3rd Battalion Irish Guards

Shortly before Operation Market Garden, the Guards Armoured Division reorganised to form four Regimental Groups, each of an armoured battalion and an infantry battalion from the same Guards Regiment.  They were flexible in how they operated, but normally 5 Guards Brigade commanded the Grenadier Guards Group (1 Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards and 2 Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards) plus the Irish Guards Group (2 Armoured Battalion Irish Guards and 3 Infantry Battalion Irish Guards).  32 Guards Brigade similarly commanded the Coldstream and Welsh Guards Groups.

The XXX Corps advance was initially led by the Irish Guards Group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joe Vandeleur, who was the Commanding Officer of 3 Irish Guards.  I wanted to make a model of him in his scout car, looking a bit like Michael Caine who played him in “A Bridge too Far”.

2nd Armoured Battalion Irish Guards

In my last post I showed a picture of my first Paperboys tanks, modelled as No 1 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, who along with the Infantry of 3 Irish Guards were the leading element of XXX Corps during the initial Market Garden breakout.  I have now completed the rest of 2 Irish Guards and here is No 2 Squadron. 

Operation Market Garden

At the beginning of lockdown, I watched the film a Bridge too Far a couple of times and that inspired me to want to build a World War II set-up, based on Operation Market Garden.

I decided to use the new Rapid Fire Reloaded rules, which I really liked. Rapid Fire has been around for over 20 years but the new simplified A5 booklet Rapid Fire Reloaded rules were published in 2020.