I have been to... The Imperial War Museum

Time for another update..  and SteveTheWargamer has been travelling..

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Had an opportunity to pop up to the smoke this week with a couple of beer drinking mates - the plan was to visit the museum (as they also have an interest in military history) and then go search for some pubs with decent beer..

Didn't start too well with the news that one of the trio wasn't going to be able to make it as a result of a medical issue with one of his AP's, and then we found the day definitely wasn't getting any better for some unfortunate who had had an altercation with the train directly in front of us, just as we were about to get in to London Waterloo.. 😔 Sum it all up, the train reversed, and then took a circuititious route back in to Waterloo, but the 90 minute journey turned into a 3 hour one..

By that point we were definitely in need of a beer so a stop off at "The Hercules", a Fullers pub, for a pint of "Grand Slam" was very much needed...  what can I say - first beer of the day, it was OK...  was it worth the £7+ per pint (😱) not really, but those are the London prices..  

Pushed on past the old Kennington Miniatures shop, which (funnily enough) was in Kennington Road, and the Museum comes into view... what I didn't know until afterwards is that the building the Museum occupies is not purpose built - it was originally the central portion of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric institution known locally as "Bedlam". Entry is free by the way (to the museum anyway, and I guess the hospital as well..😏)...

I reckon the Museum must have one of the more dramatic entries!

As you pass under the two 15" naval guns..  

..not my picture - it was piddling down with rain and I wanted to get out of it! This one is courtesy of the Museum..

you push through the front doors and are presented with this vista..

...quite astonishing - those are all originals by the way..  the white thing is a Japanese WW2 jet powered bomb, a Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka Model 11 [clicky]. That thing was carried slung under a bomber and released once they were within reach of the target where the kamikaze pilot would then glide to the target before engaging the rockets for the last dive. Above it is a Mk1A Spitfire [clicky], and above that a Harrier GR5A [clicky] - this particular Harrier flew over 40 missions in Afghanistan before being withdrawn from service...

...and then skulking in the background..

...in addition to the V2, note also the square of brown'ish metal bottom right - that's all that
remained of a car from the site of  9/11.. 

..an original V2 [clicky] that was gifted to the museum in 1946 - you forget how huge these things were, look at the guy standing next to the rocket exhaust for scale ... a 100 of those a week - each with a 1000Kg warhead - were landing on Antwerp in December '44 as part of Hitlers Ardennes/Bulge offensive. Which begs the question, they were frightening for sure, but a drop in the ocean next to a fully loaded Lancaster that carried 14 times that, and came back, and could be used again. In military terms it seems to me to be the same difference as between playing the Lottery, or buying Premium Bonds - one is a one shot could win, the other can be used over and over for the win...  why did the Germans spend so much of their scarce resources and time on these things?

The Museum is on multiple floors and most of the ground and first floor are WW1/2 themed, loads and loads of exhibits, but these are the one's that caught my eye..

On the ground floor a RHA WW1 13pdr and limber [clicky]..  when I was a boy I had a spring loaded model of this (it may have been the 18pdr 😏), so it caught my eye...

This one has an amazing back story (it's worth clicking on the link) but in summary served with the 1st Cavalry Division in 1914 and was present at Le Cateau where it received the damage that can be seen ..

Note the shell scrape on the (lower) barrel..

..and then see what the shell did when it came through the gap in the shield..  trunnion completely destroyed..   and I don't want to even think of the damage this would also have done to the crew sheltering behind the shield in this area.. 

Note also the damage to the end of the muzzle...

Elsewhere..  the remains of a Zero (an A6M3) found 50 years after the war in the jungle on the island of Toroa by an archaeologist - amazing how well the aluminium shell has lasted - apparently they found a British bullet lodged in the air frame of this one, and the remains of a dried Lotus flower in the cockpit, carried by Japanese pilots for luck. ..

I was quite surprised at how big it was, but I had a look on Google afterwards and it is shorter than the Spitfire, but had a wider wingspan and only weighed 60% of the (more heavily armoured) Spitfire..

The mighty German 8.8 cm Flak 36/37 anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun, bloody enormous!

...but such a high profile...  I had no idea by the way that the first iteration of this gun dated to WW1 (the Flak 16 version)

...and speaking of Lancaster's..  this is the nose section of "Old Fred" a Lancaster Mk. 1, which flew 49 sorties over enemy territory during 1943 - 1944 with 47 Squadron (RAAF)..  I was hugely taken by the sheer amount of Perspex, and the simplicity of the fittings..  make no mistake they were brave men...  but I wondered why they stopped at 49 and didn't do the 50?

....on the car restoration YouTube sites they call this (following) "patina" 😁This is a Chevrolet truck used by the LRDG [clicky] and only discovered in the Egyptian desert in 1980..

...it's a Chevrolet WB (Wide Body) 30cwt four by two, and the markings on it when it was found indicate it was operated by the New Zealand contingent of the LRDG, and was abandoned sometime mid-1941..  this one was named by Trooper Clarkie Waetford (who was in W Patrol) as "Waikaha"

..the remains of what I think is a circular Union Jack on the tail..

Next - one of my favourites in my WW2 miniatures collection are the Peter Pig German motorbikes so this was a draw.. a BMW R75 750cc with sidecar.. no known history but the Museum does known that the grey paint job is incorrect for the age of the motorbike, as it is a late war model..

....and last of all - how can you not love a Sherman? 😏When this one [clicky] was given the Museum they had no idea of the history, but when they stripped the paint back they found the markings for a tank that would have been in the 2nd Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, Guards Armoured Division. It's the M4A4 variant (it had a longer engine) and dates to 1944/45 in Western Europe...  note the additional pieces of armour welded on the side (to protect the driver I think - there's the same on the other side to protect the bow machine gunner who was backup driver) and also in front of the their respective hatches on the front of the tank..

...and that was it with the pictures as from here we went to the Holocaust Gallery which describes the various pogroms and industrial killings of ethnic and political groups (but of course mostly the Jews) not only by the Nazi's, but also by the Russians - it's a sobering visit - hugely informative, and tries to explain the timeline of how the Nazi's escalated from political prisons like Sachsenhausen when they took power to the inception of the death camps exemplified by Auschwitz..  it describes the Nazi's preoccupation with eugenics, racial purity and all the rest of the shit show they used to justify the killing.. not a place for photo's but I found it hugely informative, sad, sobering as I said, but also depressing - we as human kind are still doing it...

Last stop was almost a palate cleanser in comparison, one of their special exhibits at the moment is to do with Britain's involvement in independence conflicts after WW2 - called "emergencies" by the British government (apparently for insurance reasons, as calling it a war would invalidate insurance of any British civilians in the area!) the exhibition covers the emergencies in Kenya, Malaya, and Cyprus...  very good I thought - I learnt a lot more than I knew about all of them - the Cyprus part of the exhibition was particularly good, of the three of them, the ramifications of that "emergency" are still felt to this day, and still not resolved.. 

Time for some more beer, and after an "OK" pint in the local Wetherspoons (mostly to get some food) the final stop of the day was a pub from my bucket list..

Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is in Fleet Street. The current pub dates from 1667, when the original pub that was on the site from 1538 got burnt down in the Great Fire - it's an absolute belter and is one of the last of the old London Chop houses. It's owned by the Sam Smith's Brewery so we were drinking their Old Brewery Bitter, about as traditional a British bitter as it's possible to get these days! Very tasty, and the pub lived up to all the expectations - pubb'ier than a pub thing, a right rabbit warren of wood panelled rooms with squashy sofas, chairs, and comfortable benches, coal fires, and a ceiling that's been painted by 300 years of nicotine smoke..  lovely...

...we were in this bar, couldn't get my own picture as one, it was full of people, two it was too dark, and three I was busy slurping beer... 😏

😍

Brilliant day out, only improved by the fact that the train home was quick, and not delayed!

Further reading stuff if you're interested:

• https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/big-guns-londons-imperial-war-museum-195081 - some history on the two 15" guns at the entrance
• https://truck-encyclopedia.com/ww2/us/chevrolet-WB-30cwt.php - excellent review and descriptions of the Chevy trucks used by LRDG
• https://theliberatingkind.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/m4a4-willie-pusher-ii/ - more detail on the Sherman
• https://ye-olde-cheshire-cheese.co.uk/about/

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #99 - mines, claims and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  just a short one... 

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Meanwhile....  out in the Solent... (😁)

Russian warship deploying a moored contact mine.
Painting by the French artist Louis Charles Bombled (1862-1927)

Russian Sailors Saluting a French Transport (Marins russes saluant un transport francais )

also by Bombled

....shades of the excellent Siege of Portsmouth! 

To be fair though, the first picture is from a series illustrating the Russo-Japanese War, and the second is from the book "La Guerre a Madagascar" (by H Galli) 😁

Could find very little about Bombled - he was hugely prolific though, and his military subjects definitely appealed to me. There's more than a shade of "Look and Learn" about them (and if nothing else does, that dates me!)..  

More pictures here [clicky] if you fancy a look..

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It was midday in the the peaceful (😏) town of Cedar Gulch, and "Nugget" Turner (Joe to his mom) had just stepped out of the Assay Office where he'd been depositing his latest finds..

It was one of his three monthly visits to town to stock up on chewing tobacco, flour, and salt before he returned to his remote and lonely claim two days ride up in the mountains behind the town where he mined and dug for copper.. 

He'd leave tomorrow morning.. before that there was time for a long soak in a bath, followed by a glass or two of something in the Saloon, a good steak dinner, and then perhaps a visit upstairs to see if any of Ma Kelly's girls were free....

Across the way in the Saloon though, envious eyes had followed him into the office, and then across the street towards the barber.. pausing only to finish his drink, Bart (Bartholomew to his mom..  or rather that is when she was sober enough to remember it..) Johansson had seen enough, that was the third deposit to the Assay Office in the last two days... time he let the boss and the boys know that their was rich pickings to be had..

😀

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...   and maybe that game...

Attack on Brill - setup and game..

Time for another update..  and a game for once, a vaguely historical refight of an actual engagement in the English Civil War - the Attack on Brill - which was promoted by a post on Farcebook by the excellent Battlefields Trust

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Historical background.. 

December 1642, and after their defeat at Turnham Green and their subsequent withdrawal to Oxford, the Royalists had established winter quarters for their army in the towns and strategic points around their new capital. 

Banbury, Reading and Abingdon were major garrisons but others, like Wallingford, Burford and Islip guarded important crossings of the Thames and its tributaries. Then to the east of Oxford there were a number of small garrisons in Buckinghamshire, there purely to retain their control of the county - one such garrison was established in the small hilltop village of Brill. 

Worth noting that the village was equidistant between Oxford and Aylesbury - roughly 15 miles from each but slightly closer to Oxford..

The village had been an important royal manor during the Middle Ages, but in the December of 1642 was home to two Royalist Lancashire foot regiments, under Lord Molyneux and Sir Gilbert Gerard, who proceeded to fortify it with banks and ditches around the church. 

The nearest Parliamentary garrison was at Aylesbury. There, Colonel Arthur Goodwin the Parliamentary Commander-in-Chief for Buckinghamshire, had three foot regiments (Bulstrode's, Holmstead's and Tyrell's) along with his own regiment of horse and Browne’s Regiment of Dragoons. 

Portrait of Arthur Goodwin in about 1639 by Anthony van Dyck

Goodwin had decided to eliminate the Royalist presence in Brill, and marched out of Aylesbury in late January with his horse, Homestead’s Regiment of Foot, and Colonel Browne’s Dragoons but he also had with him two pieces of ordnance (described as sakers [clicky] ie. slightly smaller than a 6pdr) in order to breach the defences. 

The refight..

Parliamentary entry point is bottom of table..

...with a church and village, surrounded by makeshift earthworks

Royalists deploy within the earthworks

OOB:

Royalist:

All regular foot, and at full strength (6 Strength Points or SP)

• Charles Gerard's Regiment of Foot
• John Belasyse's Regiment of Foot (standing in for Molyneaux's)

Parliament:

All units are regular and at full strength (6 SP)

• Brooke's Regiment of Foot (for Homestead's)
• Gramson's Horse (for Goodwin's)
• Wardlowe's Dragoons (for Browne's)

Scenario specific rules:

• Rules will be my SYW variant [clicky]
• It seems likely that the sound of gunfire would clearly have been heard in Oxford which was only 12 miles away, so I am also assuming that there was a clear need to get this done quickly - my moves are quite short in terms of time so the scenario is limited to 15 turns (roughly two or three hours)
• Artillery ammunition was not plentiful at the time [clicky], and as this was also a bit of a flying column, I'm assuming Goodwin didn't bring a lot with him - the guns are therefore limited to 10 shots between them (ie. 5 each)
• I am going to assume* the earthworks were not substantial as the Royalists had only arrived in December, and Goodwin attacked in January - so they would be almost trenches with a raised parapet. Accordingly, each earthwork section is worth 3 SP's, once this is reduce to 0 by any artillery fire (only) that section is removed... 

* This is probably an unsafe assumption, but I have done it for playability reasons, as normally an assault on a fixed and defended position needs a clear 3 or 4 to 1 advantage (if I had been Goodwin, I would have brought both the other foot regiments with me, and probably any other units I could scrounge or lay my hands on as well. Shock and awe always works...😏) 

The refight:

Initial deployment was as follows..  Goodwin's sole foot regiment on the right flank - then cavalry in the middle, and the dragoons ready for a quick advance on his left. The sakers are deployed on his far right on a slight knoll..

In the village - following - the Royalists are limited in what they can do, so both regiments sit waiting while 'enjoying' the hectoring of the local monk.. 😁

I figured the real Goodwin wouldn't do anything before his sakers had done their work, so other than a general advance to just outside of musket range by his foot and horse, the only other major tactical move for my fictional Goodwin was to send his dragoons off to one flank - when the time came for an assault then an attack on two fronts could only help..  the following shows about move two., with the general advance by the horse and foot, and the flanking move by the dragoons..

..note the purple dice in front of the earthwork section in the following - the sakers are doing their stuff..

...and the plan worked surprisingly well - one of the trench sections has been blasted into nothingness (black pom poms - see following) and the sakers then switched what was left of their fire to the now unprotected Royalist foot regiments..

To forestall the inevitable, and because if they just sit there they're going to continue being shot at by the artillery, Belasyse's charge down the hill into Brooke's, but are repulsed bloodily and rout (see following - red dice). Meanwhile the Parliamentary dragoons are ready to climb the hill - the intention is to occupy the church, the cavalry also stand ready...

In the next turn Belasyse's recover their moral though, and halt shaken, only for Brooke's to then charge up the hill, banners flying (the mental image puts me in mind of Sir Bevil Grenville leading his Cornish regiments up that hill at Roundway 😊). Unlike the Cornishmen though, and against all the odds, Belasyse's stand and send the 'Butchers and Dyers' reeling down the hill in rout!

Regrettably though, it was all too late for the Royalists, the Parliamentary dragoons had now occupied the church and were peppering Gerard's with musket fire from their flank, and Goodwin's horse now charged up the hill causing Belasyse's to rout from the village and the hill. 

Then Gerard's also failed their morale and followed them, Gerard and Molyneaux cursing and trying to rally them as they went, and Goodwin advanced and took control of the village..

Just a small action in the greater picture of the war, but a much need propaganda fillip for Parliament I think..

Post Match Analysis:

• what a fantastic little game - in the end we got nine full moves in, and I had no idea that the Parliamentarians would be so successful, but they did get good dice throws, the sakers were very effective, hitting 60-70% of the time 
• still felt that it all rested on a knife edge though, so the scenario specific rules worked..
• butchers bill was as you would expect - Parliament losing 6SP's, 50% casualties. The Royalists lost 3SP's, just less than 20% casualties (not counting the sakers in the overall total)

...and what actually happened??

Arriving before Brill on the 27th January, Goodwin had ordered Homestead’s foot regiment to assault the defences as the artillery opened a breach. Browne’s Dragoons were to stand-to until the breach was affected at which point they were to also launch their attack. Unfortunately, due to some confusion, the Parliamentary artillery did not concentrate its fire long enough to affect a breach and although Homestead’s men launched several charges, their firing was ineffective against the earthen defences. 

The fighting continued for two hours, but the Parliamentarians could make no impression on the defences. They were eventually forced to retreat due to the Royalist’s use of a smokescreen to drive away the attackers as detailed in a letter to Parliament: 

‘The Fight continued two houres, the Parliaments forces not giving way on one side in all that time; but at last the winde, and so the smoke being so in the face of them, which was made greater by wet straw which the enemy set on fire, they retreated, which the enemy perceiving made out after them in great triumph, pursuing them 4 miles with their horse...’  

(I wonder where that horse came from, reinforcements from Oxford I wonder?? Google tells me horses can trot at between 8 & 12 mph, and Brill was only 15 from Oxford - so given the battle/skirmish lasted a couple of hours that would have given the Royalists time to put a relief force together and also get there in time.. Theoretically.. 😏)

The Parliamentarians claimed that they lost between 10 and 17 dead including a captain, but the Royalists claimed (a probably highly exaggerated) 70 killed. 

Following the battle, the Royalist’s reinforced the garrison with cannon and sent tools to further improve the fortifications. 

Although Parliamentary forces moved up to Brill on a number of further occasions, the garrison was never attacked again and in April, needing troops to help relieve the besieged garrison at Reading, the King withdrew the garrison in order to reinforce the Oxford Army

Brill was not occupied again, except in passing, for the remainder of the war. 

More Reading:

• Wiki article on Goodwin
• The Farcebook post that started this off..

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #98 - Siege of Portsmouth, Venner and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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Quelle domage... they've shelled
the Guildhall...!

This was fun... 

Originally published in 1895 to support a parliamentary election campaign (in Portsmouth), "The Siege of Portsmouth" was a local newspaper serialised story describing a fictional "what if" attack on Portsmouth/South Coast by a Franco-Russian invasion. 

Apparently "invasion fiction" as a genre was a big thing at the turn of the 19th/20th Century (I had no idea). 

According to Wiki "..between 1871 and 1914 more than 60 works of fiction for adult readers describing various invasions of Great Britain were published" ("War of the Worlds" published in 1898 is probably the best known), and this story is another example. 

...happily it survived..😁 

It is unusual in its level of detail of the military engagements, but I strongly suspect that is to do with the setting (Portsmouth), and more specifically the forts and Dockyard - the story quite clearly has a political axe to grind with regard to inadequate spending on armaments and defence. 

It describes the heavy shelling of Portsmouth, Southsea and Eastney and the partial destruction of the Solent forts, and much local detail is included presumably to bring it home to the readership how they might be impacted if they didn't vote for the right man😁. I was fascinated to see that the French landing site for example is given as Emsworth, which is just down the road from where I live.. 

Can't help thinking that as a campaign setting/background for a wargame it's second to none.. 

It's available as a free PDF download if you fancy it.. be aware - it is jingoistic to the max as you would expect for late Victorian (😁)..  8/10

Download from here [clicky]

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When I was doing the unit history on Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot [clicky] back in the day I had cause to mention that their second Colonel, Samuel Venner, looked like he had an interesting background - so I thought I'd do a little digging..

He was a key leader in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 being part of Monmouth's Council of War. He apparently fought bravely at Bridport, where he was wounded in the stomach by a sniper (but in return shot & killed his assailant, one Edward Coker).

He later advised Monmouth to flee, though his counsel was rejected. 

Sent on a secret mission to London, he managed to avoid capture at Sedgemoor, and escaped to Holland joining William of Orange's army. Excluded from King James II's pardons, he remained in exile until the Glorious Revolution of 1688 secured his safety. 

His Colonelcy of Derring's (which seems to have been largely ornamental) was preceded by a spell as Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in Ireland during the Nine Years War, and then, slightly surprisingly, as governor of 'His Majesty's Hospital for Sick and Wounded Men in Ireland' (Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin)

...this is in Bridport Church..

It may have been that experience, that lead to his subsequent post as 'Intendant of Hospitals' in Flanders following the sacking of the previous incumbent for corruption (😏). William had issued orders for hospitals to be built, and Venner was in charge of there running..

Unfortunately, my reading would indicate [clicky] that Venner was as corrupt and unpleasant as the previous incumbent... 

.."once he was in post the avaricious side of his personality soon came to the fore and he quickly demonstrated a talent for emulating his predecessor's penchant for spending other people's money on improving his personal life-style and comfort"... 😁

..this gives us the reason as to why his Colonelcy of Dering's was so short - he lead them for a mere four years between 1691 and 1695 - as he was formally relieved of his Intendant post following the number of complaints. He was then charged with bribery and corruption involving regimental agents, was relieved of the command of his regiment, and finally, cashiered.

Not all of these guys from the past were spotless.. 😁

More Reading:

• Thomas Venner's Rising and his son Samuel Venner's Rebellion

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

Henry's "Wargaming Campaigns" book - dirt cheap!

Just a quicky, as I have no idea how long it will be available at this price  and thought people might like to get it.....  

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...