Third Section, Second Reconnaissance Platoon, Seventh Reconnaisance Company from Vaesrade

Charguizard's entry into the first ever Soldierbucket scale/style challenge, the Soldierbucket Infantry Challenge. The art depicted belongs to the Monarchia Collaborative Alternate Universe.

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The post was edited a few hours after the submission period ended with a slightly cleaned up image and a textual description.

The text from the post reads as follows:

Batavian Pantsergrenadier Divison armoured reconaissance company infantry squad.

In 1954, after the resolute defeat of Neo Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forces (european name) in the province of Yunnan by an alliance of Directorate, Batavian and Warlord's Tse Cheng's forces, the dutch decided not to hold their side of the agreement and backstabbed Tse Cheng, encircling and defeating his main army and executing him on December 20, known thereafter as black thursday. Thereafter, a pacification campaign commenced throughout south China across Cheng's former territory. The 4th Armoured Grenadier Division "Groningen" had been heavily involved in the fighting since relieving the 2. Amphibious Legionary Regiment "Zeeland" on Chungking, and kept deployed for the pacification operation. This formation had been shipped from the Netherlands in 1952 and had been attached to the Asian Armies Group. Attached to this division was the 7th Reconnaisance Company of Vaesrade, a crack unit formed in the 1930's, which fought the Germans from 1938, was evacuated from Europe in 1941, and landed back in Europe in 1943 to make their way to Berlin by 1946. This unit was at the forefront of the 4th's advances in China and often detected, sprung and engaged enemy ambushes, ranging from disorganized militias equipped with little more than bolt-action rifles and improvised weapons to veteran remenants of Cheng's forces using automatic weapons and quick firing artillery of various calibers.

Each Reconnaisance Platoon consists of a Platoon HQ mounted in a Kloek tracked scout vehicle, four Kloeks form the Scout Section, two Koen APCs carry the Platoons two infantry squads, two Boos Light-Medium tanks provide mobile firepower to the unit, and two Koen mortar-carriers act as fire support.

Depicted here is the first of two rifle squads of the 2nd Recon Platoon. These soldiers belong to the pantsergrenadier branch and are thus named Grenadiers. While not stormtroopers, these soldiers wear the camouflaged coat and pants of stormtrooper units. Their helmets are painted to match. The purple patch on their arms displays the number 7, and indicates they belong to the 7th Recon Company. On their collars are black patches of the Grenadiers branch with stripes indicating their ranks. This squad consists of:

Eelco Darmawan, Section Commander, Sergeant: A veteran of the 2nd German war, his two golden stripes on his sleeves indicate over 10 years of service. The sergeant is the leader of the squad and the first fireteam, often dubbed the “maneuver” team due to its lighter firepower. He is armed with a 10mm Ap m/38.51 SMG and carries smoke and frag grenades, and a single rifle grenade for his Grenadiers.

Marius Bakker, Grenadier, 1st Class Grenadier: A veteran soldier but not one of the old timers, he carries a state of the art 6.5mm Zg m/40.54 self-loading rifle, a powerful if heavy weapon that has a fire selector for fully automatic fire, but is almost always kept in semi-auto. It sports a bipod and a carry handle. He carries a rifle grenade, a frag grenade and an ammunition drum for the automatic rifleman. Ammunition for his rifle is carried in large square leather pouches.

Lucius de Vries, Rifleman, 2nd Class Grenadier: This position should be issued a Zg m/40.54, but the realities of supplying an expeditionary army meant de Vries would be issued a Kb m/1929.41 bolt-action carbine at the start of the campaign. However, Company HQ made sure to check into a pre-war arms cache on the coast, and several ancient but reliable Zg m/15.27 were donated to the 4th. de Vries sports one of these heavy air-cooled automatic rifles of Great War vintage. He also carries numerous ammunition drums for the hungry weapon.

Sebastiaan Visser, Grenadier, 3rd Class Grenadier: The second grenadier in the maneuver team, he is equipped much like his fellow grenadier, but dispenses with the drums of the automatic rifle in exchange for more rifle grenades.

Jacobus Van Dijk, Rifleman, 3rd Class Grenadier: The final member of the maneuver team, Van Dijk is the 2nd newest member of the squad, and is issued with a bolt-action Kb m/1929.41 carbine. This weapon is fed from stripper clips, but the rifleman carries magazines for the automatic rifles on their larger pouch as well.

Clemens Lebowitz, Squad 2nd In Command, Corporal: The 2nd oldest serving member of the squad, Corporal Lebowitz’s sleeves show 1 golden bar denoting over 5 years of service. He has been issued a 10mm Ap m/38.51 SMG and carries numerous magazines in their long pouches. He also carries a smoke grenade, a frag grenade and an ammunition drum for the “fire” team’s machine gunner.

Bartholomeus Dewa, Automatic Rifle No.1, 1st Class Grenadier: The man in charge of the firepower in the fire team, he’s issued with the large and heavy Ag m/28.37, an old but reliable weapon that’s capable of putting a considerable barrage downrange. This version of the weapon features a quick change barrel with a carrying handle on it, a pistol grip, a bipod and 60-round drum magazines. He also carries 20-round box magazines which are compatible with the weapon as well.

Paul Peters, Automatic Rifle No.2, 2nd Class Grenadier: The machine-gunner’s assistant, is in charge of supporting the No.1 with burden, ammunition, spare barrel and fuelling his nicotine addiction. He’s equipped with the 10mm Ap m/38.51 SMG but only carries 3 magazines for it. He instead is burdened by 60-round drums for the machine gun, a spare barrel, and the gun’s kit with a spare bolt and cleaning kit (and cigarettes).

Francis Nkwali, Grenadier, 3rd Class Grenadier: The third newest member of the squad is trusted with a Zg m/40.54 and several rifle grenades, and also frag grenades, for which a cup adaptor can be fitted to be fired from the rifle. He too carries a 60-round drum magazine for the machine gun.

Hein Boogaard, Rifleman, 3rd Class Rifleman: The newest member of the squad, Boogward wears his uniform and webbing impeccably, as well as his goggles, despite not being mounted, and has been photographed at attention despite the rest of the squad standing rather loose. He is issued the only other Kb m/1929.41 carbine the squad hasn’t been able to get rid of. He carries pouches for his own clips, for a box magazine and also a 60-round drum for the machine gun. New members quickly loosen up after their first ambush, if they survive.

Tycho De Jong, Vehicle Commander, Chief Corporal: Not dependant on the squad leader, but included for the sake of completion, the APC crews answer to the Platoon HQ, but in practice end up listening to the veteran squad leaders in battle, as they have developed a sense for ambushes and other sticky situations. He carries an Ap m/38.51 SMG, and wears the m/42 tanker coverall and the rather large m/38 tank commander helmet, a burdensome item equipped with high quality headphones and microphones.

Rudolf Ng, Driver, 2nd Class Hussar: The vehicle crews belong to the armour branch, and are thus are named Hussars. Their collar patches are red. Ng wears an m/42 tanker coverall and an m/40 field cap. He is issued an Ap m/38.51 SMG and stores most of the unit’s cigarette stock.

SD 711 Koen APC: Touted as the future standard carrier for the Armoured Grenadier and Heavy Infantry Divisions, the Koen began replacing a plethora of mobile equipment issued before and during the 2nd German War, but ended up being too expensive to completely fulfill this requirement. It was later completely replaced by the PVV(R ) family of vehicles beginning in the late 1960s. This particular example, named Helltaker, is of an early pattern, but has been modified on the field by the recon troops to better fulfill this mission. It features a pintle mounted 15mm Ak m/51 autocannon with an improvised shield and two 8mm Mg m/08.15 on improvised pintle mounts with shields, these last also “donated” from the weapons cache. The armour, up to 50mm thick, was deemed strong enough for the vehicle’s role, so appliqué armour was rarely seen on them during the Warlords Conflict. Driver Ng has decorated the vehicle with his own handiwork, out of regulation for the Netherlands army but common on overseas fronts.