Latvian Waffen-SS part 1

In my last post I wrote about Latvia earlier in the second world war. After a while the Germans relented in some of their contempt towards the Latvians, and did allow them to join the SS. In total two divisions of the Waffen-SS was comprised of Latvians, the 15th and 19th. 

While these forces did include individuals implicated in the Holocaust, they did not join as a group, and the Allies made a distinction after the war between the normal Waffen-SS, which were seen as a criminal organisation, and the Baltic Waffen-SS, which were not.

This was the first time I've painted any of the SS camo patterns, and I must say I enjoyed it. I'm sure you can do it better and more exact, both in patterns and colour choices, but these look good from half a meter, so I'm happy. 

Latvian defence battalion

During a visit to Riga this autumn (it's a lovely destination for a weekend trip!) I went to a couple of museums, and read up about the Baltic countries in the first and second world wars. In both wars they were three tiny peoples stuck inbetween brawling giants, and Latvia lost something like a third of their population.

When the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed, the Baltic countries were panicked, since their only chance to stay free was to play out Germany and the Soviet Union against each other. That chance was now lost, and all three countries had to agree to Soviet "protection" in 1940. This "protection" was so severe that when operation Barbarossa occurred just a year later, they welcomed the Germans as liberators. This liberation was not a true one, and the Germans had quite sinister plans for the whole of Eastern Europe (Germanize the best, and kill the rest). But, since this wasn't widely known they got a lot of Baltic troops, both volunteers and "volunteers".

This is a unit from one of the many Latvian Defence Battalions. They use old Latvian army uniform (modelled on the Russian WWI uniform), and helmets from the Czechoslovakian army (which didn't exist anymore, thanks to the Germans). For Bolt Action I'm thinking about running them as Luftwaffe, for the green inexperienced rules.

The models are sculpted by Paul Hicks for the excellent Bohemian/Horcata range. I've greenstuffed over the bottom of the tunics, to make them like the Russian-style pullovers, and not jackets.