Monday 4 March 2024

SOVIET DPP40 AIRBORNE PONTOON SYSTEM - Part One



The air-deployed DPP-40 pontoon park is designed to install floating bridges over waterways, with a capacity of 40 tons, or the organization of ferry crossings (dividing into 8 40-ton or 16 20-ton ferries. The maximum permissible river speed is up to 2 meters second. Minimum fording depth - 1 meters. The park was adopted by the Soviet Army in the 1970's for use in the VDV. It was expected one of those would be issued per engineering battalion of a VDV division (in its pontoon company), and 4 additional kits would be issued to a separate pontoon/bridging airborne battalion.

From what I find the VDV 118th Engineering Regiment was issued with a DPP-40. There are also mentions of the 1377th Separate Pontoon Bridging Battalion being issued with a DPP-40.

The main difference between the DPP-40 and other pontoon parks consisted of the fact it could be transported by AN-12, AN-22, and Il-76 transports, and could be either landed or air-dropped. Each AN-12 could carry two pontoon trucks laden with pontoon links.

The main element of the park is the pontoon link, consisting of the middle pontoon and two unfolding side pontoons. The middle pontoon consists of a hermetically-sealed metallic box, and the other two are divided lengthwize into two parts. The internal half is hermetically sealed, and the external one is a container for an inflatable floating device.
  Two pontoon links linked together form a bridge ferry. On the junction of the links a "Vikhr" [Whirlwind] outboard motor is attached. These power the bridge ferry. The kit comes with 16 of these motors, one for every bridge-ferry [2 links]. The folded link fits in a specially-prepared GAZ-66. The link is normally deployed by being dropped into the water unfolded. For this purpose the vehicle approaches the water in reverse, uses its winch to unfold the side pontoons and a dedicated air pump to fill the floaters. After the floaters are filled with air, the link takes up the shape shown in the image. The GAZ-66 retreats until the water covers the hub of the rear wheel - i.e. the depth at the drop location is about 0.5 meters. The crew fixes the side pontoons in place and lets the link fall into the water. If there is not the space to unfold the pontoon, it can be thrown in without the floaters inflated, and the floaters can be inflated on the water using a long hose from the automobile.

Every bridge-ferry is manned by two pontooners and two drivers. After the GAZ-66 is no longer needed, the drivers take their trucks into shelter, and further work is done by the pontooners.

When building a bridge, the ferries can be linked into a single ribbon, which is unfolded using the outboard motors, finally linking the shores. The bridge's usable part is 4.2 metres wide - standard for military bridges on hard bases. Tracked vehicles can move on the bridge at 10-12 kph, 20 metres apart. Wheeled vehicles can move 20 kph on the bridge. No vehicle may depart by more than 45cm from the bridge axis, which is especially important for heavy vehicles. The kit can also be made into 8 40-ton or 16 20-ton ferries, which use the "Vikhr" outboard motors to move. 

When a DPP-40 is transported, an AN-12 is filled with two pontoon links and their GAZ-66 trucks. Transporting the full kit requires 17 aircraft journeys. When paradropping, each GAZ-66 and its link are placed on a PP-128-5000 air-dropping platform, and then loaded onto the aircraft. The crew airdrop separately.

The kit consisted of 32 GAZ-66 trucks and their links, 1 auxiliary GAZ-66 with extra gear, and 16 outboard motors. A pontooner company of 80-90 men is required to operate the kit.



 
After a bit of searching on the internet I was delighted to find a free 3D stl file for the complete DPP-40 System and fellow Cold War Commander Andrew C very kindly offered to print them for me. Initially we've started with just the pontoons with plans to add the GAZ-66 variants in the future. More on that in Part Two. As always thanks for looking.



Sunday 10 September 2023

SAN THEODOROS CAMPAIGN - Deep Ocean Research Centre (DORC)

As part of my fictional TinTin inspired campaign I was thinking of having a few interesting terrain pieces. One idea I had was using elements of the Brigade Models 6mm Deep Ocean Research Centre (DORC) as an offshore facility. I've started painting a few of the sections and I think they should work even though they are a bit sci fi.




Tuesday 15 August 2023

SAN THEODOROS CAMPAIGN - Santaero Airlines

In addition to the Russian transport aircraft I also got an F Toys 1/300 YS-11 Japanese Military Transport aircraft. This was painted up to loosely represent the aircraft from TinTin and the Picaros. The inspiration behind the San Theodoros campaign. The aircraft designation 00-AWA is the same as in the story. You can just make it out in the last picture. 












Monday 14 August 2023

AIRCRAFT - Russian Transport Aircraft










As always after Joy of Six there seems to a period of increased activity on the 6mm CWC front. This year has been no exception, especially allied with the excellent work being undertaken by fellow Cold War Commander Richard C http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com/2023/07/6mm-terrain-progress.html?m=1

So for a while I have been scouring the t'interweb for suitable Russian transport aircraft to use for VDV airborne drops or troop transport for our CWC games. I managed to get hold of a few Eastern Express 1/288 kits in various states of repair. A couple were still in the box but some had been a bit neglected and needed a bit of work. I picked up two An-30 and two An-72 but all were damaged in some way or another but I could build one good model of each out of them. I'll look to scratch build some bits at a later date to use the remaining two. Also had three An-32 kits in good shape. 

So after painting and building new flight stands with magnets I have a flight of 5 aircraft that can be used on table.


Friday 7 July 2023

SAN THEODOROS CAMPAIGN - Mounted Special Forces

Neil M, one of my fellow Cold War Commanders, for many years has been running a solo CWC Khemed campaign inspired by the Tintin books. You can check out his latest exploits on his blog https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/ 
For a while now I have been wanting to do something similar and have been working towards a solo campaign set in San Theodoros. Progress has been very slow for one reason or another but now I have ressurected the project and am working on getting all the bits and bobs finished so I can start the campaign. 

At Sunday's Joy of Six the trade stand was positioned next to Rob F and his 2d6 Wargaming stand and he had some of the new Rhodesian Bush Wars range available and one pack that caught my eye was the Grey's Scouts. Now I don't plan on wargaming the Rhodesian Bush War but I thought these figures would be great to represent some Special Forces on horseback in my campaign. 

So as soon as I got back from Sheffield I started working on the first three bases. I actually bought three packs (36 figures), the remaining figures will probably end up being mounted Los Picaros (a group of freedom fighters led by General Alcazar in the Tintin series).





JOY OF SIX 2023 - Photos

On Sunday I headed over the Peak District to Sheffield to attend my favourite show of the year, the fantastic Joy of Six organised by Baccus. The original plan was to take the trade stand and set up a game with the Cold War Commanders but unfortunately family commitments meant that I didn't have enough time to dedicate to a game. So it was just the trade stand however my fellow Cold War Commanders Richard C and Andy T, assisted by Andy C, Neil M and Ian S did put on a pair of games entitled Prague Summer 1948. One using CWC and the other using TacWW2. Check out http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com/2023/07/joy-of-six-report.html?m=1and https://andysboncingblog.blogspot.com/2023/07/joy-of-six-2023-game.html for excellent reports on the two Cold War Commanders games 

As usual at this event it was busy busy busy! I didn't get as much time as I would have liked to have a wander around but it was great to catch up with some of the other traders and gamers. This year there were some spectacular games and it was a great advert for what can be achieved in 6mm.















































Swag 👍

Great show as always 👍 Massive thanks to Peter Berry and his Baccus Team plus all the volunteers for making it such a fantastic show. Thoughts turn to Joy of Six 2024 now....