FOW Club game at Le Squigs à lunettes (Laval Wargames club)

 FOW Club Game

On Friday night my French mate Philippe invited me to join him down at the local wargames club Le Squigs à lunettes,  in Laval (our regional capital 25klm away). I have not been to the club since before the pandemic. It was enlightening to see four female gamers and a lot of youth playing at the club, which bides well for wargaming in our area and region in general. 

British objective marker

 Philippe had just completed his new desert Italian 15mm Flames of War army and we played against his “roast beef” English 8th army troops. We had four players in total plus Philippe acting as umpire, two English and two Italians, (or one Australian and three Frenchmen!). It has been at least 16 years since I have played FOW, so we spent a lot of time flicking through the rules, but all in all a great night out, with a few beers lots of laughs and some badly pronounced French and English across the table. The Italians were on the attack most of the night and it looked like a minor points win until the last turn the Brit’s successfully charged one of the victory points, I rolled three 1s (I needed 4s) with the defending units in the final turn to lose the game for the Italians ……… oh well lots of nice pictures at least of Philippe’s excellent kit! 

Philippe explaining the rules

The table layout

Italian setup

British set up

looking good first turn two crusaders burning on the right flank

and two stuarts on the left flank

First move

Lat turn charge by the Bren carriers three 6s not good

but my reply of three 1s not good either......

One of the skirmish games, Rangers if the Deep I think, ideal for club nights, I think they got through three games for the evening.

Not seen this game before, fast and furious with a turn timer.... looked good though and four female gamers, great stuff! 

Another of Philippe's objective markers.... bloody lovely 

Looking forward to get back to the club again this year, maybe next Friday 

Cheers

Matt

Duxford IWM visit

 Duxford IWM visit

Day two of our holidays in the UK we visited the Duxford IWM airfield and hangers. What a fabulous museum and both of us really enjoyed it! It is great when your wife is also a ww2 aircraft nut! We payed for the private Lancaster talk and visit, walked around under and actually entered the Canadian built Lancaster, (the AWM canberra could learn a thing or two from this exhibition). We also visited the airborne museum in the main hanger (next post), the 1940 hanger, the privately owned aircraft hanger, the 1940 BoB ops room and the American aircraft hanger, but run out of time to visit the East Anglian regiment museum, and the armour museum, next visit perhaps!. 

I would of liked to have seen the aircraft in more of a order, ww1, mid war, ww2 and modern….but that is my need for order coming out. A few pics of my favorites! 

We had two highlights the Lancaster talk and visit into the aircraft interior and seeing the spitfire two seater take off and fly past. Lots of inspiration for my aircraft builds, I only picked up two kits (both ww1) and no books…..the wife purchased five though, which I will read also. 

More fun to come this week with several castles and two battlefield walks! 

Cheers

Matt

Dutch Vickers 152mm Howitzer

 

 Vickers 152mm Howitzers

The next piece off the table is my heavy battery for my Dutch. 32 guns were purchased from the British government in 1920. One regiment was formed of three battalions was with the Vickers 152cm Lang Howitzer and were parceled out as Corps reserve artillery. Towed by farm tractors in tandem in the majority and resupply was by trucks. 

Gun and figures are from Early War Miniatures. 

Cheers

Matt

Dutch 75mm Krupp Siderius field gun

 

 75mm Krupp Siderius 02/04 field gun

Off the desk today is two 75mm field guns, a limber with cassion and a observer element. The Dutch named the 75mm Krupp Siderius as the 7 veld gun, the guns served in both the Netherlands and in the Dutch East Indies. The 7 veld served the infantry divisions with 12 guns per battalion, and three battalions per division normally, two 7 veld and one 120mm or 150mm battalion per Infantry Division. 

Sixteen 7 velds were modified for the light division with rubber tyres and were towed by heavy cars, the remainder had wooden wheels. Only 2000 rounds in total were available for the 7 veld on the eve of the war so many division only carried one resupply for the guns. The 7 veld battalions where in the majority horse drawn for the war, along with horse drawn supply and associated services. 

The gun and miniatures are from Early War Miniatures, the cassion is from moonlight model works and Hat driver and horses. 

Cheers

Matt

Dutch TL-1 Oerlikon 20mm AA gun

 

 Dutch TL-1 Oerlikon 20mm

TL 1 was the Dutch name for the Oerlikon 20mm light anti-aircraft canon. The single barrel Oerlikon was a fine anti-aircraft gun and was excellent in providing cover from low flying aircraft up to 1800m. The Dutch army place an order for these weapons in 1939 and 170 were delivered before the war started, these were issued to light anti-aircraft companies located in infantry divisions and reserve formations.

The gun and miniatures are from Early War Miniatures.


Cheers
Matt

Belgian Alvis Hefty Chasseur Ardennes

 Belgian Alvis-Straussler Hefty truck

While I was researching my Belgians, I came across a reference to the Alvis designed hefty artillery tow truck, finding info on this beast is quite difficult as it seems a number of models were produced and all called "hefty".

The most common image is the trial version, but I believe the Chassuer Ardennes actually purchased the fifty vehicles of the C model. I could find little or no record of how many were built of each type, it seems several different were in production at the same time, all seemed to have the pivot in the chassis though. 

I know I started this beast almost 5 years ago but it is now complete and awaiting paint! 

WIP 1 from 5 Years ago

WIP 2

Finally Completed this year quite happy with it. Now to the paint shop! 

This year I want to complete a lot of my parked projects and get back to completing my 20mm early ww2 kit and armies.

The Belgians ordered fifty of these primarily for towing artillery and AT guns for the Chasseur Ardennais as far as I can research only thirty five were delivered before the war commenced. 

Alvis-Straussler Hefty gun tractor in Belgium

The C model Alvis Hefty, was conceived by Nicolas Straussler and presented to London Commercial Motor Show in 1935. It was powered by the Ford 3.6L V8 65 hp engine, weighing 2.2 T empty and was articulated and pivoted in the middle to make it possible to cross uneven ground.

cheers

Matt