Anuvva Freikorps Officer

Another Copplestone figure.

It's not well known but Guderian, who was a complete shit in many ways, was a Feikorps officer in the Baltic: not something you will find much about in his memoirs.

Freikorps Officer

This is a Freikorps officer and bodyguards from Copplestone Castings where they are sold as 'German Mercenaries'.

It is not too much of an exaggeration that the Stormtroopers of WWI became Freikorps, then SA, then SS.

To understand the nihilistic mindset that ended up with death camps one could do a lot worse than read Storm of Steel by Junger.

Tachanka

 Russian Civil War reenactors with a Tachanka

A Tachanka was a carriage with a rear firing maximum gun used primarily in the Ukraine and related areas. It was a support weapon for cavalry formations in the first and second World Wars, the Russian Civil War and the Russo-Polish War.

Warlord Games Model

I put one of these together and painted it. I have to say the model is great. The crew are in in WWII uniforms but heads could be swapped to make earlier examples.

A Museum Exhibit

Artwork

The Tachanka is always associated with Nestor Makhno, the anarchist leader in the RCW, who used them extensively.

Monument

There are all sorts of theories about how the word Tachanka was derived from various Ukranian or Russian language sources but the truth is no one knows. It is, however, as iconic to cavalry warfare on the Ukrainian plains as the Spitfire is to the Battle of Britain.

Rivet Wars

Played Andy at a game called Rivet Wars at the Medway Club last night. Wonderful little game played on a board with steampunk-WWI models. It's like a double seventies video game where you march new forces every turn down the board to do or die.

Andy is the guy in the photo at the masthead of this organ from when we demo'd Hammers Slammers at the Artillery Museum in London. Course, he was a lot younger then - and so was I.

We played a scenario where the objective was to bomb 'factories'.

For a simple game, Rivet wars offers deceptively complex tactics.

Many thanks to David who supplied all the models and umpired.

I won - just!

Bolt Action - British 'Rhomboid' Tanks in Berlin '45

This is a colourised photo of the Berlin Cathedral taken from the Lustgarten after the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The cathedral was burnt out in May '44.

Have a good look at the destroyed tanks.

Here's another photo.

The tank seems to have been destroyed while running, judging by the tracks.

So what are we looking at? On the face of it the Germans seem to have got two British WWI heavy tanks, maybe MkIVs or Vs, running as part of the last ditch defence of Berlin.

Which also raises the issue of where they got them from:

The British in WWI? The Germans certain used captured British tanks both in the war and in Berlin afterwards to restore order.

The Red Army captured British tanks from the White Russians after the British pull out and some could have been captured by the German Army or Freikorps in the battles around Riga after the war.


Another possibility is that they were captured by the Germans on the Leningrad front in '41, from a Museum, or even from the Red Army. The Soviets were using all sorts of obsolete gear.

Wherever they came from, these two British heavy tanks are a wonderful invitation for a bit of creative modelling and wargaming. I feel a scenario coming on.

Early British Heavy Tank

In keeping with the WWI theme this week, this is a model of a Mk1 (I think) British Heavy tank. The wild camouflage pattern suggests it is very early, perhaps 1916.

The dorsal mesh is to stop grenades being lobbed on top and the wheels at the rear were to aid steering.

This is it folks, the first tank. It all started here.

The First

If this isn't the first armoured fighting vehicle to go into combat then it must be one of the first.

Appropriately enough, it's a Rolls Royce.

Railway Gun

If you're driving between Essex and Hampshire this week watch out for this on the move, a railway gun, being transported by, er, road.

That is going to create one hell of a jam when it hits the Magic Roundabout, the M25 for those unfortunate enough not to live in southern England.

Guest Blog: Battle of Stallupoen

Battlefield: looking to the north east

I recently had the pleasure of running a playtest of my Stallupoen scenario at the local game shop (Lost Legions Games in South Charleston, West Virginia, USA). John was kind enough to invite me to say a few words about the game as an After Action Report.

A prelude to Tannenberg, Stallupoen was the first major contact between the Russians and Germans in August 1914. The German war plan entailed awaiting the Russian attack, defeating it, and then counter attacking. On August 17, 1914, the Russian 1st Army crossed the frontier into East Prussia, where they were assailed by the German I Corps. Contrary to prewar planning, the I Corps commander believing his troops to be superior to the Russians sought an open-field battle with the Russians. Historically, the Germans inflicted about six times the casualties or prisoners taken on the Russian forces. Calling it a win, the Germans quit the field. The subsequent Battle of Gumbinnen was a direct result of Stallupoen.

The game was played using the Command Decision – Test of Battle miniature rules. Command Decision: Test of Battle (TOB) is the fourth edition of the venerable rules set Command Decision (CD), first published in 1985. The CD rules focus on maneuver warfare, which is to say combined arms warfare during World War Two (WW2). The CD rules are tactical, for engagements at the battalion, regimental, and brigade level. With 25-years of development, TOB is a mature and elegant rules set.

In 1990, a supplement for CD entitled Over the Top was published; it covered the entire gamut of WW1. Over the next twenty years, while multiple editions of CD were published, no additional material on WW1 was forthcoming. In 2011, The Death of Glory – France 1914 (France 1914), covering the opening campaign of the war in the west, the Marne Campaign, was published. This Stallupoen game was a playtest for a new WW1 scenario book, Great War East – 1914.


Armies collide south of Stallupoen, Germans to the west (left)

The game was played with a division bathtubbed to a battalion. Thus, the Germans had two battalions representing the two divisions of I Corps. A 77mm field gun battery was assigned to each battalion. The regimental HQ, similarly had a battery of 150mm guns attached. Likewise, the Russians had two regiments of two battalions representing the 3rd and 20th Corps. Each Russian regiment/corps had a battery of 76mm field guns attached. The Germans were rated Experienced, Morale 9, and the Russians - Trained, Morale 8.


Key move to the north

The attached photos show the terrain for the tabletop battlefield and several highlights from the game. There were three victory conditions in the scenario:

(1) Terrain points - 1pt for farm, 2pts for town; 6 terrain points total.

(2) Inflict casualties - on troops

(3) Inflict casualties - guns




Heavy casualties ensue

The game was a tie for terrain points, each side having three. The Germans were awarded conditions 2 & 3 - a German victory. Most importantly, the players had fun.



Army positions in the centre at the end of the battle


Battle Report by Jessee Scarborough

SELWG - Over the Western Front

A superb WW1 display game. I like the sense of wonder it engenders in the face of the little girl. Well done guys.

The Camels Are Coming

Regular readers of this blog, i.e. my daughters and son in law (he likes a laugh) will have noted that I have taken on my friend Shaun Murphy on a number of occasions at Wings of War - and have had my clock-cleaned each time. I therefore challenged Shaun to a grudge match. This time my gallant lads of the Royal Flying Corps would triumph. This time it would be different. I chose two Camels, arguably the best British scout, and supported them by a Tripehound. Shaun ga;llantly opposed me with a couple of Roland two seaters and a single scout, albeit the exceptional Fokker DVII.

I charged straight in with the Camels to use concentrated fire on a single Roland, while sending the manoeurable but fragile Tripehand out to the wing.




The plan worked perfectly. I shot up the Roland, split the camels and came back in with another round of fire from both scouts, shooting the poor Hun to shreds. The two seater fired back once with his pathetic little gun - and hit one of the Camels in the fuel tank causing it to explode in flames. A perfectly clean, two gunned Camel just burst into flames from a popgun. The Roland required four Camel bursts!!!


I was really up against it now. The Triplane came in on the surviving Roland's tail and got set on fire bya pathetic little burst from the two-seater's rear gun. The fire spread and the Triplane rolled over and crashed. The sole remaining Camel's guns jammed. It disengaged and ran for home.

Would anyone like to buy a Wings of War set - going cheap.

AEG GIV - Bomber 1916

The AEG G bombers were short range tactical bomber with an internal bomb bay between the pilot and rear gunner. Theye were not hugely successful and were often used as general fighters. They had more success as tactical night bombers as they were very easy to fly so non-tiring for the pilot. One pilot on the Italian front mounted seven raids in a single night.

They had two engine in tractor layout and a crew of three with typicaly a front and rear gunner with good arcs of fire.

Pedantic note: 'Fighter' in WWI was a general purpose warplane with two or more crew that was armed and so theoretically did not need escorting, as in Bristol Fighter. A single seater interceptor was a 'scout'.



The Skytrex model was the usual nightmare to put together. I used copper rods to hold the upper wing on and abandoned the complex struts between the upper wing and the fusalage. The decals are a particular source of irritation. They are the worst I have ever encountered in five decades of model making. Nevertheless, the finished product ain't so shabby and Skytrex are a reliable good-service company.

The camoflague is copied from a model. I think it is for night bombers.

Skytrex Fokker E1

I have not had much chance for modelling lately, let alone playing but have finally finished a couple of E1s. These were the first true fighters with an mg firing through the propellor arc using mechanical interruptor gear. They were so successful in shooting down the RFC antiquated BE2s that this period of the war was known as the Fokker Scourge.

Skytrex FE2b Kit - Assembled the Blease way.

This is a picture of an FE2b. A large pusher two seater fighter that was one of the planes that ended the Fokker Scourge in 1916. [This photo is taken from theaerodrome.com.]


Skytrex make a white metal kit. I had a go at assembling one using the steve Blease Technique. First you drill out the holes in the lower wing so that you can shove through copper rods. use blue tack to put the upper wing in place.



Here is the blue-tack fixed upper wing,



Turn the plane upside down.


Push copper rods through the lower ring into the holes in the upper wing and cement in place. Epoxy resin gives the best structure but superglue is easier and cleaner to use.


Allow to dry and then snip off the ends of the copper rods. This makes an incredibly strong box structure. I had to use full force to make the final fine tuning of the wing alignment.



Remove the blue tack.


Add on the tail and landing gear, etc., andyou have a robust wargaming model. It ain't perfect but it ain't bad either.

Bloody April - Wings of War

In April 1917, the French and British launched the latest Big Push, aka lunatic attack. The RFC were ordered to fly army support operations into German territory. The British had about 25 quadrons, a little more than 350 planes. Two thirds were two seaters who carrried out the reconnaissance and artillery spotting missions, leaving about 120 scouts to escort them. The Germans concentrated 8 fighter Jasta, say 80 scouts, in the area.

This looks OK on paper but the RFC scouts were largely obsolete. The twin-gun Albatross scouts outclassed them in all regards. Nevertheless, the RFC was obliged to go on the offensive.




This scenario takes place in Bloody April. The British two seaters have been slaughtered so the RFC sends two single-gunned Airco DH2 pusher scouts on a deep reconnaissance. They have added a Royal Naval Sopwith Triplane as an escort. The Triplane has only a single gun but can at least match the Albatross in performance, which is just as well as the formation runs straight into an Albatross trap.



The formations close.


The Albatross break.


After an initial exchange of fire, in which one of the DH2's gun jams on the first burst, the British planes loop around on the tail of the purple Albatross. It's partner makes an attack run on the Triplane.



There is a swirling dogfight in which the scouts fire when they can while twisting to evade being attacked themselves. The powerful spandeaux of an Albatross punch through a DH2's fuel tank causing it to explode in a ball of fire. The second pusher is set on fire and the Triplane's engine is hit. It nevertheless tears straight at the purple Albatross riddling it at close range. The wings collapse and the German falls. The DH2 does not survive to celebrate. The onboard fire spreads to a petrol line and the DH2 explodes.

The Triplane escapes while it can, the pilot nursing the stuttering engine.

In the real world the Britsh lost 245 aircraft. The Germans lost 66. So this scenario was quite accurate. Two guns are a big advantage.

Thanks to Shaun who piloted the Albatross scouts.

New Wings of War Products

Gioconomicon shows some new about to be released Wings of War products abot to hit the shops.

http://www.gioconomicon.net/