The Somme Part II

Sunday dawned, if anything it promised to be an even better day than Saturday.  We returned to Pozieres to look at the Tank Corps Memorial, a prefect example of our lack of planning

Next was Thiepval, an extremely sobering memorial to the missing of the Somme with over 73,000 names of men who have no known grave.  I was lucky enough to get there before the crowds in the museum and able to spend a few quiet moments contemplating.

With a small cemetery attached.

Nearby is the 18th Division Memorial.

And a short walk leads you to the Ulster Tower, a memorial to the 36th (Ulster) Division.

The final port of call turned out to be the highlight of the trip at the Newfoundland Memorial Park.  The Newfoundlanders story is one of the saddest of many harrowing tales from 1st July 1916 with the regiment suffering one of the highest casualty rates on the day.

There are also sections of preserved trenches.

Together with several small cemeteries.

And the 51st (Highland) Division Memorial.

We retired to the nearby "Ocean Villas" tearooms for another late lunch and a discussion of the day's events before returning to base.  Another excellent day with much to see and we still felt that we'd only begun to scratch the surface of what there is to see.  Sadly this was our last day on the Somme although we had planned a short excursion on the way home.  More in the next post.

The Somme Part I

As mentioned in my last post, I'm off to Ypres this weekend with some friends for a short tour of the battlefields, hopefully to include Waterloo.  This follows the success of last year's trip to the Somme as part of my research to my great grandfather's involvement in the First World War.  He served in the Royal Garrison Artillery and was killed in October 1918.

First stop was to visit his grave in Rosiel, just outside Peronne.

Next day we visited Albert for supplies and a look around the 1916 Museum before heading to Lochnagar Crater where a huge mine was detonated on 1st July 1916.

Next was the Red Dragon memorial to the 38th (Welsh) Division after their attack on Mametz Wood.

We then headed to Pozieres for the Australian Monument and the Gibraltar blockhouse.

We adjourned for a late lunch in the Tommy Cafe, Pozieres before heading back to base to contemplate the day and plan for the morrow.  One lesson I definitely learnt was that far more preparation would be required to gain a more thorough understanding of events and we felt we'd barely scratched the surface.  It is truly humbling to come across a tiny cemetery or memorial and almost every crossroad and to see how well they are looked after by both the CWGC and the locals.

Part II to follow.

Norman Milites and Saxon Infantry

Painting has been proceeding at its usual leisurely pace but the Hastings project is now coming along nicely.  I've finished nine Conquest Games Norman Milites, the strike force of William's army.  I'm not really a fan of painting cavalry, particularly in 28mm which is why efforts to paint an army for the English Civil War have ground to a halt, but these were relatively straightforward.  I experimented with an alternative style for painting chainmail, silver with a black wash, which made life easier.

I'm waiting on an order from Warbases to complete them and I need to decide how to approach the shields.  The Bayeux Tapestry shows a limited range of different designs but I've been taken with the Little Big Men transfers for my Saxons, see below.  Unfortunately, they don't appear to make any for the Conquest miniatures, I could use generic ones or possibly Veni Vidi Vici unless anybody has any sugestions?

A casualty figure is included in the box which will make a useful marker when I get around to basing it.

I've also applied the transfers to the Gripping Beast plastic Saxons which, I think, really enhances the figures especially given my efforts at painting.  Commander and standard bearer, I'm not sure whether to purchase a special Harold figure but he will suffice for now.

Two units on Warbases movement trays for Basic Impetus.

I've nearly finished painting some more infantry and archers for both sides.  I've misplaced yet another figure, this time a Norman archer from Black Tree.  Whether it was missing from the order or whether it's my fault I'm not sure but tend towards the latter.  Thankfully, Impetus does not prescribe numbers of figures so I should be able to get away with it in the short term.

By my calculations, I'm not two thirds of the way through the painting.  Let's hope the motivation holds but I'm off to Ypres and, hopefully, Waterloo at the weekend so I can see myself becoming sidetracked.  At least Napoleonics is one of my main projects for this year. 

German Support

German Support

I've also completed some additional Germans for the Kampfgruppe von Luck mini campaign.  Figures are from Peter Pig and seem to mix reasonably well with Battlefront and Forged in Battle.

So far HMG teams, LMG teams and Panzerschreek teams.

More to follow.