DUTCH - 103 Recce Battalion (103 VerkBat)

As part of our Dutch force for Septembers game Mark Fry and myself are working on some units from the NATO Covering Force 1 (NL) Corps. This force consisted of Dutch, West German and US troops. The US part of the force was 2 (US) AD (Fwd) which Andy Hamilton is working on leaving the Dutch and West German forces to me and Mark.

The NATO Covering Force had the following organisation http://www.orbat85.nl/order-of-battle/royal-army/1-nl-corps/41-pabrig.html#operational-role

I have already finished the 3. PzAufklBtl which can be seen elsewhere on this blog. So next up its the Dutch 103 Recce Battalion (103 VerkBat).

103 VerkBat (just got HQ, Recce and Infantry stands to finish off)

Recce Squadron with 1 x Leopard 2, 2 x M113 C&R, 1 x M113 and 1 x M106

Close up of the great CinC models

Another view of the CinC Dutch Recce variant of the M113

The unit packs a punch with 3 x Leopard 2 tanks. These were new to the unit in 1985.

The organisation of this unit was quite difficult to represent in CWC terms but thanks to the great work done by Hans Boersma on his http://www.orbat85.nl/ site I discovered that the Dutch had an alternative OOB known as POSO (Pelotons-Organieke Samenstelling Opgeheven) for this unit which made converting the units into CWC terms much easier and as this new organisation was available in 1985 both Mark and myself decided we would organise our units based on the new OOB.

WEST GERMAN - Federal Navy's Amphibsches Transportbattailon

As is usually the case while looking for something else I stumbled across a couple of websites which show the West Germans using LARC-5 (LARC-V). It would appear that the West German Federal Navy's Amphibsches Transportbattailon 2 & 4 based in Emden received a total of 53 LARC-V in 1963 and 1964. This was apparently part of 200 in total that went into service.

http://www.panzerbaer.de/helper/bw_amphgrp-a.htm

http://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?http&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Engineer/USAREUR_6960th%20CLGp.htm

Now from what I can gather they were gradually phased out of service with the last ones being decommissioned in the late 80's early 90's. Now as the CWC Megagame is a great opportunity to get unusual units on the table, so I had some of the new Heroics & Ros LARC-5 models for my 'Dragonstrike' project but as other projects are taking priority at the moment I have decided to use four for my West Germans.

WEST GERMAN - 74th Panzer Battalion

As I am working on Dutch Forces for Deeside I have been researching the Cold War Dutch and found that the West German 3rd Panzer Division was attached to the 1st Netherlands Corps so I decided to add a few West German units to my Dutch.

First up is the 74th Panzer Battalion complete with their Leopard 2 MBT's from H&R.

WEST GERMAN - 3 (GE) Reconnaissance Battalion

I am working on the NATO Covering Force minus the 2 (US) Armoured Division (Fwd) which Andy Hamilton is doing. The main force for this is the Dutch 41 Armoured Brigade but attached to this Brigade was also the Dutch 103 Reconnaissance Battalion and the 3 (GE) Reconnaissance Battalion. Each Company consists of a Fuchs TPZ, a Luchs and two Leopard 1 tanks. I just have three infantry bases to do to mount in the Fuchs TPZ's. HQ is a Fuchs TPZ and a M577. As we are using the Recce Support House Rules I decided to base my Recce Support on different bases. After a discussion with Leon at Minibits he sorted out some 40mm x 20mm MDF bases with a point at the front for me so all my Recce Support units will be based like this. Easy way to remember their unit type.