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I was wondering if there are any examples of either allegorical or straight up re-enactments of real life wars and battles in Warhammer 40,000 background sources? The only one I know of is background on the XXIV Praetorian vs Orks being a rip-off of the Anglo-Zulu war (or at least the film Zulu).

Well, not exactly one specific battle, but there's a very "Stalingrad" feel to the Cityfight supplement. This was, mind, also around the time that city rubble settings became popular in videogames between Call of Duty and Medal of Honour.

the Praetorians are a rip-off of colonial era british. just like Catachans are based on Vietnam, Vostroyans on pre-soviet russians, Cadians on just about any modern western military. The Death Korps of Kreig are based on WW1 as a whole, their uniform borrows from both sides of the war. They are trench warfare experts that also have an artillery fetish.

it stands that their fluff would parallel what they were based on.

Its not really apparent from reading the fluff, but the 2nd Armageddon War was specifically created for the Battle for Armageddon Boardgame, which was GW (Jervis?) indulging his fondness for WW2 boardgames, the part of the war depicted in the game was basically Operation Barbarossa, with the Imperium as the Soviets and the Orks as the Germans. Even down to the date: Prior to 2000 GW tended to derive 40k dates from the date of publication, being published in 1992 the Armageddon War should have been 992.M41, instead it was 941.M41. Operation Barbarossa took placein 1941. (IIRC the designer notes doesn't mention Barbarossa, only Kursk, but that doesn't fit with the scale of the game not the date of 941)

I think it was something along the lines of "it's based on two historical battles, see if you can work out which ones!" and Barbarossa is certainly the first one that springs to mind. Especially if you flip the map upside down and Helsreach becomes Leningrad and Hades becomes Stalingrad.

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Death Korps of Kreig are based on WW1 as a whole, their uniform borrows from both sides of the war. They are trench warfare experts that also have an artillery fetish.

it stands that their fluff would parallel what they were based on.

I agree with most of it, but i would say they are clearly based on the German army during WW I & II, especially with their homeworld called 'Krieg' which translates to "War' in German.

 Villie wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Death Korps of Kreig are based on WW1 as a whole, their uniform borrows from both sides of the war. They are trench warfare experts that also have an artillery fetish.

it stands that their fluff would parallel what they were based on.

I agree with most of it, but i would say they are clearly based on the German army during WW I & II, especially with their homeworld called 'Krieg' which translates to "War' in German.

Posters have actually identified significant parts of their uniform and gear belonging to the French, British and Belgian forces of WW1 as well as the Germans from that war, so I'd say grey has the right of it, no matter their world's name.

 motyak wrote:

 Villie wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
The Death Korps of Kreig are based on WW1 as a whole, their uniform borrows from both sides of the war. They are trench warfare experts that also have an artillery fetish.

it stands that their fluff would parallel what they were based on.

I agree with most of it, but i would say they are clearly based on the German army during WW I & II, especially with their homeworld called 'Krieg' which translates to "War' in German.

Posters have actually identified significant parts of their uniform and gear belonging to the French, British and Belgian forces of WW1 as well as the Germans from that war, so I'd say grey has the right of it, no matter their world's name.

I meant no offense with my post, do you have a link to this thread by any chance? Very curious about this now.

I wouldn't set too much score by the name, IE: the other greatcoat regiment is the Valhallans, who are WW2 Soviets, yet are named after viking heaven..

Krieg is closer, but still not spot on. This is of course off topic, and given how long the last thread on that topic turned out to be it really shouldn't be discussed here.

Back on topic: The Dropsite Massacre. In RT the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard were not present, the original write-up had the three loyalist legions (names purged from Imperial records) being so utterly annihilated at the hands of their erstwhile allies that they were disbanded. As were the three Roman Legions that were annihilated at the hands of their erstwhile German allies in the Teutoburg forest in 9AD.

On a related note, the Eisenstein is not named after Einstein (as many believe), it is in fact named after the Russian director of the Battleship Potempkin, a Soviet propaganda retelling of an actual mutiny.

The life and campaigns of Macharius is basically a re-telling of Alexander the Great with serial numbers filed off, complete with the wars between his generals after his death.

Hmm, another one I might have here at a bit of a punt is the Battle of Tallarn perhaps inspired by the Soviet War in Afghanistan, but loosely considering the Mujahideen didn't use tanks as far as I know. The rest of the circumstances seem to make some nice parallels though.

I would have said that the battle of Tallarn was closer to the Battles of El Alamein in WWII

Siege of Vraks 6, the death Korps of krieg use mines and explosives to blow a whole in the defensive line of the traitor guard... A bloody battle takes places in and around the crater, due to officers dying and quick counter attacks the Death Korps of Krieg were massacred and in the crater form fierce hand to hand combat ans supporting fire around the edge of the crater...
This took place in WW1, i believe a couple times, but the best thing to say this scenario came from is the Battle of the Crater in the American Civil War ...
I think siege of Vraks is loosely based on the battle of Verdun... i think( something i heard, i haven't looked into the battle of Verdun except for some basic stuff... )

I know someone mentioned earlier that almost all the Imperial Guard units are based on past military uniforms, EX: Ice Warriors of Valhalla = Soviet WW2, Vostroyan = Napoleonic / Cossack, Steel Legion = German WW2, Death Korps of Krieg= mixture of French German and British WW1 etc...

But one must also consider that most Battles can be related in someway... The basic things that go on in the fictional 40k battles might just be, by chance, closely related to a battle that has happened in the past nonfictional world... Coming up with so many battles for the 40k universe and history they are bound to match up with nonfictional historic battles...

Personally I base my Apoc games and campaigns around historic wars and battles and movies too, they turnout better than my original ideas...hahaha

Thanks for reading
Tony A