More pictures from Bovington

Here are some photos of WW1 tanks at Bovington. Unfortunately I missed taking pictures of the reproduction A7V that they have at the museum as it had been out at Tankfest the week before and was still in the sheds for cleaning. However, here are a few of their exhibits!

First off, the one that started it all, "Little Willie"

 

 

Another "reproduction", the Mark IV used in War Horse:

 

 

The Mark V:

 

 

And the Mark IV:

 

 

An FT17:

 

 

And lastly a Whippet:

 

 

 



Pictures from Bovington - watched over by "Royalty"!

We are back now from the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset, and what a great weekend it was! The show was excellent, one of the best atmospheres for a show and in a unique venue as all the traders and games are set amongst the tanks in the museum. Our game was positioned just in front of a massive Tiger II or "King Tiger" - hence the royalty! It was good to see everyone who stopped by at our game to say hello (hi Matt!) and to chat about the games.

The other advantage of being in a tank museum was of course the chance to look at the tanks "up close and personal". The First World War Hall has got quite a few tanks including a Mark IV and a Mark V, as well as a Mark II and a Mark V**. Highlight of the weekend for me was the chance to climb inside the Mark IV and sit in the drivers seat. It was interesting to see how small it was inside, and to realise how little they could see of what was going on outside the tank. I took loads of photos of course, and will post a few of them here.

In our game we were using the excellent new vacform trench system by Early War Miniatures:

 

 



 

In the next post I'll include a few pictures of the exhibits in the museum!

Bovington Tank Museum

I'm off on Friday to the Battlegroup South wargames show at Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. It's my first time at the show, which is held over the weekend and should be really good as the games and trade stalls are all around the tanks in the museum!

We are not taking our Miracle of the Marne game to this show, as one half of CTK is also one of the organisers of the show and so I'd be left on my own for the weekend! Instead I am working alongside Early War Miniatures with a game using their excellent vacform trenches and our figures, tanks and planes. Should be fun - expect a report and pictures as usual next week!

Day trip to Villers Bretonneux part 3

The rest of the day was spent at the Australian National Memorial and the museum in the Victoria School at Villers Bretonneux. The memorial has the names of all the Australian missing in France - those missing in Belgium are on the Menin Gate. We ended the day by driving through the area where the first tank v tank battle took place between Villers Bretonneux and Cachy.

The Australian National Memorial:

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of the fields in which armoured warfare began!

 



 

 

 



 

Day trip to Villers Bretonneux part 2

After Crucifix Corner we moved on to the memorial to the Australian Corps at Le Hamel. This is sited on ground formerly occupied by the Germans in a position called the Wolfsberg, and was the final objective for the 4 July 1918 Australian assault. It also gives a great view of the Somme valley, and is one of the positions from which the attack on 8 August - the "Black day of the German Army" was launched.

Here's a few photos, firstly Le Hamel and the direction of the Australian attack from Corbie (the church with the twin towers, to the right of Le Hamel church, is in Corbie).

 

 

Here's a picture of the Somme valley, along which von Richthofen flew on his final flight. The crash site of his plane is near the brickworks chimney on the skyline in the photo.

 

 



 

 

The Australian Corps memorial:

 

 

 

 

And the remains of trenches near the memorial; the 8th August 1918 attack started from here.

 

 





 

Day trip to Villers Bretonneux Part 1

We went for a day trip (with the Western Front Association) this week to the Villers Bretonneux and Hamel area of France near Amiens. We had an excellent guide for the day who took us to some really interesting areas and explained what was going on in 1918.

We went first to the area south of Villers Bretonneux near the Crucifix Corner cemetery. It was here on 30th March 1918 that the 33rd Australian battalion (commanded by Lt Col Morshead, of Tobruk fame in WW2) and the 12th Lancers were thrown in to plug a gap that had appeared in the line. This action may well form one of the scenarios we are working on for Where the Poppies Grow as it has all the potential for a great game! The wood later became known as Lancer Wood. Here are some pictures of the ground over which the 33rd and 34th Bttns and the Lancers attacked. You can see how flat and open it is!

Later parts of this post will cover the Australian Corps and National Memorials, and the museum in Villers Bretonneux!

Pictures from Broadside 2013

We had a really good day on Sunday - if you came along to the show and said hello to us it was great to see you!

Broadside is certainly growing as a show, there was more space to move around than other shows of similar size and having the games and traders in two halls helped too. It was a very busy day, although we did manage to get a few turns of the game in too!

As well as gaming and chatting to other gamers shows are of course for buying, and I picked up some of the excellent Early War Minatures trenches. If you haven't seen these yet they are well worth checking out - you'll see more of them on the blog when they're done!

In the meantime, here's some more pictures of "Miracle of the Marne"