British Heavy armour clear a small village

British heavy walker and heavy SPG clear one of the many small villages in Mesopotamia circa March 1947. The heavy walker is the British variant of the Allied walker and is manufactured at Coventry. The Walker mounts a single 175mm gun, two 30 and 50 calibre machine guns and smoke grenade launchers. 

 The heavy SPG mounts twin 155mm guns, four 30 calibre and two 50 calibre machine guns and can carry 6 type 2 infantry or 3 type 3 infantry in the back. The SPG is also built in Coventry and both types are favoured by Commonwealth nations who are now part of the combined Allied forces resisting the Axis and SSU aggression across all fronts. 

                        

        Allied troops deploy from the British SPG

Heavy British armour for Babylon

I have been working on a number of British style armour conversions for the upcoming Babylon expansion. The first of the these was the British heavy walker and heavy SPG. I converted these using a 1/35th AFV Club Centurion kit, thick card, plastic card and additional bits and pieces from my spare parts box. 

I include some work in progress shots as well as the completed models but I will post later some in theatre shots with some of the other completed kits.

Marine LVTs

The Allied forces had many years to learn what worked when carrying out amphibious operations after learning the hard way fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. One of the lessons learnt was the design of the LVT series of amphibious armoured vehicles. Experience had shown that the armour was too thin and carrying capacity was limited, so in response to this Allied designers created a larger model in late 1946. 

This model carried a 17pdr gun for use against enemy infantry and armour as well as the cabability of carrying 16 fully eqquiped type 2 infantry. First use was a limited deployment by the Marines around the Delta areas of the Tigris in Iraq. The amphibious capability, type 4 armour, 17pdr gun and numerous 50 calibre machine guns made it a firm favourite of the Marines in Mesopotamia.

    New LVT coming ashore  

      

         

                              

       

                                   

Allied heavy armour for Babylon

Allied heavy armour deploys from the urban hell of Zverograd to the dry and burning sands of Mesopotamia. The heavy vehicles are Allied variants of the heavy walker and heavy tank destroyer.

Two conversions ready to paint. The turret and tracked chassis are from a 1/35 scale Super Pershing kit. The Dust kit only required some additional lengthening of the hull to ensure a good fit on the tracked chassis.

The twin 30 cal. turret is from a Tamiya 1/48 Crusader kit which are being converted into British APCs.

                             

Heavy tank destroyer also carries 6 type 2 infntry in the rear of the fightingcompartment.

               

Allied squad deploys to clear the buildings and flush out any waiting AT infantry.

 

Pershing in Babylon

An Allied Peshing heavy tank drives through a deserted town on the banks of the Tigris river. The unit hass comestraight from the  battle field of Zverograd and has yet to be repainted in desert colours.

The model is Tamiya 1\48 scale model that is now hard to come by but there is talk of them being reissued sometme this year. 

This very nicely finished model was given to me by fellow gamer Cameron Farrow who established our excellent local club '2nd Legion'. Cameron has a very nice SSU Deluxe army but hasn't played in a few months hopefully he will get back into Dust soon.

Allied armoured vehicle Dustifications

The discovery of how to use VK technology by Allied forces did not mean an automatic change to new combat vehicle designs, even in the manufacturing powerhouse of the USA. Non US Allied countries especially the UK; Canada and Australia had been producing for years conventional tanks and armoured vehicles which supported their forces across the globe. Suddenly new Axis and SSU walkers started to appear on the battlefield and there was now an urgent need to upgrade conventional designs to enable them to continue fighting until VK advanced armoured units arrived.

​There were numerous battlefield modifications made by the Allied mechanics, some were successful but many failed dismally. It was usually simple design modifications that worked the best. The Australians took their Bren Carriers and up-armoured them and added a quad 50 calibre machine gun (T2 D3). This was a simple modification as the Aussies had already started to mount 2 pound anti-tank guns on them and the chassis was not overloaded. These very fast machines were used to great affect against the invading Japanese units in the far north of Western Australia. Small platoons of 3-4 vehicles would use their speed, manoeuvrability and firepower to hit supply lines and infantry units in the open terrain.

Tamiya 1\48 kit converted to carry a quad 50 calibre MG turret.

The versatility of the Aussie Bren Gun Carrier design saw many factories in Canada, India and the United Kingdom continue to produce the versatile weapon platform. The addition of a VK enhanced engine and armour in June 1946 meant that heavier weapons could be carried and speed maintained or even enhanced (T3 D3). The new carriers were very popular with the Allied forces in North and Central Africa and were used in their old role as reconnaissance or fast attack vehicles. The VK enhanced vehicle was especially popular with the Australian, New Zealand and British SAS units hitting the long supply routes of Axis forces in Africa and the Japanese in the North of Australia.

Carrrier with converted Allied infantry from Tamiya.

The successful upgrading of the Bren Gun Carrier encouraged engineers to attempt the same thing with the thousands of M3 and M5 halftracks in the Allied arsenals. The new Allied walkers still needed direct support by infantry and the halftracks were the only armoured vehicle available in large numbers able to keep up with the fast moving walkers. The open topped vehicles were however very susceptible to indirect artillery and mortar fire and casualties amongst veteran infantry were overly high in barrages whilst the walkers remained virtually untouched. The most expedient upgrade was to enclose the open top in several inches of light but strong VK enhanced steel (T3 D4). This simple upgrade and the addition of numerous 30 and 50 calibre machine guns meant that the M3 and M5 halftracks continued to be seen in great numbers on most Allied battlefields. The halftracks were usually deployed in platoons of 4 with one being an upgraded platoon command vehicle with additional radios for battlefield command.

Command and squad M3conversions.

Squad M3 with lots of stowage beloved by Allied troops.

Jerry can panniers added from the brass range from Secret Weapon.

Allied command squad for Operation Babylon. I created the squads from Tamiya kits in uniforms more suited to the hot plains of Iraq. Basically they are equipped and set up as per the Dust Warfare rulebook.