"New Danish early Weserübung movie" Topic

Hi all,

Just saw the new Danish movie "9. April".

As the level of resistance from the Danish forces was token at best, I really did not know what to expect.

However, the movie turns out to be a tight story focusing on a single bicycle rifle squad, and has a lot of decent action in it.

Lots of accurate details of uniforms and weapons systems, both German and Danish.

You'll see SdKfz 222's, PzII's, SdKfz251's and Opel Blitz's from the German side, and lots of good shots of Madsen machineguns (Bipods and tripods), Bofors 37mm A/T gun and even one of the wonderfully wacky 20mm cannon mounted on a motorcycle combination from the Danish side.

On a historical note, the Danes lost 11 killed in the Southern part of Jutland. German losses are unknown, but 14 armoured vehicles were destroyed…

Well worth a watch, and might spark off some fine potential for early war 'what-if's' :-)

YouTube link

YouTube link

Nationalism is evil but… this gives me a big load of warm patriotic pride :-)

Good film, here is another one telling the story, sorry in Danish.
YouTube link

Nationalism and patriotic pride are not evil. They are perfectly fine emotions. I am glad that Englishmen are proud of being English, or that Frenchmen are proud of France.

What is evil is the hatred of other nations who have done nothing wrong to warrant that hatred. What is evil is the imposition of your nation upon others for no good reason, naked aggression against the innocent.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Like the other Scandinavian countries Denmark expected the war to be a re-run of the previous one and only had a small force at the border to mantain the neutrality while not making any moves that could be seen as a provocation by the Germans.

Even Sweden which had a reinforced corps fully manned and ready for action was poorly prepared to face German agression in April as the troops were all positioned to meet a possible Soviet act of agression in the far north of Sweden. It's a telling fact that for a while the largest single body of infantrymen under arms in southern Sweden was a company of Danish troops who outgunned in Denmark took the ferry across to Sweden with all their equipment since they expected the war to spread there as well.

…might spark off some fine potential for early war 'what-if's' :-)

I'm a big fan of doing the occasional "What if…?" or said another way, "What the heck…!" -- WI/WTH being (in my definition) both a) where something that did NOT happen is allowed to happen -- counter-factually, or b) if it DID happen in some way, it is allowed to play out after throwing a twist or a "spanner into the works." So, one "fun" example might be that the Allies at Narvik push the Gebirgsjaegers so hard and fast they lose track of where they are as they retreat into the hills and mistakenly cross the Swedish border -- and the Swedes fight!!

In this case, since the Danes did initially resist, the "spanner" here would be that they fight "harder" and, while suffering additional casualties themselves, also inflict a LOT more casualties on the Germans… If the odds by some stretch stayed the same, the Danes might suffer between 150 and 200 casualties, while inflicting over 2000 on the Germans?

That may not be such a stretch as it might first seem. It appears a large number of the Germans sent north (as opposed to those sent west) were reservists -- I have read somewhere recently that in many units, there was only one "veteran" in many German units (often just one Feldwebel), so inexperienced officers and NCOs might get a lot of their chaps killed or wounded before the fighting ended??

My problem with gaming the Danes is -- there are no suitable figures! Not in 28mm (1/56) anyway!!?? I'm currently set on using Bolt Action!, and getting too old and set in my ways to change rule-sets AGAIN (I used Command Decision once upon a time). The most significant hurdle I see is that the Danish M1923 helmet is so distinct, and that even if other figures might be substitutable, there are no available heads in M1923 helmets to do the head-swaps!!

Thoughts?????????

I hope they release a version with sub-titles. I'd like to see it for more than just the eye candy.

Region-1 with English sub-titles and I am all over it!! I picked up Winter War, and while in a few cases the sub-titling was not as well done as I could have wished, it was still a great drama about the Finn's fighting the Red Army behemoth!!

In 15mm, you could probably get away with using Poles if you can find some wearing trench coats.

This is really starting to bug me! The relevant Osprey volume has both color drawings and b/w photos of Danes in the 1915 (light gray) and/or 1923 (khaki) field uniforms and not wearing a greatcoat. This is giving me ideas… Since there are no Danish conversion heads in M1923 helmet available (e.g., from West Wind or Warlord Games), I'm thinking of getting a lot of WG German heads wearing side caps to do head-swaps on:

1) Gorgon Minis Norwegians -- a small range, but it has two "Scandinavian" themed officers, two NCOs, four riflemen, and two Madsen LMG teams.

2) Artizen Design Germans in greatcoats -- these look like they are not wearing a lot of extraneous equipment and what they are wearing can probably pass as Danish.

3) To increase variety, maybe mix the two. There are not that many figures in either "set."

"Button Nazis" would probably object to the lack of the helmets after the head-swaps, but what the heck??

Of course, getting an M/C combi with a 20mm cannon might also prove a challenge… ;-)

Or you can drop down a size and try 20mm: link

From what I understand there is more to come.

Regrettably, I have made too great an investment in 28mm to seriously consider another scale…