Visit to Saumur Cavalry Museum

Hello there! Well I was expecting to start posting more on here a week ago but after over two years of avoiding covid, including my young daughter getting it twice and not passing it on to anyone else in the house, it finally got me.

I have been luckier than most as I have only had one day of being really bad and laid out in bed but I cannot return to work until I get two clear LF tests.

Meanwhile I have visited the Tank Museum in Saumur before but missed this museum, their website is here.

This is the building which houses the exhibits and it is in the grounds of  a much larger complex still used by the French Military. The building above is the former stables.

This is a picture of some of the surrounding buildings. Their barracks look a lot posher than anything the British have to offer!

I think these stables may have been more extensive and were at both ends of the exhibit rooms.

Leaving the stables you enter the museum proper. This paintings artist is named Bellange Hyppolite, so a familiar name in the Napoleonic period. Unfortunately the lighting was poor but this was probably to protect the exhibits. 

This painting did not have a name, that I could see.

This was a sabretache of the 4th Hussars, and looked original but am open to its age as the crown may mean it was not 1st Empire? I am only guessing there but the description plate above does not give a year.

This is a copy of a sword of the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard. It looked heavy so handling this could not be easy for an average modern day person. Seeing something like this close up gave you the idea of the weight of this sword.

This painting is entitled the 11th Chasseurs. This display cabinet is centred around The Austerlitz Campaign with the paintings based on that period too. 

Again three copies of swords from the First Empire. Here attributed to General Rapp.

The two cuirasse above are the 1804 and 1812 models. These did appear original and the captions to go with them did not say they were copies.

A larger display of a cuirassier was prominent in the museum.

This display was cantered around the Guard with a horse grenadier and a copy of a standard of the regiment.

This shako was from the Guides of the Imperial Guard. I was able to get a close up of the cords decoration as I have not seen the intricacy of them close up before. Someone actually had the job to make these all day long? 

This was a relatively short lived unit so maybe quite rare.

This was a copy of the original standard as this was very pristine for something that was 200 years old.

The figure was dressed in the surtout jacket but still looked impressive. The aiguillette was very red in colour, something I thought would be much more orange for the 'aurore' colour.

This was described as a Marshals bicorne which did appear very worn, especially the feathered edging. The leather was also very faded. 

The pistols, bicorn of a Marshal of France, sword and uniform of a General of Brigade were all original.

The few flags that were on display are all behind two layers of glass so difficult to photograph closely.

This display concentrated on the Dragoons of the French Napoleonic army. It included helmets, swords and plates of their uniforms as well as some guidons. 

Next we were onto Fontenoy. This also had a lot on display.

At the far end of the museum there were a number of WWI and WWII displays. There are displays of medals and memorabilia.

Some French subjects included a French Foreign Legion Kepi Blanc and a display of hospital instruments.

A display of German equipment includes firearms, a panzerfause shell, a tank jacket, (probably the 'wrapround' version used by SPG crews), although it was in a 'zeltbahn' pattern

There were also a number of WW II exhibits from the early part of the war.

I cannot resist a pickelhaube! I have seen many examples of this type of headgear for sale over the years, usually for many hundreds of pounds.

 Lastly outside there was a Sherman HVSS tank. Overall  it was a very enjoyable visit with many exhibits that I have never seen before. In some ways it was more enjoyable that the tank museum. Highly recommended.

Desert WWII 20mm Game

Hello There! Back at last! Well agency work and a number of days abroad I have got back to posting. I have a few posts to catch up with my catalogue of  photos which has started to pile up!

On the day I realised that I had left my camera at home so Adrian kindly supplied the photos for this post

First up we have a 20mm WW II desert game. Adrian and I played  a few weeks ago. I have a large collection of desert forces and took the opportunity to get the French Foreign Legion, Italian and DAK forces onto the table. Above is an oasis which I made for Adrian and this formed part of the defences of the French.

The Axis forces advanced on a broad front and well spaced out. They were in two groups ordered by nationality. The armour led the way with their lorried infantry support close behind. 

The drop on scenery of the dunes go well with my desert scenery and further scatter of sand and Cotswold buff stone chippings.

The Opel Blitz lorries are old Esci models from the 1990's while the remaining models in the above picture are SHQ metal models. The lorries have brass wire canvas rings and plasticard planking.

The Italian forces had a group of Semovente in the vanguard of the Italian attack.

The Italians lorries were the now defunct Minimi models resin models.

Many of the tanks and AFVs have commanders and crew visible

This old and recycled Esci Panzer II was also in the attack. The main gun was replaced with a piece of brass wire to make it more wargames proof. The model came from the scrap pile of a number of Esci models and I was able to reclaim a number of models from that pile.

When the forward armoured units started to come under fire the infantry debussed and started to spread out to the attack. Here the Germans are supressed so go prone. This has the effect of making them harder to hit but also stopping their advance.

The French Foreign Legion occupied the ridge of one of the dunes, in trenches, and had a company behind in support with a further company ahead of them at the foot of the dunes. The had a link to the mortar of their heavy weapons company.

As the axis forces got closed to their enemy positions they started to take casualties. This caused a problem for them in that the tanks could not close with the enemy without infantry support. Eventually the more numerous Italian infantry were able to assist.

This Morris conversion is the Airfix towing vehicle from the bofors gun set and with a resin flat bed from Moonlight Models in Canada. It was a beute conversion from vehicles captured at the end of the French campaign.

The French, despite being in trenches suffered a lot of casualties, mainly caused by the off table 105mm howitzers that the Germans could call upon. The French were waiting for tanks to come to their rescue but the dice throws that decided when they would arrive were not kind.

This old Esci Matilda has an AB commander. The aerial is a cat whisker.

Eventually the Valentines and Matildas arrived, almost too late! They soon started to take a toll of the German armour.

As tanks started to brew up across the board the French infantry had to retreat due to their high losses leaving the tanks to fight it out.

The Allies also had a recce unit to help. Here this Daimler is a Hasegawa model. Again the aerials are cat whiskers.

Hand to hand fighting started in the oasis as the Italian infantry started their assault.

At the end of the game, which had been very see saw, the Allies were compelled to give up the field to the Axis forces.

It was a really enjoyable game with mixed fortunes going to both sides and was really close. We use a modified version of Rapid Fire rules and had the troops who came under artillery fire to go prone but could still slowly move forward.

Another game is on the cards for the future.