A Pennsylvanian in France and Germany, 1944-1945

Hello,

I thought I would post something a little different today. I was going through some old pictures of mine and found some of my grandfather from WWII to show some relatives who had been asking about his service. Since having those discussions, I thought I would share a little bit about him here.

My grandfather, Francis F Stine, served in the 95th Infantry Division, 378th Infantry Regiment under Patton's Third Army. He was a Technician 4th Grade with one of the Division's 105mm artillery battalions. He received the Bronze Star while working in the fire control center. When I asked him about this, he remarked "Bah! They handed those out like candy!" and added that he was just doing his job (one of the most common remarks you hear from WWII vets). He wasn't all that impressed with that citation. But, what he was proud of was his service as a FOO for the battery. Because of this, he qualified for the Combat Infantry Badge. The Army forgot to give it to him, so he had to file for it with the War Department. Beyond that, and the interesting stuff he brought home, he never talked about the war. He was a notoriously quiet man, though he loved to laugh at my grandmother's dirty jokes.

Anyway, here are some of his pictures and items from his service you might find interesting.

95th "Victory" Division

The 95th was nicknamed the Iron Men of Metz for their actions in France 1944

Pappy, center, with his M3 Grease Gun, somewhere in Germany

Pappy, first standing row, 2nd from right. I don't know anything about this picture beyond him being in it. He brought back two large Nazi fags from the war, but neither of them seem to be the same size as the flag in this pic.

The citation

The Combat Infantry Badge for his service as an FOO

Dogtag

 Hope you enjoyed these pics! I would like to some day take pics of some of the other stuff he brought back, including his Luger pistol, and an SS dagger.

15mm Kursk Preview for Barrage 2018...

Hello everyone! I recently ran a test game using my newly painted 15mm late war German and Soviet minis. The minis are all from Battlefront (FoW) and plastic. I painted two platoons of Panzergrenadiers with halftracks and a company command team, and a Soviet rifle platoon with two 57mm Zis-2 AT Guns and a Maxim HMG team, plus company command team. The Germans are painted to represent the Grossdeutschland division.

The scenario I ran is a test for the game I will be running at Barrage in Havre De Grace Maryland September 28-29. The convention will be covered by the members of Army Group York, such as yours truly, who bring you Little Wars TV! If you're in the area, come on out!

The scenario is an assault towards the Psel river by the Grossdeutschland division during Operation Citadel. The game will feature the forward elements of a Panzergrenadier company supported by mortars and HMGs against a Soviet rifle platoon hastily dug in along two low sets of hills anchored by a farm and a village.

The test game went will and will only require a little tweaking to balance the game. I will be writing up a full report once the convention is over and leading up to that, I will posting about some of the ways you can run big multi player games of Disposable Heroes II. For now, here are some teaser shots of the test game. Buildings are the excellent kits by Things from the Basement. Lovely little kits from their Eastern Front 15mm range. I hope to post a more full review of them as well.

Enjoy!