Sunday, June 29, 2014

What does one do with a few spare howitzers?

Some time ago, I bought a pack of M109 self-propelled 155mm howitzers. The basic, non-upgraded sort, as that's what the Danes used. After making up a battery (I can't see my Danes ever needing more than that), I'm left with another battery's worth. Seems a shame to let them go unused. After a bit of research, the only countries in Northern Europe still using basic M109's in 1981 were Denmark, Britain, and Belgium. I have no use for a Belgian battery in the foreseeable future, however....

Here's an early 80's Belgian M109:
And here's my battery:
The Belgians used British-made Sultans as battery command vehicles:
And a pair of Spartans would've served each M109 battery as Forward Artillery Observer (FAO) vehicles:
I quite like the yellow vehicle numbers on the sides of the Spartans, so I've "extrapolated" the idea to the other vehicles too. I think in future, all Belgian tracked vehicles that I do will have yellow numbers. 

Ammunition supply vehicles would likely have been Unimog 1300L's:
as I can find no evidence that Belgium ever acquired any M548's. However, since I have no real use for this battery at the moment and because I go through quite a lot of Unimogs (Danes, West Germans, etc used them too), I'll not commit scarce resources (six Unimogs) to these Belgians until I find a need for them. Whenever that happens, then I'll make up the ammunition supply stands. 

Ok, more from me over the long Fourth of July holiday weekend!

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