Blitzkrieg: Dutch Infantry Platoon

As you will have seen from earlier posts this month, I have recently painted up a Dutch Infantry Platoon for Chain of Command. This is not my first stab at the Koninklijke Nederlandse Landmacht (Royal Netherlands Army) of 1940, but this time, with the CoC weekend event to get ready for, I managed to paint up a usable force!

The majority of models are from May '40 Miniatures which I picked from Great Escape Games. I used May '40's painting guide for the infantry uniforms and AFV's.

Dutch Infantry Platoon for Chain of Command with supports

Dutch Mitrailleurgroepen (infantry section)

Dutch Schwarzlose M.08 MMG and crew

Chain of Command requires five crew for the MMG so I enlisted a couple of Great Escape Romanians, which are, with some minimal conversion to their kit, are pretty much identical to the Dutch, to make up the numbers.

Dutch 47mm Bohler PAG AT gun with crew and Junior Leader

I needed to do the same with the AT gun. Fortunately Great Escape sell Romanian gun crew in separate packs.

Dutch Forward Observer with 80mm mortar

Although medium mortars are off table in Chain of Command and I only needed the FO, May '40 sell them as one set. It is a nice model to paint and I'll probably put it on the rear table edge when employed in games.

Dutch "sniper"

I'm sure I read that a sniper was a support option in one of the Dutch Chain of Command lists - it wasn't! :-)

Dutch Engineer Team

Engineer Teams are a useful List One support in CoC if you have a support point over. Given some of the Blitzkrieg handbook scenarios utilise them I thought it would be a good idea to paint up three figures to represent engineers. Unfortunately I had run out of May '40 Miniatures (and Romanians!) but I did have some old Gothic Line Dutch I had bought a decade earlier, so three got repainted. They are not as nice as the May '40 models but they were what I had to hand.

Dutch S Type Kazemat

It seems the Dutch like their bunkers so I had to have at least one. My attempt to make an S Type Kazemat out of foam was a messy disaster so I converted an MDF Sarissa Precision British Pill Box which provided a reasonable facsimile if not 100% perfect one.

Dutch Carden-Loyd Mk VI tankette

The Dutch had five Carden-Loyd carriers, Mk VI versions with closed roof, which made it a bit harder to source but I found a 3D printed one on Etsy from MiniGeneral. It should have a shield on the MG but I haven't got around to making one for it yet.

Dutch M.36 Pantserwagen (Landsverk L-181)

The M.36 Pantserwagen was used by the Dutch cavalry so my infantry platoon had to pay an extra point to have one as a support option, but I really, really wanted one! The May '40 resin model is lovely but the decals that came with it fell to pieces in the water. Fortunately I had some I-94 Enterprises 1/144th aircraft ones which I was able to use on both AFV's.

This turned up to be quite a useful force at the event, even with restrictions such as the Mitrailleurgroepen Lewis gun not being able to move and fire, or the section itself operate as teams like other armies. There are a few things I'd like to do to expand it, some entrenched troops for one - and May '40 have just released a Ford DAF 01Y PAG-trekker artillery tractor which would be really useful for the Bohler AT gun but I'm going to have to hope Great Escape Games get a stock in as I can't justify the shipping and potential Brexit fees sting just for one truck...