France'40 unit art

[Lowlander]

Can anybody shed some light on exactly which weapons the three Netherlands Heavy Coy 1, 2 and 3 are armed with, they are all depicted with mmg is this correct.

Also what is the difference between German Supply Hs ( a ), ( c ) and ( e ).

Thanks in advance for any response clarifying the difference.

[ComradeP]

The Dutch heavy weapons image shows a Dutch Spandau M.08 which was called zMG M.25 in The Netherlands, the MG's were mostly confiscated from retreating German forces at the end of WWI and were kept in storage until 1925.

The MG is shown in an AAMG configuration, its main use in May 1940. It was no longer used by most MG companies.

It's a picture from a re-enactment group it seems.

Technically that means it's incorrect, as it shows an MG that was not used by most army units.



Regular army MG companies generally used the Dutch Schwarzlose M.08/15, which was also used in most bunkers:



On motorcycle side-cars, the Schwarzlose had by May 1940 generally been replaced by the Lewis M.20 light MG, as the weight of the Schwarzlose was an issue.

Reserve formation MG companies generally used the Vickers M.018:



All fired 7.92mm rounds, except non-reconfigured Vickers MG's which still fired 7.7mm rounds.

[Lowlander]

Thanks for your quick and highly detailed response, pics included.
Do you know what weapon they have in game, as other unit art like garrisons have mmg and mortars which are not shown in the unit art.

[ComradeP]

As far as I can tell, with the Dutch "what you see is what you get" as the regimental support weapon companies (AT, mortar, infantry gun, MG) are all represented on-map as individual units with the appropriate equipment type.

Weaponry in Dutch fixed positions (bunkers) along the main defensive lines is not represented by individual units. That makes the Dutch situation different from, say, the garrison units holding Belgian and French fortified areas which would indeed be a mixture of various support weapon units and accompanying infantry.

[Simulacra53]

My grandfather was originally trained as a Schwarzlose machine gunner. He absolutely hated that gun, he said it weighed a ton and they would load up extra charged ammo to basically break the gun, after which they did not need to bother dragging it along for the rest of the exercise...

He was born in 1909, so that’s probably late twenties or in the thirties on repeat call up. He was drafted in WW2, but at that stage he was deployed as a motorcycle dispatch rider.