Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff...

Saturday, July 25

"Firing into the Brown" #103 - BOTS, Arromanche 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 a long overdue update..

I kind of feel the need to apologise for the lack of updates (no idea why but you do feel beholden to your reader [singular 😁]), but it's summer - one of the hottest in the UK (officially) since the long hot summer of 1976 (and that was a belter) but that means the loft is stuffy, sweaty and hot, and errr... the boat is not... 😏

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😂

Ludicrous.. 😁 Especially noteworthy is how the activity ramped up from about January last year - just as Google (who own the Blogger platform, and must be rubbing their hands at the size of the free data lake on their doorstep) and the others were going big with their new AI tools.

(PS. My thanks to the Emperor Elector blog, though.. apparently they are still the fourth most popular way that people find this tiny little dark and dusty corner of the web! 👍)

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"I have been to"... Arromanches!

Despite the lack of any meaningful wargaming activity, the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer and I have however managed to get away for three or four days in France, Normandy to be precise. Any hopes that it might be cooler there were dashed of course; temperatures in northern France while we were there were topping 38'C - oh well - the coach and the hotel had AC! 😏

This was an organised tour, and had attractions for both of us; based in Rouen (Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake there, and it was an English garrison/stronghold during the 100 Years War), we also visited Honfleur (tick - boats!), but while the draw for the memsahib was Monet's House and Gardens (including the lily pond) the draw for me was a trip to Arromanches (some military history at last!).

More precisely Arromanches-les-Bains, the town was in the middle of Gold beach, but even more importantly was subsequently the site of the Mulberry B (British) artificial harbour..

The Museum is new, and replaces the old one, that I think I went to over 50 years ago - this one has only been open 3 or 4 years. The old one was demolished and is now gardens at the back of the current museum.

New museum left, old museum gardens behind it - if you look carefully there's a Sherman up on the hill to the right of the road..

Gold Beach was in the British (and Canadian) sector (see map above) and was allocated to the 50th Northumbrian "Tyne Tees" Infantry Division - there's a couple of reminders in front of the museum.. got to love an M3 half track ever since my Airfix days.. 😁

...and of course a 25pdr with it's "TT" (Tyne Tees) divisional markings.. the second badge (44 in a red over blue square) indicates that this gun was in the third (of three) Field Artillery Regiments in the Division ..

...and so to the museum - how was it? In a word, rammed.. lots of people, but they have these excellent over the ears headsets, with a key pad allowing you to select each of the exhibits in turn, and have added information. The headphones are very good, but a bit awkward if you wear reading glasses as you have to take them on on and off with the glasses. 😏

There's a lot of information in there on the combatants of both sides, weapons , uniforms and so forth, but by far the greater focus is on the Mulberry, in fact it could probably be called the Mulberry Museum and nothing wrong with that, the subject is fascinating..

They have a huge amount of information and background on the construction and types of units that go to make up the Mulberry harbour (which I have touched on previously here [clicky] and here [clicky] as I have a local connection) but by far the most fascinating feature of the museum was a 1:72 scale model featuring all elements of the harbour.. roadway, caissons of various types (code name Phoenix) and block ships (code name Corncob) but for me the best but was showing how the Allies actually unloaded cargo..

Large transport unloading - note the wooden ramps to the Mulberry

Better view of same - in the background a floating pier head (known as Spuds) held in place by four legs that sat anchored to the sea bed

Better view of the pier head - to the left the road to the shore (code name "Whale") supported on barges (code name "Beetle") - the vehicles give an excellent idea of the scale of this damn thing - it was huge! There would have been other pier heads, floating piers and roadways either side of this one, and in the centre at least one further road to the shore..

LCT (Landing Craft Tank - one of which we have also seen previously here [clicky]) unloading directly to the pier head..

What an absolute feat of engineering - stunning!

...and this is what it would have looked like at the time...

"View of the Mulberry B harbour "Port Winston" at Arromanches in September 1944. Centre and left are "spud" pierheads with floating piers of "whales" and "beetles". At right is 2,000 ft (610 m) of "Swiss roll"." Piccie courtesy Wikipedia

"Swiss roll" by the way was the code name for a kind of lightweight flexible road/track system made of waterproofed canvas reinforced with slats and tensioned by cables - it would take up to a 7 ton truck...

A quite surprising amount of Port Winston survives despite over 80 years of Channel weather, and still visible from the beach - it was a bit breezy and hazy but the following shows the remains of the end of one of those two central roadways that services the pier heads

...and you'll have to embiggen this one (following) for a panoramic of the sweep of the harbour.. by the by.. you can also see why the Allies picked this coast for the invasion - at low tide huge sweeps of sand are revealed..

So how successful was it in in it's designed role? This Mulberry was used for ten months after D-Day, and landed over two million men, four million tons of supplies and half a million vehicles before it was fully decommissioned. Against that though the Americans (whose Mulberry was damaged beyond repair in storms) landed their supplies direct to the beaches. There is an interesting graph in the Wiki Mulberry article below that shows they were landing more on Utah beach alone than the Mulberry by DDay+30.. having said that - in the period up to then, when quick reinforcement was paramount, the Mulberry was key...

Very much recommended!

Saturday, June 6

"Firing into the Brown" #102 - D-Day, Gosport Advanced Lines photo'd by the Luftwaffe (!) and stuff...

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another (long over due) update..

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It ill behoves me on todays very special date not to make mention of what will be the 82nd Anniversary of Operation Neptune, or what is better known as D-Day

Commandos of HQ 4th Special Service Brigade, coming ashore from LCI(S) landing craft on Nan Red beach, Juno area, at St Aubin-sur-Mer, 6 June 1944. Image: IWM (B 5218)

Time to remember all those brave men and women who went ashore, aided those going ashore, flew over to protect, and landed from above on that day.. what a generation...

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Something popped up on a Farcebook feed today, and as is the way of maps and aerial pictures got my interest levels up far higher than any average normal persons would have been.. 😁

So you may remember my visits to Bastion #1 [clicky] and a couple of years ago to Battery #2 [clicky] at Stokes Bay, and that certainly after the visit to Bastion #1 I expressed an interest in tracing some of the Gosport Lines. That should be Lines plural of course, as the original lines, or fortifications, that Bastion #1 was part of, were then superseded by the Advanced Lines ('advanced' because they were further out from what they were built to protect due to advances in the artillery technology of the time) Battery #2 could be considered part of the advanced lines..

So what was it that popped up on Farcebook?? This..

...which comes comes courtesy of the Luftwaffe (😐) and was taken in September 1943 apparently. It is one, a stupendously clear and informative picture, and two, shows in crystal clarity the five major forts that formed the western facing Gosport Advanced Lines, way before the population and building density ramped up to current levels..

This is them today.. I've labelled them for clarity.. note the effects of 80 odd years of humans breeding and building! 😁

West at top - Solent on the left..

The forts run north to south (with Battery #2 being furthest south).. Forts Elson, Grange, and Rowner are all situated within MoD establishments so are only open to the public rarely*. Gomer was demolished in 1964 and a housing estate was built on it.

This next one is again courtesy of the Luftwaffe and taken in September '42 - it was a lovely day, clearly.. Forts Gomer (bottom), Grange and Rowner are clear, and what I think is a tree lined road running behind them..

Finally, this picture dates from just after WW2 - note the runways between Grange and Rowner, I suspect we'll come back to them at some point.. 😏

*Fingers crossed there may be an opportunity to visit Forts Grange and Rowner with the Palmerston Forts Society in August..

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Laters, as the young people are want to say... and the Remuda game will appear at some time!

Friday, May 15

"Remuda" - set up

Background:

Miguel Ángel Caballo* was kind of, and kind of not, aptly named, for while he was certainly no angel, he did have a lot of horses.

Miguel ran a cattle ranch and bred horses on land lying at the edge of the Sonoran desert on the Mexican side of the Arizona Mexico border - a dangerous place to make a living, but he had lived there all his life, had good men to help him run it, and if any damned 'Yanqui' or 'Comanche' wanted to try and help himself well they wouldn't be trying twice..

The quality of Miguel's remuda was well know in the lands either side of the border. "Old" Tex had known about it since way back in the day, as the Rangers had sometimes had cause to get remounts from Miguel, and it was that that had given Tex the idea.

Now while horse thieves were treated harshly in the States (where branding, having your ears cut off, and hanging were all common), when the thievery took place across the border nobody cared a damn... "after all, they wuz only Mex's".... and some of those prime horses could ease Tex's current problems considerably!

* Caballo is Spanish for horse.. clever, eh? 😏

Setup:

It is night time - a small remuda (horse herd) is being held in a makeshift corral near a line shack guarded by three Mexican vaqueros (cowboys). Two of the Mexicans are in the shack sleeping, the other one is on guard, armed, and sitting on a chair on the porch at the front of the shack, overlooking the corral. Tex, Zeke and Robbie (for it is they, the Jolly Boys!) enter from any table edge.

The Corral holds 15 horses (there are actually three models, but each one counts as 5)
Spooked Herd - horses are nervous so loud gunfire, or sudden movement within close range, may cause them to panic:

for any gunfire or movement within 6" of a horse(s) roll once on a D10; on a 1 or 2, they move D6 inches in a direction decided by a direction dice and are marked as Shaken (blue pin).
the horse will recover/calm on their own if there is no firing, or movement within 6" of it, for an entire turn

Roping & Driving: A figure in base contact can:

Calm a horse (one action - remove blue pin)
Put a head collar on (one action - only possible on un-shaken horses)
Lead the horse at half movement

Lead or drive 1–2 horses at a slow pace
The Line Shack is a small building with a lantern on the porch and in the windows which casts light
Ground is considered mostly good, but:

bushes/scrub and fences don't block line of sight but provide cover
rock outcrops, the cabin and the horses do block line of sight and also provide cover.

It is night so there is limited visibility :

near the shack, the lanterns provide normal visibility for a radius of 6" all around the cabin.
outside of this light, all shooting greater than 6" range is at -1.

To simulate the effects of surprise none of the Mexicans can move until either:

Any one of the Jolly Boys fires, or
Any one of the Jolly Boys get within either 6” of the cabin, or 6" of any of the Mexicans, but
there is a chance that the Jolly Boys might be heard anyway, so for each of them, each time they move roll once per turn (D10); on a 1 or 2 they are heard.

Once the Jolly Boys are discovered the alarm is triggered and they then have 15 moves to get the horses away before help arrives from the main house. They must exit from the point they entered (as that is where their own horses are tied up)

ORBAT:

The Jolly Boys:

The Vaquero's:

Winning/Losing:

At either the end of turn 15, or when all of one side are dead/escaped...

For every horse either side controls at the end of the game: 5 points
For every wound inflicted on the other side: 1 point
For each dead character (an additional): 1 point (ie. count all the wounds, and then add an additional one point if they're also dead)

Better go throw some dice and deal some cards, then! 😁

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

Tuesday, April 28

"Firing into the Brown" #101 - Warships, submarines, and horse rustling, and stuff

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. the boat is in but I still seem to be too damn busy! 😁

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Cracking days sail last week was rounded off by an international show of might in the dockyard..

Ukrainian minesweepers (here on training I believe), a Portuguese frigate (NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida - F334), the UK Type 45 Destroyer HMS Daring (and unidentified partner), and the German frigate Saschen (lead ship of her class)

The Portuguese one is a veteran of the Dutch navy having been sold to the Portuguese in 2010, one of a pair of Karel Doorman class frigates that they bought. In the Dutch navy she was launched in 1992 as HNLMS Van Galen (F834), so in modern warship terms a veteran indeed..

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Did someone say submarine? 😏

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cruiser_L%C3%A9on_Gambetta

How splendid is that picture.. 😁

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In the quiet of the evening, jug at hand, "Old" Tex was sat in his rocking chair on the porch of his cabin, staring morosely at his corral and livery stable...

Lot of hard work had gone in to building it up, and life in Cedar Gulch could be tough at times - not perhaps as tough as riding at the head of the 7th Virginia or hunting down Mexican bandidos - but hard work nonetheless and right at the moment some of the hardest he'd known..

"Old" Tex was short of money.. due to a combination of problems but mostly due to competition from Dexter's Livery at the other end of town, and a bad case of Strangles that had spread like wildfire through his stock causing a number of his best horses to die, and leaving the rest far from healthy and ready for work...

It was not in his nature to sit back and do nothing - and grunting in annoyance at himself, he hauled himself out of the chair and went in side for paper and pencil.. maybe it was time he revisited some of his old Texas Ranger haunts.. with some friends.

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

Saturday, April 11

"Firing into the Brown" #100 - spies, double revolvers and stuff

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. just a short one this week, and an apology for the hiatus over the last few weeks in the provision of drivel the blog is normally widely admired for .. my regular reader will know that my other past time is sailing [clicky] and at this time of year my focus shifts to antifoul, paint, and epoxy.. 😁

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Very much enjoyed the book on Gordievsky by McIntyre, and then, as is the way of the algorithms, Amazon offered me a deal on this one..

I'll be honest and say that before I read the book, I'd never heard of Gordievsky but I think most people of my age have heard of Philby.. him and the others known as the Cambridge Four were undoubtedly the high water mark of Soviet counter intelligence in the war and post war years, up to the 60's, and were common parlance when I was a kid..

The book is not specifically about Philby's spying activities, as the author says plenty of others have already written those books, his interest is in the personal nature of what Philby did.. his relationships, both male and female, and the cause and effects of those relationships..

Philby was a product of the dusk of British Empire, that period just before WW2 when the Empire was beginning to come to and end, but where school (Windsor, Eton or Harrow), University (Oxbridge) and club was more than an education, it was the passport to gainful and powerful employment. He went to Westminster, and then Trinity College Cambridge (it was there in 1930 that he developed his life long belief in Communism) so he had all the right ties and scarves to guarantee his later access to the Security Services (MI6) in 1940 on just the word of a few ex university and fellow club members whispering in the right ear - and that despite his earlier marriage to a known Communist, and membership and activity in a number of Socialist and Communist organisations at university.

For the next 20 odd years, he sent untold numbers of documents to the KGB, and betrayed hundreds of American and British operations, causing the direct death of hundreds of people, and all while schmoozing an enormous number of friends in both the American and British Secret Services who had no idea what he was doing while they chatted 'shop' at the almost endless dinners and parties that seem to have been de rigeur at the time.. it is unbelievable that his friends and colleagues in MI6 covered for him and stood by him for years despite the concerns of MI5 and the CIA

Everyone said he was the most charming and likeable man - I reckon that he had more than an element of sociopath about him, and the huge emotional, psychological and personal cost to his closest friends when he was finally found out mattered not a jot to him... excellent book.. 9/10