Norway in WW2 : Ideas sought

[hamsterking]

I am seriously looking at building up a couple of infantry heavy WW2 armies for gaming with BKC2. My attention has been initially drawn to the 1940 Norwegian Campaign with the Germans taking on Norwegians, French, British and Polish troops.

Now it looks easy to find British and line German figures (though some British in Greatcoats would be ideal). I'm assuming that the German Alpine troops would do as reasonable substitutes for the German Mountain Troops who played such a prominent role in the campaign.

However I'd appreciate some ideas on suitable models to cover Norwegians, French Mountain troops, the French Foreign Legion and the Poles. My initial poking around suggests that French Mountain troops and the FFL would have been wearing an almost identical uniform.

Any ideas , information etc gratefully received.

Dave Turner

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

The Britsh - any early war, Germans similar - Alpine are Mountain troops, German title is Alpen Corp. French are in standard uniforms but with longer puttees for skiing, could as forgot a vital part of the skis.

IanS

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi

I had a quick look around the web and my books:-

German Mountain troops there are:-

GR 13 - Alpine cross country skier
GR 14 - Alpine riflemen, separate ski's

No pictures of the figures but if they look like this:-



they'll do.

For the French, the FFL were equipped as pseudo Mountain troops and both had the reversible anorak (khaki one side and white the other) and at this scale close enough to normal uniform elsewhere. Headgear was a floppy beret or a helmet (with white cloth cover for winter). There has been mention of Pendraken WW2 French troops coming, hopefully they will have the tunic rather the greatcoat (already available in the WW1 range), these could be used here. Maybe you could distinguish FFL with a cheche scarf which they also wore in France  , or if you have them in berets the Mountain troops wore black berets and the FFL were issued with khaki Fortress Troops type berets.

The Poles from what I can find would look very similar to normal French Infantry with tunic:-



from here http://www.polandinexile.com/norway.htm


Again you'll have to see if the French WW2 are available.

The Norwegians could be harder to cobble together. Here is a web page on them:-
http://www.nuav.net/Nouniforms.html
Infantry



Maybe WW1 British in greatcoat with the hat filed down, or German Paras with putty hoods over the helmets. Possible a French Kepi could be swapped over for the officer.

HMG


Maybe the WW1 British Vickers, crew in cap could be press-ganged.

Artillery



Possibly a French 75mm with British WW2 crew.

Interesting note that the Norwegian cavalry also wore the British type helmet  .

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[republic of tolworth]

Plenty of info there.

Thanks .

[NTM]

Just noticed a post on the Command decision forum which recommended WW1 Austrians as Norwegian proxies.
Finns could supply some figures for those in snow suits.
The Polish officer in one of the pictures could easily be depicted by a British Para in beret.

[hamsterking]

I've just put in a bit of a test order. Mainly Early War Germans but including some WW1 Austrians for Norwegians and some beret wearing SCW types as Chasseurs de Alpine. I'll let people know how things progress.

Dave T

[hamsterking]

Progress to date.

I've painted up some WW1 Austro-Hungarians as WW2 Norwegians. They won't bear close inspection uniform wise but other than that do the job very nicely.
To them I've added some SCW types in berets as French Chasseur de Alpin and some surplus FPW sailors as WW2 French Naval Landing parties (didn't happen but at a stretch could of and I did have the figures lying around)

The Germans have got some bog-standard Infantry types padded out with some of the excellent German Mountain troop figures. I've also used German 75mm Infantry guns with crews in winter kit instead of mortars because that seems to have been the norm in Norway and the winter kit fitted the bill.

I promise I'll work out how to use my digital camera and will provide some photographs.

[Steve J]

Sounds good so far. Pic always nice. And if anyone complains they are not exactly right, reack for the sharp pointy stick. As long as you're happy, that's all that counts.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Hi hamsterking

some surplus FPW sailors as WW2 French Naval Landing parties (didn't happen but at a stretch could of and I did have the figures lying around)

If you have some leftover French in greatcoats you could paint them up as Fusiliers Marin to go with the sailors - Naval blue uniforms, dark navy helmet, puttees painted to look like off-white gaiters and normal kit.

All sounding good so far.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[nikharwood]

I promise I'll work out how to use my digital camera and will provide some photographs.

Excellent - we'll keep you to that promise 

Sounds good so far. Pic always nice. And if anyone complains they are not exactly right, reack for the sharp pointy stick. As long as you're happy, that's all that counts.

Too bloody right