Book Review - Battle of the Odon by Georges Bernage

Hello There! I found this book on the website of Paul Meekins Books, whose website is here. 

On initial impressions I noticed that through the books 288 pages there were many contemporary photographs which I had not seen before.

The chapters are headed:

Part One: The Scottish Corridor

In the Face of the Storm

25 June Operation Martlet

The First Day: Monday 26 June

Part Two: The Offensive Stops at Hill 112

The second day: Tuesday 27 June

The third day

The fourth day

The fifth day

Bibliography

The overall narrative included eye witness accounts from members of 12 SS Division and the relevant British units involved in the different phases of the Operation.

The German side started with a description of the integral units of the division, specifically the infantry battalions, tank squadrons, reconnaissance units and engineer/pioneer battalions that took part in the bulk of the fighting.

The order of battle of the British infantry and armoured divisions and brigades are listed in less detail than the German units, but are listed along their cap badges in their brigade groups.

The abbreviations used in the book are clearly explained at the start of the text. This is very  helpful as you do not have to search to find their meanings through the book later.

The start of the book has an old style map showing the places involved in the operation. This is not a conventional OS map, so instead  of showing contour heights by joining points of equal height, the lines flow from low points to high. These lines are very close together and so obscure some place names. The smaller named hamlets are illegible because of this.

Spread evenly through the book are a number of black and white photographs with an insert of a larger clearer map showing a smaller area which is relevant to the immediate text, with troop movements. This section also includes a number of 'Then and Now' photographs. This is a great idea and helps a lot adding a new context to the narrative.

The operation is covered in depth with many eye witness accounts and does not just scan over the details of the battle.

The attitudes between the two sides is briefly covered, but not in depth. The massacre of Canadian troops at Abbey D'Ardenne is touches upon when explaining potential atrocities by Allied troops. Although few Canadians were involved in this operation, the news of this event soon spread through other nationalities fighting in Normandy.

Incidentally, from a first hand account, I have heard of 12 SS troops 'surrendering' to British troops.. As they approached, with their hands up, they would dive to the ground at your feet, and a third SS soldier would be behind them holding a machine gun.

The veteran that I met said that worked for them once and he lost a mate through this. As he had the section bren gun, if he was approached by 12 SS troops who appeared to be surrendering, he just shoot them out of hand. He added that it was obvious who they were because of the uniform they wore.

This was particularly eye opening to me at that time as I was the same age as these young soldiers, at that time.

Overall this publication is superb for wargamers as the text is clear, it is supported by clear and relevant maps and photographs and provide plenty of potential scenarios for games.

 

Book Review- Solo Wargaming by David Heading

Hello There! While I continue to make terrain and further storage in the wargames cabin, I have been considering playing some solo wargaming. This is alongside visiting the New Buckenham Historical Wargaming Club, (when health permits), and putting on games with my wargaming friend, Adrian.

Adrian recommended this publication as he uses some of the ideas in it to run a imaginations campaign. His progress is on his blog here.

This 'Practitioners Guide' has the following chapters:

Chapter 1    Why solo wargaming, advantages, disadvantages, inspiration, guidelines, dice, cards, rest of book.

Chapter 2    Battles, setting up, types of battles, types of games, determining terrain, choosing force, generalship.

Chapter 3    Campaigns, choice, period, scale, setting up, campaign in a day, map moving, hidden movement, reconnaissance, communications.

Chapter 4    Personalities, logistics, randomisation.

Chapter 5    Siege, naval, air wargames.

Chapter 6    Advancing and further developments.

This is the first book I have read about solo wargaming and I found it very helpful, informative and thought provoking.

It was clearly and logically set out and did not flood the text with illustrations of well painted figures, which do not support the text or lend anything to the narrative.

While this is not a rule set, it provided ideas, guidance and inspiration for many different aspects of the hobby. Some of which could even be used for multiplayer games and campaigns too.

The prime problem of solo wargaming, impartiality, with the ability to take informed decisions for both sides, is handled early in this book. This has always been a question of mine, as to how to remain neutral in controlling both sides without subconsciously favouring one of the sides.

The usual recommendations of start small and once familiar with the systems that you are using, then add further conditions.

Another helpful feature is that there are references to suggestions in the text, at the bottom of the same page, so you do not have to flick through the book to find that reference.

Publications by Donald Featherstone and Henry Hyde are in the vanguard or recommended further reading but there are a few less well known books as well.

Part of the text refers to 'near wargames', battles from history that for various reasons did not happen, or to use them to help make your decisions in your own games, based on actual incidents.

Overall I found this book very helpful and made me realise that I may have become a bit lazy when it comes to doing some of the background work in the games I have put on.

I will be looking to purchase some of the bibliography from this book, in the future.

La Haie Sainte, Part One

 Hello There! I have started the second Waterloo building, now that La Belle Alliance is finished.

This model will eventually be on a base board and will include the vegetable garden at one end and the small orchard at the other.

To calculate the size of the courtyard, stable block and the front wall I decided to build the farmhouse and barn first.

This also gave me the chance to get the sizes of these two buildings correct in relation to each other as the barn is discernibly bigger than the farm house but neither of the buildings can be so big as to make a massive footprint for the building overall

After a couple of attempts I managed to get a satisfactory size between the two main buildings. This is the barn. The photos show details of each side but also the first few steps of assembling and embossing.

I realised early that while the model of La Belle Alliance was fixed to a base early in its construction, these buildings would be made separately and then fixed to a large baseboard later.

To solve this problem I glued a strip of plasticard along the bottom edge of the barn.

After writing out a plan of each face of the building, I glued this to the Canson foam board and cut out the window and door apertures. I then glued the building together and allowed to dry.

The doors and windows were then lined with scored plasticard, to act as frames.

Then I started the embossing of the brickwork.

Moving around to the next side you can see the embossing progressing and a construction line to keep everything level.

Again more construction lines and some suggestive guides to put the plasterwork on the brick surface.

Here is a close up of the same wall. I have dug out some bricks to suggest they have 'blown'. I have done this by running a scalpel along each side to separate the single brick from its surroundings and then prise out using a suitable dental tool.

This is a close up of the first trial of the plaster work. I spread all purpose ready mixed filler thinly over the surface and when hardened, gently rubbed the whole area with a soft DIY sanding pad. This smoothed the surface of the plaster and flattened the exposed brickwork. As  you emboss the bricks they take on a curved surface to the and flattening the surface out makes them more realistic. 

This is the last side. The brickwork is completed and plaster is done. The 'fortunate' mistake with this side was I applied the plaster then started embossing the opposite end. While doing this embossing I unknowingly pressed this side onto the leather sofa surface. Next morning I had the great effect on the left hand side of the wall. It was also easy to remove what was stuck to the surface of the sofa!

I will attempt to recreate this effect on the other sides, but not using my fiancees sofa!

Casting!

Hello there! After a while, I managed to source a company who could make some moulds for me, so after a little trial and error, I can now honestly say ’I can do casting me!’

This is something I have wanted to do for years but never had the facilities, time to learn of the space to try this out.

This is just a start and I hope to have some of the trenches, that I made the original masters for, for my own use!

Battle of Spencers Ordinary 26th June 1781

Hello There! After a long absence I was able to take part in an AWI game at the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers Club.

This battle was named after the tavern which is upper left of centre in the photo above. The Continental forces entered the table at the lower edge which the Tory forces were defending the convoy which can just be seen at the 'T' junction. The continental cavalry were already on the table facing a light artillery piece.

The tory forces had their largest battalion behind the tavern.

Originally the Tory forces were surprised by the appearance of Continental forces, which they did not expect to be in the area. The Tories decided to fall back, barring the way to the convoy.

Here is a better view of the Tory battalion which originally deployed behind the tavern.

Two smaller unit were deployed on the Tory right, just in front of the road that the convoy was to travel down.

Here they are and include some Jaegers.

The Continentals started in the woods and in the battle moved through the woods and surprised the Tories as they appeared from the woods. In this game the movement through the woods would not allow the troops to reach the end of the woods in time for the game duration, so I moved them to the edge of the wood and after reaching the road which bordered the wood, advanced and turned left across the front of the tavern, to try to cut the convoy off before they disappeared off the table.

Doing this also meant that they took flank fire from the tavern as they passed.

The convoy speed was controlled by dice throws each move. These were rather lucky for the Tories so it made good progress.

The Continental light infantry were held up by defenders on the fence line and also attacked by the Highlanders who had now advanced from the Tavern. The Pennsylvanian battalion, which had followed the riflemen through the orchard, were surprised on the flank and the front by a double attack and promptly surrendered leaving the Continental riflemen to quit the battle with the tail of the convoy disappearing off the table.

Here, a view from the the far right of the Tory lines, the convoy disappears at he Continental rifles face off with the artillery.

This was a very enjoyable game, using the clubs AWI rules which where written when we gamed at the Coltishall Cowards club in the 1990's

It also showed that you do not have to field a massive array of figures to have a great game.

A larger commentary is present on the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers Facebook page, here.

La Belle Alliance Part 6, (and Final Part).

Hello There! I have finished the La Belle Alliance model. I can now go through the last steps of building. The last previous part of this tutorial is here.

As you can see I have added the moss to the main roof. When this had all dried I then did a very light airbrush of mid brown and the left to varnish next.

I added a watered done brown to the sign and allowed to dry.

The boards at the end of the building were cut from thin plastic card, painted in white enamel and painted the same way as the window frames, door frames and doors.

The sign on the end of the building was covered in a combination of AK Slimy Dark Green and AK Slimy Light Green enamel colour. I washed these with white spirit to get a thinner finish. 

Here is a clearer view of the moss on the main roof.

Here are the materials and tools I used to place the moss on the roof of the building. I also used some watered down PVA to ensure the finished 'moss' stayed in place.

Overall this work was a practice to find out what the problems were, with such a build. I picked up a few tips to avoid some problems when making further buildings in the future.

Battle of Arcola, 15th to 17th November, 1789

Hello there! Here is a game that was put on at the New Buckenham Historical Wargames Club.

This was part of a series of linked games from the Revolutionary Wars. Due to shortage of figures we used figures in later uniforms for this game.

The curve of the river and the marshy area can easily be seen and this allowed Napoleon to use internal lines of communication.

One bridge was taken by the French attacking forces.

Here is a nice little vineyard, which I will 'poach' for the Mediterranean scenery that I am making at the moment.

This wagon was particularly eye catching as I am also working on a convoy and supplies scenario for a horse & musket period game.

There are further pictures here. on the club facebook page. I took a small part in the game and it was particularly well run and very enjoyable.