"Stone walls?" Topic

Hi just started a new WW2 project and was just painting my first stone walls and thought, wait, do they even have them on farms in Poland or Norway? Hedges too?

Can't answer, but curious.

What scale, and who makes them?

I did a quick and dirty review of 1939 Poland images on the internet. It doesn't look like any fences or walls were in use in the open countryside. In villages it was mostly picket fences, tho taller and rougher than the American norm.

Not much in the way of yard walls until you get to large buildings where there are some, tho not a lot of, tall dressed stone/brick walls.

My guess would be Norway would have stone fences but not Poland. Norway is mostly rock with a little dirt on top in some places, while the 1939 Poland part of Europe is pretty much sand all the way down. A quick google search for "stone fences Poland" and "stone fences Norway" seems to back me up

Usually hedges come with family-owned farms, so perhaps uncommon in 1939 Poland, which had recently been large estates? But that's two guesses. Google seemed to be turning up hedges in formal gardens, but a single German memoir complaining about one Polish hedge after another trumps any number of reasonable guesses.

Save the terrain, though. WWII projects tend to metastize.

Thanks for the help everyone. I was definitely headed down the wrong path there.

"What scale, and who makes them?"
I was scratch building the walls for 15mm using ice cream sticks with and without tissue paper. The hedges I've orderd in some model railway ones that I'll base.

"German memoir complaining about one Polish hedge after another…"
Oh that sounds like an exscuse if I need one. :P

"Save the terrain, though. WWII projects tend to metastize."
Ha ha good advice there. Am already looking at France 1940.

I have been to Poland and as I recall there are next to no fences and not many hedges. Of course it's hard to be categoric unless you actually leave the road, but what you see is often a row of saplings, a path edged with tussock grass, or perhaps a ditch. Historically, where my field backed onto your field, and we both had an edge ditch, people drove, rode or walked along the space between your ditch and my ditch, and called this space the "road" – or something.

Google Streetview is your friend. Have a look at open Polish terrain now; it's not changed.

link

Europe often VERY different. 'Bocage', or nothing… usually, nothing except small ditch or bank, maybe.
Italy, lot of rough walls… in places!
The real 'challenge' are the 'terraced' slopes! V hard to do!
But much of Poland. pretty 'flat'. Norway, not sure, but not much 'flat' ground, so, maybe small, stone walled fields.

Looking at pics of Norway on FB… you would HAVE to be Fit… or just Tough, to get about! lol.

Thank you for that link 4th.
It completely changed my view of the countryside.
(PS what an amazing time we live in when you can actually explore the Polish countryside from my lounge on the other side of the world)
Great summary Heedless Horseman. I'll be using that as a guide going forward.

I don't think it makes a difference in this context, but it's worth remembering how much Poland has moved. Much of 1939 Poland is now Belarus, and a lot of current Poland was Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia in 1939. You're on safe ground around Warsaw, of course, but keep it in mind as you approach borders.