Russo-German Diorama

This is a post just to help catch up to speed.

I finished my first diorama, and have recently just finished writing a situational report (background story). Here it is:

6:17 am, November 21, 1942 – 27 miles Northwest of Stalingrad

Forces: German Sixth Army VIII Corps vs. Russian Twenty-Fourth Army

            In late August, the German Sixth Army, under the command of Field-Marshall Paulus, invaded Stalingrad. On the way in, Paulus decided to leave his VIII corps behind to defend his rear. Shortly thereafter, the Russians, who had vastly superior numbers, attacked straight through the VIII corps, and cut off the entire Sixth Army. This scene depicts one of the battles which may have taken place along a small road leading into Stalingrad.

            Because of the vast space the VIII corps was instructed to defend, their troops were not very densely grouped. The Germans I have modeled are a section ordered to secure a small road, and have decided to defend it at a natural narrowing point, where it intersects with a small stream. There they set up a Pak-40 anti-tank gun, and built a small group of trenches.

            When the Germans had first arrived, before they had captured this bridge, they encountered a small Russian platoon. After the Germans attacked and killed a large number of them, the Germans allowed the Russians to retrieve their dead and wounded, but only if the Russians immediately retreated. The Russians agreed, but due to their lack of men and strength, they had to abandon most of their helmets and rifles. The Germans, out of respect for the Russians, did not move the helmets, except for one, which had been moved the night before the Russians attacked. The Germans had been drinking the whole night, and the machine gunner bet the soldier with the Panzerfaust that he could not put a Russian’s helmet on top of a tree; loser has to carry the rest of the team’s equipment.

            The Russians attacked early in the morning, and caught the Germans by surprise, but the Germans managed to defend their position, but the soviet’s T-34/76 medium tank managed to gain ground fast enough to get within 100 meters of the Germans, before slowing down to let the infantry dismount. Due to the poor lighting, it being 6:00 am in winter, the Russians failed to notice the German antitank gun. The darkness also meant that, after 15 minutes of fierce fighting, no soldiers had been injured.

And some photos:

Full View of the diorama, plus a bit of my camera's strap.



A close-up of the PaK-40

The T-34 and riders.