Wargaming the 1912 British Army Manoeuvres

I recently had an email from Nick Huband, who is an old friend and fellow member of Wargame Developments.

Knowing my interest in Peter Laing Miniatures, he sent me a number of photographs of his two small British armies that he has used to refight the 1912 British Army Manoeuvres. These took place from 15th to 19th September 1912. Blue Army (the defenders) was under the command of General Grierson, and Red Army (the attackers) was commanded by General Haig. Red Army was assumed to be invading England (Blueland) between Hunstanton and Well-next-the-sea, with its objective being London. Blue Army was concentrated around Cambridge, which is where the umpire (General French) was based,

Blue Army comprised:

• A cavalry division of two scratch cavalry brigades make up of the Household Cavalry, the Royal Scots Greys, some Yeomanry regiments, and several units of cyclists
• 3rd Infantry Division (from Southern Command)
• 4th Infantry Division (from Eastern Command and the Territorials)
• Blue Army’s headquarters staff were drawn from throughout the army, excluding Aldershot Command

Red Army comprised:

• A cavalry division drawn from Regular Army cavalry regiments
• 1st Infantry Division (from Aldershot Command)
• 2nd Infantry Division (from Aldershot Command)
• Red Army’s headquarters staff was drawn from Aldershot Command

Red Army was expected to beat Blue Army quite easily ... but General Grierson out-performed and out-generalled Haig, mainly because of his superior use of aerial reconnaissance

In the following photographs, Blue Army is wearing manoeuvre bands on their caps except for the umpire on the command stand, who has a white cap cover and brassard. The scale is broadly one stand to a brigade, regiment of artillery, or cyclist battalion.

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A brief anecdote

Apparently, two of the official observers (the Canadian and South African Ministers of Defence) came to blows during the manoeuvres, and had to separated by onlookers. Their disagreement arose when the South African (Jan Smuts) said that one of his countrymen could fight better than twenty Britons, to which the Canadian (Sam Hughes) replied that one Canadian could outfight twenty South Africans.

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A Canadian officer wrote a detailed report about the manoeuvres, and these have been reproduced on the CANADA AT WAR blog here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Nick Huband.

A belated ‘day in the sun’ for my Peter Laing figures.

Despite the fact that of late most of my time has been taken up working on the final draft of THE PORTABLE PIKE & SHOT WARGAME book, I have been thinking about setting up a small battle so that figures from my collection of World War One Peter Laing figures can finally have their belated ‘day in the sun’.

The figures were originally intended to represent the Bolivian and Paraguayan armies of the Chaco War, and it is to that war that I looked for inspiration. In the end, I chose to base the scenario on the Battle of Nanawa, and I have just set up the terrain for the battle using my Hexon II hex terrain.

I hope to fight this battle over the next couple of days, and when I do, I’ll certainly write a battle report for this blog.

In praise of Peter Laing Miniatures: Part 7

Barry Carter is also an avid collector and painter of Peter Laing's figures, and Ian Dury sent me the following photographs of some of Barry's figures.

They include French troops from Napoleon's abortive campaign in Egypt, ...

... some of their Turkish opponents, ...

... and some wonderful Indian elephants.

The elephants certainly don't look like frightened mice to me!

In praise of Peter Laing Miniatures: Part 6

One of the vignettes that Ian Dury produced for the Continental Wars Society display at SALUTE2013 was a coach carrying the Commander-in-Chief.

Ian has also painted figures and equipment for periods other than the Crimean War and the Colonial period including World War I artillery ...

... Bavarian Infantry and cavalry, ...

... as well as French Infantry from the late nineteenth century.

In praise of Peter Laing Miniatures: Part 5

Here are some more of Ian Dury's collection of Peter Laing figures ... this time from the Colonial range.

The first group of photographs show the figures on Ian's superb PORTABLE WARGAME terrain ...

... whilst the second group are examples of some of the other figures from the Colonial range that Peter Laing produced.

I really love the look of these painted figures ... and only wish that I had more of them myself!

In praise of Peter Laing Miniatures: Part 4

Ian Dury has sent me some photographs of his Peter Laing Crimean War figures ... fighting a battle on his PORTABLE WARGAME terrain board! He has kindly given me permission to share them with my regular blog readers.

The Battle

The British

The Russians

A very impressive collection ... and great looking terrain as well!

In praise of Peter Laing Miniatures: Part 3

The Continental Wars Society put on a display of Peter Laing Miniatures at SALUTE2013. They display took the form of a military parade located in Germany towards the end of the nineteenth century. The figures were all painted in parade uniforms and the various formations were labelled using large flags.

PS. The images of the Continental Wars Society's display were kindly provided by Ian Dury.