Improvising Fighting Vehicles for Army Men ans Wargaming

As I wanted to add further interests and challenges to wargaming-scenarios, I decided that I wanted to include some vehicles as well. For combat use Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) like tanks, Armoured Personel Carriers (APC) and Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) seems like the natural and best choise. There are avaiable some models in 54mm/1:32 scale for use with Army Men, and if you add  different 1:35 scale military kits to the list, the range become almost limitless. I want to use the models aimed for the Army Men-use since they are sturdier and takes handeling well, often comming ready assembeled and ready to use, and often cost less than the 1:35 scale kits which are often more fragile and takes time to build. My challenge is that 54mm scale ready made AFVs are not easily to find in Norway, and must be obtained thru the internet. As I'm waiting for finding the right and credible models for my generic 'Green vs. Tan'-armies I decided to do as the real army in the meanwhile; I'm improvising some fighting vehicles...

Improvised Fighting Vehicles exists in the real world, and you've probably seen them on the 9 o'clock news; Pickup trucks armed with HMGs, AA-guns, recoilless rifles or some other anti-tank weapons and even missile pods, in use in Libya, Somalia and lately in Syria with the ISIS. These armed Pickups are often referred to as 'Technicals' or sometimes 'Toyota Wars'. The term 'Technical' appeared in Somalia in the 90ies when western organisations there were buying security services from local warlords, and named these expenses as 'Technical expenses' in their budgets. The somali warlords on the other hand, used their new income to buy Pickup trucks and arm them. The use of Improvised Fighting Vehicles are older than the 'Technical' though, and goes almost back to the vehicle it self, or at least to back when it was possible to combine a civilian or unarmored vehicle with a machinegun. One of the first might have been the Russian Tachankas, a horse-drawn carriage with a mounted machine gun. During the WWI different civilian and unarmored cars were fitted with machineguns and upgraded to machinegun carriers. During WWII the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and British SAS-forces in Africa and Europe used Jeeps and light trucks fitted with machineguns. After WWII several Improvised Fighting Vehicles were used in conflicts in Algeria, Vietnam (Gun trucks), Libya, Tchad, Iraq, and Syria and many are in use with some modern armies today as well.

Does these small, unarmored 'Technicals' gives any strategic advantages? - Yes, I would say so. They are cheap and easy to get, and you can arm them with whatever weapon available. You don't need special training or skills to drive them, and therefore it's easy to replace crew due to casualties. They run on regular petrol, don't use much, and have a long range and can be repaired with regular tools. They usually have OK offroad capabilities as well. Their weakness is also a strength; They are unarmored and therefore wounrable, but that also makes them light, fast and very mobile. Experience shows that their best in use in conflicts with low troop density, and wide open landscapes. They provide high mobility weaponplattforms with much firepower and can turn up from a direction their enemy didn't expect. This is a modern 'light cavalry'.

Another example that would probably qualify as an early improvisation of a fighting vehicle happened during the German attack on Norway in april 1940. The poorly equiped Norwegian army was facing one of the world's most modern and mechanized armies in battle. Norway didn't have any Armoured Fighting Vehicles at the time, but the German army had several. Since Norway didn't have much anti-tank weapons at the time either, the German occupation forces only needed to bring light tanks like Panzer I and Panzer II to this campaign. During the battles in Gausdal on 26th of april 1940 Major Brock and a Norwegain force was holding Segelstad bridge, as it was important for a planned Norwegian counter-offensive on the German forces. The Germans on the other side was heavily bombarding the bridge with artillery and mortars from a distance. This made the situation untenable for Major Brock and his men who was located at and by the bridge, and he armed a truck with a heavy machinegun for breaking through the German lines, and  planned to drive to and combat those artillery- and mortar positions. They made the breaktrough, but was later stopped by German forces. Major Brock fell in the following hand-to-hand combat.

Major Andreas Hauge's drawing of Major Brocs dramatic breakthrough in Gausdal towards Aulestad in april 1940.

The Norwegian Army uses a variant of this kind of vehicle. Since it is not a purpose-built combat-vehicle, I assume the the Norwegian Army's 'Multi-Vehicle' is considered a Improvised Fighting Vehicle. The vehicle was made as a offroad-vehicle for both the military and civilian market. When the Norwegian Special Forces in Afghanistan needed a mobile attack-plattform, ordinary Mercedes Geländewagens was converted for this purpose and armed with a HMG (50. cal), a LMG (MG3), a Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless gun and smoke discharges. It has a crew of 4; The driver, the commander, the HMG-gunner and a loader. They are now in service with the Norwegian Homeguard.

Norwegian army's Multi-vehicle

So there would be suitable to arm my armies with some Improvised Fighting Vehicles while looking for some AFVs to use as well. My best source for looking for usable civilian cars, was through my old toy cars. There I found an about 40 year old Police Pickup truck in about the right size. I removed the police-signs, disassembeled it, painted it, and put it back togheter again. On the truck-bed it's room for placing the standing HMG-figure I converted earlier, among a few other soldiers as well. Now my 'Tan Army' had a 'Technical'.

Eventhough I've seen it on photos, I didn't want to make a 'Tecnical' for my UN troops. I wanted a more military-style light vehicle for them. In my local toystore I found a Jeep almost the right size. It's a little small, but Jeeps are not large vehicles anyway, and it was also a little too modern for what I wanted. But again, it was available. Again I dissasembeled it, removed some parts, painted it and reassembeled it again. A chopped off figure was placed in the driving seat, and again the earlier converted standing HMG-soldier was placed in the back.

So, You don't need to have tanks or armored vehicles to be able to have fighting vehicles to go with your toy soldiers or wargaming, as Improvised Fighting Vehicles are prototypical for a lot of different campaigns, scenarios and periods. As they are softskins, they are knocked out when hit by heavy weapons. I'm not sure if a singel riflebullet will stop a such vehicle if it doesen't hit anything crucialor the driver directly. -So unless the rules you're plying by adresses this, you should perhaps allow either 10 rifle hits in the cab or bonnet in total, or 5 such hits in one move.

If I finally find some usable AFVs for wargaming, I think I'll need to add a couple of 'Technicals' armed with anti-tank weapons as well. The best of all; You might allready have some of them in an old toybox or you can easily find them in a regular toyshop. It's all about improvising.

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