'We Are The D-Day Dodgers..'

Given that this is the Anniversary of VE Day, it seems appropriate to introduce a potential second string to my gaming bow.

Badger Force : off to liberate Italy

Some time ago I dug out some of my childhood 'collection' of plastic toy soldiers, which had been my introduction to wargaming, aged about 11. I particularly remembered the early Airfix 1/72 WW2 German Infantry, and found an old  tobacco tin packed with them. They had never been fully painted, just a rough dab of flesh colour on faces and hands, black boots and brown rifles on the blue-grey plastic. Looking at Bob Cordery's 'The Portable Wargame' and my treasured old copy of Charles Grant's 'Battle' , which had started it all for me, I thought maybe I could do something. I also had some nice 'Matchbox' WW2 British of 1970s vintage, so they could be opponents.

I am certainly no  painter, ( look away now, button-counters, this is certainly not the blog for you! ) but I found I could at least achieve a very simple 'old-school' style, which suits me and the figures just fine.  In my toy soldier world, all boots are black, weapons brown and gunmetal, backpacks leather, and faces plain flesh - with apologies to the shade/highlight/drybrushers.  I am constantly amazed by the standards many painters achieve, but I just don't have the ability to do all that, and if I could I'd still be working on the first squad.. This time, after 45 years or so, at least they were fully covered with paint!  Supplemented with some MG and mortar teams from Brittannia Miniatures 20mm range, based on 1p and 2p pieces ( I feel mildly guilty about defacing the currency -  I always leave the Queen's head as the unpainted underside, sorry ma'am ) in a plain old-school green, they are acceptable Ragged Soldiers for me.   Each side now has  six  4-man 'units' for The Portable Wargame, with supporting MGs and  mortars; and being singly based, they will do for  other rule sets too.

Very few vehicles or equipment items had survived the occasional loft clearances in  intervening decades, but that may be all for the best given my childhood model-making standards! At various recent  shows  and a few  model shops I have picked up some modern kits from Plastic Soldier Company, Armourfast and Zvezda,  and some vintage Airfix for old times' sake, and put them together with varying degrees of ease and frustration - Armourfast and PSC are lovely, quick and easy, but vintage Airfix - how did we ever get anything built?!   So, the British have a selection of Shermans and the odd Valentine, and even an M10 tank destoyer; 6-pounder and 25-pounder guns, and M3 half-tracks.  The Germans have Panzer IVs, StuG 3s, 75mm PAK 40s, 105mm howitzers, and SdKfz 251 half-tracks. Again I have lept the painting very simple - from each according to his abilities -  all my units seem to have tanks fresh from the factory! I did find a dilute wash of Army Painter 'Soft Tone' gave a certain something to the look - maybe I need to be a bit  braver. Just don't be looking to count the rivets..

KampfGruppe von Kleist : stubborn defenders

So, after probably a couple of years of halting progress, I think we have enough for some simple gaming. This is therefore to introduce 'Badger Force',  led by Colonel Badger of the West Suffolks,  tasked with no less than the liberation of entirely imaginary parts of Italy in 1943-1945, and doggedly opposed by KampfGruppe Von Kleist, commanded of course by  Oberst Eric Von Kleist.  I think Bob's  'Portable Wargame: early and mid 20th Century' rules should be a good place to start.

Why Italy ? This is why:

I've had the privilege of hearing folk singer David Campbell  ( son of Ian Campbell, who recorded it in the 1960s,  and an interesting character in himself, to say the least.. )  perform his dad's classic several times, always with  real feeling for the subject matter.    We may be accused of reducing the suffering of our grandfathers to a mere game, and we can debate that endlessly.  But I hope we can also remember, and learn.