A few months ago, before we started the dioramas for Keith Rocco, I began work on a diorama set on June 6, 1944, D-Day. I was inspired to try this project by some very nice WW2 figures from Speria Miniatures from Sweden. I have used several of their figures for my 1/48th scale Civil War layout. However, this project would be in a larger scale, 75mm or 1/24. I originally planned just a small 3-figure vignette centered around a soldier dragging a wounded buddy. However, I decided to expand the scope of the model when I saw a painting by Keith Rocco of soldiers advancing past a dune at D-Day. So I ordered 7 more figures. I thought that would be more interesting than the beach scene.
Before I started to painting the figures I did some research on D-Day uniforms. I realized that the Speria figures did not have some of the special D-Day equipment that the soldiers wore. Those items were the life belts, gas mask and gas brassards on the upper arms. Adding those features to the figures at this point would have been quite time consuming.
So I decided to move the diorama to a point further inland because the US soldiers would have discarded the special D-Day equipment as they moved off the beach. I had read an account of how C Company of the 26th Infantry, First Infantry Division was ambushed by a German machine gun team about one mile from the beach. The ambush occurred at the start of the bocage terrain. The US lost seven soldiers, while the Germans lost one in this ambush, but the whole US infantry company of about 200 men was delayed by the ambush. Such was the fighting in the bocage. It is terrain that favors the defenders. It’s a little appreciated fact that the US Army lost about 10 times as many men fighting in the bocage as they did on the beach. The bocage fighting was a brutal, bloody slog.
The diorama depicts the lead elements of the company trying to fight their way through the ambush in a sunken road in the bocage country. In front there is a US casualty lying on the ground at the intersection of the sunken road and a cross road. The US soldiers would quickly learned that those were danger areas. One soldier is returning fire, while the squad leader is directing the others. In the rear of the diorama there is a medic treating a wounded, panicking man while the assistant squad leader helps control the panicking soldier. Next to them is another soldier dragging his buddy to cover.
I think the diorama does a good job of depicting the chaos of combat with soldiers running in different directions. The expressions on the figures are really well done, especially the wounded man being treated by the medics and the soldier running forward.
I am almost done with the diorama. These are some photos showing the figures once they were secured in their final positions.
