Operation Sealion in 3mm

I have several times essayed to wargame Operation Sealion – the proposed German invasion of Britain in 1940. here is my latest attempt, to be played solo using the excellent 3mm (1/600) models from Oddzial Osmy.

For the orders of battle I am using an old (out of print) game booklet from the USA. Their idea was to “bathtub” everything to one level lower than reality, But somehow I found it hard to cope with concepts like “3rd Company Dorsetshire Battalion”, “2nd Royal Tank Squadron”, or “Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler Motorised Artillery Battalion”

So I have restored the designations to their original level, but “bathtubbing” back so that one model base represents a company rather than my normal platoon organisation.

This means that my 10″ square base must now represent three miles square instead of one mile, and each 1″ square is now about 180 yards across instead of the planned 60 yards. Rules must be adjusted accordingly – maybe!

I am creating a campaign map with subdivisions, based on a 1938 world atlas and a 1960 road atlas of Great Britain. There is a planned motorway from Rotherham to Faversham to be started in 1961 shown in these maps, but apart from that, the road network is very much as it was in 1940. Likewise the railway system is pre-Beeching, and represents the lines as they were at the time.

However for gaming I am using the Perry Miniatures “Travel Battle” boards. I have six boards, two of which I have adapted by not fitting the houses, removing and relocating walls and, in one case, adding a road link.

I have also created added terrain, currently consisting of two 2″ x 2″ farm/village/town elements and a 4″ x 3″ airfield, which can sit on the boards where needed.

I am indebted to Bob Cordery for his work in drawing the boards in detail, so that I can use them for planning my campaign.

For example, using Bob’s drawings nicked from his website “wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com”, with my local adaptions as described above, I have created the first two battlefields. Here is the first.

By importing this picture as a background to an Excel spreadsheet and adjusting the cell sizes, I am able to superimpose the troops in their relative locations:

The red triangle at the top of each unit gives further detail, accessed by placing the cursor on the cell, for example:

I hope to be able to show the 3mm troops deployed in the next few days.