Force on Force -cold war gone hot - a new beginning Pt 9

The Brand New Peak Turret FV432 from S&S

Finally finished my infantry platoon (as far as a war games unit  can be finished )  ,For the Cold War Gone Hot supplement for Force on Force.

FV432 Peak for Platoon HQ

The Platoon HQ which consists of :
Platoon Commander (subaltern) SLR
Platoon Sergeant SLR
Signaller Sterling
Medic SLR
Gunner Light Mortar
FV432 Peak Turret

Platoon HQ

Close up of the Platoon HQ

 3 Rifle Sections Each consisting of :
Rifle Team A
Section Commander SLR
Gunner Carl Gustav
Assistant Gunner SLR
Rifleman SLR

Rifle Team B
Section Gun Controller
Gunner GPMG
Assistant Gunner SLR
Rifleman SLR
FV432

Rifle Section

Milan Team 2 x Milan sections and a FV432

Milans

The Platoon and Milan Teams

From above 

Ferret 

The Ferret from S&S 

All the infantry figures are a mix of Liberation and Brittania , based on 1p coins and then in movement trays .The FV432 peaks are from S&S and the standard FV432's are a mix of Brittania and S&S ,I will soon replace the Brittania ones with more from S&S . The Milan teams are Elhiem and the Ferret is just there as I finished it with the Peaks and its another lovely model from Shaun at S&S, and will be part of my recon units with some of Shauns Land rovers . I still have a lot of BAOR stuff either finished or waiting to be started and I will be doing more updates soon.

Wargraves at Scampton

The Commonwealth War graves cross 

The churchyard of St John the Baptist, has many graves of service personnel, a fact that is not surprising given that the RAF Base at Scampton lies just over the road from the church. One thing that is surprising however is that the churchyard contains a number of graves of German war dead.. When all the German dead of the second world war were being collected up and re-interred in the large war cemetery in Cannock Chase the relatives of these men refused permission as the graves here are treated with the same respect and looked after in the same way as the British war dead.

The German Graves 

1. Feldwebel (Flight Sergeant) Heinrich Conze, born 20.1.1920 in Essen, killed in action 4.3.1945

2. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Alfred Altenkirch, born 20.9.1924 in Bergeow, killed in action 4.3.1945

3. Leutnant (Pilot Officer) Kurt Hanning, born 11.9.1919 in Hannover, killed in action 12.5.1941

4. *Helmuth Wimmender, born 19.5.1920, killed in action 12.5.1941 (further details unknown)

*E.H. Reidel, (date of birth not given, details unknown), killed in action 12.5.1941
this  5th body in the 1941 graves Shares a grave with Wimmender was not   discovered till the 1960's and was a ground crew man originally posted as a deserter.He apparently tagged along for a jolly 


Front Row - Left to Right:

1. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Rudolf Scherer, born 4.4.1922 in Aschaffenburg-Alzenau, killed in action 4.3.1945

2. Obergefreiter (Corporal) Werner Nollau, born 8.10.1923 in Oschatz, killed in action 4.3.1945

3. Unteroffizier (Sergeant) Wilhelm August Christian Hansen, born 30.3.1916 in Herford, killed in action 12.5.1941

4. Gefreiter (LAC) Johannes Dietrich, born 8.12.1918 in Heinrichswalde, killed in action 12.5.1941

No one seems to have any concrete proof of what happened to the 1945 crew but there were heavy raids on the night 3rd 4th March with Junkers 88's sneaking back in formations of Halifax Bombers and attacking them as they came in to land ,this crew were possibly aboard a Ju88 that was brought down in nearby Welton ?. 

The rear section of Wargraves

Also in the Church Yard is a small Rose Garden dedicated to Sergeant John Hannah A Hampden Crew member who was terribly burnt during a raid in 1940 the floor of the Hampton melted away due to the heat and the gunner jumped/fell through the floor ,the navigator went to find out  what was happening and saw the plane and Hannah well ablaze and bailed out expecting his pilot to follow ,however the pilot C.A Conner stayed in the plane .Hannah somehow managed to put the flames out on his body and although his hands and face were badly burnt he managed to use fire extinguisher's to put out most of the fires using his log books to beat out the remaining flames he then acted as navigator and Conner managed to bring the badly damaged plane home.Conner received the DFC and Hannah was awarded the VC for their brave actions Sadly Conner was killed a couple of weeks later  and although Hannah returned to the RAF on training duties he never fully recovered and was invalided out in 1942,and passed away in 1946.

A couple of new blogs

My family seem to have caught blog fever ,my wonderful partner Elaine has started a blog which will cover our family and some of the wonderful places we get to visit http://welaines.blogspot.co.uk/   and my young son as started one as well covering his love of sport ,fast cars and military museums http://sportandtrnsport.blogspot.co.uk/  especially proud of young Stevens as he has Autism and him becoming involved in this blog is doing him the world of good ,hope you have a few minutes to pop along to both .

The 12th SS

Recently picked up Both volumes of the History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division for a bargain price of £18.00 for the pair from Amazon ,I have seen them on other on line shops for up to £24.00 each volume so I snatched them up and I am glad I did .They are by Hubert Meyer who was Chief of staff for the 12th SS ,both volumes are made up of reports and sections of diaries from all ranks of the division , all really well put together and keep you reading ,plus for the war gamer there are loads of scenario ideas .

Volume 1
This covers the reasons the division was put together ,the original plans and the reality of what was eventually to see battle,it covers the Battles on and  after D-Day including  the brutal battle for Caen and  up to August 1944 .The book is 580 pages long including some nice B&W photos some of which I have not seen before and some nice maps.

Volume 2

The second book covers the units regrouping after the invasion and the retreat through the Falaise pocket and the part the Division played in the Battle of the Bulge and after the war not only the soldiers time in captivity but also post war reunions and such like ,this book has the same quality of tables ,maps and photographs as the first volume and is 604 pages long .

Force on Force -cold war gone hot - a new beginning Pt 8

 My latest additions to my BAOR for my force on force games , 2 very nice FV432's with peak turrets ,fitted together with no trouble and hopefully will get them painted this week .These are some of the latest models from S&S ,in my opinion the latest editions to the range ,which covers ww2 up to ultra modern are the best 20mm resin/metal kits available.

Ooops just been told the peak turret is not in production yet Ive been lucky enough to get the pre release .Out for general release soon . 

work in progress SS 20mm

 Whislt off work ill I have tried to cut my way through my lead and plastic mountain and in one of my stays in hospital I took some SHQ ww2 SS figures and without any reference material tried to show a mix of camo smocks helmet covers etc .I am pretty pleased with my attempts and I am keeping with the colours and patterns ,my favourite attempt are ones I have done wearing peadot trousers and which I have not taken any pictures of ? ,will post more when based and varnished .I am going to stick with SHQ I really like them I only bought a few sample packs at Triples so dont even have a proper section yet ,probably going to use the battle group overlord rules but I do like IABSYM from too fat lardies but no one else does ?

The smocks and helmet covers use the same coluors for the camo patterns but have different base colour ,ones a biege(left hand figure in above pic) ,the others a dark green

new toys -WW1 & cold war

After another ittle stay in hospital my lovely Elaine bought me some new toys to make me feel better a little visit to the wargames emporium saw  her come home with 9 of the new models from Ares for Wings of Glory and a couple of Airfix bits for my Force on Force B.A.O.R , also a order on its way from S&S of a ferret and a couple of Shauns lovely new FV432 with peak turret .

THE JOY of SIX

Me blocking out the Baccus Stand

 A great day at the JOY of SIX wargaming event in Sheffield a show aimed at everything 6mm ,organised by Pete Berry of Baccus and John Skotulanski of Wargames Emporium .A really nice show which will be even bigger next year and thanks to Baccus,Wargames Emporium ,Reaper ,Timecast and toatal battle miniatures who donated prizes to raise funds for the Royal British Legion .

Doing the same to the Wargames Emporium GHQ stand

A lucky winner the announcer  by the way is Pete Berry

And another winner....

 and another ....

yet another winner ..

you guessed it a winner ...see what you all missed out on .

6mm moderns

Lots of games on display a fantastic little event.

Force on Force -cold war gone hot - a new beginning Pt 7

Sultan ,

 With another spell in hospital looming thought I would have ago at the latest order from Shaun at S&S.The Sultan is a beutiful kit you need one even if you play ancients ,you need to build at least one of these :-) . All 3 kits went together without any messing very little cleaning up to do only problem I had was deciding where to put some bits each photograph I looked at of a Sutan was different ,hopefully everything is in the right place .
Got another order in with Shaun for his new FV432 peak turret ,not sure when I will be able to get it done but will post as soon as possible.

Spartan ,I ordered 2 of these

Bag of Stowage ,ordered some vehicles from another manufacturer and they were awful ,hopefully this will hide some problems

The Sultan

Rear view of Sultan

Aerials added

The Spartans

Primed

Ready for Action .