Middle ages or later) walls and some is not. Quite often stone is

used on hill sections of bocage and deep cuttings. Farmers in general clear fields

and push stone to the side and leave it. It is then overgrown by weeds and becomes

part of the bank/hedge.

The second compelling bit of information I came across after reading up on the

subject was the way enemy tanks were killed in the bocage. First initial thought

was great big dirty tank destroyer behind a hedge kills all(the Jagdpanther for example),

but you couldn’t be more wrong.

In bocage country 54% of tank kills were caused by gunfire(tank,anti tank,td and arty),

20% by mines,13% by non combat(stuck in mud or mechanical failure),7% by Panzerfaust

and the remaining 6% by miscellaneous.

If we then look at the 54% in more detail ,Britsh and American studies show that half

of theses kills were attributed to Stugs and by direct frontal penetration at an

average 800 yards. Forget the Jagdpanthers,Panzer I`Vs,PAK 43 man handled and arty the Stug

was the main man in the bocage!

Anyway I`m building a Normandy board as we speak to look out for hand crafted bocage with

and without stones and a few lurking Stugs.