Last Red Army Tank..... For Now!

 As advertised, here is the last of five Soviet tanks I came by, by of way of the Warlord "Achtung Panzer" tank box set - the mighty Joseph Stalin II.

This one is decaled up to represent the IS-2 model 1944, “Combat Girlfriend” 7th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Battalion, Berlin, April 1945, as per the Warlord assembly instructions!

Given the name, it will come as no surprise to anyone that I added two female crew members!

Both very minor conversions, they are standard male bodies with a couple of female heads I have had knocking around since my RCW expansions 2-3 years ago. 

Once again, the white recognition stripe is deliberately pretty rough, as that's how they generally appear to be in period images.

And finally, a couple of shots with the traditional addition of the tank rider figures!

Perhaps for this one, in particular, I should splash out and get some of the Bad Squiddo female figures - they do three different tank rider sets, I think!

I have finally finished this book too, having ground my way through Vasily Grossmans "Life and Fate" over a period of about ten weeks from May to early July!

And finally, at Barrys place on Sunday I discovered his Flames of War Stalingrad book and asked if I could borrow it, primarily for the inspiration of the two images below - can I recreate them in 28mm AND have room to store them.....hmmm, we will see!

 

Thanks for your visit and please do leave a comment to let me know what you think about the latest tank addition - if you are good and leave lots of feedback, you might be lucky and get a parade next time!

PS - regular readers will have seen Steve J's link to a possible scenario for my KV tank in the post before last - for those who did not follow up on the link, here is the story

A single KV-1 or KV-2 tank (accounts vary) advanced far behind the German lines after attacking a column of German supply trucks. The tank stopped on a road across soft ground and was engaged by four 50 mm anti-tank guns of the 6th Panzer Division's anti-tank battalion. The tank was hit several times but fired back and destroyed all four enemy AT guns. An 8.8 cm FlaK of the divisional anti-aircraft battalion was moved about 730 m (800 yd) behind the lone Soviet tank but was knocked out by the tank before it could manage to score a hit. During the night, German combat engineers tried to destroy the tank with satchel charges but failed despite possibly damaging the vehicle's tracks. Early on the morning of 25 June, German tanks fired on the KV from the nearby woodland while another 8.8 cm FlaK fired at the tank from its rear. Of several shots fired, only two managed to penetrate the tank. German infantry then advanced towards the KV tank and it responded with machine-gun fire against them. Eventually, the tank was knocked out by grenades thrown into the hatches. According to some accounts, the dead crew was recovered and buried by the approaching German soldiers with full military honors, while in other accounts, the crew escaped from their crippled tank during the night.

The 6th Panzer Division Kampfgruppe commander, General Erhard Raus, described it as a KV-1, which was damaged by several shots from an 8.8 cm FlaK being used in an anti-tank role fired from behind the vehicle, while it was distracted by light Panzer 35(t) tanks from Panzer Battalion 65. The KV-1 crew were killed by a pioneer engineer unit who pushed grenades through two holes made by the AT gun while the turret began moving again, with the other five or six shots having not fully penetrated. Apparently, the KV-1 crew had only been stunned by the shots which had entered the turret and were buried nearby with military honors by the German unit.

In 1965, the remains of the crew were exhumed and reburied at the Soviet military cemetery in Raseiniai. According to research by Russian military historian Maksim Kolomiets, the tank may have been from the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Tank Regiment, itself a part of the 2nd Tank Division. It is impossible to identify the crew because their personal documents were lost after being buried in the woods north of Raseiniai during the retreat, possibly by German troops.

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