"82nd Airborne for Platoon Forward" Topic

All,

So, it has been decided. I am moving ahead with a Platoon Forward campaign. I will label it "All American," and it will center on an airborne rifle platoon from 1943 to 1945 in the Mediterranean and Northwest European theaters. This will be done in 10mm with individually based figures (from Pendraken), using the modified KR-16 rules, and played solo in the context of Joe Legan's excellent "Platoon Forward" solo campaign system for troop and scenario development.

Here's the boys:

Here is the whole platoon, 39 red-blooded American boys looking to throw the Nazis out and come home to Sweet Suzy Rottencrotch. I am dealing with a dilemma though. I have a Platoon Commander, a Platoon Sergeant, a radio man, a two-man MMG team, a two-man 60mm mortar team, and a two-man bazooka team, and three 10-man rifle squads. My dilemma is whether to have the platoon as a PC, Plt Sgt, RTO, and 3 squads, with the MMG, mortar, and bazooka as company-level support that may or may not be attached (this would probably work better in Plt Fwd), or as I built them: a 39-man platoon (this gives me zero support options in Plt Fwd outside of vehicles).

I want to do the latter, but should probably do the former. My biggest concern is running into a tank and not having a bazooka, so maybe I'll do the former but with a bazooka as part of the HQ element. I think that's probably the way to go.

Assuming I go with what I just outlined, here is the HQ element with Wpns Plt support. Starting at bottom left and working clockwise: 2-man MMG team, two-man 60mm mortar team, 2-man bazooka team, RTO, PC, and Plt Sgt.

Same group from rear. PC has vertical stripe, Plt Sgt has horizontal stripe. Neither figure is carrying a weapon, but both will be handled as carrying an M-1 carbine.

1st Squad, with Squad Leader with rifle team on left, and Assistant Squad Leader and BAR team on the right. Both teams are a mix of Thompsons, M-1 Garands, and M-1 Carbines (plus the BAR in the BAR team).

2nd Squad, same way. I should mention that the majority of the figures are from Pendraken's US Airborne D-Day range, but I did use some guys from the US Airborne Ardennes range as well. I painted them all the same, but if you look closely you'll see a few greatcoats. Okay, I shouldn't have done it, but the D-Day range doesn't have any BARs or carbines, plus I wanted as many different poses as possible. You'll also see two different 'Mohawks' from the D-Day Pathfinders pack.

3rd Squad. Gold bases are senior leaders (PC and Plt Sgt), silver bases are junior leaders (Squad Ldrs), yellow bases are SMGs, red bases are MGs (I did the BAR and the M-1919 w/A-gunner), blue bases are rifles, and dark gray bases are various specialty figures (RTO, mortar team, bazooka team).

Unit:
1st Platoon, Dog Company, 1st Battalion, 499th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division (yes, it's a fictional unit, but historically grounded)

Campaigns:
Operation Husky, the Invasion of Sicily, 10 July 1943 to 17 August 1943.
Operation Avalanche, the Landing at Salerno, 13 September 1943 to 4 January 1944.
Operation Shingle, the Landing at Anzio, 22 January 1944 to 23 March 1944.
Operation Overlord, the Invasion of Normandy, 6 June 1944 to 13 July 1944.
Operation Market-Garden, the Invasion of Holland, 17 September 1944 to 25 September 1944.
Operation Wacht Am Rhein/Unternehmen Herbstnebe, the Battle of the Bulge, 16 December 1944 to February 10, 1945.
Operation Varsity, the Push into the Ruhr, 24 March 1945 to May 2, 1945.

Order of Battle:

10 July 1943 (Sicily)
HQ Element:
Platoon Commander – 2Lt Jack Shephard
Platoon Sergeant – SSgt Sawyer Ford
Radio/Telephone Operator – Cpl Daniel Farraday
Bazooka Gunner – Cpl Boone Carlyle
Bazooka Assistant – Pvt Able

1st Squad, Rifle Team:
Squad Leader – Sgt Hurley Reyes
Rifleman (kneel SMG) – PFC Baker
Rifleman (stand carbine) – Pvt Charleston
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt Delta
Rifleman (rush Garand) – Pvt Echo

1st Squad, BAR Team:
Assistant Squad Leader – Cpl John Locke
Automatic Rifleman – PFC Fox
Rifleman (crouch carbine) – Pvt George
Rifleman (fire Garand) – Pvt Hotel
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt India

2nd Squad, Rifle Team:
Squad Leader – Sgt Desmond Hume
Rifleman (kneel Mohawk) – PFC Juliet
Rifleman (stand carbine) – Pvt King
Rifleman (crouching carbine) – Pvt Lima
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt Mike

2nd Squad, BAR Team:
Assistant Squad Leader – Cpl Sam Jarrah
Automatic Rifleman – PFC Nancy
Rifleman (rush Garand) – Pvt Oscar
Rifleman (fire Garand) – Pvt Papa
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt Quebec

3rd Squad, Rifle Team:
Squad Leader – Sgt Michael Dawson
Rifleman (stand Mohawk) – PFC Romeo
Rifleman (stand SMG) – Pvt Sierra
Rifleman (stand carbine) – Pvt Tango
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt Uniform

3rd Squad, BAR Team:
Assistant Squad Leader – Cpl Charley Pace
Automatic Rifleman – PFC Victor
Rifleman (rush Garand) – Pvt Whiskey
Rifleman (crouch carbine) – Pvt Xavier
Rifleman (port Garand) – Pvt Zander

Weapons Platoon Support:
Medium Machine Gun Team:
Gunner – Cpl Frank Lapidus
A-Gunner – Pvt Apple

60mm Mortar Team:
Gunner – Cpl Richard Alpert
A-Gunner – Pvt Black

Regimental Support:
57mm Anti-Tank Gun (single, section, platoon)

Divisional Support
M4 Sherman (single, section, platoon)

I also put up a post with some pics of Paper Terrain's Italian Village and Eric Hotz' felt fields.

V/R,
Jack

I could be completely wrong and will happily be corrected, but didn't US airborne units have the 1919 lmg rather than the BAR?

Agent Brown,

The short answer is, they had both. A big factor would be the year of the Table of Organization and Equipment, another issue is the 'unofficial' TO&E, in which individual soldiers took it upon themselves to acquire various weapons. Certainly there are plenty of accounts (particularly regarding the 82nd Airborne) of them using BARs throughout the war.

In any case, this is my semi-/somewhat plausible campaign, so we've got BARs. For that matter, there's no such thing as a 499th Parachute Infantry Regiment. An even bigger issue would be the various TO&E changes regarding manpower; if I recall correctly off the top of my head, the platoon should have only two rifle squads and a mortar squad. Some folks may relish the idea of painting/basing up different sets of figures for the same unit at different points in its career, but not me, so I'm fudging things a bit in order to play what I want.

Thanks for taking a look.

V/R,
Jack

but didn't US airborne units have the 1919 lmg rather than the BAR?

I believe you are quite correct, but that didn't stop most manufacturers from making AB figures with them.

Jack,

That is awesome! I have my own 82 airborne platoon in the Med. They spend most of their time in Italy.
You are correct about the use of BARs from my reading. They were quickly "acquired" and often used instead of the LMGs on patrols. You are also correct about only 2 infantry squads and one support squad in the platoon but hey, it is your game! If you go with a support squad they have the 60mm mortar so that solves part of your delima. Also the platoon had a bazooka so you needn't fret about that. Your only worry is the MMG and I would leave that as a company assest to be diced for. [ Osprey Battle orders]
Also 2 tips when you start your campaign. Roll up the company CO and 2 random NPCs at the start so there are some NPCs to deal with. Instead of doing just your and 1 game driven post game event, add a second post game driven event
to keep things moving even faster.

Cheers

Joe

Thanks for the NPC tips, Joe. I've got everything set up and I'm looking to go upstairs and have my first fight.

I'm looking at using the Patrol card, but using it for the majority of the platoon moving from one end of the board to the other to reach their staging area not long after the drop.

I decided to go with three rifle squads, two-man bazooka team with Plt HQ, and leave the .30 cal MMG and 60mm mortar to be diced for in support.

I just rolled up my player characters (PC, Plt Sgt, and three Squad Leaders) and updated the blog post with it. I'm pretty happy; got a straightforward Lt (conformist/family/even), a decent Plt Sgt (fanatic/hedonism/reckless), and a great squad leader (idealistic/revenge/reckless), but not too happy about squad leaders that are 'fickle/wealth/even' and 'corrupt/avarice/bold,' respectively, but hey, that's life, right?

V/R,
Jack

The platoon made the jump and have had their first contact with the enemy. I posted it under "WWII Battle Reports," or check here:

blackhawkhet.blogspot.com

V/R,
Jack

What you actually have there is the 499th GLIDER infantry – who used the 3 – squad platoon organization (as well as te BAR) link

#4,
Bite your tongue, my men are paratroopers through and through. I watched them descend to the earth under silken canopies myself!
Having said that, during the refit between Sicily and Salerno my paras are going to upgrade to an M-1919A4 per squad (though I'm keeping the BARs as well!). I've already got them painted/based up. Having said that, I'm sticking with the three rifle squad concept (as opposed to two rifle and one mortar).

V/R,
Jack

Just Jack, I hope your paratroopers won't be flying with Oceanic……., otherwise you might end up with a very strange game :-)

Monash,

Gotta come up with names from somewhere (at least for the key guys), and I'm always open to suggestions as my casualties always seem to be pretty high; Desmond just got whacked last fight, which really sucks, brother ;)

Hell, I've got one gentleman here on TMP that's been following the fight and volunteered his uncle's name (he's now a Corporal!)!

Regarding Oceanic, that's why I had to use these names for for my ETO pars and not my (upcoming, someday) USMC in the Pacific; can't have them running around the Solomons and having them run into 'the hatch.' I'm glad someone finally caught on/said something about the names. It was the greatest show, E-V-E-R (IMHO).

V/R,
Jack

Jack, I think it is a great idea to pick names from that show. It really made me smile reading them. And many more to chose from as well….

As for the show itself. I liked the first 2 or 3 series very much, but after that I got a bit Lost myself… :-)
Kind regards,
Monash1916