A German Strasse Romp.

Wednesday 30th May

A Little Town in Germany

With much building potential

And open spaces.

                                   
                                          Tonight's game seen us romping through the streets of some late war German city involving hordes of late war Soviet gangsters eradicating local resistance in their own ruthless way.Well that was the main idea as the game didn't quite work out that way.

Good Local Government

With an excellent transport system

And excellent drainage facilities.

                                               Colin Jack had put together the game and when the rest of us arrived found ourselves confronted by a small board already set up with buildings abound.

Donald checking for his not oft seen wallet.

Far from the sea.

Big bully,

"Spread out in a bunch"

                                                  The forces were divvied up and I found myself teamed up with Bill Miller under the guise of the defending German forces who were opposed by these two Soviet commanders Comrades O'Brienski and chief skulker himself Comrade Adamski(sounds like a 90's pop act.).I didn't give us much hope as we were a hotch potch band of Volksturm and stragglers from the navy and airforce.Our only plus factor was that one of the Volksturm squads were sewer workers so we would be able to pop up on certain parts of the board to hopefully be able to shoot the invaders in the back.Well that was the plan sure to last till the first bullet goes off.

Don't move back.

Another one of Colin's unusual toys.

Another bully appears.

                                                       Our plan was to hold the line and fall back towards the government building taking as many of the bad guys out as possible but not having strong forces I wasn't holding out much hope.

"Aha! Surprise!(in German)"

Oh S**t

S                           Most of our lads were put into ambush awaiting the Soviet onslaught which wasn't long in coming well at least from Comrade O'Brienski whereas Adamski was as usual testing the waters toes first.

Going for the jugular.

Factory workers going about their normal day.

The much diminished Soviet squad.

Directing operations from the Rathaus roof.

Behind the Soviet lines.

                                   The Soviet infantry were  the first to appear hoping to draw fire and be able to pinpoint the defenders positions.as soon as they came within range we opened fire which made the Soviets duck but nothing really else as we found out when they returned fire and caused casualties all over the place with first our Luftwaffe squad and then a Volksturm squad disappearing into thin air.

Packing a punch!

In plenty of cover.

                                          To add insult to injury Dave brought on  an assault gun with a very big gun which proceeded to pound the building where my sailors were ensconced whittling them down in the process.The only good thing was that squad were still hanging on at the end of the game.

Reversing up an alley

                                  On the other Soviet flank Donaldski's infantry decided to attack my defended positions which he succeeded but lost three quarter of his men in the process.A pyrrhic victory.

But still able to lend a hand.

                                           After consulting with Feldmarschall Miller we decided to bring on some armour to try and level the game and it came in the form of a captured T34.This turned out not to be the answer to our problems as it couldn't shoot for toffee  

             
                                                After the Soviets brought on their second tank we decided to our ace and had our sewer squad materialise behind the afore mentioned tanks hoping to dispatch them and disappear back into the sewers.Fat chance as their only attempt resulted in taking some paint from the rear of the newly arrived T34.Before we got a chance to disappear back into the sewers Dave placed some of his reinforcements right on the table right into the rear of our sewer rats result an awful lot of machine gun fire and the decimation of our sewer rats.It looked like it was going to be a long evening.

Our unused SS squad.

                                   Our T34 soon attracted the attention of the Soviet tanks resulting in it reversing into cover to lick its wounds and in the next two turns found itself reversing even further.Meanwhile Donaldski had managed to overrun my defenders in the local factory after first softening them up with mortar fire.The only saving grace for us was that our tank had reversed enough to start engaging Donaldski's invaders.

Close of play.

                                 Our machine gun squad was the next to vaporise with a culmination of machine gun and sniper fire.

But still hanging on.

                                          We finally had some luck as our Nebelwerfer 'Heulende Kuh' for once decided to hit something and it was well waiting for as it destroyed an entire infantry squad embedded in a building.This seemed to take the sting of the Soviet assault and although they were in possession of a few buildings including factories they came nowhere near or hauptquartier in the government building so the game fizzled out to a draw much to the dismay of the Soviets.
                                                    A great game played out in the usual friendly style with only slight bickering between Donald and myself.
                                         All figures,scenery and scenario provided by our host Colin Jack who provided us with an excellent lamb dinner with the actual provision of the lamb being another story in itself.
                                  See you all when I see you.
                               

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.

Sunday 6th May

The Gallant Crew(sans trois)

Not a bad place to play with toy soldiers.

                         

And we get our own fire engine

  Today was our 5th invitation to the annual Wartime Experience at East Fortune Air Museum in sunny East Lothian which today was for once sunny -in fact a bit too sunny as it meant everybody headed for the beach and numbers were a wee bit down on the usual.

Memorabilia suitably altered.

My partners in crime.

                               

  Of course we didn't know this when we accepted the invitation to come and peddle our wares but an agreement is an agreement so we headed down to the museum early doors and set up our game,this time being a fictional invasion of our beloved county(and yes I mean county).

The film remains the same.

Sunny North Dunbar.

East Fortune circa 1940 complete with Gladiators albeit with no fuel.

                                        The game was set up and played usually very slowly as we spent time chit chatting with the multitude of visitors and re-enacters,which there were a few of.

Ever alert Bofors.

Suitably attired RAF tanker albeit with no fuel.

Local T.A

                                      As I said our game involved an invasion by sea and air on East Lothian guarded diligently by the local Territorial army backed up by Royal Navy units and a few funny weapons.

Here come the Germans.

Complete with waterspouts.

Waiting for the Hun.

And here they come.

Setting up the mortar.

                                        We played three turns in order to get the Germans ashore and also bring the defenders into play and let the visitors see grown men play with toy soldiers.Mr Ray took charge of the invaders whilst Bill G took on the mantle of the plucky Brits. Colin Jack was our P.R man for the day and spent most of the time conversing with the uneducated whilst I picked the random dice and barked out the orders.

New arrival to the museum collection.

Falkirk's Air game

What A Twanker!

Ditto.

                                     

"Shall we dance?"

And have a sing song.

  After the initial turns we all went for a peruse of what else was on offer so camera in hand  I headed out into the sunlight which was getting warmer and took a few photos but first headed over to the other two wargames clubs who were ther and lo and behold they were both playing the same game What A Twanker as I call it.Falkirk Wargames club did put on their Air War WW1 game what always goes down well with the kids.Outside we had re-enacters covering WW2 Brits,Germans and Americans showing of their wares supplemented by WW1 Brits and a solitary WW1 German which made a pleasant change from the norm.Also on display were a few American trucks and jeeps supplemented by a brace of Land Rovers.Inside the hangar was a display of wartime type dancing exhibited by suitably clad dancers although I can't see many nurses dancing in their work clobber.There was a trio of very nice looking young ladies entitled The Rag Dolls chanting away in between dances but they were delayed in arriving.Probably due to a wandering ME 109 or something along these lines.

"What did you do in the war,daddy?""Absolutely nothin' son"

Webley

The forerunner of the AK

An American's dream

Smokey Bear hat et al.

Ready to take no prisoners.

Any offers?

                                 On returning I was greeted by the sight of lunch being distributed amongst the gamers so not one for refusing food helped myself to a nice sannie and crisps before getting back down to the nitty gritty of playing with toy soldiers,The game was recommenced with the Germans going hand to hand with some sailors and lo and behold came out on top clearing the squad of Jolly Jack Tars from the field.After picking themselves up from that scrap they found themselves being fired on from a gun ensconced on a steam powered lorry crewed by more sailors which began to whittle the Germans down.

"Get your motor running"

German car boot sale.

You can keep it!

A few Reichsmarks.

A couple of shabby paras.

This was different -a WW1 German.

                                              Whilst Mr Ray headed for a pitstop I took charge of the Germans and immediately had them moving forward to attack Brits who were embedded in fortifications protected by a gun and evicted the infantry from the premises although I was down to a solitary figure looking forlorn.Measures were made to rectify this position by a squad coming up from the beach who after arriving at the dugout proceeded to deal with the neighbouring gun.
                                                           Things were beginning to look up for the invaders but this temporary advantage was soon wiped out as the incumbents were subjected to mortar fire which quickly landed on target forcing my lads to vacate the premises.

Pickett- Hamilton disappearing pillbox.

                                               Mr Ray meanwhile had landed some paras behind the airfield and supported by a machine gun headed towards the airfield only to be stopped in their tracks by a hidden Pickett-Hamilton disappearing pill box which lierally shot up from the end of the runway and immediately pinned the paras.No sooner had this happened when a similar one appeared at the other end of the runway and began to engage my already beleaguerd forces hanging on grimly to their foothold.

Fisticuffs between Jack Tars and Germans.

The navy's backup.

Evicting the tenants.

Paras in a corn field.

                                    Another ersatz coffee break was called for and another perusal outside to see a re-enactment between German paras and GI's which involed an awfully lot of smoke,guns going off and some wailing infants.The Americans won the day with the arrival of a big truck armed with a 50 calibre Browning machine gun which made the paras head for the nearest exit.Aye Right and that would have happened in real life.

Post WW2 jeep.

And again

M60 pig.

Another American dream.

Grease gun

A broad trying to hitch a lift.

                                                   

Tank chocolate-whatever.

One of a few million.

We headed back into the safety of our hangar to see that Colin had added some tanks into the mixture and I decided it was time to go for broke and move up our armour to engage and destroy the enemy before settling down to watch the latest film in the local town.

Revenge from the sailors.

Booyah!

View from the Concorde's steps.

Inside Concorde.

Looks like lunch is ready.

Bird's eye view of the dancers.

                                                 Mr Ray decided to be the bag man and draw the dice whilst I showed him how German forces should act and forsaking the airfield side moved my tanks up to deal with the enemy infantry and destroy the pitiful British tank sent to hold the advance.The other British tank was diverted towards my landed paras who had dug in and were taking a hammering from all sides but held on.The only consolation from that side was that after my mortar had destroyed the Bofor's gun changed its trajectory and was now keeping the defenders of the airfield's control tower heads down.

Tanks a bundle.

The defenders.

An Armadillo appears

Colonel Radl all the way from the Eagle has Landed.

The paras dig in -next to a petrol tanker.I can think of better places.

Hunting in pairs

The result.

                                         The final whistle was nearing and it came with my tanks on the outskirts of North Dunbar whilst my severely depleted forces fought to a stalemate on the other side.Maybe I should have taken command earlier.So ist das leben.

See Ya(in German)

Dealing with the locals.

Reinforcements.

Percolating nicely.

                                                 A good game which was mostly for show and was enjoyed by the visitors.

Bus tour.

Mr Ray's gasmask brought back from his dad's holiday in France circa 1945.

                                         All figures,scenery and scenario were supplied by Colin Jack.
                            My thanks to the organisers for inviting us along and hopefully we will be there next year.

                                  Carronade next week where we will be putting on a Wild West extravaganza involving Billy the Kid and a s**t load of Playmobil.
http://www.falkirkwargamesclub.org.uk/Carronade2018home.html
                                                      See You When I See you.