EW German Schützen Platoon

This is a German schuützen infantry platoon for my German early war North Africa Stützpunkt force. These are Battlefront figures I've painted using colors recommended in the Hellfire and Back book by Battlefront. The bases received the same treatment as my other North Africa forces. For this unit I decided to go with a black wash instead of my normal brown at the recommendation of my friend Gordon. The black definitely shows better on the darker uniforms.

This platoon has similar assets as the Australian infantry I painted earlier, namely a light mortar and anti-tank rifle stand. While these specialist stands offer only slightly improved utility they also have the crucial effect of bringing this platoon up to a full strength of nine stands which is quite nice for Veteran troops. The core infantry are all rated as MG - machine gun armed owing to the high percentage of MG-38 and MG-42 machine guns they carried.

My favorite figures are the ones in the lower right photo, with a machine gunner and loader firing their gun by having the loader hold the bipod on the run. Back then I'm sure ear protection was optional...ouch! While this practice may seem ludicrous, it's well documented in photos and German training manuals.