Fellow Modelers,
I want to put a crew in my Sd.Kfz 251/10 (w/the pak 36 attached). Would it be appropriate to use self propelled gun crewmen?..I have some that were made for Marder III. Or do I need German infantry figures?
Thanks, Bwog
Well, the Pak armed SPWs were used by grenadier/motorized infantry units – they had typical infantry uniforms, mostly. BTW, the 251/10 would have been more from “mid” war period.
HTH
The first SdKfz 251/10 were issued in early 1940, just in time for the French campaign, built on SdKfz 251 ausf A. They were issued to platoon leaders in armored infantry / mechanized companies, at least a few in engineer companies, (or maybe field mods) and after 1942, panzergrenadier companies. All of the photos I have show the crews in standard infantry wear.
Thanks for the correction about my dates. Kykeon. Good info
Thanks Guys, good info.
Bwog
I was reading about the 251 SPW last night in preparation for an upcoming project and the timing mentioned for the motorized infantry switch from “schutzen” infantry to “grenadiers/panzergrenadiers” is in 1943 and once the designation was made, they came under the direct command of the armor divisions they were part of. I don’t think this means though that they then adopted panzer crewman uniforms vs. standard infantry gear, with possibly the exception of their collar tab piping changing, but don’t have anything concrete to support that speculation. [;)]
I have the date of the change-over from Schützen regiments to Panzergrenadier regiments as June of 1942. (Fighting Techniques of a Panzergrenadier, page 21.) The piping color would be grass-green, although some units did not change over their waffenfarbe until 1943.
That makes sense, the blurb was a one-sentence thing and didn’t distinguish between order issuance and actual execution at the unit level.
If one were to read from Squadron’s Panzergrenadiers in Action, they would have you believe Panzergrenadiers were in existence from the very beginning of the war. [:O] The US Army’s Handbook on German Military Forces doesn’t even make the distinction between Schützen and Panzergrenadier regiments at all. [D)]
