We’re LWS’s crewed by the Kriegsmarine or the Wehrmacht ? I currently have a crew less LWS but I’m not sure if I should buy Kriegsmarine figures or Wehrmacht panzer crew figures ?
They were crewed by Army Engineers.
Would the engineers be considered “Heer”? Or where they part of the Wehrmacht?
I had found some Kriegsmarine figures in 1/35 so i wondered if they’d pass or not
What we need is Bish, or stikpusher–they are smart on this stuff.
“Heer” (pronounced “hare”) is German for “Army.”
During the war, all of the forces (other than the SS) were administratively grouped into the Wehrmacht (“VEHR mahkt”) which was meant to be a sort-of Department of Defence.
As far as I know (which is not much) German Army Engineers wore Army uniforms, just with a distinctive piping color, as they were part of the Deutsches Heer. (Unless I’m wrong.)
Unlike in the US, Costal Artillery was under the command of he Kriegsmarine, and they had Feldgrau uniforms. (Costal Arty was a branch of the Army in the US, part of the War Department, not the Navy.)
As stated above, Wehrmacht was the overall professional armed forces of the Third Reich. Heer being the army, Kriegsmarine the Navy, and Luftwaffe the Air Force. When you see vehicle license plates the two letter prefix indicates the service: e.g. WH Wehrmacht Heer, or WL Wehrmacht Luftwaffe. The Waffen SS was a separate armed force selected for aryan racial criteria and political reliability.
Engineers are one of the long standing combat arms branches of any army, alongside Infantry, Artillery, Cavalry and their twentieth century replacement, Armor. Engineers can construct obstacles, minefields, or fortifications in the defense, or provide the specialized equipment to overcome those things in the offense. Not to mention providing the skills and equipment to overcome the natural obstacles of terrain such as rivers, ravines, etc. that nature provides in the path of an army.
As GM says, they were operated by Army (Heer) enginners.
And as mentoned, the Wehrmacht is the German armed forces, though quitre often people use it for just the army.
Would a Kriegsmarine uniform with engineer colored piping be suitable. Or would i need to modify the figure a little more then that?
I was thinking about this a little. I’d allow myself a fair amount of leeway due to the conditions of service. Towing a bridge section across a river in Russia in March might call for much different kit than in Central Europe, much less the Middle East of course.
Life jackets seem to be pretty common. Soft caps.
If it is the tradional naval uniform with the double breasted coat or “Cracker Jack” type top, no they will not work for army troops.
Engineers wore the same uniform as most army troops, with the exception of Panzer crews, who had their own specialized uniforms.
Okay, I’m not sure on some of these figures but i can tell they have a naval cap so that wouldnt work, maybe ill use one as a type of beach master or load master. I have seen the panzer crewmen in Uboat leather jackets which i may go for but not positive yet.
Those U-Boat leather jackets were worn by members on the 12th SS Pz Div in 43/44, they were not in common use.
Any normal army figures would work, and depending on the time frame would depend on what they are wearing.
Yes, an idea of the locale you plan, as well as time frame will help with suggestions for appropriate figures
Sorry, the time and place would be 1940, prepping for sea lion. I wanted to depict some gerbisjager walking into the LWS to get ferried to a barge waiting in the harbor. Kind of a open ended diorama, are they prepping to invade or just doing load training.
Ok… the crew would wear standard 1936 type uniforms, with the jackboots, and side caps if they’re not in helmets. The Mountain troops would wear a similar uniform, their low topped mountain boots, possibly with ankle gaiters or puttees, and the mountain cap that was later adapted by the rest of the army mid war.
okay i got some mountain troops I’m not doing a lot just a few. I’m gonna probably out the crew in helmets if i can
The LWS was not in service during the time frame for Sea Lion.
It was being prepped for sea lion, The whole idea of the LWS was that a few would be used to help with the landing. They didn’t have a vast quantity of them but a few were in testing stages. Also withbsea lion being postponed to 1941 they would of had more.
Which uniform?
Kriegsmarine had a blue and a white uniform, in both working and dress form (jumpers or a jacket). Snipes has a distinctive rating insignia (as most navies do).
Only the coast artillery Kriegsmarine wore feldgrau, and in the original pattern with grey trousers and green collars, all using gold insignia on a green background. They did not field Engineers; the snipes used their rating badge of a gear in gold on the sleeve.
In 1943 KM changed to all red insigna for Rating, and kept (most of) the gold Rank insignia.
If a person needed to be ferried out to some moored vessel, the KM would just use a launch of some sort, which they would have had in operation as “water taxi” and were hugely more efficient in the water.
Navies do what navies do–you don’t send an LCM if a launch is available; you don’t send a 40’ personnel boat if a 26’ whaler is available, particularly if only one person is being moved.
Army Engineers, though, are somewhat nuts the world over, they will use a bridge tug because that’s what they have (and becasue no one thought to get them a jon-boat).
Heer Engineers appear to use black piping.
Thank you for that insight. The LWS sounded like it was supposed to be a ferry that also carried a load of 20 soldiers as well, i guess in the army world that makes sense but in the navy world i could see the use of a launch as the primary means. I know sea lion was somewhat thrown together so I’m assuming that anything and everything from tugboats to boats with random aircraft motors would of been used because of the ad-hoc nature of the assault force.