"I was the last Desert Rat left firing at Rommel’s Panzers": Incredible tale of heroism behind Antiques Roadshow painting

Ordered to ‘fight to the last man and the last round’, they stuck to their guns as their comrades fell around them.
For three days, the brave band of Desert Rats suffered relentless Panzer attacks and mounting casualties as they held the line in North Africa from Rommel’s advancing tanks. Their heroism during one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War was later immortalised on canvas.
Now the only surviving ‘Tommy’ depicted in the painting, 93-year-old Ray Ellis, has told of the ‘miracle’ that saved his life.  Link
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Picture Of The Week - Tiger Problem

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Comment:  Just a tiny problem here, nothing trivial...

Super Hornet Low Level Training

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Comment:  Some jaw dropping flying here.
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Flagship Magazine

Years ago I used to play a lot of Play-By-Mail (PBM) games and for a while subscribed to a dedicated magazine called ‘Flagship’ that was devoted solely to this type if gaming. I’m currently trying to encourage a group of my friends to go into a Dark Age II Play By E-Mail (PBEM) game with me, and on a whim today I Google'd ‘Flagship Magazine’ and was pleased to find that it is still going, both in a hardcopy format and as a ‘free’ downloadable pdf.  They have expanded to scope of the magazine so that it covers wider gaming as well, so I found quite a lot to enjoy. Certainly worth a look. Link
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Black Powder ACW Game

Last night I played my first proper game of the Black Powder rules published by Warlord Games. My friend Theo Street had done an excellent job of generating a scenario for us loosely based on the First Battle of Bull Run 1861. Myself Andy B, and John S were the clean living Confederates on the left flank of the Confederate line, taking on the corrupt Northern scum in the shape of John E, Steve, Simon A and Chris J who have flanked crossing the Bull Run creek. The Union forces can be seen crossing the Bull Run Creek from Sudley Mill with Sudley Church clearly visible.  We each had a Brigade (or 2) under our command, and a persona on the battlefield. Myself, I was the famous Stonewall Jackson :)
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The Confederate battery is positioned further east covering the Stone Bridge with Union forces visible having crossed Farm Ford.
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I’m afraid I don’t have time to write up a full AAR, plus the battle is still under way and we will continue it next week. Suffice to say though it must rank as one of my top gaming nights ever. Fabulous banter round the table and wildly varying dice throws at critical times made for an incredibly entertaining game with a perfect blend of Strategic and Tactical decisions having to be made on some great looking terrain. I’m indebted to my friends for the loan of a Brigade of troops (3 Inf Regts of 24 Figs each and 2 guns + 1 mounted C/O).  Deep into the game although they have taken some casualties, all my units are still intact. Inspired as I am, I’ve been and ordered the rules from Amazon. I'm now seriously considering whether to buy the Brigade pack from Perry Miniatures, which at £45 for over 100 figures looks excellent value for money.

Bolt Action at the Harrogate Club

Joined in another game of WW2 20mm using the Bolt Action rules last Thursday.  Like at X-Mas I had a Panther.  -After being quite badly pinned I pulled back round behind a hill, cleared the pins and then moving forward, taking out a Sherman 75 that was sat near the objective. 
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Quite an enjoyable game however I am slightly frustrated by inaccuracies in the vehicle listings.  I have therefore resolved to come up with my own listings, and have made a start on German listing.  In my next game in a few weeks time I hope to trial some house rules we have been talking about.  I'm currently thinking of introducing: (for AT fire on vehicles):
+1 for each second and subsequent shot at Target.
+1 if target hit in previous turn.
+1 If firer has Optics bonus and firing at long range.
-1 Long range shot with High Velocity (HV) round or AT Gun HEAT round.
-1 Target moving at 45% to 90% across front of firer up to 9" movement.
-2 Target moving at 45 – 90 across front of firer over 9" movement.


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Honoured at last: Heroes of the Arctic convoys, the "worst journey on the world"

Today crowds of well-wishers cheered as General Sir David Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, pinned the medal to the chest of frail retired Commander Eddie Grenfell. Link
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In pictures: HMS Belfast at 75

In pictures, HMS Belfast at 75.   Link to the BBC Web site.

Knight's grave found under car park

The grave of a medieval knight and the foundations of a monastery built by a former king of Scotland have been found under an old city car park.

 Archaeologists made the discoveries, with dozens of other artefacts, during the excavation of a building site in Edinburgh's Old Town. Link to MSN News.
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Iraq War - 10 Years On: UK MOD accused of neglecting Iraq war casualties

In the first of a three-part series marking the 10th anniversary of the invasion, an army officer tells how he lost his marriage, his career and, for a while, his mind through PTSD. Link
Comment: Worth a read to get a small insight into the problems guys with PTSD suffer.
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Borderlands: Claptrap Web Series Episodes 1 + 2

Comment:  If your a fan of Borderlands this is brilliant !
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Space Hulk

Comment:  This is excellent !  LOL
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The T-34 in WWII: the Legend vs. the Performance

The technical superiority of the T-34 in 1941 (and during WWII in general) has become the stuff of legend. Its apparent superiority has become so entrenched in the psyche of post WWII authors that it is now assumed without question. Some go as far as to claim the T-34 as “the finest tank of the twentieth century” and the T-34 “rendered the entire fleet of German tanks as effectively obsolete”.(1) However, if battle performance was (and indeed still is) the ultimate determinant of the effectiveness of any weapon system, then unlike some legends in WWII, the tactical combat record of the T-34 does not match up to its legendary status. An objective look at the T-34’s record, without preconceptions, reveals questions which are hard to answer given the T-34’s apparent superiority. Link
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Comment:  Worth a read if your into WW2 tanks.
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'Panzer Marsch'

Limited-edition prints of an oil painting depicting Tiger 131’s final moments in military service are to be sold to raise money for the upkeep of The Tank Museums most famous exhibit. Link
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Comment:  This would look good on the wall of my study  :)
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Sherman - 'Tanking Up'

Spotted this picture on a thread on the Historic Military Vehicle Forum (HMVF), and just felt I had to re-post here :)
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And I quote, "nearly at the end of the road run the Sherman was decidedly short of petrol so Rod drove the tank straight onto the forecourt. The mayhem this caused was hilarious, the manager thought the tank was going to disappear below ground, but all went well and we continued on to the pub"
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The Land Mattress: Canadian Ingenuity Takes Flight

The Land Mattress, a multi-barreled rocket launcher was the brain child of Canadian artillery officer Lt. Col. Eric Harris and perhaps more than any other Canadian weapon of the war demonstrates not just ingenuity but versatility. Necessity is often called the mother of invention and war the crucible of progress, in late 1944 Canadian forces fielded a rocket launcher that demonstrated both these philosophies. Read more on the Flames Of War web site: Link.
Comment: This is an excellent article on a system I had never read about before.
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Taking to the skies on RAF's new transport plane - A400M

The MoD is buying 22 A400M Atlas transport aircraft to replace the RAF's fleet of C-130 Hercules planes, with the first aircraft set to enter service in late 2014.  Link to the BBC.
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Q&A With A Former GW Employee

The thread has been messed with, but still makes interesting reading...  Link
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2011 West Virginia University Marching Band Armed Forces Salute

This is incredibly cool !
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Follow Me ! World War II Combat Wargame Rules by Peter L Rice

Follow Me ! - World War II Combat by Peter L Rice

Many many years ago an old friend of mine George Carhart brought me a copy of these rules back with him from America (originally published in 1979).  For several years we used them until we moved onto other faster sets, purely because we wanted to use more tanks on the table, but they remain in my view, the benchmark against which all other rules are judged in terms of the detail and the accuracy of the fire resolution tables.  Long out of print they remain my most cherished rule set.

Working on percentages, you first calculate the target size (relative to the range involved), the virtual speed of the target factoring range and angles to calculate a base to hit chance.  This is then modified by speed of the firer.  Subtleties are woven into the rules in terms in terms of:

1.       Gun velocity which affects the virtual speed of the target.

2.       Specialist optics (which reduces the drop off in target size over 500 metres).

3.       Crew training (speed of target and target size adjustments).

4.       Bonus for subsequent shots at the same target (increase in target size).      

5.       Defensive armour bonus for 45 degree armour hits.

What got me thinking about these rules is that my chums at the local Harrogate club have been playing a few tank v tank games using the Bolt Action rules in 20mm.  As I’ve said before, IMHO the Bolt Action rules work ‘okay’ but certainly in armour v armour aren’t anything special.  In Follow Me working out the ‘to hit’ percentage you need takes a little bit of effort (although not as much as it might sound) but when your only using a few tanks each you can use a quality rule set IMHO.  I’m going recreate the tables in Excel and some vehicle stats and plan to run a game in a few weeks.  I’m playing with the idea of programming Excel to do all the calculations, but by the time you have typed in the factors, you could probably have worked out the number you need to roll ! LOL    I shall be doing a few postings over the coming week or so to report how things go.

Friday Humour - The Old Pilot

You think you have lived to be 83 and know who you are, then along comes someone and blows it all away!

An old Marine Pilot sat down at the Starbucks, still wearing his old USMC flight suit and leather jacket and ordered a cup of coffee. 

As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the pilot and asked, ‘Are you a real pilot?' 

He replied, 'Well, I've spent my whole life flying planes, first Stearmans, then the early Grummans.... flew a Wildcat and Corsair in WWII, and later in the Korean conflict, Banshees and Cougars. I've taught more than 260 people to fly and given rides to hundreds, so I guess I am a pilot, and you, what are you? 

She said, 'I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked women. When I shower, I think about naked women. When I watch TV, I think about naked women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women.' 

The two sat sipping in silence. 

A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old pilot and asked: "are you a real pilot?" 

He replied, 'I always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a lesbian.'

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F14 Tomcat

Came across this nice little video of the F14 Tomcat, one of my favourite aircraft of all time.
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Picture Of The Week - No 13 - I've Got My Eye On You !

A picture of my friend Andy Baxter's 15mm Alien figures, made by Irregular Miniatures.
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Hiding the Lockheed Plant during World War II

Hidden in Plain View

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a possible Japanese air attack.
They covered it with camouflage netting to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

Before...


After


The person that provided these pictures said she got an interesting story about someone's mother who worked at Lockheed, and she as a younger child, remembers all this. She says that to this day, these are the first pictures of it she's seen.


Another person who lived in the area talked about as being a boy, watching it all be set up like a movie studio production. They had fake houses, trees, etc. and moved parked cars around so it looked like a residential area from the skies overhead.


I lived in North Long Beach during World War II, I was 13 years old. (1940) The Long Beach airport was near Lakewood, CA. There was a large Boeing Plant there. If you would drive down Carson St.going south you could drive under the camouflage netting.  (Ed Pollard)


I am 85 and had much of my pilot training in Calif. I have been under this net and have seen it from the air. During preflight training I rode a bus under the net and was very surprised as I didn't know it was there. It was strong enough to walk on and they hired people to ride bicycles and move around as if they lived there to make it look authentic. (Warren Holmgreen Jr)
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Friday Humour - Royal Navy News

Royal Navy News

The Royal Navy is proud of its new fleet of Type 45 destroyers. Having initially named the first two ships HMS Daring and HMS Dauntless, the Naming Committee has, after intensive pressure from Brussels , renamed them HMS Cautious and HMS Prudence. The next five ships are to be named HMS Empathy, HMS Circumspect, HMS Nervous, HMS Timorous and HMS Apologist.

Costing £850 million each, they meet the needs of the 21st century and comply with the very latest employment, equality, health & safety and human rights laws.

The new user-friendly crow's nest comes equipped with wheelchair access. Live ammunition has been replaced with paintballs to reduce the risk of anyone getting hurt and to cut down on the number of compensation claims. Stress counsellors and lawyers will be on duty 24hrs a day and each ship will have its on-board industrial tribunal.

The crew will be 50/50 men and women, and balanced in accordance with the latest Home Office directives on race, gender, sexuality and disability. Sailors will only have to work a maximum of 37hrs per week in line with Brussels Health & Safety rules, even in wartime! All the vessels will come equipped with a maternity ward and nursery, situated on the same deck as the Gay Disco.

Tobacco will be banned throughout the ship, but cannabis will be allowed in the wardroom and messes. The Royal Navy is eager to shed its traditional reputation for; "Rum, sodomy and the lash"; so out has gone the occasional rum ration which is to be replaced by sparkling water. Although sodomy remains, it has now been extended to include all ratings under 18. The lash will still be available but only on request. Condoms can be obtained from the Bosun in a variety of flavours, except Capstan Full Strength.

Saluting officers has been abolished because it is deemed elitist and is to be replaced by the more informal, "Hello Sailor". All information on notices boards will be printed in 37 different languages and Braille. Crew members will now no longer be required to ask permission to grow beards or moustaches and this applies equally to women crew members.

The MoD is working on a new "non-specific" flag because the White Ensign is considered to be offensive to minorities. The Union Flag had already been discarded.

The newly re-named HMS Cautious is due to be commissioned soon in a ceremony conducted by Captain Hook from the Finsbury Park Mosque who will break a petrol bomb over the hull. She will gently slide into the water as the Royal Marines Band plays "In the Navy" by the Village People. Her first deployment will be to escort boat loads of illegal immigrants across the channel to ports on England 's south coast.

The Prime Minister said, "While these ships reflect the very latest in modern thinking, they are also capable of being up-graded to comply with any new legislation coming out of Brussels ."

His final words were, "Britannia waives the rules."
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Yorkshire Air Museum

We had a fine day yesterday here in Yorkshire on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to go the the Yorkshire Air Museum at the old Elvington Airbase. I have been before but it is so many years ago I didn't have any clear recollection of what the place was like at all. I was pleasantly surprised at how much there was to see, with quite range of aircraft and general exhibits. They also have a small range of vehicles including a Chieftain tank, although due to a shortage of hangarage they were stored outside, and beginning to be slightly worse for wear. The twin prides of the collection I would say are a Nimrod and a Victor aircraft, both of which are in truly fabulous condition with virtually all systems functioning. On select days of the year they do fast runs up and down the runway.  Here are a few pictures.
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Victor Tanker
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Control Tower.
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Grand Slam Bomb.
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 Chieftain (1000) Tank.

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 GR3 Harrier.
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Buccaneer
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The Croods - Film Trailer

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Comment:  This looks good fun :)
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FUBAR - Support Weapons Table + Leclerc Tank Sci-Fi Variant

A couple of people have asked that I post the Support Weapons table from the expanded Sci-Fi FUBAR variant I've recent wrote about.  Here is a screen shot:
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 Here's a couple more (staged) photos of the Leclerc tank.
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Oblivion - Film Trailer

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Comment:  This looks excellent for sci-fi fans :)
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Search for 'buried Spitfires' in Burma called off

Archaeologists have called off a hunt for World War II Spitfires in Burma. Originally it was thought as many as 124 Spitfires were buried by the RAF at the end of the war but they have now concluded it was a myth.  Link to BBC.
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Comment:  This must be so disappointing for all those involved.

Haunting pictures U-boat washed beach WWI

The day a U-boat ran aground off Hastings:
Haunting pictures show German warship washed onto beach after WWI as it sailed to France.
The U-boat was surrendered by German forces in February 23, 1919.  It was being transferred to France but she went aground off Sussex.  Thousands of people flocked to the seafront to catch a glimpse of the vessel.  Read more: Link
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The Killing, The Bridge and Borgen

Watching a well scripted series on TV is for me one of life's little pleasures. Some of the best TV I have seen in the last 12 months has been that produced by Denmark. I’m talking here about, The Killing, The Bridge and Borgen. All of the series in Danish with English sub-titled, but such are the strengths of the scripts and the quality of the acting this does not detract. If you haven’t yet seen them, you are missing out.
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Vapnartak Haul

A couple of photos here (at Don Ms request) of the bits and pieces Alex and I picked up the Vapnartak show last weekend (Link to earlier post).  I'm part way through getting some paint on the snow troopers.  I'll post again when they are finished off.
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15mm Sc-Fi Tank (Ex Leclerc)

A couple of weeks back we visited a local Toy Fair at York Racecourse.  As every on the look out for a bargain, I picked up a Leclerc French MBT in 20mm scale for £ 3.50.
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I decided to 'convert' it to a more modern Sci-Fi tank and did a few modifications:

• 120mm main gun replaced with a Rail Gun.
• Removed the fuel drums at the back.
• Removed the commander swivel sight.
• Addition of two automated  gun systems (trophy like) on either side of the turret.
• Addition of a light auto-cannon in its own remote turret.
• Addition of a millimetric radar / ECM dish.  
• Addition of a spare GZG commander.

I then repainted it in the White/Grey/Black aggressor paint scheme I've used on 8 other vehicles I have. 

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Different Blog Template

After much consideration I have decided to change the template of the Blog.  The main reason is to all allow posting of bigger pictures.  This will also assist when back-tracking through the Blog to re-establish links after the debacle with Webshots/Smile.  I'm not totally happy with some aspects of the layout and font colours, but will tweak these over the coming days.

Operation Loyton

Followed a link to this fascinating  story today.  Worth a read.
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Operation Loyton was the codename given to an ill-fated Special Air Service (SAS) mission in the Vosges department of France during the Second World War.
The mission, between 12 August and 9 October 1944, had the misfortune to be parachuted into the Vosges Mountains, at a time when the German Army was reinforcing the area, against General George Patton's Third Army. As a result the Germans quickly became aware of their presence and conducted operations to destroy the SAS team. With their supplies running out and under pressure from the German Army, the SAS were ordered to form smaller groups to return to Allied lines. During the fighting and breakout operations 31 men were captured and later executed by the Germans. Link
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Vapnartak - Show Report

Last Sunday I attended my local Wargames Show 'Vapnartak' with young son Alex and my old friend John Elwen.  This was my first time attending the show at its current venue at the York Racecourse. Must confess I was pleasantly surprised at the range of traders and games on display.  There was something for everyone, and my wallet took a right bashing.  Alex and  I came away with some Critical Mass factory buildings, a Wings of War aircraft, a second-hand 40k Dreadnought, 40 x 20mm Hoth Snow troopers (great casting) and some 15mm sci-fi infantry.  Time permitting I'll upload some photos of the figs etc as I get them based up.
     Whilst there we joined in a excellent Star Wars participation game run by members of the York Club.  Here's a couple of photos as our X-Wings successfully dodged (most of) the bad guys shooting to deliver a torpedo down the exhaust port !  
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A good day out, and we'll definitely be back next year.

Inside the 1980s time-capsule that is the Falklands War frigate HMS Plymouth

It seems a disgrace that this ship can't be saved :(   Link
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