Fnurban #41: General Knowledge

Among the worryingly large backlog of unread volumes on my bookshelves (worrying because one starts to compare the probable time required to read them all, to average life expectancy), there is a small but distinct category - that of biographies of  prominent British army commanders. This is a direct result of my reading John Keegan's  1991  Churchill's Generals a couple of years ago.  Keegan acted as editor for a collection of 17 biographical essays  by various authors, covering no less than 20 British generals from the Second World War. 

 I'll freely admit that I really knew very little about any of the subjects, so this book was a very nice introduction to the subject - and of course it left me wanting to know more about quite a few of them! In second-hand bookshops and charity shops I tend to find myself looking at the history/military sections of the bookshelves, and guess what?  Yes, you got it, I have been picking up biographies  and memoirs of some of these commanders. Here is the harvest so far: 

I found Alex , Nigel Nicholson's authorised biography of Field Marshal Alexander, in the excellent  Harris and Harris Books at Clare - and actually managed to read it! Well worth it, and very relevant given my interest in the 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign 1943-45, in which Alexander was allied C-in-C, and highly successful in commanding truly multinational forces. 

Viscount William Slim's Defeat Into Victory (an abridged, but still substantial tome)  came from Cuirassier Books, I think at the Re:Play show at the Royal Engineers Museum a couple of years ago. I like the 'career arc' of Slim : certainly not the usual public school educated product of a family of soldiers,  he was the son of a Birmingham ironmonger, working as a junior clerk before 'joining up' in 1914.  Defeat Into Victory is his account of his command in the Burma campaign, and according to Duncan Anderson in Churchill's Generals,  reveals 'an ordinary man, one often assailed by self-doubt, who made mistakes.. and did not consider himself particularly brave'.  

A charity shop find next:  Horrocks: The General Who Led From the Front by Philip Warner (1984).  I'll let the cover blurb give a flavour.  'Sometimes described as 'Britain's answer to Rommel', Sir Brian Horrocks was not only a charismatic and courageous leader of men but one of the most successful commanders of the Second World War'. His career spanned  Ypres 1914 (and 4 years as a POW) , Russia 1919, Dunkirk 1940, North Africa 1942/43 and North-West Europe 1944-45 (despite being seriously wounded in 1943), with 'retirement' involving the post of Parliament's  Black Rod, journalism and even presenting military history on 1950s  TV!   

On a recent trip to the National Trust's property at Calke Abbey (well worth a visit!), another little find came up in their second-hand bookshop : John Connell's 1964  Wavell:Scholar and Soldier (to June 1941) .  Much more than a simple soldier, Archibald Wavell was 'also a man of scholarly interests and attainments;  a biographer; an outstanding administrator...; and a Viceroy of India'. He may be better known as compiler of a best-selling poetry anthology Other Men's Flowers than as a soldier.  His misfortune was to be unable to build a good relationship with Churchill, perhaps partly  due to his taciturnity - eventually Churchill relieved him of command in the Middle East, at which point this volume ends.    His Middle East command was much more than just the Western Desert, also covering East Africa, Iraq and Syria, Greece and Crete - a huge responsibility with action in all areas, much of which will probably be new to me.  

 

And finally, the joker in the pack, so to speak - Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart's Happy Odyssey (1950).  An addendum sticker inside the front cover records that 'in this book General Carton de Wiart makes no mention of the fact that he was awarded the Victoria Cross'.  I think this may give an idea of the character of the man. In contrast to Wavell, he clearly had a very good relationship with Churchill, who has provided a foreword, and also appointed de Wiart  as his personal representative to Chiang Kai-Shek,  'to which he was not entirely suited' , as professor Gary Sheffield puts it in Churchill's Generals.  Multiply wounded (note the eye-patch) and famously courageous in 1914-18, in WW2 he led a British  military observers mission to Poland in 1939,  had an independent command in Norway 1940, and was captured by the Italians after a 'plane crash en route to Yugoslavia in 1941,  subsequently (aged 63) escaping from a POW camp via a tunnel and evading capture, in the company of fellow General O'Connor,  for several weeks. I think this is going to be a roller-coaster ride.. I had never heard of this gentleman until I read Churchill's Generals, and I was pleasantly surprised when a copy if this book turned up in Sudbury RSPCA shop a few weeks ago - snapped up for £5.  Amazingly, last week I was browsing  in our local Oxfam, and found another copy  - but they want considerably more money!        

Now it's very easy to buy books, especially if kidding yourself you are 'rescuing' them from charity shops, but the proof is in the reading, and I have all too many unread books. But I have a good feeling about these, and I think I will start with what looks to be the most straightforward and positive story, that of Horrocks. This is also a rather long-term project, and I won't be trying to get through them all in quick succession, more likely pick up one every so often, in between other reads.  Let's see how it goes.. 

The recent heatwave has driven away any thoughts of hobby painting, or hobby anything much! (in Suffolk we managed to have the record-breaking highest June temperature)  Now we seem to be cooling down a bit, today I managed a tiny amount of painting - here 'on the bottletops' we have four Garrison command figures for my French 7YW infantry unit Volontaires Étrangers de la Marine.   

 They've had a coat of grey primer, and their uniform base colour of white - it's a start. at least. There's some 'real life' stuff coming up this week which means I might not get them finished  until the weekend, but I should get some of the basic details done. There are also various 6mm units for Risorgimento 1859 wanting finishing, and.. and.. and... just like the books, the painting backlog never ends!

I hope everyone reading this  in the UK has got through the hot spell without too much discomfort - I think we all need some decent sleep! Hopefully we can all get back to our hobby now, and I can report a little more progress next  time. Until then keep well, everyone.  

Broadside show 2026: From Strength to Strength

Like approximately 700 other gamers, I went along to the Broadside show at Gillingham, Kent last Saturday, and I had a thoroughly pleasant day there!  For a 'smaller' show, this one has been going from strength to strength, and there was a good number of games and a surprisingly large contingent of traders on the day.  It so happens that my old gaming friend Tony Toms has recently become chair of the host Milton Hundred Wargames Club, and therefore was heavily involved in running the event; so I was morally obliged to go along and show support (having enjoyed  the show in previous years, of course I would have gone anyway!).  I tried to photograph a good number of the games, and as ever I will show some of my  pictures, in roughly the order I saw the games.  I had arranged to meet Chris aka 'Nundanket' of Horse and Musket Gaming fame, and we toured the show together, also adjourning to a pleasant nearby cafe for a quick lunch. Really good to see you, Chris,  to have a good chinwag and discuss the various games. Chris found some really useful fortification terrain for his 18th Century games, courtesy of Brigade Models - so his visit was worthwhile for that alone, I suspect!     

You can't blame the host club for putting their game 'front and centre', and so the first game that I came to upon entering the hall was Milton Hundred's own Sword Beach 6th June 1944: The Longest Day,  depicting the D-Day invasion beach  in 15mm scale, with Rapid Fire Reloaded rules. . The club members  had taken great pains to accurately represent the defences, buildings etc with extensive use of 3D printing, fantastic models of landing vessels and aircraft, and even pointed out that 'the sand on the beach does come from Sword Beach itself!'.   

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The Werelords (Tredaway) - with the editor of Miniature Wargames present, of course, presented Attack on Space City,  a Hammers' Slammers  game.  I'll admit that Sci-Fi ain't my thing,but the terrain was impressive - that tall tower looked suspiciously like it might have been cleverly made from a defunct electric room heater! 

 

Hailsham Wargames Club  presented their rather wonderful Malplaquet 1709: The Bloodiest Day. I'd seen this one before, at Cavalier in February, but it doesn't half stand repeating!  Using no less than 3.500 Alex Higgins figures in 20mm scale,   'this game represents a life's worth of dedicated collecting, painting and research into the Marlburian Wars by club stalwart Bill Hendley'. 

view from the French left..

 

..and their right. 

look at the masses of Allies approaching..

later in the day, the fight is really on!

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society presented -Hobgoblin:  can't tell you much more, but some nice figures, I liked the knights : 

 

 

Hythe Tyrants staged a Burrows and Badgers  game on a nice town layout: 

When I passed by, this was being discussed by a group of young women, a good reflection of a generally much more diverse crowd than some other shows, which can only be a good thing, 

Maidstone Wargames Society brought  The Labyrinths of Mars Journey to Barsoom. Rescue Prince's and Princesses.- which is something of a mouthful!  Clearly this one helped with diversity too, this time attracting some younger players. 

 

The Friday Night Fight Club can be relied on for something 'different' - they did not disappoint with their   Steampunk Victorian Fantasy game - featuring mobile cities on massive wheels!  A Japanese-inflected force met a more Germanic-influenced opponent. 

 

Medway Wargames Society  presented a  Gangs of Rome skirmish game.  Chris suggested it might be inspired by the TV comedy  Plebs - 'which one is Grumio?' which got a laugh of recognition (and not a denial) from the players. I liked the setup, with that paved-effect mat.  

 Nowadays one is likely to meet some fairly exotic-looking folk at gaming shows, and this was no exception - they were of course entirely friendly and happy to pose for photos.  

 

Here's a fairly dramatic-looking  Sci-Fi game which i took a quick snap of, but then forgot to get any information about it, apologies! Looked fun, though, and one of the players appears tobe praying for a good die roll..

Shepway Wargamers presented their  Dead Man's Hand goes Back to the Future :  extra points to them for the description of the game packing in so many western film titles

 

what's that under wraps in the alleyway..?

WIP Games put on a rather nice looking Ancients game in 28mm, to demonstrate their On Bloody Ground rules.  It looked Egyptian-ish, but I forgot to ask(!)  On looking at their website, I see they are Sea Peoples (on the left, and the 3rd and 4th pictures) and probably New Kingdom Egyptians (on the right, and 2nd picture), from their own figure ranges - and pretty  good they looked, too.  

 

As you may be aware, WIP have a number of rulebooks for the Ancient to Horse and Musket period, with the ancients having a volume each for several 'sub-periods' so to speak - such as 'New Kingdom' in this case - but sharing a common 'game engine' set of  mechanisms, which are kept fairly simple. Apart from the impressive cover illustrations, the books are pretty much text-only, with the basic rule set followed by special rules and army lists for the sub-period. By avoiding the use of loads of colour photos, the price can be kept down - currently £12.95 per volume. It feels like a sort of antidote to the recent trend for very glossy (and expensive!) colour rulebooks 'padded out' with eye-candy photos, with equally glossy  supplements for each sub-period.  I'd say 'good for them' - of course it will depend if the rules work well, but I applaud the overall philosophy.  In fact, I parted with £12.95 -  about which, more later..      

Dad's Armies group showed a  6mm  WW1 game First Contact - Austria Advances 1914, being the Austrian invasion of Serbia at the start of the war - quite an unusual game subject? Rules were Great War Spearhead II  by Shawn Taylor ( for Division and Corps-Level gaming), figures from Baccus 6mm (each base representing a company), and buildings by Brigade Models.  I thought it looked simple and  effective. Historically, i think the small  Serbian army gave their more powerful opponents a bloody nose.. 

 

  

South London Warlords Wanasa! Way of the Buffalo was clearly  enjoyed by players young and old :

 I've shown Deal Wargames Society's  POLISH BLITZKRIEG 1939! Polish raid on Fraustadt, 2 September 1939 before (possibly more than once!) but it's so good, it seems worth a few more pictures - tankettes, bicycle and motorcycle troops and all! 

 

I was looking forward to seeing Postie's Rejects group's game: The Battle of Berezina, 1812, depicting the famous episode in Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. This has been masterminded by Ray ( 'Don't Throw a One' )  and Lee ( 'Big Lee's Miniature Adventures' ),  with painting and scenery done as part of the Analog Hobbies Painting Challenge, and documented copiously on their respective blogs, of course!  The result was a lovely table, fantastic snowy scenery (note the particularly effective ice floes on the river) and great figures. They were of course, playing the game too - 28mm figures,  Sharpe Practise rules.  The game won a well-deserved 'best in show' prize from the show hosts - congrats to the Rejects!  

 

Tonbridge Wargames Club presented Port Arthur or Bust! Naval combat in the Russo-Japanese War; using Togo Heihachiro - Gods of War  rules. Lots of lovely turning circle and arc of fire templates, which seem obligatory for such games - and of course, very nice ship models.

 

 

The Society of Ancients showed a classic 'big battle' game :  Gaugamela 331BC.  All those pike-wielding Phalangites are quite inspiring for me, must get painting to expand my own modest Macedonian, Persian and Indian  forces..  Impetus rules were being used. 

 

Kent & Sussex D&D & Roleplaying Club  gave us The Bards are Back in Town:  I'll admit D&D etc is another 'not my thing', but the model town looked pretty good, complete with shipping wharf:

 

 South East Essex Military Society (SEEMS) ran  Voidfighters on a Budget (2x games at once)  a Star Wars game, of course: 

 

 

 Canterbury & Littlebourne Wargames Club showed a great 'local interest' game:  Battle of Maidstone 1648, using  Warlord Games Epic Pike & Shotte figures and rules. The scenario had been created by my friend Tony's son, Oliver, and I thought  the guys had done a really good job of presenting a 'do-able' club-sized game, which also looked really nice in terms of figures, buildings, terrain etc. We had a good chat about the challenge of writing a scenario that made a good game, too.  Nice to talk, Oliver!

 

 

And not least, but last ( and I admit I was flagging by now),  Real Time Wargames presented  The White Cockade: Battles of the '45 in 10mm scale, demonstrating their own Battlefield Rules and Campaign System for the period.  I didn't get into chat about the features of the game, but the table looked classy, and even the seemingly obligatory 'drink can next to the table' seemed to be the appropriate brand!   

 

That's all the games I saw and photographed; perhaps unsurprisingly I did have time for a little shopping, too, though only a few items.  As mentioned above, I did give the  WIP On Bloody Ground guys a try - I would have bought their Rise of Macedon set, but that had sold out, so I opted for their English Civil Wars  edition. 

 Longer-term  readers of this blog will know I have tried a few rule sets for my Thirty Years War armies ( for example In Deo Veritas and Twilight of the Divine Right )  without really settling on a favourite. so why not give these a whirl? I'll have to set up a trial game, and report back. They are designed for 28mm, and my armies are in 15mm, but hopefully a 'halve all distances' house rule should suffice.    Hmm, wasn't I thinking of working out a Freiburg 1644 scenario?  

A bit of an impulse buy from  Grubby Tanks, who as usual had a useful  stack of boxes of  HaT 20mm figures : 

 I do like the mixed boxes that HaT do, they give you a 'starter army' which will probably furnish enough figures for at least a DBA force. There are even a couple of elephants!  I have in my mind that Carthage could possibly have rubbed up against Macedonian Successors of one sort or another, though of course the logical opponents would be Romans, and that is the thin end of a very big wedge.  These may go to the back of a long painting queue, frankly, but they are nice to have. I was slightly intrigued by the rather old-fashioned box art;  I wonder if these are rather 'old stock'?  ( Readers of a certain vintage may be reminded of buying Airfix 'series 1' 1/72  aircraft and AFV kits in new-fangled blister packs, but occasionally finding the old-fashioned versions in a plastic bag stapled to a piece of folded cardboard - or  is that just me? ). Anyway, there was a 10% discount on the day, so I got 67 figures for about £7, I can't complain at that - an army for £7.   Speaking of Ancients, I would have added some more Indians to the lead pile, as the nice people from New Line Designs were present, but sadly had very few 20mm Ancient Indians with them. I had been coveting their War Elephant with General, or 4-horse Chariot with General, for an army commander.   I really should have emailed them in advance with a pre-order - will do that next time!   

And finally, not a purchase but a 'freebie' ; I  met the guys from Whitehall Warlords club who I bought a load of vintage Minifigs  7YW.AWI  figures from last year. Bob Walker, who had sorted them out for me, said 'hang on a minute - I've got something for you' and nipped off to his car, returning with some more figures!  Just a few, but all very nice -  looks like a handful of possible Austrian Jagers and gunners, and  most importantly, some drummers and standard bearers for Hessians/Brunswickers.

Bob said these should really have been included in the collection I bought, so he was happy to pass them on at no charge.  Thank you very much, Bob! We had a good chat, and I was glad to be able to tell them how much I've enjoyed sorting through the collection and starting  on re-basing them.  I learned a bit more about their provenance, which was most interesting, and I will  share in a  future post.

And that's about it for the day. I hope this has been of some interest to those who couldn't be at the show, and maybe for anyone who did get there, too! It was a pretty good day, the Broadside show has been getting better and more popular over the past few years, and my thanks and congratulations to all those involved in organising it (well done Tony!), as well as all the other clubs etc hosting games, and all the traders. One factor which may be helping the show is that there do seem to be quite a large number of clubs in and around Kent, for whom this is a 'local' show. long may that continue.. 

After all that excitement, 'real life' has kicked in rather, and there's not been much hobby activity possible this week, apart from writing this and reading some of those other blogs which also reported on the show!  I think my next post may involve books about WW2 British generals;  until then, keep well ( and cool!), everyone