SOVIET DPP40 AMPHIBIOUS PONTOON SYSTEM - Part Two

New additions to my Soviet VDV forces are these DPP40 Amphibious Pontoon Systems. Fellow Cold War Commander very kindly 3d printed four sets of pontoons that were suitable to use with our standard 100mm wide river/canal sections. Obviously they'll work great with 75mm and 50mm wide sections as well. As mentioned in Part One I will eventually add a few of the vehicles that come with this set of STL files but for now here are the four systems set up on one of the 100mm wide canal sections.

As always thanks for looking...

TERRAIN - New Additions

Some new additions to the CWC collection. 

Timecast 6/003 French Village Street. Had to use a 125mm x 100mm base instead of my usual 100mm square base as it's all one piece.

Rear view of Timecast 6/003 French Village Street.

2d6 Wargaming WW2 Normandy Church. Excellent model and great to see that 2d6 are back. Based on a 100mm square with added plasticard for the graves and the parking area. Fence is Z scale railway spear fencing.

Rear view of the 2d6 Wargaming Normandy Church.

Disain Studios Tower Blocks. I think these are designed for Sci Fi games but I thought they looked suitably Eastern Bloc for our CWC games. Both based on 100mm squares. The cars are from eBay and are ideal for adding to bases.

Rear view of the tower blocks.

Loads more new terrain to come including more Timecast and 2d6 plus a load of Battlescale and Leven Miniatures buildings.

As always thanks for looking 

PRAGUE SUMMER 1948 - Part Two

Saturday morning dawned and we headed back to the Village Hall to meet up with the rest of the weekends attendees and sort out deployment, artillery plotting and plans for the coming battle. Myself and Arthur were on the Southern Table attempting to hold back the Russian hordes with our brave Czech defenders. Meanwhile the other two members of the Czech command team Tom and Ned attempted to do the same on the Northern Table.

We had deployed an SMG Battalion (3Bn) with an attached Combat Engineer Company furthest forward in the BUA on Table A. On a ridge overlooking both river crossings we deployed our Tank Battalion (12Bn) of Hetzers and LT-38 and on Table C defending the small airfield a Rifle Battalion (8Bn). We also had 3 batteries of 105mm artillery on table with fire being directed by the SMG Battalion HQ. Off table we shared with the Northern Table 2 batteries of 152mm guns. 

Initial orders were to defend the town with the SMG Battalion while the Combat Engineers laid barbed wire and minefields along the main road to Stary Boleslav. The 12th Tank Battalion had orders to hold the ridge and cover both bridges and the 8th Infantry Battalion had orders to defend the airfield and cover the main road approaching the outskirts of Stary Boleslav. Arthur took command of the 3rd SMG Battalion and the Engineers and I took command of the 12th Tank Battalion and the 8th Infantry Battalion. So as dawn broke the rumble of Russian armour could be heard approaching from the East. The men of the 3rd SMG Battalion stood ready to defend their homes against the invaders.

12th Tank Battalion prepare to meet the advancing Russians

Russian aircraft begin to attack the 3rd SMG Battalion

The Russians begin their advance eastwards

The 3rd SMG Battalion hastily redeploy their Anti Tank Gun to a better position after spotting the Russian T34's approaching.

The 12th Tank Battalion advance to meet the Russian T-34s. Initially I wasn't sure about leaving the position on the ridge but it turned out to be a timely advance!

A B-25 comes in on a bombing run to attack the position the 12th Tank Battalion had been but unfortunately for the Russians the tanks had moved.

But they did a cracking job of cratering the road!

After a series of brutal exchanges at fairly close range the Hetzers began to take heavy casualties. Not before routing a battalion of T-34s along with their tank riders. The sneaky Russians had also positioned a platoon of Spetsnaz posing as refugees in horse and cart who close assaulted the Hetzers! 

Arthur had put up a valiant defence but eventually the sheer weight of Russian pressure began to take it's toll and the town began to fall to the invaders.

More Russian infantry prepare to assault the town!

With more still en route

Accompanied by the Heavy Metal! ISU-152's and IS-2's

Meanwhile the Combat Engineers were still hard at work laying mines on the main road!

ISU-152's enter to outskirts of the town. The Czech defenders had finally been defeated.

Russian infantry push forward the way now clear after all Czech resistance in the area had been overcome.

Russian armour pushes forward over the river. The only obstacles now are the minefields and barbed wire as they head east towards the airfield.

A fantastic weekend! We held out as long as we could but eventually the overwhelming volume of fire from the Russians meant we could no longer hold the town. In hindsight I maybe should have left the Hetzers where they were on the ridge but that would have left a gaping hole to the south of the town which Russian armour (ISU-152's, IS-2's, T34-76's and T34-85's) with the support of the Russian airforce and the artillery would have pushed through fairly early on leaving the town outflanked. Maybe I will try and play out this section of the table at The Unit and see what might have been?

Check out Richard C's excellent blog for a lot more information on the Prague Summer 1948 setting and the TacWW2 rules http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-first-report.html

Also head over to Andy T's blog and Neil M's blog to see how events unfolded on the CWC table.

https://andysboncingblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-2024.html and https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-6th-7th-april-2024.html

https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-forces-and-day-one.html

https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-day-2.html

All in all an excellent weekend. Many thanks to Richard C for organising it and Stella C for sorting out the lunches on Saturday and Sunday. Not forgetting Richard's daughter Millie's amazing chocolate chip biscuits (more chocolate chips than biscuit!) and her wondeful white chocolate cake. The new venue, the Village Hall, was much better in my opinion especially due to having access to the kitchen facilities. 

Great to have Crisis Point back on the wargaming calendar one of the annual gaming highlights and Farmers Ale!

PRAGUE SUMMER 1948 - Part One

On Friday 5th April I headed over the Peak District to the wonderfully picturesque village of Dungworth situated near Sheffield for Crisis Point 2024 a wargames weekend organised by my good friend and fellow Cold War Commander Richard C. The original plan was for three games but unfortunately after a couple of people had to drop out due to family commitments and ill health we were down to two games, an 8 player TacWW2 game and a 4 player Cold War Commander game. The TacWW2 game was to be run by Richard C himself and the CWC game was to be run by Andy T and Neil M. Both games would be set during the fictional Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the Summer of 1948. Our timeline presumes that the coup earlier in 1948 was unsuccessful and Russian forces had crossed the border and were heading for Prague. 

I met Richard C at the Plough and after a rather nice cottage pie and a pint of Farmers it was off to Dungworth Village Hall to begin setting up for Saturday morning. This was the first year we had used the Village Hall as the venue as all previous events had been held at the local school but the hall is a bit big and we don't get access to the kitchen whereas at the Village Hall we have access to all the amenities. 

Between the two of us we managed to get the TacWW2 game tables all set up ready for deployment Saturday morning. The CWC table was to be set up by Andy T and Neil M on Saturday morning. 

Set Up of the Southern Table begins

Same for the Northern Table

Irregular Miniatures train

A great factory complex by Richard C scratchbuilt from card and other bits and bobs.

Castle by Kibri from my collection

Another great little factory complex complete with railway siding

Hill with wooded ridgeline by Richard C

Mixture of 3d prints and bought models. Various manufacturers including Timecast and Leven. The bridge is fantastic and I hope to add one to my terrain collection.

Some more of Richard C's great 3d prints. Particularly like the large apartment block

Wouldn't be complete without some Fat Frank roads!

The three R's go down first. Roads, Rivers and Railways

Better view of the bridge complete with archway

Once the roads etc were down we could start adding the details like the train, the cattle and the river barge

Windmill from Irregular Miniatures

Railway head through the marshland

Overhead view of one of the BUA's 

Richard C had even made town signs for each of the BUA's

Great view of the wonderful 3d printed tower. Richard C had also done a destroyed version of this

Destroyed tower base along with some more ruins

After we'd finished setting up it was back to Richard C's house just up the road in Storrs for a wonderful Toad in the Hole followed by a trip to the Nags Head for a couple more pints of Farmers. 

More to come in Part Two - Saturday AAR

As always thanks for looking 

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.

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.

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.