The Wojtek Memorial, Edinburgh

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I was wandering around Princes Street Gardens, under the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, the other day when I came across a memorial that I hadn’t previously been aware of: the Wojtek the Soldier Bear memorial.

From Wikipedia:

In the spring of 1942 the newly formed Anders' Army left the Soviet Union for Iran, accompanied by thousands of Polish civilians who had been deported to the Soviet Union following the 1939 Soviet invasion of eastern Poland.

At a railroad station in Hamadan, Iran, on 8 April 1942, Polish soldiers encountered a young Iranian boy who had found a bear cub whose mother had been shot by hunters. One of the civilian refugees in their midst, eighteen-year-old Irena (Inka) Bokiewicz, the great-niece of General Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski, was very taken with the cub. She prompted Lieutenant Anatol Tarnowiecki to buy the young bear, which spent the next three months in a Polish refugee camp established near Tehran, principally under Irena's care.

In August, the bear was donated to the 2nd Transport Company, which later became the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, and he was named Wojtek by the soldiers. The name Wojtek is the nickname, diminutive form, or hypocorism of "Wojciech" (Happy Warrior), an old Slavic name still common in Poland.

Wojtek initially had problems swallowing and was fed condensed milk from an old vodka bottle. He was subsequently given fruit, marmalade, honey, and syrup, and was often rewarded with beer, which became his favourite drink. He later also enjoyed smoking (or eating) cigarettes, as well as drinking coffee in the mornings. He also would sleep with the other soldiers if they were ever cold in the night.

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He enjoyed wrestling with the soldiers and was taught to salute when greeted. He became an attraction for soldiers and civilians alike, and soon became an unofficial mascot to all the units stationed nearby. With the 22nd Company, he moved to Iraq, and then through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

Wojtek copied the other soldiers, drinking beer, smoking and even marching alongside them on his hind legs because he saw them do so. Wojtek had his own caregiver, assigned to look after him. The cub grew up while on campaign, and by the time of the Battle of Monte Cassino he weighed 200 pounds (14 st; 91 kg).

From Egypt, the Polish II Corps was reassigned to fight alongside the British Eighth Army in the Italian campaign. Regulations for the British transport ship, which was to carry them to Italy, forbade mascot and pet animals. To get around this restriction, Wojtek was officially drafted into the Polish Army as a private and listed among the soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. Henryk Zacharewicz and Dymitr Szawlugo were assigned as his caretakers.

As an enlisted soldier with his own paybook, rank, and serial number, he lived with the other men in tents or in a special wooden crate, which was transported by truck. During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek helped his unit to convey ammunition by carrying 100-pound (45 kg) crates of 25-pound artillery shells, never dropping any of them.

From my 1939 September War Polish army: presumably a Wojtek predecessor!

From my 1939 September War Polish army: presumably a Wojtek predecessor!

While this story generated controversy over its accuracy, at least one account exists of a British soldier recalling seeing a bear carrying crates of ammo. The bear mimicked the soldiers: when he saw the men lifting crates, he copied them. Wojtek carried boxes that normally required 4 men, which he would stack onto a truck or other ammunition boxes. This service at Monte Cassino earned him promotion to the rank of corporal. In recognition of Wojtek's popularity, a depiction of a bear carrying an artillery shell was adopted as the official emblem of the 22nd Company.

Post War

After the end of World War II in 1945, Wojtek was transported to Berwickshire, Scotland, with the rest of the 22nd Company. They were stationed at Winfield Airfield on Sunwick Farm, near the village of Hutton, Scottish Borders. Wojtek soon became popular among local civilians and the press, and the Polish-Scottish Association made him an honorary member.

Following demobilisation on 15 November 1947, Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo, where he spent the rest of his life, often visited by journalists and former Polish soldiers, some of whom tossed cigarettes for him to eat, as he did during his time in the army. Media attention contributed to Wojtek's popularity. He was a frequent guest on BBC television's Blue Peter programme for children.[

Wojtek died in December 1963, at the age of 21, weighing nearly 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), and was over 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) tall.

The Wojtek Memorial

The statue was commissioned by the Wojtek Memorial Trust: a Scottish Charity established in 2009 to celebrate the life of Wojtek, "the Soldier Bear", the lives of those who knew him, and their stories during and after the Second World War. The Trust also aims to promote wider understanding of the many historic and current links between the peoples of Poland and Scotland.

The memorial is a life and a quarter bronze statue of a Polish soldier with Wojtek, and a 4m low relief pictorial panel set on a granite platform. It was sculpted by Alan Beattie Herriot and the cast in Edinburgh by Powderhall Bronze. Its setting was designed by Raymond Muszynski of Morris & Steedman Associates.

Last Painting Challenge Update of May

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Is it almost June already? Just where does the time go?

Here’s the last Painting Challenge update for May, although you’ll have to wait a few days for the Scoreboard to be updated.

Lots of excellent work on show: make sure you visit the individual galleries, but here’s a selection:

Classical Indians vs the Greeks

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Restrictions lifted on Sunday, first face-to-face game on Tuesday!

My Classical Indians would face off against a Hoplite Greek army fielded by Bevan…and what a Hoplite Greek army it was: ten units of Hoplites and one of light infantry. The rules used were To The Strongest, a grid-based game, so with my table being twelve squares wide, Bevan could form a space-invader like line of hoplite units and just advance forward, spearpoints out!

So many hoplites that I had to draft in some Summerians as proxies!

On the other side of the battlefield, my Classical Indians consisted of five units of longbowmen as the softening-up element, with a hard core of two escorted elephant units and two heavy chariot units as the “finishers”. Reserves were provided by the Maiden Guard.

Maiden Guards, Elephants, Longbowmen

The Game

As predicted, the Greeks deployed in a largely straight line and spent the early stages of the battle manoeuvring around the patches of scrub and palm trees in order to keep their frontage solid as they came into longbow range.

opening stages

At one stage it did look as if the cards had opened up a couple of holes in the hoplite line and, given a little more lateral space and luck, I could perhaps have got one of my heavy chariot units through a gap and into his rear, but Bevan just managed to block my path on both occasions.

I really wanted to get through that gap!

Finally the Greeks (and pseudo-Greeks!) arrived into longbow range, and my men opened fire. I was determined not to end the game with a camp-full of spare ammunition, so shot for all I was worth.

The Greeks staggered slightly, but came on. There were so many enemy units in an unbroken line that I couldn’t concentrate my fire, so although I could disorder or even double-disorder half his unit, I couldn’t quite break any.

The View from the Other Side

It was time to commit my melee troops, so forward trundled the elephants and chariots, wherever possible aiming at already-disordered enemy units.

Helicopter Viewpoint

Unfortunately, things followed the same pattern again: I disordered or double-disordered the four units I hit, but couldn’t quite manage the break, apart from one raw hoplite unit that did flee the field…but this was soon, space-invader like, replaced by another.

Damage, of course, was being done to both sides, but my troops only had two hits each as opposed to his three. I lost a unit of elephants (to what looked like the Spartans, no less), evening things up again, and the battle became one enormous melee.

Bye bye Nellies!

My men (and maidens) resisted bravely for a couple of rounds, another unit of hoplites was destroyed by one of my chariot units, but the writing was on the wall: I hadn’t done enough damage in the missile-fire stages of the game to win the grinding melee that followed.

I started steadily losing units, victory coins and eventually, the battle itself.

Aftermath

The game was actually a lot closer than the above implies. At one stage, I did actually manage to break his line with some chariots and had two more of his hoplite units on double-disorder. Unfortunately, the chariots couldn’t turn and get into the enemy rear in time, and I just couldn’t get the extra hit I needed to break the spearmen. I did use up all my spare ammunition though!

So a close run thing despite the apparent disparity in sides. My Classical Indians will lick their wounds and have another go in a few week’s time!

The far chariot unit has broken through, but too late to alter the outcome of the battle

Indian Cavalry Ride Out!

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As mentioned in previous posts, I’m expanding my Classical Indians to embrace later Indian armies: the Graeco-Indians, Kushans and Indo-Scythians and so on.

A lot of the differences involve the decline of the chariot balanced by the ascent of the cavalryman leading, eventually, to the era of cataphract-like cavalry supported by lights.

Here then are a couple of units that allow me to begin to effect that change: two squadrons of Indian armoured horsemen:

As usual, these are the rather excellent Museum Miniatures CAD designed “Z” range of Classical Indians: very nice figures indeed. These were painted with a base coat of metallic paint washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted. All non-metals are Contrast paints.

Viva Juarez!

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When I used to play a lot of 19th Century gaming, one of the campaigns that really interested me was the French Intervention in Mexico in the 1860s.

Without going into too much detail, in 1861 Britain, Spain and France decided to persuade Mexico to pay their extensive debts by sending troops to Veracruz. It soon became obvious that the French had actually decided to not just get their money, but invade Mexico properly with the intention of turning it into some kind of client-state. Although some Mexicans sympathised with the French, others, under President Benito Juarez didn’t, leading to a combination of all-out French invasion and Mexican civil war. As is so often the way, the invading French were initially very successful, taking Mexico City and installing the puppet Emperor Maximilian on the throne, but eventually they were worn down by the constant guerilla warfare and withdrew, leaving Maximilian to his fate.

It’s a fascinating campaign full of colourful personalities and even more colourful uniforms. The only thing that has really been lacking is a single source of information that puts everything easily in one place for the wargamer.

Until now!

Those fine chaps at the Virtual Armchair General (aka TVAG: with whom, I might add, I have no connection) have published not one but two books on the campaign: Viva Juarez Volume 1, The Armies; and Viva Juarez Volume 2, The Battles.

These were initially available on a pre-subscribe print on demand basis: a service which is quite extraordinarily incredible. I ordered both books via e-mail, paying via PayPal, and got them in the post the next day!

These are proper wargaming books written, it seems, by wargamers for wargamers. They are full of the detail that normal historians tend to ignore but that are vital for those recreating the conflict. There’s a lot of chrome as well: information to add colour to your games.

The Armies book has easy to decipher OBs backed up by vast numbers of uniform plates that provide a great guide for the painter. The Battles book effectively gives you a large number of wargaming scenarios that you could almost play straight from the book.

I include all TVAG’s blurb below, but would highly recommend both volumes to anyone who has any sort of interest in the period. Excellent work TVAG!

Click here to go the the TVAG page where you can buy these.

TVAG’s Blurb

Over two years in development, Viva Juarez! is now the most complete single source for all matters military pertaining to the French Intervention in Mexico, Napoleons III's mad scheme to create a puppet Empire of France ruled by an Austrian prince.

Though a number of good English language books have been available, none have detailed accounts of any of the key battles and sieges, only generic references, and little or no Order of Battle information. Uniform data is out there, but a thorough collection of all that is available--and a number of uniforms that are not--previously took a major effort to find.

The Los Supremos Podres, figures from my collection

The Los Supremos Podres, figures from my collection

Well, that is all ended now. Viva Juarez! has it all, and then some, in two unique volumes. "Volume One--The Armies," has 62 pages of full color uniform plates, many contemporary to the events, and a good number of new ones specifically made for this project by former Disney illustrator, Nick Stern. But more than just the plates, there is full organizational information for all combatants: Mexican Republicans, Franco-Mexican and Imperialists, Belgians, Austrians, Egyptians, and, of course, Second Empire French. Color plates of weapons and their operating stats for all armies, and more, make this the single most complete source on the armies engaged. "Volume Two--The Battles" contains in its 204 pages full details of 31 actions, each with OB's and at least one period battlefield map. These maps have been reproduced in full color and printed full page size in order for the terrain and troop movements to be easily studied. Further, there is a section on Key Personages, brief biographies of some of the most influential players which can help the reader keep track of who-is-who and their affiliation(s) during the war. Twenty appendices are include for thoroughness, including a full chronology of the war, Regional OB's for different stages of the war, and organizational information on the Imperial Gendarmerie and the disposition of captured Republican Officers sent to France. Attention to Mexican topography has been taken, as well, to help illustrate it effects on campaigns and logistics with descriptions and pages of special maps.

The 2nd Battalion of Mexican Infantry (they can fight on either side!)

The 2nd Battalion of Mexican Infantry (they can fight on either side!)

Even current devotees of The French Intervention will learn more than has ever been available to them before. This Editor was able via the Internet to source Spanish, French, and German language books, contemporary magazines and periodicals, memoirs, and reports not previously translated to English. Besides the actual events of many battles not previously accessible, the sheer volume of contemporary photos, illustrations and maps is without precedent. Of particular value was Mexico's Mapoteca Orozco y Berra whose generous staff made available maps previously thought non-existent.

While Viva Juarez! can be read by any history buff, it is truly aimed at the wargaming possibilities. With the actual battlefield maps and detailed OB's, it is definitely possible to re-fight any of these historical actions with great authenticity using whatever rules are preferred. But of particular interest is the fact that most of the battles fought in Mexico can be represented on the table top with no more than 100 figures. The great sieges of Puebla, Oaxaca, and even Queretaro are possible, especially if only key actions are played, but so many were affairs were of only a few thousand to a few hundred combatants. No massive Napoleonic or American Civil War collections required here! And yet the variety of troops by nationality, uniforms, weaponry, terrain (jungles, not just desert!), quality and numbers on the table is best likened to the most exotic Colonial Wargames. There are even amphibious operations along both coasts of Mexico recounted in detail. Viva Juarez! is now the "go to" source on the subject.

Viva Juarez! is available in two volumes, each is a stand alone devoted to its topic. Volume One--The Armies Retails for $30.00, plus postage. Volume Two--The Battles Retails for $40.00, plus postage.

Click here to go the the TVAG page where you can buy these.

TFL Painting Challenge: The Next May Update

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Another great set of submissions for the painting challenge: I really have no idea how people are so productive!

Do visit the individual galleries to see everything, but here’s a selection to tickle your fancy!

TTS AAR: The Last Zoom Battle

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Regular visitors will know that last time I faced Bevan’s Galatians with my Marian Romans, things started well but finished very badly: one devastatingly bad turn (I blame the cards, my figures blame me) led to an absolute thumping for Caesar and his men. It was now time for the re-match in what, I hope, will be my last game over Zoom as we all return to face-to-face gaming.

The Galatians: eight warbands of deep, fanatical infantry and a couple of tasty cavalry units. More heroes than The Expendables.

The Marian Romans: six units of veteran legionaries, a unit of legionary cavalry, three units of lights.

Learnings

I had learnt three things from my last encounter.

Firstly, don’t fight right in front of your camps: you might need a bit of room to pull back and rally and the Galatians are bound to punch at least one hole in your line so you need to make sure that any (unwieldy) warbands that have got through the gap take a lot of time to take your victory-points-rich camps.

Secondly, don’t face your light cavalry off against their cavalry: use their comparative manoeuvrability to keep some of their warbands occupied.

Finally, use the comparative manoeuvrability of your legionary units to get a temporary two-to-one advantage wherever possible. You need to do three hits to break a warband, so to break a warband in one turn will need the attacks of at least two units.

Armed with these nuggets of undoubtedly game-winning information, I logged on to Zoom and prepared for battle.

The Game

I had the initiative so advanced my line forward as fast as possible. The Galatians did the same, but in a somewhat more raggedy manner: no nice, straight, Roman lines for these barbarians.

I protected my left flank against a cheeky cavalry lap around by keeping one of my legionary units back from the main line. This made it difficult for the extra cavalry unit (bottom, left in the left-hand picture above) to either get past the unit and into my rear or to threaten the flank of the main line.

On the other flank, my two light cavalry units (the Persian types with the sandy bases) faced off against the warbands positioned far out on the Galatian left, with my legionary cavalry bolstering the line of legionaries. I’ve no idea why one of my legionary units has hung back: perhaps I thought this might temp a charge from one of his and allow me a to-the-rescue flank attack!

The Two Lines Clash!

The two lines began to come together with a mighty clash!

Last game I had pussy-footed around with my legionaries and allowed the Galatians to recover from their advance and hit me in a nice straight line. This time, as you can see from the pictures above, I had advanced forward smartly myself and was in a situation where my main line could get an overlap on the (my) right hand side of the four warbands that had advanced slightly in front of the others i.e. I could get the 2:1 advantage I needed on one of his warbands.

This duly happened, and even better than I expected. My lagging legionary unit came forward and conformed with the main line, giving me six units: L/L/L/L/L/C. One of his central warbands came forward giving him a line of five units: C/W/W/W/W. I was, I admit, a bit lucky in that his other central warband hung back!

The five legionary units that matched up with a warband performed as expected, disordering but not breaking the Galatians in front of them, two being coming disordered in return, but the overlapping legionary cavalry then smashed the warband they overlapped from the field!

This punched a hole in the Galatian line which my cavalry then charged in to. Pausing only to eliminate a unit of light infantry with their javelins, they then charged forward and took the enemy camp. One turn and half the victory points I needed had been gained!

However, things weren’t going all my own way.

One of my legionary units was then broken by the Galatian warband in front of them; and another, as my cavalry couldn’t be in two places at once, had moved forward into open space. Now it was my three camps (a lot of VPs to lose) that was threatened. Fortunately, my light cavalry out on the right flank were keeping three warbands occupied, otherwise I was in danger of being swamped by numbers despite the fact that I had just broken another warband on the left.

Never fear: the legionary cavalry hadn’t finished their work yet!

Neatly reversing out of the Galatian camp, they headed back onto the battlefield and smashed into the back of another enemy warband. That shook the Galatian warriors badly enough so that a fast-manoeuvring legionary unit could also about face, hit them in the rear and send them fleeing from the field. Victory was mine!

It Worked!

Amazingly, my battle plan had worked!

I had managed to fight away from my camps, keep three of his warbands occupied with my light cavalry, and get a vital overlap at the initial point of impact. I had been lucky in that the Galatian advance had been a bit raggedy, but if I had hung back, as last time, then they would have had a chance to correct and hit me as one line.

Stars of the show were, undoubtedly, the Legionary Horse. Only the second time on the battlefield and a Companion-like performance. One warband destroyed, one light unit destroyed, the enemy camp taken, and then a rear charge to set up another warband for its almost immediate destruction. Laurel wreaths aplenty!

A great way to, hopefully, end my period of wargaming over Zoom. Not that it’s a bad way to game, but pushing lead face to face is always better!

Film: Podolskiye Kursanty

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I was browsing Amazon last night, looking for something to watch, and came across the Russian film The Last Stand aka The Last Frontier aka Podolskiye Kursanty.

To quote the summary on IMDB, the film tells the story of the Podolsk cadets' heroic stand outside Moscow in October 1941. Cadets from the Podolsk infantry and artillery schools were sent to the Ilyinsky line of defense, fighting alongside units from the Soviet 43rd Army to hold back the German advance until reinforcements arrived. Hopelessly outnumbered, young men in their teens laid down their lives in a battle lasting almost two weeks to obstruct the far superior German forces advancing towards Moscow.

The film itself is a fairly standard WW2 fact-ion piece on a particular battle (the fiction part of the faction being a love triangle involving a rather attractive nurse - incredible eyes!) but what caught my eye, and the reason why I am recommending it here, was the look and feel of things.

First up, the kit is spectacular. When they first showed a German tank I thought “here we go, another faked up panzer something” but then I realised I was looking at a Panzer 35(t) i.e. not a German tank so much as a Czech tank in German service. There were a few of them, then some Panzer IIs, some SdKfz 251s (well, they might have been 250s) and, finally, some Panzer IVs and a cracking StuG.

Most of the heroes of the film man Soviet L-46 45mm anti-tank guns, towed by trucks and also equipped with anti-personnel rounds, and watching how they use them is fascinating. Add in the T-34s and, I think, T-60s, all the support vehicles (including some katyushas), the uniforms, small arms and the like and you have a feast of good-looking kit to look at.

God knows where they got it all from. Perhaps they just decided to re-manufacture it all. I mean, if you can make 1,800 hobbit feet for the LOTR, knocking up a few tanks and a company’s worth of uniforms shouldn’t take you long.

Watching the film (which cost me 99p to rent btw) was well worth it just for all that, but the sets are outstanding as well. The main set-piece is the defensive works on the ‘frontier’. This comprises a Soviet village split by a river…and looks just like it does on the tabletop!

I know that’s the wrong way round, but you spend a bit of time setting up for a game without really knowing how much your table actually looks like the terrain in question, so it’s nice to see that the tabletop isn’t too far from what a village might actually look like…although I do think that the set looked a bit clean and tidy.

Anyway, well worth a look, and I recommend watching it in VO with subtitles.

More Romans

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As I haven’t got an all-consuming painting project on the go at the moment, I’m trying to knock off all those odd units that I bought but don’t actually need to field an army.

You know the one’s I mean: when you buy the raw lead for a new army, you go for completeness and get everything…EVERYTHING.

The first few units fly off the painting table on the wings of your enthusiasm, but you haven’t yet got enough figures painted to field the army.

The next, largest chunk of units appear on a regular basis but at a slower rate: you’re almost there. The last few units are a real struggle: you’ve had enough of painting (insert new army) and want to move on to something else, but you persevere and, finally, the new army is ready for action.

At the side of the painting table, however, are all those extra units you bought, for completeness if nothing else. The trouble is, you are now sick of the (insert new army), are more interested in playing with the newly painted contingent and, anyway, you don’t really need that extra unit of horse, those extra infantry, do you?

So these units languish in the lead mountain until, one day, bereft of something better to do, but in the mood to paint, you bite the bullet and try and remember how you painted the last lot…so that everything matches!

So it was with these Roman cavalry.

I field Caesarian Marian Romans. They have the option of a unit of Legionary Cavalry, but anyone worth their salt knows that the real work was done by the Gallic or ‘German’ horse. I already have a large Celtic army, so could always use some of them for Julius’ horse, even when they were fighting other Celts (you can never have too many Celtic types!).

At the time, as I’d just painted 144 Roman Legionaries, the thought of painting twelve more legionaries-on-horseback was beyond the pale, so these have sat patiently waiting for a coat of paint.

Nice figures from Baueda via Magister Militum. Easy to paint. Still didn’t enjoy it much though!

The Army Standard at the front is actually something I needed. They are figures from Capitan Games via the Stonewall Miniatures site. They are a bit big for 15mm, more like 18mm, but thus very suitable for an Army Standard.

TTS AAR: Marian Romans versus Galatians

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Time for another game of To The Strongest over Zoom with regular opponent, Bevan.

Those of you who follow the site will know that our last game ended in a large victory for my Marian Romans over Bevan’s Gauls. This was obviously pretty galling to Mr B (did you see what I did there?) so in search of revenge he suggested that I might like to try the Romans against a Galatian army, and sent me his list.

There were so many galatian warbands that I had to draft in some ZULUS to proxy for two of them!

My immediate reaction was a comic-book double-take. Eight warbands of deep, fanatical, hero-accompanied warrior units plus two good cavalry units, one of which was veteran!

The tale of the tape says it all. Let’s look at the infantry first. My Romans have six veteran legionary units. They save on a 5+ (which is very good) and have two hits each; they hit on 6+ until they take one hit, whence they hit on 8+. The Galatians have eight units. They are fanatics, so save on only an 8+ (bad) but have three hits each and, more importantly, keep fighting at 6+ to hit until destroyed.

The Romans then have three units of cavalry, two light, versus two units of Galatian cavalry, neither light and one veteran.

On top of all the above, and probably the final nail in my coffin, I was using my newly painted legionary cavalry unit and my newly painted Roman army standard. This had the potential to be nasty, brutal and fast!

The Game

The sides lined up facing each other. My plan was to hold back my infantry and try and get some sort of advantage from my extra cavalry unit. I was hoping they could slip past his line and go for their camp, or at least get onto somebody’s flank. With that advantage in place, I could close to infantry combat hopefully surviving long enough to avoid a lap around from his extra foot units: my hyper-manoeuvrable legionaries being very good at rapid changes of direction.

The Galatians advanced as fast as they could whilst still maintaining a relatively unbroken line. I advanced my infantry a little bit forward, but concentrated on what I was doing with the cavalry. Try as I might, however, I couldn’t temp Bevan’s cavalry forward enough to give me the advantage I was after.

The calm before the storm

I refused my left flank slightly

The two infantry lines came together with an almighty crash!

Unusually, my pila were effective, and at the end of the first round of fighting two of his eight warbands were double disordered, with another four disordered, and no casualties taken on my side at all. I’d also wounded one of his commanders.

Meanwhile, just before the main action, my legionary cavalry, which had been charged by his veteran horse, were also doing well: disordering the opposition and allowing a unit of my light horse to get into a decent position for a flank charge.

This was great: another round like that and I’d have broken enough of his warbands (and perhaps his cavalry too) to win the game!

The Inevitable Reverse!

And then it all changed.

The next turn I had one of those passages of play that defy belief.

In the melee that followed the above, I didn’t score a single hit on any of his troops (not even those teetering on the edge of obliteration) but lost two generals including the CinC, one legionary unit and had another two disordered! So much for a 60% chance of saving a hit! Oh, and his cavalry retreated and re-ordered themselves.

Worse, I’d managed to get a unit of light cavalry onto the flank of one of his warbands that was already shaken to the point of being about to flee. If I could destroy them, and just one more hit would do it, then a rolling up could occur. The activation cards were kind: I had three chances to kill the unit, two attack cards per chance, 30% chance to hit with him having only a 30% chance to save if I did so.

Nothing. Just…nothing!

Now against some armies it would still be possible to make a comeback from the situation described above, but against a Galatian army with two warbands as yet uncommitted: not a chance. Bevan just steamrollered forward and that was that!

Here’s a shot of the end of the game. Just count the Galatian disorder markers! Nine of them…but eight of them had been inflicted in round one, and no warbands had been broken.

Aftermath

Well it had been a fun game, and revenge will doubtless be mine when the two sides meet again next week.

Here’s another few shots of the game:

Epic First Painting Challenge Update for May

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An absolutely colossal update today, with several big catch-up entries from several of the Challenge’s Big Guns: Matt, Lloyd, Andy and John.

Absolutely worth spending a bit of time in the individual galleries, but here’s a taster to be going on with:

To Hell With Tanks!

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Last weekend I picked up one of Ken Tout’s books from a charity shop: only a couple of quid for what proved to be an excellent read.

To Hell with Tanks is the third in the series of Ken Tout’s memoirs, and covers the Northants Yeomanry as they take their Shermans and, later, Buffaloes then Shermans again, through Holland and into Germany in 1944-5.

Tout was a gunner, so the story is told from an OR point of view: there’s little about strategy and operations and lots about the harsh reality of serving in tanks in WW2.

There are really two books in one here. The first is the biography of the regiment as it makes its way though the war, and this part is written as if it were being read to a room full of people. It gallops along at a pace that renders it almost impossible to put down until the end of the chapter. It’s often almost stream of consciousness stuff: James Joyce eat your heart out! Take this passage describing one tank’s attempts to manoeuvre through a village under fire:

Bobby McColl switched to intercom. ‘Steady forward, driver. See if you can get through. Everybody, eyes peeled. Bloody smoke!’

Don Foxley muttered another prayer. Automatically. All mind, eyes, hands, feet concentrated on the road, the ruins, the burning tanks, the Sherman upset in the ditch, the lowering smoke clouds. Carefully he controlled sticks and pedals. Sherman steady on the road. Heavy on the road. Tracks reacting to brakes. Drive wheels responding to pedals. Until a sensation of crumbling, and slipping, and falling, neutralised the brakes, rendered pedals impotent. And Don clung to the brake handles for balance as that tank, too, toppled into the vast ditch.

It can be pretty grim too. The descriptions of death are a strange combination: visceral imagery combined with a matter-of-fact style delivered at the pace described above. Here’s a mild example: a tank commander is caught by mortar fire when outside his tank trying to fix a tow rope. He’s about to signal his driver by waving his arm:

His arm still raised Sergeant Huitson performed a classic gymnastic backward roll.

He did not get up. The pure snow around his body was spattered with even purer red blood and then sullied by the fall of smoking splinters, carbonized shards, and charred rags of clothing.

No-one reading these passages can be in any doubt that war is a terrible thing.

The second part of the book takes the form of a separate but substantial piece at the end of each chapter written in the first person. Each one takes the role of a different member of a tank crew, or ARV man, or accompanying PBI. It describes their “job” in a diary-like form and gives real insight into the role and what it entails. There are real nuggets of information here that make the rest of the text come, if possible, even more alive. Take this excerpt from the wireless operator:

But they didn’t tell you what it would be like in action, in a Sherman turret. There is only one escape hatch, where the commander perches behind the gunner’s seat. Between them and me…more importantly between the hatch and me is this almighty gun, blocking the way out. Even in normal times it takes a deal of squeezing and squirming to get under the gun and into my seat - a fairly roomy seat once you get here.

That’s in normal times. In the instant of time, the flash of reality, when a tank blazes into multiple explosions - engine, petrol tank, donkey engine, ammunition all going off like ten volcanoes and a thousand firework displays - there are obstructions beyond the normal. Under the gun hangs a huge bag which catches the empty cases as the big gun fires. There is a heap of battle rubbish and thrown-off personal clothes or boots. Any maybe a fourteen stone corpse mixed up among it. And I will have to crawl and tunnel through that lot - while the tank goes BIG BANG and bang again, BEFORE I can even begin to leap towards the light.

Just reading it again makes me feel claustrophobic !

Re-reading all the above, don’t let me give you the impression that the book is all about the action. In both parts of the book, there’s also plenty of descriptions of non-battle activity, mostly to do with being either on the move or in laager. This is equally descriptive. Take this passage about the daily task of “netting”:

‘Come on, you lazy scamps. You dozy operators. Netting in ten minutes. Open netting today on my call sign. Rouse ye! Rouse ye!’

The inevitable chorus of ‘Ferk off! Up yours!’ was an idle protest. Operators rolled out of their blankets and climbed into turrets. At the appointed time Ken Squires would send out a signal on the appropriate frequencies, and operators would tune in precisely to the two frequencies which their set enabled them to lock on to. In battle it was theoretically possible to switch from one frequency to the other on the pronouncement of a codeword. This was in case Jerry was listening. In fact this danger was so disregarded that the squadron had never used the switching drill in actual battle, just as they had never used the Morse so assiduously practised at training regiments.

In all the book is an invaluable guide to what being a Sherman tanker was really like. It keeps mentioning, for example, the high profile of the Sherman; the fear of the dreaded ‘88’; the danger of being in the recon Stuart or Dingo; the stifling heat and choking stench within a closed up tank; the constant knocks and bruises from being rattled around inside a big metal box with sharp bits everywhere; the risk a commander took if he went into action with his head sticking out of the turret; the lack of visibility of the road, the enemy, of anything except a small patch of light through the periscope and much, much more.

Interestingly, it does deal with the “Ronsen” effect, although in the context of the Germans describing the Shermans as “Tommy-cookers”. That doesn’t seem to be Tout’s opinion: his view seems to be that in any tank sometimes a hit does result in an immediate column of fire out of the turret, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Highly recommended, and I will be keeping my eyes out for the other two in the series.

Druids...and did anyone order a Chinese?

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I’ve been playing quite a lot of To The Strongest over Zoom lately, using my new-ish Marian Romans against the Celts. One thing my opponent likes fielding that I had never done are the Druids available as an army standard equivalent.

We’ve been using memory or a marker of some kind to represent said religious types, but I think it’s always better to get the proper figures onto the table so have been looking out from some suitable minis.

Something else led me to the Stonewall Figures website and their range of Ancients figures by Capitan. These include Gauls, and a quick browse revealed some rather nice Druids which I purchased immediately. Only a couple of days later these popped through the letterbox and were immediately accelerated to the front of the painting queue:

The rather fanciful obelisk is home made: some modelling clay stolen from Daughter #2 and roughly shaped into a monolithic shape. I then added some very rough horizontal-type ogham-style writing with a sharp edge. The obelisk was painted in GW Contrast Basilicum Grey with some green mossy details added. It still didn’t look quite right, so I very crudely filled the ogham writing with some acrylic dark gold paint, wiping off any excess.

I quite like the result, although it is a very large obelisk…which means that at least I shouldn’t forget to apply the re-play attack card bonus on the tabletop!

Anyway, the figures are lovely and highly recommended. The whole Capitan range is worth a look: they are quite large 15mm figures, but very nicely sculpted.

A Chinese Anyone?

Whilst waiting for the clay to set, my eye happened to fall onto a pack of MDF buildings sent to me as samples by Frank, the chap who runs MiniWarfare out of China. These were forming a small hillock on the edge of the lead mountain, so I thought I’d excavate and build them.

Regular readers will know that MiniWarfare produce some spectacularly good far eastern buildings for Burma/Malaya/Vietnam etc:

The burlap in the windows and door is mine.

The samples that Frank sent me were of Chinese buildings: two identical houses and a restaurant.

It’s the photography that’s crooked, not the models!

As with the Vietnamese huts, these kits are hyper-easy to build - much easier than 4Ground or Sarissa - and are therefore highly recommended for that reason alone.

Unlike normal, I decided to paint them using GW Contrast paints. The roofs on the houses are actually much darker than they appear in the pic above (obelisk coloured to be exact!) and please forgive the slightly brash colouring on the restaurant!

And now for the bad news: the MiniWar website is currently under construction, so you can’t buy anything at the moment. I do hope Frank hasn’t gone out of business due to COVID, so please join me in checking back every now and then.

I really must get my far eastern huts back on the tabletop soon: time for some Liongate or Bloody Burma!

Final Painting Challenge Update for April

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Yes, I know it’s a day late! Blame IT issues: sometimes my PC gets so clogged up using the office’s 365 that it forgets the more important things in life such as how to do the Painting Challenge!

A huge amount of entries this week, including some very fine work indeed. Do please visit the individual galleries, but here’s a selection to whet your whistle!

Some inspirational work there, and a special welcome to new entrant John: 196 points on the board already.

FK&P AAR: Rogue Nation

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Last weekend I had the chance to re-play the final scenario in my Marlowe to Maidenhythe scenario pack for FK&P: Rogue Nation.

It’s a stand-up fight between a late ECW period Parliamentarian army and a combination of militia and clubmen set, once again, around the village of Gappe.

As is customary these days (but not for much longer!) we played via Zoom: with my opponent being able to see the whole table via an overhead webcam, and more specific areas of the battlefield via an on-table mobile phone.

Here’s the report:

So a glorious victory for my Parliamentarians for a change. My opponent’s post-game e-mail began “what was I thinking?” as I think he realised that coming forward as his men did had been a mistake.

What was also pleasing was that my run of extremely (really extremely) bad cards seemed to have come to an end. In fact, another reason that my opponent gave for his defeat was that he was careless of his tactics as he was expecting my cards to be as bad as usual! Well, this game I actually had some quite good luck for a change, especially in the opening stages of the main infantry clash.

My victory was, however, not enough to reverse the course of the campaign in general. The M2M pack gives you a totaliser to keep track of how you do in each battle…and I think it fair to say that after twelve games played I was firmly on the losing side.

Great fun, and I must start writing the new pack soon!

Postscript

As I was playing the Rogue Nations scenario, the chap of FB who’s playing through the campaign was playing the Pinkney’s Court game:

Nice to see that someone else also has problems with the Royalist horse at this stage of the war!

Filling the Gaps

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Whilst it’s nice to have a project to work on, it’s also nice to paint a whole load of itty-bitty things just to fill the gaps in a collection, or to take advantage of a new release…and that’s what this post covers.

First up, we have yet another Russian Orthodox church. Yes, after my last post, someone (kindly!) pointed out that I didn’t have the Hovels version in my collection. One quick order later, a couple of weeks wait and, low and behold, here’s my tenth Russian Orthodox church, and very nice it is too.

So now I’m fairly confidently stating that I have every single 15mm Russian Orthodox church available but, on the off-chance you know of any others, do feel free to let me know.

Oh, the others I have can be found here.

Next up is another command stand for my ECW armies. These chaps are from Matchlock Miniatures, available via the Caliver Books-run Minifigs website. I was ordering some of their 15mm ECW personalities for my Rabble bases (preaching puritan, ratcatcher, lady with long gun etc) when I suddenly remembered that I was short a Colonel command stand. These are two of their Generals, and very nice figures they are too, and perfectly compatible with my existing Peter Pig, Hallmark and Khurasan troops.

Although it’s quite hard to see in the picture, the chap behind (with the hat) is actually holding a dog! Anyway, highly recommended as a source of character figures if nothing else.

Finally in today’s random selection of bits and bobs from the painting table are more Ursids from Khurasan. For those of you unfamiliar with the range, these are giant 15mm sci-fi bears, seven feet tall, wearing sunglasses, smoking cigars and armed with bear-portable fusion guns or BPFGs!

The original release was four different infantry types, but now Jon has added a Big Man equivalent and an “Ur-Cannon” weapons team to the range. Loving these bears, and added to Stan Johansen’s Blareds (smaller bears) they make a great fun sci-fi force. My painting doesn’t really do these justice!

So all in all a bit of fun from the painting table. Next up are some more Romans and some Druid types to work their opponents up into a frenzy!

FK&P AAR: The King's Secrets

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Lots of pike-and-shot content on here at the moment. No apologies for that: I’m playing all my games via Zoom at the moment, and grid based games are a lot easier to manage than freeform games such as IABSM or Q13. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Anyhoo, on to today’s post: an after action report from my latest game of For King & Parliament : another scenario from the Marlowe to Maidenhythe pack, this time scenario 11: The King’s Secrets.

The basic premise is that the Royalists (played remotely by my opponent) have to get a stagecoach carrying secret documents off the opposite end of the table. Blocking their way are a Parliamentarian militia supported by local villagers…

Even after the disastrous cards on my left, I came close to winning the game in the centre: but the Parliamentarians remained resolute and I couldn’t get the disorder I needed.

Although at the end of the game I had curled around his main line and was about to roll it up, other Royalist units had punched a hole for the stagecoach and bodyguard Cuirassiers to get through.

Another great game, despite the result!

Another M2M Report

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A couple of days ago I mentioned that I’d seen the Marlowe to Maidenhythe campaign from my new scenario pack for For King & Parliament being played out by someone on the Facebook 6mm Miniatures & Wargaming group. They’d just played the first scenario in the campaign: the Attack on Marlowe.

Fortunately they seem to have enjoyed that game (!) as they’ve now posted game two: Widbrooke Common.

You have to be a member to see posts on the group, but here’s a link for those of you who are, or who would like to be: link.

In the meantime, for those of you who either belong to far too many FB groups already (guilty as charged, your honour) or who don’t like FB at all, here’s a pic from the start of the game.

And now for the plug!

You can buy the scenario pack from the BigRedBat shop by clicking here or on the pic below.

 

More Classical Indians

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Having painted enough Classical Indians to field a 130 point Monarchist army, it was time to start looking at what figures I needed to add in order to be able to field other armies from the Indian sub-continent.

First up was obviously to check that I could field the Republican variant of the classic Classical Indians. Hmmm…in order to do that, I needed to paint up another unit of horse.

These have sat, undercoated only, on my painting table for some time but, once I’d actually picked up a brush and got started, were actually quite fun to paint. It’s always that first brushstroke that’s the hardest!

These are more of the Museum Miniatures CAD-designed “Z Range”, and very lovely they are too. I particularly like the cataphract command figure in the middle: full of life and animation. Okay, so the guys with the swords don’t look too comfortable, but this is a Raw unit after all, and the spear-holding figures are nice.

Now on to see what I need to make my Classical Indians into Vedic or Tamil Indians, and then onto the Graeco-Indians after that!

TFL Painting Challenge: Huge April Update

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It’s been a couple of weeks since the last Painting Challenge update, so loads of entries to add to the galleries.

There’s loads of lovely work on show, so do make sure you visit each person’s individual showcase, but here’s a selection for you to enjoy: