Felix's Gaming Pages

Bristol F.2b Fighter

The Bristol F.2 Fighter is a British First World War two-seat biplane fighter and reconnaissance aircraft developed by Frank Barnwell at the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It is often simply called the Bristol Fighter, “Brisfit” or “Biff”.

Although the type was intended initially as a replacement for the pre-war Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c reconnaissance aircraft, the new Rolls-Royce Falcon V12 engine gave it the performance of a fighter.

This particular example has been re-built to represent the aircraft flown by Captain W.F.J. Harvey and Captain D.E. Waight, No.22 Squadron, from Agincourt on 1 July 1918. The aircraft was modified, by the squadron, to take an extra Lewis machine gun on the centre section of the top mainplane.

Despite a disastrous start to its career, the definitive F.2B version proved to be a manoeuvrable aircraft that was able to hold its own against single-seat fighters while its robust design ensured that it remained in military service into the early 1930s. Some surplus aircraft were registered for civilian use, and versions with passenger cabins were converted.

There was also a Bristol F.2b Fighter at Duxford.

A Bridge Too Far

I have been meaning to watch this film again for a while after reading Antony Beevor’s The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II.

In the book, Antony Beevor, using often overlooked sources from Dutch, American, British, Polish, and German archives, has reconstructed the terrible reality of the fighting.

On September 17, 1944, General Kurt Student, the founder of Nazi Germany’s parachute forces, heard the groaning roar of airplane engines. He went out onto his balcony above the flat landscape of southern Holland to watch the air armada of Dakotas and gliders, carrying the legendary American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division. Operation Market Garden, the plan to end the war by capturing the bridges leading to the Lower Rhine and beyond, was a bold concept, but could it have ever worked? The cost of failure was horrendous, above all for the Dutch who risked everything to help. German reprisals were pitiless and cruel, and lasted until the end of the war.

The film, A Bridge Too Far, was shot on-location in the Netherlands, in many of the real locations where the historical events took place. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film ever produced.

Richard Attenborough directs this star-studded account of the failed 1944 Arnhem assault. The story follows the events of Operation Market Garden, a plot that was intended to allow the Allies access to the German lines to seize control of bridges in the occupied Netherlands. The cast includes Dirk Bogarde as Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, James Caan as Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun, Robert Redford as Major Julian Cook and Sean Connery as Major General Roy Urquart.

I have watched it many times, but still find it a fascinating and enjoyable film.

It’s a long film at nearly three hours long, but it covers the preparation the three air drops, the ground assault and much of the fighting across the bridges and other objectives.

Yes you can quibble about some of the vehicles used, the floating Sherman tank for example, or the use of the Leopard post-war tank as a German Panther. However there are many other accurate period vehicles used (which were being decommissioned at the time from various European armies).

Lots of gaming ideas in the film as well.

Get A Bridge Too Far on Blur-Ray.

Ford Model T Light Tender

This Ford Model T Light Tender was on display at RAF London.

Despite manufacturer Henry T Ford declaring he would not allow the Model T to be used in the European was, thousands found their way into military service.

Many Model T vehicles were used as ambulances and staff cars for carrying officers. They were also used as light tenders for carrying good and people. A small number were even used as fire engines on aerodromes.

1919: Britain’s Year of Revolution

A few years ago I wrote a blog post about an alternate history, called The 1919 British Revolution.

As well as looking at the general feeling of discontent across the country I did focus on an incident in Glasgow.

In Great Britain the government feared a bolshevik uprising and was quick to oppress any potential threat to the established order. One of the biggest areas for concern were the labour movements and trade unions. One strike in Glasgow in 1919 eventually resulted in a street battle between strikers and police, which was so bad, the army was called in. The “Battle of George Square”, also known as “Bloody Friday” and “Black Friday”, was one of the most intense riots in the history of Glasgow; it took place on Friday, 31 January 1919. Clashes between the City of Glasgow Police and protesters broke out, prompting the War Cabinet to make soldiers available to the civil power, to prevent the violence from escalating.

I also saw this post the first of a series of blog posts.

In future blog posts I want to have a look at potential battles in the 1919 British Revolution and the forces involved.

I did start thinking about possible scenarios and forces. I have in the cupboard the boxed set of Battlefront’s 15mm The Great War Mitchell’s Marauders.

The boxed set includes one Company HQ, two Rifle Platoons, one Machine-gun Platoon, one Royal Artillery Gun Detachment. It also has one Medium Tank Platoon comprising a single Mark A Whippet and a Heavy Tank Platoon which is two Mark IV tanks.

I was thinking that this would be a good starting force for the 1919 British Revolution.

In my original blog post I used a couple of contemporary photographs, one was of the tanks, Medium Mark C tanks, and soldiers at the Glasgow Cattle Market in the Gallowgate waiting to be called in for action in Glasgow. The other photograph though was a Mark IV tank on the streets of Dublin.

I realised that I wanted to do some more research into this era and as you do went to Google. As well as finding more photographs from the era I also discovered that there was a book about a range of incidents across 1919.

1919; Britain’s Year of Revolution tells the story of an almost unknown passage in British history. On the August Bank Holiday that year, the government in London despatched warships to the northern city of Liverpool in an overwhelming show of force. Thousands of troops, backed by tanks, had been trying without success to suppress disorder on the streets. Earlier that year in London, 1000 soldiers had marched on Downing Street, before being disarmed by a battalion of the Grenadier Guards loyal to the government. In Luton that summer, the town hall was burned down by rioters, before the army was brought in to restore order and in Glasgow, artillery and tanks were positioned in the centre of the city to deter what the Secretary of State for Scotland described as a ‘Bolshevik uprising’. Industrial unrest and mutiny in the armed forces combined together to produce the fear that Britain was facing the same kind of situation which had led to the Russian Revolution two years earlier. Drawing chiefly upon contemporary sources, this book describes the sequence of events which looked as though they might be the precursor to a revolution along the lines of those sweeping across Europe at that time. To some observers, it seemed only a matter of time before Britain transformed itself from a constitutional monarchy into a Soviet Republic.

Well time to buy that from Amazon then.

Crossly Light Tender

The first Crossley vehicles in the Royal Flying Corps were six cars bought in 1913 for driving staff officers around. By November 1918 around 6,000 Crossly vehicles had entered service.

This Crossly 20/25hp Light Tender was on display at RAF London.

The most common body was the Light Tender, shown here.

Each squadron had eleven of these for carrying the airmen and towing small trailers and aeroplanes. Two Crossley Staff Cars were used for transporting the officers.

Crossley 25/30 hp Tenders were utilised by the British Army in Ireland from 1919 until their withdrawal in 1922. The Irish Army continued to use them for troop transport throughout the Civil War period.

The 20/25 model was also the first vehicle to be supplied to London’s Metropolitan Police Flying Squad in 1920, some of which were fitted with radio equipment.

Ruined Factorum

I popped into my local newsagent to see if they had the latest issue of Wargames Illustrated in stock, which they did. I also saw they had the latest issue of the part work series Warhammer 40000 Imperium.

I usually see the first few issues of part works in the newsagents or at WHSmith, so was interested to see issue #31 in stock. I haven’t really been paying attention to this series, as partly at £8.99 a week can get expensive after a while, but also I have enough to paint, without buying more plastic. However I thought I would see what was “free” with his issue and I was quite intrigued to see they had a Ruined Factorum sprue.

So decided to pick the issue up for the plastic.

The Battlezone: Manufactorum – Sub-cloister and Storage Fane costs £37.50 at Games Workshop and contains two similar sprues. So at £8.99 you are making a saving of £9.76. The other sprue will be in issue 34.

Well the magazine, all twelve pages has a useful tutorial on painting the scenery. Along with a lot of other stuff which is probably useful if you have been collecting the whole part works, which I’m not, so not too useful.

The first stage will be to glue it together.

Fokker D.VII

The Fokker D.VII was a German World War One fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the Fokker-Flugzeugwerke.

This Fokker D.VII was on display at RAF London.

Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the Luftstreitkräfte, the D.VII quickly proved itself to be a formidable aircraft.

It was so successful that it was the only aircraft to be singled out by the Allied Powers in the Armistice Agreement section which detailed war material to be handed over: Germany was required to surrender all D.VIIs to the Allies. Surviving aircraft saw much service with many countries in the years after The Great War.

The early days

Back in the day, my first “experience” of wargaming was back in the 1970s with those bendy and flexible Airfix and Matchbox model soldiers and often using Britain’s matchstick firing weapons.

One of my favourite toys and probably the thing that got me into gaming more than anything else was the 1:32nd Matchbox Counter Attack Playset.

In the set you got a set of American infantry with an M8 Greyhound. Their job was to attack the enemy.

On the German side, you got German infantry, a watchtower and they took refuge in a ruined cafe or restaurant. Watching Saving Private Ryan decades later I was reminded of the building as I watched the defence of the ruined village.

In the box you had two air pump weapons, a machine gun and a rocket launcher. The building was designed that you could knock down and put back together. Pieces fell off it as it was hit by the weapons.

It was an incredible toy that I really loved playing with. I think I was always a little disappointed that they never did more sets in this range.

You could certainly add more infantry, even tanks and trucks, but there was no more scenery or buildings to be had.

It was this game that got me into gaming, and where did I got next, well 25mm Napoleonics.

Albatros D.Va

The Albatros D.V was a fighter aircraft built by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke and used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. The D.V was the final development of the Albatros D.I family and the last Albatros fighter to see operational service. Despite its well-known shortcomings and general obsolescence, approximately 900 D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production halted in April 1918. The D.Va continued in operational service until the end of the war.

With its distinctive plywood-skinned oval section streamlined fuselage, the Albatros D.V entered service in May 1917, but from October 1917 was supplemented in large-scale production by the strengthened Albatros D.Va with different upper wing and aileron control system.

With over 3,000 produced, of which only two survive, in the U.S.A and Australia.

The replica on display at RAF London is painted as a D.V aircraft from a batch of 400 ordered in May 1917.

This flying replica was built by New Zealand Company The Vintage Aviator Ltd (TVAL) in 2011, and uses an original contemporary Mercedes D.III engine from RAF Museum stocks. It represents an aircraft flown on the Western Front by Jasta 61in 1918.