Battle of Ascalon - 12th August 1099

Hello There! In an effort to try and catch up with the massive backlog of photographs saved on my computer, I have found a game that was played at the New Buckenham Historical Wargames Club, earlier this year.

The high quality of the painted Fatimid army was outstanding. An after action report can be found on the clubs facebook page here. 

Completed 10mm Buildings

Hello There! I recently completed some 10mm buildings and realised that I have not placed them in my blog yet.

The windmills were a bit fiddly as the centre of the sails were poorly cast with inadequate holes to hold the metal sails. I had to drill them out and then add the canvas sails, (tissue soaked in PVA ad water), and glue together. 

I painted the walls on this and the windmills, by starting with a brush paint of  Vallejo VMC836 London Grey, and the progressively lightening it by adding 918 Ivory and the 951 white. For these layers I used a sponge.

Two ruin were mainly painted in a later of 882 Grey Black and then added lighter layers of grey, dry brushed over the whole area.

The clap board walls on this larger house were painted in a layer of 882 Black Grey then added progressive dry brushes of a lighter and lighter grey. Sometimes a dry brush can be applied before the previous layer has not fully dried but to make a dry brush stand out more you have to wait for it to dry before applying the next. A final wash of a very thinned coat of black grey brings all these layers together.

The walls of the final buildings were painted in the same way. The roof shingles were painted individually in a combination of 876 Brown Sand, 874 Tan Earth and 875 Beige Brown. Once dry a wash of  Army painter Strong Tone and a final varnish to finish off.

Mohne Katastrophe

Hello There! I am currently researching further information on the Dams Raids, I realised that there is little consideration of the effects of the dams being breached on the civilian population and the German war effort.

The war had not affected the areas of the Mohne and Eder dams. While bombers flew over to attack the industrial Ruhr area and air raid sirens would prompt people to take cover, they did not suffer the attacks that larger population centres, factories and rail hubs had experienced.

While the Mohne Dam had a handful of anti aircraft guns the crews experienced more of a peacetime service. Although they had to remain on duty at night, during alarms and maintain the guns.

Being in the countryside it was possible to obtain healthy supplements to rationing. 

The Eder Dam had no anti aircraft defences as it was considered such a difficult approach to the target that it was not required.

Both dams had a number of torpedo nets across them to prevent a more conventional attacks but neither had barrage balloons or other precautions to deter an air attack.

On hearing the sirens, people logically moved to their cellars, which most houses had at this time.

After a while it was clear that they were not the subject of the attacks and curiosity prompted many to leave their shelters and climb up the higher ground either side of the valley. This provided a vantage point to view the cause of the noise, flashes and firing.  

Three kilometres down the Mohne valley, the village of Himmelpforten, woke the village priest and he realised what was happening. He had pre arranged that if he rang the bells then people were to take to higher ground. Father Berkenkopf continued to ring the bell until the deluge swept him and the churce away.

Real concern begun when a loud roaring was heard along the valley. Further people left their shelters to investigate and news of the dams being breached soon spread.

Those that had not, or could not, get to higher ground, climbed to the higher floors og their homes and eventually to the roof, to watch other houses pass by in the flood.

Further down the valley the village of Neheim held the armaments factory Wohn-und-Verpflegungslager eGmbH which manufactured mines. It held  1200 female Polish and Ukranian slave workers who perished when the ten meter high wave hit their barracks.

Similar stories can be found as the Eder Dam breached, although the damage there was more agricultural than industrial.

The loss of 90% of the capacity of both dams, when they were already swollen with Winter rains, led to a shortage of water for coal mines, smelting works, fuel plants and coking plants. Production of hydroelectricity was obviously reduced, as was the productivity of coal fired power stations, due to to the loss of coal production.

Due to the effects of the raid, coal production dropped from 813,278 tonnes to 242,870 tonnes. This was due to workers killed or dehoused, lack of water and reduced electricity supply for shaft lifts.

The knock on effects was the raw materials for ammunition and weapons production were not available. This was at a time when the Kursk offensive was close, (5th July 1943), and industrial support for that as a priority.

The physical damage, apart from the dams, included from the Mohne area alone:

96 Buildings destroyed

872 buildings damaged

12 factories destroyed

91 factories damaged

25 bridges destroyed

8 bridges severely damaged

The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill 1951

Chastise by Max Hastings

Dam Busters The Race to Smash the Dams by James Holland

Remembrance Day 2026

Hello There. On this sombre day I remember one of the photographs that I took, while in Europe on the bomber command tour.

This a small view of the Rheinberg War Cemetery. This is the small tip of a very large iceberg. It is one of a mind boggling number of icebergs.

It shows what happens when the people who are meant to lead us, get it phenomenally wrong. Sadly this happens with frightening regularity and now appears to be happening again.

With advice to 'stock up' and warnings of military service, I have to ask why this is still happening around the World.

Unbelievable that people sabre rattle and get followers with no thought of who is really going to pay the costs of their failures in Government.

Museum - Mohne Dam 2026

Hello There! A few weeks ago I returned from a tour of Bomber Command related sites, which was a Christmas present from my partner. I was very surprised and really looking forward to this as I always wanted to visit Colditz Castle, but this also included visits to the site of  The Great Escape, The Mohne and Eder Dams, a number of Cold War and World War Two sites, (including Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin and Dresden), a number of military museums and visits to a number of cemeteries which hold the graves of many brave airmen who were involved in many of the RAF raids during World War Two.

To save the reader from 'Death by Photo and blog' I will serve up a small piece of the tour, one at a time.

First up is the Mohne Dam. This is an impressive structure which during World War Two held massive amounts of water to provide hydro electric power for the Ruhr Industrial area. It was part of a series of dams forming a series of great lakes which would gradually fill during the Winter months, so raising the water level, then gradually emptying to provide hydro electric power.

The idea of destroying the Dams came from Barnes Wallis, but was also separately considered by the RAF early in the war. 

Wallis had previously designed the Wellington bomber, besides many other inventions. These included, later in the war, the Grand Slam and the Tallboy bombs. The 'bouncing bomb' was otherwise known as the 'UPKEEP'

Barnes Wallis expanded on the idea that while the RAF could dehouse workers, destroy factories and bomb rail yards, if you could destroy the enemies means of producing the weapons to wage war, then the Nazi war efforts would be dramatically affected.

Although workers and factories can be moved or, later in the war, moved into tunnels and caves, so making them impervious to bombing. the power requirements for factories, (gas works, oil refineries, coal mines, power stations and hydro electric power), to produce weapons of war, were immovable so would be more easy to attack.

As seen in the 'Dam Busters' film, both the Mohne and Eder dams have two towers. During the war the Mohne dam had some flak housed in its two towers and another just on the other side of the reservoir. The area is bordered by forest on either side by a forest on both sides.

The water outlets are either side of the dam, on the other side.

Here are two views of the approach run to the dam. While it does look a long way the attack was made in a modified Lancaster bomber, (Type 464), at a height of 60 feet and at 232 miles per hour. Also the gyroscopic effect of a 9000 Lbs cylindrical bomb rotating at 500  RPM also affected the handling of the aircraft. It can make the controls sluggish as the rotating bomb inclines the aircraft to remain flying straight.

The bomb had to released at a distance of 1276 feet from the dam

The Lancaster had to get to the correct height and speed flying along the length of the reservoir which is 6.8 miles long. This takes 1 minute and 45 seconds to cover 6.8 miles however the bomb had to released 1276 feet from the dam.

This also had to be done in the dark, although there was a full moon. 

The fall on the 'dry' side of the dam is very steep.

The bomb dropped by F/L John Hopgood, who was the second aircraft to attack the dam, in aircraft for Mother, skipped over the top edge of the dam and landed on the electrical sub station, pictured above, destroying it. This was because on the approach to the Dam, 'M' for Mother, was hit by anti aircraft fire, in the fuel tank, and the wing was immediately engulfed in flame. The upkeep was dropped to try and gain height to allow the crew to bail out safely. The aircraft got to 500 feet. The bomb aimer, tail gunner and wireless operator bailed out however the wireless operator did not survive the jump. Mainly because of how close the ground was.

I could not resist having my photo taken on the scene of a story that I have read about for over 50 years.

These views are from the other side of the dam.

Part of the dams raid that is less well reported on is the effects of the resulting flood. In the aftermath the wall of water which progressed down the valley. Hundreds of civilians and prisoners of war, that were being used as slave workers, were killed in the resulting deluge. This was particularly worse as the local population felt that they were far removed from the war. They may have heard and seen overhead raiders flying to and from their targets, but not much more than that.

Here is a picture of the reconstruction. While many have questioned the effect of the dams raid, in response to the time taken to rebuild them, the amount of man power required to rebuild them could well have been put to better use elsewhere during the war.

This also reflected the importance of the Ruhr area and its disrupted water supply to the German war machine.

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.