Still Alive - But Got Killed the Other Day

 Is 31st January too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year? I hope 2025 has started well for you all, anyway.  As may be obvious from my lack of updates, this month has been  a slightly  'Dry January' in hobby terms  ( and as a wise hobby friend said, don't try to write blog posts when you've got nothing to report ) -  but I am determined not to reach the end of a month with no updates whatsoever, especially in the run-up to what I believe may be called  the 'fiftth blogoversary' of this stream of inconsequential nonsense ( I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either... ). And so, in the dying hours of this bleak midwinter month, a quick summary of recent hobby-related happenings, and a few thoughts and ideas for the future seem in order. 

I may not have run any actual games myself, but I have been lucky to have been involved in a few: many thanks to Jon Freitag, as ever, for inviting me to join in with two of his remote gaming extravaganzas. First up was his fourth iteration of the Italian Wars period battle of  Agnadello 1509; something of a nail-biting game in which Tony (MS Foy) and I as the Venetians came quite close to holding off  Mark (Jolly Broom Man) ,  Chris ( Nundanket ) and Dave ( LiverpoolDave )'s  French, partly by going against what seemed to have become the accepted wisdom of the previous three outings. A learning point from this - I think I had assumed we would lose, but if I had kept a closer eye on the scores we might have seen a chance to actually win!  Never assume.. Click on the link here for Jon's excellent report.    I did smile at Jon's writing at one point : By now, Alviano's attacks have run out of momentum - what in fact had happened was that my Heavy Cavalry  Men-At-Arms had pursued a badly-damaged French light horse unit, striking the routers from behind and rolling eleven dice against the French one - and then  I had rolled no hits with my eleven dice, and seen my brave knights slink away in disgrace! A moment to remember.  As you can see , the game was a really colourful affair, with some mighty struggles as the big pike blocks collided across the Venetians' defended ditch. 

                        

 

The second offering from Jon was earlier this week - a complete change of theme, The Gunfight at Adobe Wells Station ... yesirree, a rootin' tootin' Wild West Gunfight!   Tremendous fun was had as (by coincidence ) the former Venetians Tony and I became Pinkerton Agents, defending a stash of weapons against a gang of lairy-looking desperadoes who strongly resembled the French nobiltiy of 1509.  My character 'The Accountant' managed an initial coup by fatally drilling Chris's  'ZZ Hood' right between the eyes,  but then fell to a rain of bullets and clubbed pistols from Mark's  villainous 'Wild Bill' Briscoe.  Meanwhile Tony's  'Careful' McMinn had been anything but careful, and took a whole lotta lead from 'Daring Dave' McGinty, and the Pinkertons were unceremoniously rubbed out.  A great game, with Jon reviving his version of 'The Rules With No Name' and figures after 25 years disuse - you did a good job of remembering them, Jon!  I liked the simple card-driven activation which sometimes gave a player two or even three actions on their turn, hence allowing a deadly 'reload - aim - fire' sequence, and the use of a 'joker' card to end the turn randomly - which quite often saved characters who had got into a very tight spot, by denying their opponent the chance to finish them off! Alas, The Accountant ran out of luck in the end,  and his books are now closed.  I borrowed the following pic from Jon's blog - the moment my man went down, in a close-quarters rooftop fight..

                               

  

Chris aka 'Nundanket' has featured quite a lot in my hobby January - as well as the above we met in real life a couple of times. First was at the National Army Museum for one of their excellent Friday lunchtime talks, this time on the  Saratoga campaign of 1777.   Chris has posted a report of the talk here - note that if you can't make it in person to the talks, you can book in to watch them on-line, and well worth it they usually are.   Secondly, Chris and I were involved with  an evening of board wargaming in a London pub, playing my venerable (1983!)  Soldier King  game. Very much a 'learning the game' exercise for all concerned, but interesting, and we are arranging another try with the same group - in which we will hopefully move a bit quicker and get stuck in to some proper battles! Here is a picture (thanks again Chris!)  to give you an idea of the look of the thing 

 

So that's a summary of most of what I've been doing hobby-wise - you may have noticed that this does not ( shock, horror! ) include any painting.. Well, I have managed a few painting sessions on my 1859 Risorgimento  Piedmontese and Austrian 6mm armies, and they are 'getting there' but by no means complete, though I have been enjoying the process.  Here is a 'work in progress' sort of picture - Austrians mainly in white, Piedmontese in blue. I like the simple, semi-flat format of the Commission Figurines models, which are a mix of their Napoleonic and ACW ranges. 

on the workbench - just not often enough!

 

For the future, I have a couple of ideas  knocking around,  plus an invitation , as follows: 

D-Day Dodgers as a Mini-Campaign?

I was intrigued and inspired by a couple of posts from the always excellent Norm Smith on his Commanders website and/or  Battlefields and Warriors blog  ( and by the way, if you haven't already,  do yourself a favour and download his brilliant  2024 Christmas Newsletter ).  In these he highlighted a  piece in Matt OIrsik's 'Warning Order' free downloadable  wargaming magazine, issue no. 58, which in turn is inpsired by a very old series on 'One-Day-Campaigns' which appeared in early issues of Wargames Illustrated  back in 1987!  I remember those 1980s articles, too - quite inspiring. Norm is using the concept to set up a WW2 campaign for his 'Old School Tactical' boardgame collection, which you can read about on his site - he calls the campaign  Krosnogord 1944, and excellent it is too. I have been thinking that something similar might be a pretty good way to use my D-Day Dodgers  1943-45 Italian Campaign collection, having now painted a few units for Rapid Fire Reloaded, I need a framework for putting together game scenarios, and the 'linked maps/tables' format of the mini-campaigns suggested by Norm and Matt look like a pretty good idea. I am giving this some thought..I hope Matt won't mind too much if I show a screenshot of  part of his Warning Order article :

And of course, if you have not previously seen Warning Order, do have a look, it is an amazing piece of work and well worth supporting! 

Thirty Years War with Portable Pike and Shot ? 

I have got a bit tied up with painting figures for projects in the past few months, and it occurs I should change things up a bit and vary my routine by remembering the armies that are already painted, and could be used for actual games with very little effort.. in particular I've been thinking of my 15mm Thirty Years' War forces. I chanced upon some blog entries by Archduke Piccolo, who has tried re-fighting battles of the Thirty Years' War using Bob Cordery's  The Portable Pike and Shot Wargame - an example being his Portable White Mountain  from June 2024.  It made me think - I wonder if I could do that?  At around the same time, I noticed that Helion  have published a book about the battle of Fribourg 1644 :

 

Being a bit of a fan of Marshall Turenne ( slightly morbidly, I think I once saw the cannonball that killed him, in the Invalides museum  in Paris ), this could be a good one to try gaming, and my armies are supposed to be French and Imperialists ( OK, maybe it was Bavarians at Fribourg, but we'll overlook that! )  . The book will I assume have decent orders of battle, and they can hopefully be scaled down to the limited table and forces at my disposal - a sort of 'bathtub Fribourg', perhaps?  Actually I don't think the armies involved were all that large, at this late stage of the war, which may make it easier. So that's another book for for the wish-list - but it should be well-worth reading, Monsieur Thion being the expert on French armies of the period. 

A PBEM Seven Years War Campaign? 

Chris 'Nundanket' strikes again - he has kindly invited me to join a 'Play by Email' campaign he is planning, based on Frederick the Great's invasion of Bohemia in 1757. We talked about the idea when we met at the NAM (see above), and the discussion and some ideas batted around gave him the impetus to get started on it, I think. He has a bunch of willing generals lined up and an interesting co-operative/competitive format in mind, whereby we may be all playing Prussian commanders versus the umpire-driven or automated Austrians - it looks like it should be quite in interesting excercise. Thanks yet again, Chris, I look forward to it..  

What with getting the 1859 armies completed and hopefully a game on the table soon,  I think I have given myself plenty to be getting on with!  I've also rambled on quite long enough here, so I will call it a month and hope to come back with some actual progress in February ( which is tomorrow, of course- maybe not quite  that quickly, then!).  Meawhile I hope everyone out there is enjoying their hobby time, and until the next time keep well, everyone.   

Fnurban #36 : What's in a Name?

There's been something of a pause in hobby activities in the past few weeks - largely just due to 'daily life' happening, really  ( 'Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans..' as a working-class hero may, or may not, have said ).  A little progress on painting 6mm figures for the Risorgimento project, but nothing finished and alas, no gaming.  But there has been a little 'military history' interest, with a common thread, that being my family name. 

I think I was slightly aware that one of Wellington's staff in the Peninsular bore the name Barnes - I think I remembered him being mentioned at 'No.1, London', Apsley House, which is of course well worrh a visit if you are in central London. But recently, and  possibly after Jon Freitag's ACW Shiloh game that I took part in,  I happened to search on-line for 'General Barnes'. There was indeed an ACW character of that name, commander of the Union army's 1st Division, who disgraced himself at Gettysburg, I'm afraid. However,  I was more interested to see some details of the Napoleonic officer, Sir Edward Barnes (1776-1838).  His Wikipedia page makes a good introduction.  He seems to have had a distinguished military career, rising to be Wellington's  'fire-eating adjutant general'  in the Waterloo campaign, and was wounded in that battle. Subsquently he spent seven years as Governor of Ceylon, and was Commander-in-Chief in India in 1832-1833.   Here he is, in a portrait by William Salter 

Need I say there is emphatically no resemblance to me? ( except perhaps what is euphemistically called a  'high forehead' )  And no evidence of any family connection - my ancestors were all  lowly farm labourers in Norfolk at the time.  But I was struck by a couple of nice coincidences in his biography.  Firstly,  that he was briefly MP for Sudbury at the end of his life - Sudbury being my adopted home town. As an aside, he was first elected in a controversial by-election in 1834, which was covered by a young newspaper reporter named Charles Dickens, and probably inspired Dickens' fictional election at  'Eatanswill' in The Pickwick Papers.         

And secondly, General Barnes died at his home at Walthamstow in 1838, and is buried in the churchyard of St. Mary's Church, Walthamstow. His gravesite is marked by a large monument, with an inscription giving details of his achievements in life.  It happens that before moving to Sudbury, I too lived at Walthamstow, for about 10 years ( I suspect his house was a bit grander than my Warner Estates maisonette ), and I must have walked past St. Mary's churchyard a good many times, all unknowing. It has occurred that I seem to be following my illustrious namesake around, and it might be fun to do a little research into his life and career. By way of a start, a few weeks ago I paid a visit to the church, and found the monument : 

 as you can see it's quite impressive, but alas the inscription is by no means easy to read

- but it's a start, at least. It might be nice to find out some more.  Perhaps my new friends at the National Army Museum ( well, I paid for a membership there, mainly to donate some money and to get a discount in the cafe when attending their talks! ) can help..

Another thread of research is a bit closer to home - I have done a bit of family history investigation  over the years, and have recently been passed copies of  the RAF service records of a relative (with whom I also share surname), who was a mid-upper gunner in Lancaster bombers in 1943 and 1944. I  have his service record document which records his joining up in 1942, and then the sequence of postings to various reserve, reception and training establishments, finally arriving at No. 57 squadron  at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire in late 1942.  Scampton is famous as the base at which No. 617  'The Dambusters' squadron was formed in early 1943, and several crews joined no. 617 from no.57 squadron, so my relative may very well have been familiar with many  'Dambusters', though he remained with No.57.  He stayed with the squadron until July 1943, so I assume he completed a 'tour' of operations, and then transferred to various OTUs (Operational Training Units), perhaps as an instructor, before joining no.9 squadron ( the RAF's senior bomber unit ) in July 1944.  

All that information is interesting enough, but what is really fascinating to me, is a series of copies of  the squadron's Operation Records, for operations which my relative took part in. These give the date and target of the mission, the number of the squadron's aircraft involved,  and a summary of how the operation went - and then a separate section for each aircraft, giving details of crew members, time 'up' and 'down', whether they reached the target, time and altitude of bombing, whether results could be observed, and bomb load carried. 

As an example, here is the squadron's summary for the operation undertaken on the night of 3rd/4th March 1843 :

BOMBING OPERATION: TARGET - HAMBURG
Seven aircraft were detailed to attack HAMBURG. All took off, but one returned early with rear turret u/s and an oil leak in one engine. The other six aircraft reached the target area. Visibility was good and all saw the River Elbe and the dock system. The P.F.F. markers were clearly seen and bombed. All crews report a good concentration of bombs on the markers and report huge fires which could be seen over 100 miles away on the return journey. All returned to base except 'M' which was sent on to Wittering to land on the long runway there because of the inability to get the flaps down for landing. It landed safely there. Photographs taken on this raid show a large mass of fires with little ground detail. Those plotted (in all squadrons in Command ) show that the main concentration of bombing must have been on the little town of Wedel on the Elbe about 12 miles West of Hamburg. 

And for the aircraft in which my relative flew : 

Time up : 19:15, down 00:31. River Elbe identified and T.I. markers seen. Bombed concentration of markers at 21:35 hrs from 20,500ft. Bombing was concentrated around the markers. Bomb Load:  1 x 4,000lb H.C. + 96 x 30lb I.B. 

[  'P.F.F.' means Path Finder Force,  'T.I.' is Target Indicator, 'H.C.' I think means 'High Compression' (i.e High Explosive )  and 'I.B.' is Incendiary Bomb ]

I have Alfred Price's excellent introductory book Battle Over The Reich about the RAF and USAAF bombing campaigns over Germany, and he specifically discussed this raid - stating that the Pathfinder Force aircraft had problems with their new H2S centimetric radar sets, which were supposed to give an accurate picture of the features on the ground over which they were flying. The H2S operators were confused by low tides uncovering sandbanks which 'produced the appearance of  a river narrowing far downstram of Hamburg' . Also at Wedel 'Army engineers had dammed a small mill stream nearby to produce a large lake resembling in shape the Alster Lake in the centre of Hamburg... the majority of the raiders released their loads on the decoy, obliterating Wedel itself and several of the nearby villages' .  It seems from the squadron summary above that the failure of this mission was very soon known to Bomber Command.  No consolation to the unfortunate inhabitants of Wedel of course - and those of Hamburg had only a temporary reprieve before the horrors of the highly successful ( from the RAF point of view )  Operation Gomorrah in the following July.

I think the above gives a flavour of the information I am looking through - and perhaps the mixture of fascination and unease which they give.  I suspect that a big factor in our interest in military history ( or any history come to that ) is to consider 'what was it like to be there', and the sort of details available here help hugely in creating a picture in the mind of what the young men ( my subject being only about 20 at the time ) involved were going through,  and also, it must be said, of the destruction that they brought to the cities and people of Germany (look at the 'bomb load' details for just one aircraft,  multiply by several hundred aircraft  per operation, and think of the effect of them on the ground: huge fires which could be seen over 100 miles away ).  The amount of information available on-line on the RAF bombing campaign is impressive, including  from the  International Bomber Command Centre at Lincoln, which I now hope to visit. The records I am looking at give the ID number of every aircraft involved, and so far  a simple on-line search has easily turned up information on the fate of each one of them - suffice it to say that the operational life of a Lancaster bomber in 1943, even if not actually lost in action, was usually  measured in months.  Very sadly, the same goes for the crews, and the fascination of following my late relative's tour of duty is overshadowed by the knowledge that he 'failed to return' from a mission in July 1944, aged only 21. 

 

As an illustration of perhaps the 'small world' of Bomber Command and the amount of information available,  the above picture is from Wikipedia's page on 57 Squadron, and depicts  Flying Officer R.W. Stewart, a wireless operator on a Lancaster of No. 57 Squadron based at RAF Scampton speaking to the pilot from his position in front of the Marconi T1154/R1155 transmitter/receiver set :  it so happens that my relative flew on one mission in the same aircraft as F/O Stewart.  I am gradually reading through the records I have been given and transcribing extracts involving my late relative - it really is a very interesting, and sobering, exercise. When I was 20, living at a university and doing the final year of my degree seemed fairly stressful - I really didn't know I was born, did I? 

Aside from that, there has been a tiny bit of hobby activity, as I have made very small steps forward with painting my recently-acquired  Commission Figurines figures ( from their Napoleonic and ACW  ranges) for the 1859 Austrians vs. Piedmontese war in Italy, 

 

Here they are on the coffee-stirrer painting sticks ( always keep your coffee stirrers, I have a bundle of 'em ).  So far they've been primed, the infantry have been given their tunics/greatcoats and the cavalry horses have been painted. Still quite a long way to go, and xmas shopping, card-writing  and socialising has been getting in the way a bit, but  I will try to keep finding some time for them. 

I'm hoping to squeeze in one more post before Xmas, even if it's only a picture of a small Xmas tree - and maybe a little more painting progress. There is even a rumour of possible remote gaming.. we shall see.  Until then, keep well and enjoy the mince pies, everyone.

Fnurban #34 Duxford redux

There's been a period of quiet here, partly due to being away on holiday; to 'get back in the saddle'  I will take this opportunity to put up a picture-heavy post, and try not to be as verbose as I can sometimes be! 

Following my first visit to IWM Duxford in July,  I was able to return there in late August, and this time had a good look around the 'Land Warfare' display.  I managed to take a decent number of photos of the exhibits I was most interested in, so without further ado:

Valentine tank

6-Pounder A/T Gun

Lloyd Carrier

Very glad to see a Lloyd Carrier, I was not at all familiar with them. I like the tea-mug kept handy for 'brew-up' at any opportunity! 

 

wasn't this an Airfix kit? AEC 'Matador' and 5.5in Gun ?

the classic 'Quad' tractor and (behind) 25-pounder gun

Monty's desert command tank (the actual one, I believe?)

and the opposition: German 10.5cm howitzer

and ( I think ) 75mm abd 59mm PAK anti-tank guns

plus of course the dreaded '88'

'Hanomag' half-track (in fact a post-war Czech copy)

Jagdpanther tank destroyer

the Jadgpanther has had a section of the hull side cut away to show the interior, and we were kindly allowed a closer look at that: 

 

it was striking how the entire cabin is taken up by the gun!

Finally, some representatives of the Red Army: 

T-34/85 of course

and Joseph Stalin (mk II, I think?)

Following the WW2 vehicles, there was then a display of Cold War and later kit with some interesting stuff such as T-55, Centurion and Chieftan tanks, but I confess I did not photograph many of them, we had reached something of a surfeit of AFVs and lunch was calling!   Nevertheless this was a really interesting display with some highly relevant vehicles and weapons for me - I was particularly interested to see the Lloyd carrier, having acquired some models of it for my 'D-Day Dodgers' British forces. 

Sadly however, parts of the 'Land Warfare' area were closed, and the guides told us that this is because the whole thing is going to be closed. Not sure what will happen to the collection - there was some suggestion they might be dispersed around the other halls at Duxford, presumably to be displayed alongside appropriate aircraft, but I'm not sure really how that would work. Or would they be better moved to other IWM sites, given that Duxford is really about aircraft?  We shall see. 

 After lunch we had a good look around the main hall 'Air Space' display of British aircraft, which has a splendid collection, as you can see from just this photo : 

hmm... Lancaster, Sunderland, Vulcan, TSR2, 'and many, many more' - and there is a Concorde in the same hall!  

the English Electric Lightning is quite something..

..it's basically all about the engines!

Outside there was a lot of flying activity as usual, we were lucky to see the B-17 Flying Fortress taking off.   Also nice to see this C-47 'Dakota', no doubt coming to an Arnhem commemoration right now..

and finally we were able to get a fairly close look at the PBY Catalina being maintained on the tarmac, another favourite of mine. 

 

If you have £15,000 to spare, it seems you can become a 'shareholder' of this aircraft, though I'm not sure what privileges that gets you, apart from probably being asked for more money to look after it! Good for those who do, of course. 

All in all another excellent day at Duxford, highly recommended if you like this sort of thing! Having taken out an IWM membership, to get the full value we need to visit HMS Belfast and the Cabinet War Rooms, both in London, and those visits are indeed being planned, no doubt leading to more posts on this blog!   

One piece of actual ( albeit virtual/remote) wargming has been fitted in: this week I was lucky enough to be invited to join Jon Freitag's  re-creation of the opening phase of the Battle of Shiloh, 1862. 

I took the role of one of the Confederate commanders, and the picture shows the 'traffic jam' of our units as they crowded in to the attack!  Jon will doubtless put up a battle report soon, in the meantime his description in a recent blogpast of the game as featuring some surprise, jubilation, despair, and a lot of laughter  sums it up pretty well! Thanks Jon, and the other players, for a great game. 

That's all for now, next time perhaps some painting progress can be reported on, or a certain amount of military history interest gleaned from my recent holiday. Until then keep well, everyone.

Monte Lucedelsole - West Suffolks attack

Having set up my first Rapid Fire Reloaded game last time, this post is to report how it turned out.

The 1st Battalion West Suffolks had been  tasked with capturing the small hill-top hamlet of Monte Lucedelsole, which was being held by the German 1 Battalion, 960th Grenadiers. We saw last time that  on turn 1 the British had entered the table, pushing their  Carrier Platoon and Battalion HQ Bren Carriers close to the Wastern and Eastern woods - and promptly ran into a fusillade of Panzerfaust and small arms fire. Contact!

Enter the West Suffolks..

 

On Turn 2,  the Carrier platoon dismounted its PIAT team in the shelter of hedges close to West Wood, while 'A' Company's footsloggers moved up to join them.  In the centre, B Company took shelter behind the stone-walled enclosure which also sheltered the Support Company's 3-inch mortar team.  On the right,  Battalion HQ bailed out of its battered carriers into the cover of a hedge, where they were joined by their PIAT team and 2-inch mortar, while C Company advanced on foot to their right.

Now the British could start shooting  - not least because Rapid Fire Reloaded (doubtless correctly) allows PIATs to be used as 'HE' weapons against infantry targets, and they can be quite nasty (if a hit is scored,  roll 4D6 for effect, so you might kill 4 figures if you get lucky!).  German 3rd Kompanie in the West Wood, and 1st Kompanie in East Wood, started to take casualties. In the centre,  the Suffolks 3-inch mortar started a sort of duel with their  German  81mm counterpart on the hill, but missed with their first attempt. The fire of the British off-board 25-pounder battery could be called in by its Forward Observation Officer, also  targeted the German mortat team - and also missed!   Not great shooting by the Suffolks' mortars and artillery, and I'm afraid it didn't get very much better.. 

Carrier Platoon PIAT helps out 'A' Coy.

 

In response the Germans mostly  sat tight and returned fire - though 3rd Kompanie in the West Wood pulled back into the cover of the interior after that nasty PIAT experience. In East Wood, 1st Kompanie took a different approach, moving some men forward to join the firing line - though the mechanism of reducing their movement in woods according to a die roll meant that they moved very slowly this turn! Their comrades at the treeline inflicted one casualty on the Sufolks advancing 'C' company. 

The heaviest German eweapons in play  were by their 81mm mortar and 75mm Infantry Gun, plastering the British 3-inch mortar team in the walled enclosure. The 75mm gun scored one casualty, the 81mm mortar's first shot got another, but the mortar's 2nd shot missed! That  gave 2 casualties  on the British mortar,  but to destroy a support weapon with a 3-figure crew, you need to score 3 in the same turn, so the British mortar team survived - just!   That's quite fun rule, it certainly adds a bit of tension as you keep firing various weapons at the same target. 

Turn 3 saw the West Suffolks' rifle companies trying to push forward to the woods on their left and right, moving out to the flanks in doing so - the carrier platoon re-mounted its PIAT team, aiming to ferry them to West Wood as they realised the Germans had pulled back there.  More dramatically, on the right 'C' Company made a dash across the open, trying to rush the Germans in East Wood. British firing hotted up - the mortar and artillery  duel continuing, of course. The Suffolks' 3-inch mortar scored one hit on their German 81mm opponents - but the 25-pounder battery missed again, with both guns! Better shooting at the East Wood, where the Battalion HQ 2-inch mortar and 'C' Company's small arms fire got 3 kills on German 1st Kompanie - which was now down to half strength. the East Wood looked vulnerable, 

Turn 3: 'C' Coy. 'rush' East Wood

In response, German 1st Kompanie managed to get its remaining men up to the perimeter of East Wood to form a firing line, just in time!  At West Wood,  3rd Kompanie started to bring forward reinforcements in a similar fashion, and sent its men in the wood forward again to fire. Hopefully the situation could be stabilised on both flanks..  German fire was indeed quite effective - 1st Kompanie scored 2 kills on 'C' Company, and 3rd Kompanie killed 1 of  'A' Coy. The 75mm infantry gun shifted fire to British  'B' Company in the stone enclosure, and started to inflict losses on them too.  The mortar duel continued -  but the 81mm missed with both shots. . Things suddenly looked more tricky for the Suffolks - losing 5 figures from 3 Companies ( total initial strength 24 figures )  in one turn was clearly not going to be sustainable. 

End of Turn 3 - fighting for the woods

 

Now to Turn 4 : something of a climax, as  'A' Company West Suffolks' charged into West Wood and close assaulted its defenders.    In the centre, 'B' company decided against sitting in the enlosure getting shelled, and moved forward, hoping to reach the next hedge - quite risky!  Close Assaults are decided before firing - so 'A' Coy. and 3 Komp. rolled their dice. Attackers roll 1D6, adding the number of figures in contact to give their total score, while defenders score number of figures plus D6 roll, plus 2, Highest total wins, and the loser takes casualties according to the score difference - simple. 'A' company had 5 figures but rolled a '2' - score 7.  3rd Kompanie only 2 figures, but rolled a '4', plus bonus 2 gave a total of 8 -the Germans came out winners. 'A' Company retired, taking one casualty.  If only they'd rolled higher! 

The ongoing mortar duel just kept going, with the British 3-inc mortar getting 2 hits and 2 kills agianst the German 81mm. It was now down to the 25-pounder battery, but their FOO rolled a '1' - which means his request for a 'stonk' failed to get through to the guns, so no firing! The German mortar crew breathed again. 

Turn 4 : 'C' Coy, Close Assault - was repulsed

 

On the right, 'C' Company, the battalion HQ mortar and PIAT all fired on German 1st Kompanie - and  inflicted  no casualties!  'C' Company then took a big gamble, and charged in to Close Assault, but fortune was not with them, rolling a 2 against the Germans' 4. 'C' Company was repulsed with 3 more casualties - pretty much a disaster.   The West Suffolks' Battalion commander had little choice but to bring on his reserve.  'D' Company coming up to replace the remnants of 'C' Company.  That was a dreadful turn for the British, with  close assualts on both woods  stopped in their tracks at some cost, while artillery and mortar fire achieved precisely nothing.

 The Germans in their turn moved reinforcements into West Wood and kept firing, though with mixed results. Their 81mm mortar scored 2 hits on the British 3-inch mortar -but the 75mm infantry gun missed, and the British mortar survived yet again.  3rd Kompanie fire on 'A' Company had no effect, likewise 1st Kompanie against the Suffolks Battalion HQ,  but in the centre, 'B' Company had exposed itself to fire from a german MMG on the hill - and took another 2 losses. 

With that, at the end of Turn 4 the British were in a terrible position - 50% losses on 'A' and 'B' Companies,  75% on 'C' Company, and no real progress made. With 'D' company coming up they might take East Wood, but had insufficient strength to progress anywhere else. Their artillery and mortars had done nothing to help, getting embroiled in a counter-battery duel that had no result - though perhaps at least keeping the German mortar and infantry gun occupied, which will have saved even more losses from the rifle companies.  

 

End of Turn 4 - and of the game 

So, I called it a day at that point; far from a successful game for the British, with  Monte Lucedelsole remaining firmly in German hands.   And perhaps not terribly exciting, I'll admit, but the main point was to try out the Rapid Fire Reloaded rules.  In that respect, I was pretty happy - the rules were very simple to understand and to use.  Having started in WW2 gaming all those decades ago with Chrles Grant's Battle, these seemed to have a similar spirit - I like the simplicity of rolling a few dice needing 5 or 6 to kill, or whatever - and individaul figure removal is a balst from the past, in a good way - seems entirely appropriate for this kind of game. Spotting rules equally simple and effective, and artillery and mortar fire a matter of a few die rolls.  Mortars having two shots makes them potentially deadly, as in reality, and off-table artillery have easy rules for 'calling in' fire, and 'bracketing' - basically the second shot is more likely to hit than the first. Not that my 25-pounders managed that!  Close Assaults are pretty risky and can be costly, as 'C' Company found out, after their covering fire failed to deplete  the defenders.   In the excitement the British failed to lay down any smoke, which might have reduced casualties, but their artillery and mortars were too busy, fruitlessly trying to kill their opposite numbers.

Fairly obviously, the West Suffolks were always likely to have a hard time, but I'm afraid the dice gods took a hand, especially with the off-board artillery, and crucially in the two close assaults! But that is just how things go sometimes. It's pretty clear that a two-battalion force would have been more likely to succeed, and some armoured support could have been useful, but I wanted to keep things simple for a first game, and limit numbers of units so as not to get bogged-down. I'm afraid the West Suffolks did get bogged-down, as a result! 

I seem to have written quite a lot, considering I have described only three moves of quite a small game! But I hope it's been fun, and interesting for anyone who might be thinking about trying these rules. I am pretty well pleased with them so far, and I can imagine they would do very well for larger games - the simplicity should make it easy to handle larger formations.   I will certainly persist with these rules, as the West Suffolks and the 960th Grenadiers and their comrades begin what may be a long-running struggle up and down the land of Italy.   

Meanwhile I have also been lucky enough to take part in another of Jon Freitag's remote games, as we had a second go at the ECW Battle of Cheriton - this time with me as a Royalist, I won't give any spoilers, but it was a great game, as Jon's games usually are, and I look forward to his report of the evening! Not sure where my next post will take us, to be frank - but  until then, keep well everyone. 

D-Day Dodgers : Rapid Fire at Monte Lucedelsole

Having been 'getting round to it' for ages, I thought I'd better finally have a go at putting on a game using some of my 'D-Day Dodgers' WW2 Italian campaign troops, and try out the basic  Rapid Fire Reloaded rules.  Previously I had staged a British  assault on the (entirely fictional) hamlet of  Monte Lucedelsole, somewhere in 'Sunny Italy' - hard to believe that was in June 2020!  On that occasion Colonel Badger's force had failed to capture the position, so it seemed logical for the Tommies to have another go. 

This time the perhaps dubious honour of attacking will be given to the 1st Battalion West Suffolk Regiment, and the defence provided by the 1st Battalion, 960th Grenadier regiment of the Wehrmacht - the glorious exploits of both outfits being again mysteriously absent from any official records of the conflict. 

First, a view of the position, perhaps as seen by a British airborne observer ( North is at the top ): 

Monte Lucedelsole defences  from a British view

First of all, I should admit that it doesn't look too much like Italy! My next move in this project must be to acquire or make some more appropriate scenery - Cypress trees, olive groves, vineyards, perhaps? And maybe a less green and lush table covering too - a little more Mediterranean style. But for now, let's imagine it is rainy autumn in Italy, and try to ignore those rather Northern-looking trees.    

The German battalion has three infantry companies and have deployed No. 3 Kompanie divided between  the Western wood and hedge behind it,  No.2 Kompanie holding  the central hedgeline and the scrub-covered  hill, and No.1 Kompanie in  the Eastern wood ( on right of picture). Meanwhile  the Battalion HQ, and the 4th (Heavy) Kompanie with its MMGs and 81mm mortar are entrenched on the hill along with their Infantry Gun Kompanie with its 75mm gun - a useful piece of kit. Finally the A/T Kompanie with its PAK 40 gun is secreted behind the Western wood, in case British armour advances up the road. The latter is unlikely to see much use, however as the West Suffolks have no tank support today - I am keeping it simple in my first game, this is pretty much a straight infantry fight. With the Heavy Kompanie and the Infantry gun, the German commander must be confident of giving good account to any attacking formation - and all his troops are initially concealed from the view of any intruders advancing from the South ( I have made some of them visible in the picture of course,just for convenience ), 

Without further ado, here come the West Suffolks on Turn 1: 

Enter the West Suffolks..

The British know that the position will be defended, so are not simply charging up the road, and approach fairly cautiously, rifle companies deployed and ready for combat.  On their left (West) is 'A' Company, with the battalion's Carrier Platoon advancing boldly to the hedge-line, from where they can automatically 'spot' German 3 Kompanie in the West wood (spotting is automatic at 6 inches distance, even in cover such as a wood). In the centre, 'B'  Company footslog forward, while the Support Company's 3-inch mortar crew have dismounted from their carrier in the stone-walled enclosure.  On the right, 'C' Company moves up on foot, along with the  Battalion HQ's PIAT Team and 2-inch mortar. The Battalion Commander and his aides are also quite adventurous (rash, as it turned out), moving up to the hedgeline in their carrier and thus also able to 'spot' German 1st Kompanie in the Eastern wood.  The West Suffolks' 'D' Company is held in reserve off the board at the start.  

It looks quite a challenge for the West Suffolks, essentially assaulting a postion held by a force at least equal to theirs, but I think this does reflect the reality in Italy 1943-45, where the Allies often did not  have overwhelming numbers to throw at the Germans.  What they did have was good artillery support, so accordingly I have allocated a Battery of 'off-board'  25-pounders, with a Forward Observer unit mounted in a Bren Carrier.  I seem to have forgotten to place the FO in this picture(!) - they arrived just behind 'C' Company. Many of the  British will have been seen immediately by the defenders, but are as yet out of range of their infantry weapons and/or using some of the  hedges etc  to block line-of-sight. 

With British Bren Carriers approaching pretty close to both woods - in fact within 6 inches, which meant that the rules allowed the British to automatically 'spot' any troops there -  could the German infantry lurking at the treeline let rip at them? The rules have a useful mechanism which provides for just that - as long as they have not already moved/fired in their turn, the defenders may interrupt their opponents turn with Ambush Firing .    Therefore, the first shots were fired as both 3 Kompanie and 1 Kompanie let rip at close range - using both normal infantry weapons and Panzerfaust ( a 'one shot' weapon, but this was as good  a time as any ).  At the West wood, 3 Kompanie's Panzerfaust managed to miss, but their rifle and LMG fire scored a hit which (rather crucially) disabled the Carrier Platoon's vehicle-mounted machine gun (VMG)   - so it could not return fire. At the East wood, 1 Kompanie's Panzerfaust operators aimed better, scored a hit and damaged the Battalion HQ Bren, but did not destroy it - I imagine the Panzerfaust round must have glanced off the armour somehow! The riflemen and LMGs did better, inflicting one hit and thus also disabling the Bren's VMG.  All good fun,  and a learning process with the rules - the British carriers got close to the woods to  spot the German troops within, and got into the cover of hedges, but in the process were rather shot up, and lost their VMGs, and therefore their ability to return fire!  Perhaps it would have been better to have advanced a little more slowly - at up to 12 inches they could have taken a test, rolling 1D6 (needing a 5 or 6 to succeed ) to spot the Germans in the woods.  Probably the latter would have opened fire anyway. but would not have been able to use Panzerfausts - the British carriers would most likely have got off more lightly, and may have been able to return fire, the Germans having revealed themselves by firing. A nice lesson on tactics, and a bit of 'learning the ropes' of Rapid Fire Reloaded.

Next, the British could fire - but those carriers were no longer able to! Only a couple of figures of  'A' Compamy were able to 'draw a bead' on 3rd Kompanie in West Wood, but their shooting was good: they rolled a 6, inflicting the first figure loss on the defenders ( old school figure removal - I rather like it!), and that completed the Britsh turn.  Over to the Germans, who moved no units but were able to let rip with a small storm of fire.  3rd Kompanie shifted their attention to the West Suffolks'  A Company and did well (rolled 5 and 6 on 2D6) , removing 2 figures.  From the hill the Heavy Kompanie's 81mm joined in, zeroing-in on their British 3-in mortar counterparts. With HE 'direct fire' you roll 1D6 to hit, then for an 81mm mortar it's 3D6 for effect against hard cover, 5 or 6 to 'kill' - they inflicted 2 kills. BUT a crewed weapon with 3 crew has to lose all 3 in one turn to be eliminated, so Gerry needed another hit - at which point, I realised later, I didn't notice that mortars fire twice per turn... oops! The German infantry gun joined in, but rather crucially missed, and the British mortar crew lived to fight another turn - to make things fair, I allowed them only one shot in their next turn. At  the East wood, German 1st Kompanie kept up their fire on the damaged Battalion HQ Bren carrier, but could score only 1 hit, not enough to knock it out  - an open-topped AFV requires 3 hits from infantry weapons to be eliminated.  

So battle is joined, with those rather hasty Bren Carriers having taken a bit of a pasting, but at least establishing that the two woods were defended! To be continued - I'll leave you with a picture from Turn 2, the West Suffolks  continuing  forward, with the Carrier Platoon and Battalion HQ unsurprisingly dismounting from their battered carriers:

 I have probably given far too much information here, having covered only the opening turn(!), but I am treaiing this as a sort of revision aid/discussion document  for the RFR rules : which so far, I find I like well enough.  Everything is very simple and seems pretty logical: you are rolling one or more D6 to hit, and with artillery/mortars you then roll variable numbers of dice for 'kills'. Mortars with 2 shots per turn should be pretty deadly, as was indeed the case - I  just need to remember that rule!  The spotting rules made sense too- and I  think  this is crucual in a WW2 game. You aren't allowed to speculatively fire at say, a wood, but if you get close enough to see any occupants, or if they fire first, you can let them have it - that simple rule works for me.  

That's where things stand at the moment - 'real life' has intruded rather, but I hope to get the game finished tomorrow. Will the West Suffolks be able to prevail, given their artillery support? Or will the   960th Grenadiers stand firm? I hope to  report the outcome in the next few days. Until then I hope this has been of interest to those who haven't tried these rules - and in the meantime keep well, everyone.   

Return to Picardie - and belated D-Day

A bit of a miscellany this time, as hobby time has been rather short, alas. I'm afraid it's been almost a year since Rob of Eastern Garrison fame was so kind as to sell me some rather nice 7YW period 25mm Garrison French, and to my shame I have done nothing with them,  Well, having completed enough WW2 figures to be going on with for the moment, I wanted to keep up the (tiny amount of ) painting momentum. My acquisitions of books at Broadsde the other week pointed me back to the 18th Century, so what better than to get some of these French painted? 

So, I have made a tentative start on the Regiment of Picardie - sixteen figures, which will make two units for The Portable Wargame. After a rather miserable and wet spring, the Longest Day has brought summer, and I was able to have my first outdoor painting session of the year, sat in the garden late  this afternoon. Progress was not exactly rapid, but I did slap some paint on to the general area of their coats! But what colour to use?  There does seem to be a slight dilemma - many sources suggest a plain white coat, but others posit the famous  Gris-blanc  or 'Grey White', carried over from the earlier armies of Louis XIV.  I decided on my own version of the Gris-blanc,  at least partly just to differentiate my French from my other white-clad figures, both Austrian and Saxon. Rather like an interior decorator, I've ended up with a sort of 'white with a hint of grey' produced by mixing Army Painter Uniform Grey with Titanium White. I was tempted at first to just leave the grey spray primer exposed for the coats, but that seemed a bit too strong - more 'Gris' than 'Blanc'. 

 

Not much to look at as yet, perhaps, but it's a start, and the figures are rather charming, with simple detail (not excessive) and better proportioned than the rather podgy  Minifigs that have made up most of my collection so far.  I think these will look rather elegantly chic, very French.. We'll see how I do with them. 

I can also report a slightly belated addition to the 'D-Day 80'  anniversary. My WW2 'D-Day Dodgers' project is by definition not about Normandy, of course, but I thought it would be nice to pay my wargaming respects of a sort to the event being commemorated  the other week. I have a copy of the boardgame Memoir 44 , so I thought I'd get that out, and why not use my figures and vehicles in place of those from the game?  Ideally  I would have set it up as a full-scale figures game, but alas I don't currently have enough hex terrain to replicate the full  Memoir 44 board, so I came up with a sort of boardgame/figures game mash-up, which didn't look too bad, I thought.  The model tanks only just about fitted into the hexes on the game board, but they were (just) OK.  

This is the 'Sword Beach' scenario, which was the obvious one to try given that I have British and German WW2 forces but no Americans so far! For infantry units I simply swapped my painted figures for the unpainted models in the game, for armoured units and artillery then one model gun or tank sufficed per unit, with artillery unit strength represented by the number of crew figures, and hits taken by tank units marked by simple tokens (pennies, in fact). And so to the game - the British pushed their 3 'DD' tank units up the beach promptly, using them to clear barbed-wire obstacles as they  went, but they took hits from the defending artillery ( in a protective bunker ) and the lone German armoured unit, and two of the three Sherman units were destroyed. However, weight of numbers ( and a few lucky hits on that artillery unit and other bunker-bound defending infantry ) told, especially in the central  sector.  After about a dozen turns a successful  British 'Close Assault' on the central village objective gave  the British their 5th and 6th 'Victory Medals' and finished the game in their favour - which was only right, I felt.  Here is the final situation, with the British looking very sparse on the left, but having pretty much cleaned up on the centre and right. I was glad to see a historically appropriate result,  and Memoir 44 proved to be simple, but challenging and fun.

Must get more Hexon terrain, and go for a 'proper' figures game version!

Finally for today, more D-Day - the ladies of the village handicraft group produced their most spectacular 'Pillar Box Topper' yet, in honour of the anniversary. Complete with landing-craft! 

That's all for now - as I said, this is a bit of an odds and ends post. I hope you'll forgive that, and I promise to keep on with painting those French! Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.

Punjabis Painted (almost) and an Italian miscellany

I have, at last (almost) completed painting my Indian battaltion for the 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign 1943-45 project.  So here, on parade for the camera on what looks suspiciously like a stopover in rural England before deployment, are the gallant men of the entirely imaginary  11/8th Punjab battalion:

 

They comprise (from the front )  the HQ company with Battalion commander, PIAT team, 2-inch mortar team and truck;  three  rifle companies each of 8 figures with a truck;  a fourth company with 8 figures and 2 Bren carriers;  and the Support Company with 6-pounder A/T gun,  3-inch mortar, Lloyd carrier and Bren carrier. 

Keen readers may remember that I was unsure how to recruit the fourth company, having limited numbers of figures with Punjabi Muslim style turbans or British steel helmets - I am grateful to Neil from the excellent aufklarungsabteilung blog who suggested that I could consider a Sikh company in a Punjabi battalion.  I had enough Sikh-turbaned figures to do that, and it seemed a nice idea, giving a bit more interesting variation in the battalion. So we now have 'A', 'B' and 'C' Companies of Punjabis, and 'D' Company of Sikhs. I'm quite pleased with them

 As I said, they are 'almost' complete - if you look very closely at the back, you'll see that the 6-pounder crew are in need of a change of uniform colour and skin tone. So indeed not quite finished yet, but almost! Also the transport is 'from the pool' so to speak (specifically the vehicles bought recently from the collection of the late Eric Knowles),  hence their carrier crews also look distinctly White British. So the next step is to provide some more appropriate crewmen - which should be simple enough. 

If you'll excuse my 'impressionistic' painting style (as ever, button-counters should look away now), I'll risk a close-up :

 hmmm... those HQ company bases may need a little work. You may notice that the only White British figure is the  battalion commander - as far as I know, this is pretty much true to reality (note that this is a battalion for Rapid Fire Reloaded, in which one figure represents about 15 men). Anyway I am quite pleased with them overall, and hope they acquit themselves well when they finally get to the gaming table! 

When  painting them, I decided to be a little more adventurous than a very simple 'block-painting' style, and found  some useful tips in Andy Singleton's book Painting Wargaming Figures: WW2 in the Desert

 

I liked this book, as it starts from the very basics and really assumes no prior knowledge of various painting techniques, hence great for beginners.  He also has step-by-step instructions (with plenty of good photos)  for painting figures at each of three levels of skill, which he calls 'Conscript' ( block colours and a little dry-brushing )  'Regular' ( some dry-brush highlights, and shading to finish ) and 'Elite' ( using layering and spot-highlights ).  My chaps are somewhere between Conscript and Regular, I think, and that will do nicely for me. We'll have to see what level they fight at..

This week has coincidentally provided some more Italian-related interest and events, as follows: 

(1) a trip to the BFI ( National Film Theatre, as was ) in London for a showing of  Roberto Rossellini's  Rome, Open City , which I had shamefully never seen before (and I call myself a film fan?). Absolutely  relevant to the 'D-Day Dodgers'  period, this neo-realist classic depicts life in Rome under the Nazi occupation of 1943-1944, and the hazards of involvement in the political/violent resistance movements. It's famous for being filmed very close to the time it depicts, and as the program notes say it was 'made on the streets of the war-ravaged capital with stolen electricity and scraps of 35mm stock supposedly sourced on the black market'.  It was first shown in September 1945,  less than a year after the Allies liberated Rome, and only months after the German forces in Italy had surrendered. It struck me that the people of the areas where filming took place (and the allied troops in Rome) may have been pretty shocked if chancing across the filming, as tenement blocks were surrounded and 'residents'; rounded up by parties of SS troops in full uniform, distinctive helmets and fully armed! There must have been some delicate negotiations between the film-makers and the authorities, and the locals. It's a great film, well worth catching. 

 

 

(2) Picked up at a neighbourhood 'give a book, take a book' box,  A Walk In the Sun  by Harry Brown, a slim novel recounting the experiences of a fictional US Army platoon landing on an un-named  beachhead in Italy in 1943 or 1944,  Harry Brown was a US Soldier, but not on the front-line - he was a writer for Yank magazine ('the army weekly')  from 1942. He went on to be a film screenwriter, with Sands of Iwo Jima among his credits.   I was pretty suprised to learn that this novel was published as early as 1944, as it is not in the least 'gung-ho' and does not paint a romantic picture of war, quite the opposite indeed. The platoon finds their commanding officer incapacitated before even reaching the beach, and then try to follow what little they know of their orders, given  no  contact with their parent unit. The writer  must surely have interviewed real-front-line troops, and the story 'rings true' in its depiction of ordinary men in the  extraordinary situations of war.  I haven't finished it yet, so no plot spoilers, please!  

 

 (3) Last but not least,  a different period but also Italy-based, I was lucky to take part in another of Jon Freitag's remote games, this time recreating  the battle of Bassignana, 1745.   

I'll give nothing away except Jon's picture of the initial deployments, trusting him to provide his usual excellent report of what was one of his usual excellent games, which came to quite a dramatic last-gasp  conclusion!

 I was privileged to play the 'Gallispans' C-in-C Mallebois, with a small brigade command too, while Chris 'Nundanket' and Dave 'St Cyr' took the Spanish and French wings, against Piedmontese and Austrians led by Mark 'Jolly Broom Man' and Tony 'MS Foy'.  Many thanks to Jon and all concerned, as usual, for a great game! 

Next, it must surely be time to actually try a game of Rapid Fire Reloaded : and next weekend there is the 'Broadside' show at Gillingham which I hope to attend. Plenty of material for future blogging, then. Until then, keep well, everyone.