Moving Day

The general muddle has abated somewhat and today's the day we get to move into our new house! It'll be a huge relief to be settled once more.

Obviously things like everyday furniture and fittings come first. Once the dust has settled I'll get to work on my gaming room. The old table which supported my gaming boards really isn't up to the job any more, so I plan to build something along the lines of this...

I'm thinking in terms of making storage space underneath, perhaps in the shape of some kind of racks or shelving to make maximum use of the space.

I'll be back to write this blog as soon as I have something gaming or modelling oriented to write about.

Trying times

Unfortunately our house move from hell continues. After nine weeks without a home the latest attempt to buy a house has fallen through due to various long-drawn-out shenanigans on the part of certain people. My wife an I are at an impasse over what to do next. Entries on this blog will resume if/when we become settled. 

EDIT: As it happens it appears the move is back on again. A deal was reached unexpectedly at the eleventh hour (more like 11:59:59!). All being well we will finally be able to move into our new house Friday. 

My thanks to those wishing us well. More news as it comes over the next few days.

A Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to one and all!

Splintered Light Miniatures holiday sale

What it says on the tin - Splintered Light Miniatures are having a 25% off holiday sale on most ranges until the end of this month. They are nice 15mm figures, and you can see part of my collection in the photo above.

 * * *

In other news, Esther, our house move is still on hold. We're waiting for the current occupant of the house to move out, which won't be for a few more days yet - possibly mid-month. To say my wife and I are frustrated would be an understatement. This time of year, with the holiday season upon us and the onset of worsening weather will make our eventual move all the more difficult. I'd like to take advantage of the offer above, but we'll need a proper mailing address for that. As we've already discovered to our cost, forwarded mail via the USPS is for the birds...

Yes, I need more temptation...

I need more temptation today! 

Those fine fellows at Pendraken Miniatures have released the first photos of their upcoming Indian Mutiny range. The first batch back from the sculptor are the greens for the Indian contingent and very fine they look too! If you're interested in gaming the period in 10mm, take a peek.

I can see an order winging its way to Middlesborough next year. As for rules, I read good things about the Bloody Big Battles (BBB) set for late 19th century gaming. Do any of my readers have experience with these they can share?

In Remembrance

For those who served, and to those who continue to serve.

 

Hanging fire...

So, my wife and I have a house lined up - at last. The past weeks spent house hunting have been pretty hard on our nerves, especially as time wore on and nothing suitable presented itself. The housing market in this part of the world has changed radically since we last moved five years ago. 

Some of the places we viewed tend to stick in the mind for all the wrong reasons. When a house inspector takes one look into a basement, turns pale and backs out slowly, you know there's trouble in store...

Although we're not on the final straight, we are at least rounding the final bend. It's a case of 'hurry up and wait' until we can move in, probably/possibly within the next two or three weeks. I have a room marked out for my new Man Cave. It may be a bit smaller than previous, but a determined attempt to de-clutter our possessions has reduced the sheer amount of stuff I own to more manageable proportions. Seriously, I recommend everyone does this frequently. If/when it comes time to move house you'll thank your foresight for doing so.

My first priority hobby-wise will be to get my table set up. After that I hope to order the Saxon contingent for Dux Britanniarum from Splintered Light miniatures along with shield transfers from Little Big Men Studios. Watch this space...

Lowering the colours

Another day, and a bit more packing done ready for the move. My gaming table is now dismantled and shelving taken down and stacked ready to be carried to a new Man Cave - wherever that will be.

Through a rare flash of foresight, when I bought the board I had it cut into three sections, two 3' x 4', one 2' x 4', which are bolted together to make up the table. I usually game on the two 3' x 4' sections to make a 4' x 6' table, and the 2' x 4' section bolts onto one end to extend it out to 8' x 4' should I need it. It makes it much easier to transport than a single board.

My intention is to build a proper table framework for it when we reach our new home, and will probably have it set up as a full 8' x 4', space permitting. Up to now I've used an old table that possibly dates from the 1920s, which would look a treat should we ever get around to having it restored.

Speaking of the 1920s...

Another bout of research into Rutbah and the Iraqi conflicts, mentioned in my previous post, has turned up a couple of photos.

The first is of two Rolls-Royce armoured cars in the northern Iraqi desert. Beyond them sits a large aircraft with French roundels. (In black and white photos of the period the RAF roundel has a dark outer ring and lighter shaded centre. The French roundel has this in reverse, as shown). The aircraft looks like a Vickers Vernon, but can anyone identify it for sure? I wonder how many of these were in French service? France had the mandate for Syria after the Great War, and like Britain, had trouble from Arab and Kurdish uprisings as well as a resurgent Turkey attempting to regain lost territory. The situation in the Middle East today is all too depressingly similar...

Here's another Rolls-Royce undergoing repair and maintenance in the Iraqi desert, a constant requirement in such a harsh region. The chaps have sensibly erected an awning to give the vehicle some protection from the baking sun while they work. As usual, we have a bloke standing watching while others do the work: I think it may have been part of King's Regulations at the time.

This is likely to be my last post for a while as we wrap everything up here. Hopefully normal service will resume sometime next month.

Rutbah Wells & the Iraq "Sideshow," 1941

One of the pleasures I get from being a writer of historical fiction is through researching a topic. Research always throws up surprises. On this occasion there's a definite crossover into my wargaming hobby.

I'm currently researching the Middle East, specifically Iraq, and discovered the tale of the Vickers Vernon bomber/transport aircraft that flew the first established airmail route from Cairo in Egypt to Baghdad in the newly-minted Kingdom of Iraq. That in turn led to a little-known sideshow event to World War Two - the Iraqi insurgency of 1941.

Vickers Vernons at RAF Hinaidi near Baghdad.

The Vernon was the streamlined version of the Great War vintage Vickers Vimy and entered service in 1921. With a crew of three, it could carry eleven passengers or a mix of passengers and mail. Its range was 278 nautical/320 miles at a cruising speed of 65 knots/75 mph. The capacity to carry a (for the time) large number of personnel made it the aircraft of choice for the first recorded air lift in history. In February 1923, 500 British troops were conveyed to Kirkuk in Iraq by Vernons of 45 and 70 Squadrons RAF in order to put down a Kurdish revolt.

The Vernon's range was pretty good for that day and age, but it still necessitated special measures to enable the aircraft to cross safely the wastes of what was then Transjordan and Western Iraq. Aircraft on the fortnightly mail run carried spare landing gear wheels, tents, bedding and goat-skins full of water. The establishment of landing strips with fuel dumps was required, as was a deep and straight furrow ploughed into the hard stony ground of the region for several hundred miles to aid navigation. These landing strips were located every 25 miles or so along the furrow. One was established at Rutbah Wells, in western Iraq.

Rutbah (aka Rutba, aka Ar-Rutba) was an old fort on the banks of a wadi, and it guarded the nearby oasis. It happened to be located 265 miles from Amman, Transjordan, so made a good landing spot for the Vernons after a day's flight. The route was eventually transferred from RAF control to Imperial Airways.

Rutbah aerodrome, sometime in the early 30s, showing the Furrow navigation aid and a Rolls Royce armoured car on airfield defence duty.

The region was a notorious hotspot for bandit activity. Rose Wilder, journalist daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote an account of her own journey in the region which included standing guard armed with a rifle in their camp at night as protection against predatory tribesmen. In 1927 the new Iraqi government built a modern fort (shown above and below) to protect the aerodrome. Note: The top photo caption reads Syrian Desert - this was something of a contemporary catch-all term for the region. The fort had a central tower with a navigation light, a radio beacon with a limited range of anything up to 180 miles, and a detachment of Iraqi police to guard it.

Rutbah Wells, early 30s. An Imperial Airways aircraft basks in the sunlight. The white circle with dots around it is a buried fuel dump typical of those used along the airmail route.

Rutbah Wells fort gained importance when the Mosul-Haifi oil pipeline was built nearby in the early 1930s. With the Royal Navy dependent on Middle Eastern oil and the increasing mechanisation of the British army it's no wonder the region took on an increased significance for British imperial interests.

The Anglo-Iraq War broke out in 1941 when resentment of British control of the oil led to open conflict.With a pro-Nazi insurgent government trying to take control of the country Britain moved fast to protect her interests. Although the army had left by 1937 two RAF airfields remained operational and these, along with the Royal Navy, provided the means for rapid deployment into the country.

The war lasted less than a month (2–31 May 1941) but saw some interesting military vehicles and aircraft deployed by both sides. The Rolls-Royce armoured car was increasingly obsolete by Western Desert standards yet proved valuable in rapid strikes against the insurgency in Iraq. The Bristol Blenheim soldiered on in the light bomber role. Gloster Gladiators, Hawker Hart and Audax light bomber/observation aircraft flew on both sides, and the Breda 65, Me 109 & 110 and He. 111 flew for the insurgents.

Rutbah Wells fort, 1941. The town is beginning to form on the road west of the fort.

For a remote outpost Rutbah saw a lot of action. Bristol Blenheims took part in air raids on Rutbah fort, as show in a photo reconnaissance image above.

Me109 in Iraqi Airforce colours.

 Even the equipment used by the infantry harked to a bygone age.

British troops looking across the Tigris to Baghdad at the end of the insurgency, 1941.

Then...

Rolls-Royce armoured cars prepare to move out against Iraqi insurgents. Note the Lewis guns and Boyes AT rifles.

And now...

Iraqi Army forces rolling in the tracks of the Rolls-Royce ACs as they operate in the vicinity of Rutbah Wells. Not a great deal of difference.

Sad to say fighting is still ongoing in the region of Rutbah, as Iraqi army forces combat the ISIL insurgency. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

Modern Rutbah.

Urban sprawl has claimed the old landing ground, but the fort is still there (location circled in red) and in use, although it has lost the triangular enclosure on its eastern wall. A former US Marine who served in Iraq was posted to Rutbah in 2008, and recalls seeing equipment with British markings still in use inside the fort.

So, the early days of those pioneering flights lends itself to a Back of Beyond style game, with rattly Model T Fords bearing fearless lady journalists, or an army/police attempt to reach a downed air crew before bandits get to them. It also makes for an interesting 'sideshow' to World War Two, using equipment which was outdated elsewhere in the conflict. Something for a wargamer interested in the unusual to ponder on.

For myself, I'm going to confine my activities to writing my novel.

Further reading about the early days of the Transjordan-Baghdad route:

'Flying the Furrow,' Saudi Aramco World.

A Good Haul of Books.

My wife and I took a day off from what seems like perpetual house-hunting to run some errands, one of which was a stop off at our excellent local library. I'd forgotten this month marks their annual surplus books sale, so we couldn't resist taking a look at what's on offer and... I found these. The Time-Life books Epic of Flight: The Giant Airships, full of information and nice illustrations about that noblest of aircraft; two issues of Model Railroader from 2009 and 2013, with useful info on how to model buildings; and the star of this little show - Yep, Donald Featherstone's Wargaming Airborne Operations, published in the UK way back in 1977, although this is the American edition dated 1979.

I was looking along a row of books stacked under one of the tables when I spotted the edge of the model paratrooper illustration peeping out. Call it long-ingrained pattern recognition, but I knew at once I was onto something hobby-related. I drew it out and - voila! This is one of those Featherstone books I'd always heard of but had never seen, and now I own it! (Cue manic cackle...)

Eben Emael under assault.

It's in excellent condition. Aside from rules governing airborne operations on the tabletop, it contains a potted history of airborne forces, both paratroops and glider-borne, notes on tactics, resupply logistics, and accounts of the great airborne operations of WW2, Crete and Market Garden.

There are plenty of photos of games in progress, along with maps and diagrams. Some of the figures and models depicted look rather dated now in this Golden Age of ours, but this book has a heck of a lot of use for the gamer interested in the topic. I've got a few of The Don's books, and this is a worthy addition to the set.