21st Panzer Spotlight

21st Panzer Spotlight

21st Panzer Division Spotlight (FW268)
with Phil Yates

Contains One A4 Size Booklet with 21 Pages & Two 21st Panzer Division Formations & Support, 15 Command Cards and 14 Unit Cards 

The 21st Panzer Division is one of the more colourful divisions to fight in the Normandy Campaign. Descended from Rommel's legendary Afrika Korps, they would have attracted attention anyway. On top of this, their equipment with rather unique modified French tanks and half-tracks ensured their lasting interest to wargamers. While it would have been great to be able to include the division in the D-Day: German book, the fact that little of their equipment actually matched that fielded by any other division made that difficult. Instead, we opted to give them their own booklet and release window highlighting this unusual division and its equipment.

Click here to see the 21st Panzer Division  in the Battlefront Digital store...

The booklet covers the two most distinctive components of the 21st Panzer Division: its armoured  panzergrenadier companies and its assault gun companies. Since the panzer regiment had a perfectly ordinary battalion of Panzer IV tanks (the second battalion had obsolete French Somua tanks for training, but they were sensibly withdrawn to Germany to complete their training), and the reconnaissance battalion was rather ordinary (although equipped with the older armoured cars of Fortress Europe rather than the newer varieties found in D-Day: German), these aren't included in the book as players can already field these types of formation.

21st Panzer Spotlight

21st Panzer Spotlight

The armoured panzergrenadier company looks much like a conventional armoured panzergrenadier company, except that everything is just a bit different. The half-tracks are French Peugeot gun tractors fitted with armoured bodies, and being smaller than the German half-tracks, there are nearly twice as many of them in a platoon.

The company's supporting weaponry is all self-propelled, and also mounted on French chassis. The Somua mortar half-tracks mount no less than sixteen mortar tubes on each vehicle making them mini salvo rocket launchers. The 7.5cm anti-tank guns are also mounted on Somua half-tracks, and keeping with the theme, the 15cm infantry guns are mounted on Lorraine Schlepper cargo carriers ( the same 15cm (Sf) Lorraine Schlepper that served with the Afrika Korps). Unfortunately, these vehicles had been designed for the slow pace of battle expected by the French Army in the 1930s (and not helped by the old and worn condition of many of the vehicles!), so they are barely able to go faster than a soldier on foot!

 

21st Panzer Spotlight

If you want to field a motorised panzergrenadier company rather than an armoured one, you have the option of leaving your troop carriers out and having your troops fight on foot.

The really weird formation is the assault gun company. Rather than assault guns based on the Panzer III chassis, this company has assault guns based on the tiny French Hotchkiss two-man tank! Looking rather like the German Marder, the majority of the assault guns mount a 7.5cm anti-tank gun, with one platoon in each company mounting 10.5cm howitzers.

The booklet also gives you two artillery options, both on the Lorraine Schlepper chassis. One is the same vehicle used for the infantry guns, the 15cm (Sf) Lorraine Schlepper, while the other is the same vehicle mounting a 10.5cm howitzer instead.

21st Panzer Spotlight

As you can see that the 21st panzer Division is a unique blend of armoured mobility and firepower with strange contraptions mounted on old French chasses!

The booklet also comes with a selection of the most appropriate command cards from the D-Day: German book and two new warriors: Major Hans-Ulrich von Luck and Oberleutnant Heinz Meyer. Both leaders are great commanders for your panzergrenadiers, and von Luck has the option of driving around in a commandeered Panzer IV tank! There's also a card to field your artillery using Soviet 12.2cm howitzers, so plenty for everyone.
~Phil