Does anybody have a good web source (or know anything about) for a site with good histories of British & Commonwealth Divisions from World War II, especially looking for 6th Australian and divisions which served on many fronts in the war with colorful combat records.
Am working on some GURPS World War II stuff and was interested.
Ok let me clear this a little better in case people were confussed on what I wanted:
Goal/Mission: To write an article on using real World War II era divisions as settings for a GURPS World War II series/campaign.
Would like to focus on: Units with histories which reflected the gambit of their nations combat expeirence. For example German divisions which served on the Western, Italian and Eastern Fronts during the duration of the war.
Already Have: good resources for German and American Divisions (both book and Web)
Seeking: Both Internet and Book sources as well as any anadotal knowledge which you may have on a particular unit. Am interested in information regarding the following units, but not limited to them:
4th Indian Division (North Africa, India-Burma)
6th Australian Division (North Africa, Greece/Crete, Syria, North Africa, SW Pacific)
1st British Armored Division (BEF, North Africa, Italy)
2nd New Zealand Division (North Africa, Italy)
6th/70th British Division (BEF, North Africa, Syria, North Africa, India-Burma)
51st Highland Division (BEF, North Africa, Sicily, North West Europe)
I am tinking with the Idea of an article for Pyrmid. Essentually choosing a Division would be much like choosing a starship/starbase in a trek campiagn. The type of division would to some degree dictate pace, adventure ideas and overall acre to a campiagn. For instance the German 3rd Motorized divsion spent nearly six months in France near Lyon refitting as a Panzergranadier division before moving on into Italy after the Solerno invasions. Most of troops who joined the division then were new recruits, old hands which had managed to survive Stalingrad (mainly those wounded before the Soviets surroundred it and Sixth Army). For a GM this would present an opportunity to allow the players to either "chuck" there current characters in favor of totally new ones or bring back old ones which been transfered to other units or previously wounded (or somehow managed to be one of the 28 or so that escaped out of the pocket). While in France the GM can decide how friendly the charater will get with the local, be confronted with the extent of occupation duties, and maybe allow the characters to become involved in low grade espignage missions. Then the division moves out for Six months of combat in Italy ending at Anzio, plenty of action ideas here for the players and GM to use. After this it was back to Paris for another couple of months of duty in France before entering into combat near Metz.
Determining the Division would be a treasure trove of ideas for any GM. They can either invent there own division by compositing a few real divisions or assigning there troops to real world divisions, in both cases my idea is to provide examples of real divisions to give a GM a quick start.
Sorry, don't have any British info, but have found an awesome site dealing with the Dutch army 1941-42 and all their battles aound the East Indies. www.geocities.com/dutcheastindies/
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You're quite the military history buff, I take it?
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