Bug Hunts Service Guarantees Citizenship, Camrade

In 1952 Joseph Stalin had his scientists working on atomic bombs in Chelyabinsk.

But the villagers in the area were reporting sightings of strange giant things in the forest.

Concerned about these reports Stalin directed Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria to discretely find the giant thing and destroy it.  Not wanting to deploy substantial resources to the project, he had .50 caliber Maxim guns places on wheeled artillery carriages and sent to the area to deal with the problem.

The US Army had also deployed such weapons in the past.

During the First World War these guns were taken from storage and were intended for coast defense against landing boats, or with their powerful .50 caliber cartridge, to cut down massed horse cavalry charges.

The gun crew consisted of a gunner who fired the weapon, two loaders, #1 to carry ammo from the limber and #2 to feed the ammo to the gun.  A third man was the gun commander who would observe targets and direct the gunner.  There was also a horse holder who maintained the horses, limber, caisson, and sometimes would help bring ammo forward. 

The men were trained in all the positions and could take over for one another in the event of a casualty.

None of these served overseas but were deployed around the coastal perimeter, southern border, and Canal Zone of the United States.

The unexplored jungles of the Canal Zones were particularly dangerous.

It's the only time these guns were fired in anger by US forces when gun #2 of a four gun battery defended the Canal Zone from a giant tarantula.

In the early 1950s a similar weapon was used by the Soviet Union to dispatch a giant tarantula that was ravaging cattle herds in Soviet Chelyabinsk.  The cause of the giant in the Soviet Union was thought to be sloppy atomic research contaminating the local area with radioactive waste.  The cause of the giant tarantula in the Canal Zone remains unknown.

Soviet figures by Atlantic, and generic civilians, US Army by Hat WWI US artillery crews, gun carriage by Eagle Games and giant Maxim gun by Atlantic WWII Russian set, all in 1/72nd scale.
 

WOTW Militia Troops

Part of my War of the Worlds plan is to have local militia units who can immediately respond to the scene of the crisis.  So some of those local militia units will be based on real units that actually existed.  I will use a few of them in their iconic parade outfits only because it makes them more distinctive on the battlefield.  It also may be the only uniform some of them own.

Remember there was no interstate highway system in 1898, 1918 or 1938 when I intend to stage invasions.  So it will take some time for Federal Regular troops to arrive at the scene of a Martian cylinder down.  We don't even have large aircraft to carry tanks, nor do we have vast fleets of trucks to carry everything.  It all has to go by train from rail-head to rail-head.

These troops have a peg on their backs where the backpack attaches, I may not put them on all the troops.

Mostly I am interested in the busby hat, and those may end up getting transferred to more heavily armed troops, particularly for machine gun crews.

Part of the plan is these guys and their mounted counterparts would only be the HQ troop rather than the whole unit, however some of these militia units were very small with only a platoon size strength of 40 or 50 troops so we shall see how it actually shapes up.  For 1898 the majority of the troops will be Union and Confederate ACW troops and a few Airfix WWI Americans in Montana Peak hats.

The backpacks.  They are very nice and I may use them for a few other troops also.  For 1918 of course I will use mostly Airfix WWI Americans with Montana Peak hats, since most of the regulars would be in Europe, but there will also be better equipped US troops as well.  By 1938 my troops will be the Airfix WWI and Strelets early WWII troops with Thompsons and other early WWII weapons.
 

Second Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry

HaT Industrie French  Napoleonic Voltigeures in 1/72nd scale soft plastic.

An interesting purchase since I don't do either Napoleonics nor French.

So why did I get these?

Because even in military uniforms and equipment there is fashion.

And busby hat and Napoleonic look was popular with the US Army all during the 1800's and even to today.  So these will become American troops.  http://www.military-historians.org/company/plates/images/471.htm  This link shows how these American troops dressed as a cavalry unit.  They were in existence until about 1940 as far as I can tell.  My plan is to create a small force and use them for my War of the World games for 1898, 1918 and 1938.  There may be some additional conversion work and painting done as well, but the headgear was essential for the look.
 

WWI HaT

HaT Industry WWI US Infantry.

This set has been around for many years.  When it was being designed I suggested four crew served weapons and one tripod since the tripod took up a lot of room on the sprue and the weapons did not.  Also the troops would typically have only used one of these machine guns in any given unit.  The Marlin / Colt Potato Digger was replaced by the French Hotchkiss or the Colt / Maxim type machine gun as supplies became available.  The one pounder gun was only fielded in small units of three guns.

I also requested the BAR, the shotgun, and the Lewis gun.  My thoughts were that since Airfix already made rather generic WWI American Infantry it might be good to have very specific American troops with weapons the US used in large numbers or like the shotgun and BAR were used almost exclusively by the Americans.  The grenadier was there because each platoon has men specifically assigned as grenadiers. And the 8 inch Newton mortar was a nice change from the typical 81mm Stokes type mortar as many sets have those.

HaT was kind enough to take most of my suggestions and I am very pleased they did.  I have been buying these off and on since they first came out.  Now they are available in a new color of plastic, a brighter green.  If you don't paint your figures you could use them as USMC as they fought in the trenches of WWI alongside American Army units.

 The two sets together, in their two colors.  My plan is to mix these with Airfix WWI Americans, and the Strelets Early War US Army troops and a few others to make three regiments of infantry, in my organization that will require nearly 6,000 troops.  I am pretty close and hope to be finished by the end of next year.

US Army 105mm Howitzer M2 on Carriage M1

Another view of my horse drawn 105mm howitzer.

Officially, 105mm Howitzer M2 on carriage M1, fourteen of them were made and they were trialed in units in the field.

They could have been shipped to the Philippines and saw service there in WWII but there is no actual evidence of that.

I think it is an interesting looking version of this gun.

The US Army also got over a thousand leFH-18 German WWI howitzers as a result of the demilitarization of German for the First World War.  They kept them in storage until at least 1925.  Nearly 50 even survive today as various memorials and trophies.

Here is the US 105 howitzer in the field.  Designed to be towed by horses a slow moving crawler tractor will also work.

The troops prepare to fire the gun.  Once all of them are completed, I plan to bulk flock the bases.
 

US Army Horse Drawn 105mm Howitzer

Roco 105mm howitzer in HO scale.

Hat WWI US Army French 75.  The US used them made in France and over 1,000 made in USA.

The French 75 is 1/72nd scale but it will serve for this purpose.

The US Army decided after WWI to have a 105 howitzer as the division gun but due to budget restraints built fewer than 20.

Using the Roco carriage I cut off the ears of the gun shield and the small gun shield on the front.

I replaced the wheels with the French 75 wheels.  I mounted it on a base because this is another 105mm from the spares box and the parts did not hold together well without mounting.  I used plastic coated rod from Plastruct for the axle because the wagon wheel has a larger hub opening than the Roco howitzer.  I made up a few of these for my Interwar US Army.  I don't know but I suspect they were all long out of service by WWII, but like some of the other guns in my collection they may fight at the Battle of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, in 1938.
 

French 75 Upgrade

One of my projects for 2023 is to finish up some old projects that have been languishing.  This is a Roco Minitanks 105mm howitzer with the gun barrel replaced with a French 75 gun barrel from a Hat WWI US Army Artillery set.  The little shield in the front got cut off and a few other bits on the trails were trimmed down too.  Quick and simple conversion.  It got glued down to a base because I used mostly Roco bits from the spares box that had lead a rough life and did not fit together well.

In the 1930s the US Army considered upgrading their massive stock of French 75mm guns by putting them on new carriages with split rails.

They also wanted pneumatic tires.  Wooden wagon wheels when towed behind a motor vehicle at speeds of more than a few miles per hour tend to bounce to the point where they will flip over, often overturning the towing vehicle with it.  So to reduce the Army dependency on horses rubber tires were needed.

Split trails allow the gun to be elevated and increases the range of the gun.

 Due to the tiny budget of the military in the 1930s progress was very slow and only a handful of these guns were converted.  They were used for training in the US during the war but none saw actual combat.  Of course on the wargame table some may be used in the Battle of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, in October 1938 when the Martian cylinder landed there.

Rocket Men

HaT makes a set of Napoleonic British Rocket Troops.

It's one of their oldest sets, 20 years old I think.

An almost identical rocket was used by the US Army in the First World War.  So I put together this US Army Rocket Team using Hat and Airfix WWI figures.  I added some of the Napoleonic Rockets to the figures.

Several three man teams seems like a good idea, twelve men would give me a whole squad or rocketeers.

Lined up ready to signal an attack, retreat, artillery barrage, or shoot rockets at Godzilla.

 They turned out so well I am considering getting more Rocket Troops and making more of these guys.