Oh yes...

43rd Regiment of Foot

SOURCE: Uniforms of the Armies in the
War of the American Revolution, 1775-1783.
Lt. Charles M. Lefferts. Limited Edition
of 500. New York York Historical Society.
New York, NY. 1926.[Clicky]

After what seems like ages, I've finally  hit the painting table again..

The 43rd (Monmouthshire) Regiment of Foot was raised as Thomas Fowke's Regiment of Foot in 1741 though it was actually numbered the 54th Foot until 1748, when it finally became the 43rd.

During the War of Independence (or American Revolution for my colonial readers ) they were one of the first regiments to set foot in America, arriving in Boston in 1774 before the beginning of the Revolution. They were joined by the 52nd Foot at Boston and the two regiments fought side by side at Lexington (albeit the Grenadier and Light Infantry companies of the 43rd only), and then at Bunker Hill.

The 43rd went on to serve throughout the war (one of a few tat did) and on April 30 1781, along with two other regiments, they were sent to Virginia to reinforce Cornwallis

They landed at Brandon on the James River on May 26, I'm not sure if they were involved in the skirmish at Spencer's Ordinary [clicky] in late June (Queens Rangers and Hessians only I think), but they fought at Green Spring  [clicky] at the beginning of July. On August 6th, the British army  (including the 43rd) landed at Yorktown and Cornwallis started fortifying it and Gloucester Point just across the York River.

The actual siege formally got started on September 28 and during it the 43rd was part of the British force’s left wing, in the 2nd Brigade (Lt. Col. Thomas Dundas of the 80th Foot), along with the 76th & 80th Foot - the regiment was commanded by Major George Hewitt. They were mainly deployed in Redoubts 9 and 10 so would have been present in the attack on the night of October 14 when the Franco-American forces attacked. At least one of the regiments officers, Captain Duncan Cameron, was commended in orders by Lord Cornwallis for "distinguishing himself at the American redoubt" (that would have been Redoubt 10  which was attacked by an American force, Redoubt 9 being attacked by the French)

During the siege the regiment sustained casualties of ten killed, 18 wounded and 12 missing. The strength of the regiment at the capitulation on October 19 was 94 rank-and-file, with an additional 168 men sick and wounded. Following the surrender, the Battalion Companies were interned until May, 1783, and were part of the final embarkation for England on November 22. They lost their colours (both Kings and Regimental) at Yorktown.

These figures (25mm Minifigs) are some of the last of those that Lofty C [clicky] left me, and were already partially painted, so it was more a matter of finishing the rest of the paint job and matching to existing scheme.. checking through my records these are the first I've added to the AWI project since November 2011...

John was a "parade ground uniform" painter (something these old school/classic sculpts almost force upon you) so these guys are painted pretty much as the illustration top left.. In reality I suspect the gaiters wouldn't have been full length (but they look good), and during this campaign they would have cut their coats down shorter because of the heat, probably would have had larger, circular, hats, and would have looked a lot more lived in than I have represented them.... but hey, this more than any of my projects is an "old school style" one, a homage, the look is derived from Mollo and Mcgregor [clicky] but more from the style of these old Minifigs sculpts...  No flags for this unit...  they lost them at Yorktown!

Granddad Steve the Wargamer...

I'm a grand dad...  meet Oscar the Wargamer ... 

Fairly convinced he's clutching a D6 in each fist.... either that or he's about to take on the photographer...

More Kindle freebies...

Couple of sites for you Kindle readers...

I've recommended this one before, but it's well worth visiting purely because of its search facilities..

http://uk.freereadfeed.com/

This one is a new one though:

http://www.dailyfreebooks.co.uk/free_ebooks/latest/

...and has already yielded some interesting choices, for the track heads among us the following may be worth a read..?? All these are free by the way, and I've not read them (yet) so I have no view on whether the SS one's will turn out to be some hideous apologist essay...  from the reviews the first one appears to be a very in depth divisional history with a lot of detail on all their engagements in Normandy and sounds quite interesting...

12th SS: Vol. 1, The History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division (Stackpole Military History Series) [clicky]

by Hubert Meyer

The defining work on Hitler's elite fanatical boy soldiers Written by the division's former chief of staff Volume one details all aspects of the division's history with a balanced mix of both tactical and strategic accounts, including the creation and training of these teenage warriors and their baptism of fire in the Normandy campaign in World War II...

In the Fire of the Eastern Front: The Experiences of a Dutch Waffen-SS Volunteer, 1941-45 (Stackpole Military... [clicky]

by Hendrick C. Verton

Extraordinary story of a Dutch volunteer in the Waffen-SS Vivid details on SS training and combat on the Eastern Front Account of the little-known siege of Breslau in early 1945 Dutch SS accounts are very rare, particularly ones that describe recruiting, training, and frontline service as completely and colourfully as In the Fire of the Eastern Front. Hendrick C. Verton volunteered for the Waffen-SS in early 1941 and fought on the Eastern Front until the end of the war as a member of the 5th SS Panzer Division and SS Regiment Besslein....

Tanks for the Memories: An Oral History of the 712th Tank Battalion in World War II [clicky]

by Aaron Elson

Aaron Elson attended a reunion of the 712th Tank Battalion, with which his father served in World War II, a few years after his father's death. He returned two reunions later, in 1989, with a tape recorder, and has been preserving the stories of World War II veterans ever since. When he arrived at that first reunion, one of the first things he saw was a bumper sticker on a car outside the hotel. It said "Tanks for the Memories." What he quickly realized was that the memories the veterans shared in the hospitality room, they rarely shared with their families. Aaron Elson's work as an oral historian has been used as source material in more than two dozen book in the U.S. and "across the pond," as well is in about a dozen documentaries including "The Color of War" and "Patton 360." "Tanks for...

"Khaki & Red" - a review...

Raced through this one - I've always found Featherstone to be hugely readable and this was no different.... 

If Grant & Young are seen as the black powder wargamers, for some reason I've always held in my mind that Featherstone was the colonial wargamer..  his grasp of the period and the sheer number of books he's written on the subject clearly mark it as a favourite period for him..

So what do you get in this book??

This book is in two parts - the first section on India (and in particular the North West frontier) with the second (and to me more interesting) section on Egypt (both the north, and the Sudan) The period covered is roughly from the end of Indian Mutiny to the end of the century (Omdurman)

The Indian section comprises a chapter on weaponry (both small arms and artillery), units, organisation, a summary timeline (yee gods they were busy on the frontier!) and then more detail on a number of the missions - a veritable plethora of wargaming scenario ideas here...

The Sudan section has the same basic set up, with slightly more detail (I thought) on the three actual campaigns he covers - the initial invasion (to replace Arabi Pasha), Khartoum and then the re-conquest.

The book was published in 1997, and to be honest for the Sudan section there's not really very much here that hasn't already been published in his Osprey books published three or four years earlier (and all of which I highly recommend)....

• Khartoum 1885: General Gordon's last stand (1993)
• Tel El-Kebir 1882 : Wolseley's Conquest of Egypt (1993)
• Omdurman 1898 : Kitchener's victory in the Sudan (1994)

In summary, a good overview/summary of warfare in the period - if you want more detail for the Sudan I would pick the Osprey's (in conjunction with other authors/works).

Steve the Wargamer rates this as 7 out of 10 - but only because it's a reuse of previous research/books...  get it anyway for the splendid woodblock prints from the newspapers of the time that illustrate the book copiously!

Picture courtesy/copyright http://www.corbisimages.com

"The Blood of the Gods" - a review..

Just finished it..  despite huge amounts of busy'ness in Steve the Wargamers everyday existence....!  

Work, imminent grandfather-hood (I'm too young! ), sailing, in fact the demands of the boat [clicky] in general, are all making huge in roads into my available time, and as a result for the moment the wargaming seems to be on a back burner - it is still on a burner though, just not being actively cooked....  I don't think wargamers ever truly switch off..  if we're not actually gaming, we read history, we look at our surroundings for useful bits that can be re-used on the gaming table, or in a model, or in scratch built scenery (found some nice gravel down the marina this morning!)...

We also read, and as a wargamer my tastes tend towards the militaristic, not solely, but a definite leaning... which brings me (finally!) to "The Blood of the Gods"  a very pleasant surprise while doing the weekly shop in Tesco* the other week.....

This is the fifth book in his Emperor series which deals with the life (and death) of Julius Caesar - a bit of a surprise as I thought the series had ended with the last book which dealt with Caesar's assassination at the hands of Brutus and the other conspirators.. the ides of March and all that....

This book, while it deals mostly with the coming to power of Caesar's adopted son Octavian, is more to do with the bringing to a close of Julius's life - Iggulden is tidying the shop, and tying up loose ends.. 

So at the beginning of the story, Octavian is nothing more than officer in the Legions (albeit with plenty of influence) and on leave. Within weeks of hearing of his great uncles death he has won over the mutinying Legions in Brindisium, and has marched on Rome there he comes up against Mark Anthony who is consul, and in an uneasy alliance with the senate who have passed an amnesty on the assassins of his childhood friend Caesar....

He is delared as Julius's heir in his will, and becomes the primary beneficiary of Julius's wealth and more importantly his political contacts and confidants. He begins to cement his position, and with his power on the increase, Mark Anthony cuts his  losses and takes the remaining legions still loyal to him north after one of the more prominent assassins, followed by Octavian.

Despite losing the ensuing battle, he and the winning Octavian decide to form an alliance based on their mutual wish to bring the remaining assassins, and especially Brutus, to justice.

To do that Octavian must first defeat the Roman fleet - which has been put under the control of the son of Pompey, a rabid anti-Caeser'ite - in order to transport his Legions to be able to take on Brutus.

Fantastic descriptions of sea battles follow, also of the improvements to the new galleys Octavian orders that allow him to finally win, and transport his Legions for the final battle at Phillipi.

Bloody excellent - a real 8 out of 10'er...

* Other supermarkets are available....