You go away for a week ...

I have only been away for a week, and yet I seem to have returned to a large pile of things to do!

Besides the 250 plus emails waiting for me in my Inbox (thank God for the delete key!), I have had a couple of Wargame Developments membership renewals to deal with, the next issue of THE NUGGET is due, I am attending the Hertfordshire Provincial Grand Lodge meeting on Wednesday, and I am giving a lecture to the Herts Scots Lodge on Friday!

On top of this, the lawn need cutting, the weeds in the driveway need strimming, there is food shopping to be done, and the bank seems to have 'bounced' a cheque I wrote to the company who renewed our kitchen because 'it has not been signed in accordance with the mandate on that account'. I have no idea why the bank has chosen to do this as both Sue and I can sign cheques on this account, but it means a long telephone conversation with someone in the bank's Customer Relations Department who will know nothing about us or our account other than what the computer tells them ... and the computer appears to have the wrong information!

As I wrote yesterday, ‘normal service will resume as soon as possible’; it's just going to take a bit longer than expected!

Unanswered comments

From the very beginning, I have always tried to answer comments my blog readers have made … but for the past week I have not been able to.

Sue and I booked a ‘domestic’ P&O cruise aboard MV Britannia and set sail from Southampton on 13th September. The cruise only stopped once, which was at Greenock, Scotland, on Wednesday 16th … and this was the only opportunity to read and answer comments made on my blog posts. I managed a couple … and then, for some reason best known to Blogger, the connection to my blog was broken and I could not read or reply to any comments.

I got back home late this morning, and I hope to read, approve, and answer any comments that have been made.

As they used to say in the early days of TV in the UK, ‘normal service will resume as soon as possible’.

Soldiers of the Queen (SOTQ): Issue 181

The Victorian Military Society recently sent me the latest issue of SOTQ (Soldiers of the Queen).

The articles included in this issue are:

• Brothers in Arms and Brother-in-Law: Archibald Alison, James Dormer and the Politics of Command by Prof Ian F W Beckett
• 'What were they running from?': Persuading young men to enlist in the Army in the late nineteenth century by John Sly
• The Diehard Company on Home Service (Part Two) by Graham Gillmore
• Protecting the Army's Human Resource: Lord Kitchener and Medical Arrangements by Dr Anne Samson
• Scutari: Is it just a good story by Colin Dean
• Book Reviews by Roger T Stearn, and Keith Surridge
• Officers of the Victorian Military Society

This was another issue that gave me several hours of enjoyable reading and diverse reading ... and proved yet again that the cost of membership of the Victorian Military Society (UK: £25.00 and Overseas: £30.00) is well worth it.

Operation Market Garden

On this day in 1944, units of the 1st Airborne Army (1st British Airborne and 82nd & 101st US Airborne Divisions) began landing near Arnhem, Nijmegen, and Eindhoven to capture the bridges over which the advancing British Second Army - led by British XXX Corps - would advance into the German Reich.

It was a bold attempt to end the war by a rapier-like thrust into Northern Germany … and it might have succeeded if the weather had been better, XXX Corps hadn’t been held up by having to advance up a single road against determined German opposition, and two under strength SS Panzer Divisions hadn’t been recuperating in the Arnhem area.

In his memoirs, Montgomery expressed the opinion that Operation Market Garden had been 90% successful and that:

It was a bad mistake on my part – I underestimated the difficulties of opening up the approaches to Antwerp ... I reckoned the Canadian Army could do it while we were going for the Ruhr. I was wrong ... In my – prejudiced – view, if the operation had been properly backed from its inception, and given the aircraft, ground forces, and administrative resources necessary for the job, it would have succeeded in spite of my mistakes, or the adverse weather, or the presence of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in the Arnhem area. I remain Market Garden's unrepentant advocate.

I’ve taken part in wargames that refought all or part of Operation Market Garden, and the results were always pretty close to what actually happened.

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The operation did give rise to a memorable quote by General Horrocks, commander of XXX Corps:

Gentlemen, this is a story you will tell your grandchildren ... and mightly bored they'll be!

Other people’s Portable Wargame battle reports: Mark Cordone’s third Balkan Wars battle

Mark Cordone has now fought the third of his Balkan Wars battles - the Battle of Bregalnica - which saw the Serbs and Bulgarians fighting over the main crossing point of the River Bregalnica.

As the following photographs show, the battle started slowly but eventually evolved into a slogging match that the Serbians managed to win, although not without suffering numerous casualties.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Mark Cordone.

More Waterloo-related synchronicity!

Last week I mentioned the apparent synchronicity of Archduke Piccolo beginning to write on his blog about his recent Waterloo refight in the same week that ABBA announced their first record release in forty years.

This Waterloo-related synchronicity has continued, and on the day that Archduke Piccolo completed his series of blog posts about his Waterloo refight, the recently retired Emeritus Professor of History (Napoleonic Europe, Modern Spain) of the University of Liverpool, Charles Esdaile BA, Phd, FRHistS, had an article about wargaming Waterloo in the Journal of Advanced Military Study (JAMS). (This is published by the Marine Corps University.)

The review on the PAXSims blog of this issue of JAMS states the following:

The first article by Dr. Charles Esdaile, 'Napoleon at Waterloo: The Events of 18 June 1815 Analyzed via Historical Simulation', offers a historical perspective on the importance of wargaming and professional military education (PME). His article examines how products of the game industry can be used to assess battles and draw out wider lessons relating to the conduct of war or to show how historical board games are not just recreational artifacts but also a tool with which to more fully explore, analyze, and understand campaign design and battle execution.

I hope to be able to get hold of a copy of this issue of JAMS, but in the meantime, I am getting loads of enjoyment from reading Archduke Piccolo's Waterloo blog posts.

• Waterloo
• Portable Waterloo: The setup
• Portable Waterloo: Opening action
• Portable Waterloo: The Prussians
• Portable Waterloo: A near run thing

The following photographs give a flavour of Archduke Piccolo's battle report.

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Please note that photographs featured above are © Archduke Piccolo and the Marine Corps University.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports: Mark Cordone's second Balkan Wars battle

At the beginning of the month, I wrote about the latest additions to Mark Cordone's Balkan Wars armies, his Serbians and Montenegrins.

He has now fought the second of his Balkan Wars battles - the Battle of Kumanvovo - which saw the Turks and Serbians in action against one another.

By comparing the following photographs, it is possible to see the ebb and flow of the action during the battle.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Mark Cordone.

The Battle of Tel El Kebir

The Battle of Tel El Kebir took place on 13th September 1882, when an entrenched Egyptian army under the command of Ahmed Urabi Pasha was defeated by a British force led by General Sir Garnet Wolseley.

Urabi had ked the 1879 mutiny against the government of Khedive Tewfik, which was heavily influenced by an Anglo-French consortium that controlled the Suez Canal Company and had lent large sums of money to Tewfik's government. Once in power, Urabi began to reform Egypt's military and civil administrations.

The British and French governments were concerned that these reforms might lead to the Egyptians defaulting on their debts, and both countries sent warships to Alexandria to protect their interests. The arrival of of the warships caused unrest in the city, and on 12th June riots broke out, during which at least 50 Europeans and 125 Egyptians were killed, and businesses were destroyed. The French fleet returned to France, but the British prepared to restore order.

After bombarding the port's coastal defences, a force of Royal Marines and sailors went ashore, and martial law was declared. A month later a large force of British troops led by General Wolseley landed at Alexandria and advance on Cairo. Their route was barred by an entrenched Egyptian force at Tel El Kebir, which the British attacked early in the morning of 13th September.

The Battle of Tel El Kebir: Just before daybreak, 13th September 1882.

The Storming of Tel El Kebir by Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville.

I’ve always had an interest in this battle, and I used it as the background for a scenario (NIGHT MARCH TO THE CANAL) that was featured in my REDCOATS & DERVISHES rules.

As can be seen from the following gridded map of the battlefield, it was not too difficult to convert to scenario so that it could be used with my PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME rules.

• British force
• 6 infantry units (Two are Elite and the rest Average; 6 x 4 SPs)
• 1 cavalry unit (Elite; 1 x 3 SPs)
• 1 artillery unit (Average; 1 x 2 SPs)
• 1 machine gun unit (Average; 1 x 2 SPs)
• 1 commander (1 x 6 SPs)
• Total strength = 37 SPs
• Exhaustion point = 13 SPs
• Egyptian force
• 4 infantry units (Two are Average and two [both of which are Egyptian Gendarmerie] are Poor; 4 x 4 SPs)
• 1 cavalry unit (Bashi-Bazouks, and therefore Poor; 1 x 3 SPs)
• 1 artillery unit (Average; 1 x 2 SPs)
• 1 commander (1 x 6 SPs)
• Total strength = 27 SPs
• Exhaustion point = 9 SPs
• Scenario specific rules
• The British must enter from the side indicated on the map.
• The Suez Canal is on the right-hand edge of the map.
• The Egyptian infantry and artillery are dug in behind an earth rampart.
• The Egyptian units may not be activated until they realise they are about to be attacked.

Tel El Kebir by Henri Louis Dupray.

Army Black

Now than my FUNNY LITTLE WARS/PORTABLE WARGAME ARMY BLACK is finally finished, I thought that I should share its organisation with my regular blog readers.

My ARMY BLACK has the following strength:

• Commanders (Three on horseback and two on foot) (Commanders: 6 SPs each)
• Infantry comprising:
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Regular Infantry Battalion (Regular, 4 SPs)
• Reserve Infantry Battalion (Reserve, 4 SPs)
• Reserve Infantry Battalion (Reserve, 4 SPs)
• Regular Machine Gun Company (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Regular Machine Gun Company (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Cavalry comprising:
• Regular Hussar Regiment (Regular, 3 SPs)
• Regular Hussar Regiment (Regular, 3 SPs)
• Artillery
• Field Artillery Battery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Field Artillery Battery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Field Artillery Battery (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Engineers
• Engineers Half-battalion (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Engineers Half-battalion (Regular, 2 SPs)
• Train
• Supply Column (Regular, 1 SP)
• Supply Column (Regular, 1 SP)
• Supply Column (Reserve, 1 SP)
• Supply Column (Reserve, 1 SP)
• Total Strength Points = 86 SPs
• Exhaustion Point reached after the loss of 29 SPs

This is quite a substantial little army and could easily be split into two equal-sized field forces comprising three Infantry Battalions, a Machine Gun Company, a Cavalry Regiment, a Field Artillery Battery, a Half-battalion of Engineers, and a Supply Column, with the remaining troops (Two Infantry Battalions, a Field Artillery Battery, and two Supply Columns) available as reinforcements and/or garrison troops.

Where were you on 9/11?

During a recent conversation someone asked me where I was on 9/11, and like knowing where I was when JFK was assassinated, I was able to answer without a moment's hesitation.

I was actually in mid-conversation with a former work colleague, Frank Springall, at his home in Catford, South-East London. We were both semi-retired and he was working on a contract for me. (I was running an educational consultancy at the time.) We were discussing a problem that had arisen when his daughter came in and said that something (possible an aircraft) had hit the World Trade Centre in New York, and the top of the building was on fire.

Having finished our discussion, I drove home and switched on the rolling news coverage on Sky News … just in time to see the second aircraft fly into the other World Trade Centre tower.

I spent the rest of the day glued to the news as it unfolded. The images I saw that day will stay with me for the rest of my life.

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Another reason why the date 9/11 remains constantly in my mind is that my mother died on 9th September 2002, a year after the attack on the the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. I think about her and my father every day and wish that they were still with us.