The French in Vietnam

A great doorstop of a tome, in hardback and at a very good price. Martin Windrow's classic account of the French in Vietnam.

You may recall me mentioning in a previous post that I am going to get a copy of Max Hastings new book: Vietnam,  as part of my Christmas present from SWMBO. Almost as an afterthought I started to read again my copy of We Were Soldiers Once....and Young by Col. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway about the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. I even watched the film again starring Mel Gibson.

One for the 'to get' list methinks. Col. Hal Moore used this to help with his research before the Ia Drang Valley campaign

In the book Col. Moore mentions that he read as part of his research the book by Bernard Falls: The Street Without Joy which covered the preceding French involvement culminating in their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

The French positions at Dien Bien Phu

The First Indochina war is something I know very little about and the more I read about the subsequent American involvement the more I felt it would be advantageous to learn about the events leading up to it.

I vaguely remember seeing a critically acclaimed book on the subject by Martin Windrow - The Last Valley so I after a gentle stroll through EBay I came across a cheap copy which I duly snapped up. As an aside I am great fan of Martin Windrow's writings and for me his book 'Our Friends Beneath the Sands' about the Foreign Legion from 1870 to 1935 is one of the finest I have ever read, so I am looking forward to reading this.

Does what it says on the cover! Quite simply, superb.

What does this all mean in the realms of table top gaming? Well, I have no plans to rush in to a Vietnam based project - for either conflict - for the foreseeable future but I would not discount it. I would certainly be able to do something using the blocks - I like to think of them as being around 1:300/1:200th in scale - so using the method I described in my earlier post for depicting modern vehicles and weaponry alongside a block would be a viable option.

Something else to think about.

In Blocks I Trust

My very first block battle - Belgium, June 1815 - Game Number 1, Part 1 which was fought way back in January 2012! Note the use of full sized Jenga blocks rather than the later half sized version which is now my standard although I still have a number of the original types in the collection. The playing surface is an Axis and Allies double sided and geomorphic map which I had laminated. Terrain pieces are from the legendary 'Town in a Bag' set.

My recent foray back into the wonderful world of block based wargaming, occasioned by seeing the excellent game put on by Andy Callan at the Battleground show in Stockton, has certainly given me much to think about and, if I am honest, a real 'shot in the arm' so to speak.

I spent some time going over my own block adventures and the associated blog posts and was staggered to realise that most of the groundwork in terms of preparation and the resulting games occurred way back in 2012/13, with the occasional game running later. The end point for most of my activity was in 2014 although I  fought a solitary game using them in May of this year. I have to say that the last game I fought - and I have not said this before - served as a confirmation of all that is good and bad when using blocks for a wargame and so I was pleased that I did it when I did.

The 'classic' block unit labels. From left to right - top row: command, infantry, cavalry and artillery, middle row: machine guns, mortars and anti tank guns, bottom row: tanks and supply vehicles/wagons. Infantry, cavalry and artillery also now have 'heavy' and 'light' types identified by a band across the bottom edge of the label. Black for 'heavy' and white for 'light'.

The blocks were quietly pushed to one side back in 2014 for a number of reasons. To begin with, my work really had me under the cosh which meant that gaming time was reduced. As a result of this the games themselves became more and more 'ragged' as I was not spending the time on them that they really needed in respect of preparation and the all important narrative. They began to look very 'samey' and in truth, I had substituted quantity for quality. With the passage of time I can look back on that period with a far more objective demeanour. I am now fully aware of what worked and what did not and so I am now far better able to take the collection forward in newer directions. 

As mentioned previously the above was very much a halfway house in the evolution of my block armies as I was experimenting with half sized blocks for artillery and command alongside full sized infantry and cavalry blocks. Going forward this will be my standard for non grid based games except that the full sized blocks will be represented by two half blocks.

As is my usual modus operandi, I have taken the decision to make far more use of the block armies than I have done which means a number of issues will need to be addressed. One of the main things I need to do is to make them more readily identifiable as to the force being represented beyond the use of national colours. I have already touched upon a basing idea I was considering that also involved unit flags. Well, I am now going to look at having free standing flags for units and not worrying about basing the half blocks I use – I will simply use them in pairs which will equal a ‘Andy Callan’ sized unit i.e. a single Jenga block. I may think about making some movement trays at some point but this is not essential at this stage.

As unit identification will be a very important part of what I do I need to make sure I get it right from the off. I also fully intend making use of models to supplement the blocks, especially for 'mechanised' games and at this stage I am thinking of basing single models - I have a lot of Axis and Allies tanks and guns etc that would be ideal for this - on a half block sized 2mm thick base (roughly 3cm by 2cm) for things like vehicles, guns and support weapons. The horse and musket period armies will be solely using blocks. Another idea I am considering is to use figures for higher level command bases. My reasoning for this is that if I had a base with a model of Napoleon and a couple of ADCs or similar on it then there could be no mistaking which army is being represented by the anonymous looking blocks!

What does this mean for my current project list then? The list will remain the same with one exception. The whole Arab Revolt/Madasahatta style project will change in a couple of very significant ways as to the manner of execution - but this will be the subject of a later post.

Keep on Blocking!

Another picture of the Jenga blocks in action - this time viewed from the Allied side. Picture with thanks in advance to Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargamers

It has been an eventful few days and no mistake! Since my last blog post I have been in contact with Andy Callan and have discussed many things around using blocks for wargaming.

I have been truly inspired!

Andy was kind enough to share many of his thoughts on using Jenga blocks and has also supplied me with a copy of the rules he developed for the War of the Spanish Succession game he demonstrated at Battleground. These are a really neat set which have a lot of potential beyond the period they were designed for. This is certainly something I will give a lot of thought to for a couple of specific ideas I have in mind for next year.

I know you have seen this but I could not resist showing it again! Many thanks to Will McNally for the picture. As an aside I really like the cloth used for the tabletop.

By far and away the main thing that has given me much to consider though is the whole concept of using blocks for wargames rather than figures or even alongside them. I realise now that I may have taken my own block adventures of on a tangent from where they were originally intended. For the most part I tended to use them on what could best be described as a divisional or brigade level basis. In figure parlance this could be anything up to around 8 units of infantry, 2 or 3 of cavalry and a 2 or 3 guns or so. For 20th century actions the level tended to be lower still with games being battalion or company based. This was fine and to be sure I had some very good games. I have absolutely no regrets about how I executed the concept and for what the blocks have been used for they are perfect.

There is one small point though that I overlooked. To be more accurate it was not so much overlooked as parked to one side and quietly forgotten about.

When I set out raising the block armies my original idea was to be able to fight battles whilst raising the armies using figures. A secondary use was to try out new periods in advance of investing any resources to see how it worked out. With one exception every battle I fought with the blocks was fictional and indeed, aside from how the respective armies actually fought historically, every action was off the top of my head so to speak.

An earlier version of my block armies. This was very much an interim solution between the full and half block option and was initially limited to artillery, skirmish and command elements.

What I thought I was doing was fighting battles rather than small portions of them. Andy Callan has come up with a rule system using Jenga blocks that are designed with battles between armies in mind and this has served to effectively 'reset' my thinking about blocks in general, specifically using full sized versions rather than the cut down types I use. Seeing his Jenga armies arrayed on a table top immediately reminded me of what I had originally intended them for - the 'Grand Battle' - before being distracted by more 'tactical level' games.

My feeling is that the full sized blocks are better suited to fighting large battles with the smaller blocks being more effective at a lower level. Naturally a few adjustments would be needed for representing armies at the larger scale and there are a few ideas that can be considered. Andy Callan makes use of plastic Risk cannons mounted of wooden scrabble tiles for his artillery as well as making cavalry units from a basic Jenga block painted brown with a strip of beading glued to the top and painted in whatever the national colour of the army is.

It is worth pointing out that a block in this scale obviously represent a number of units deployed to fight, with spaces and local reserves and certainly in the later period with skirmishers to the fore. This is fine but using the single large block for formations deployed in line is not without its problems in my opinion. What about a formation that is moving along a road in column of march, or massed in a column of attack? What about when the entire formation is under concerted cavalry attack?

Well, taking these points into consideration I am thinking that using my existing block collection with units in pairs would be a viable alternative. This would allow 'formational flexibility' whilst still preserving the 'grand battle' look. As an aside using two half blocks to represent a formation is the approach that Bob Cordery has adopted for his forthcoming Portable Napoleonic Wargame i.e. two bases of infantry or cavalry for a unit which also means that the usual formations of column, line and square can easily be reproduced.

The problem of identification of units with my block armies is one that I have written about previously and I have a couple of ideas in mind to solve this. For his game Andy Callan used flags printed out and stuck on the side of the block facing the owning player thereby adding to the 'fog of war' as the opposition would not be sure about what they were facing until they attacked it. For my purposes, and this is very much a personal thing, I will make use of a roster system for combat resolution.

In truth I have very little to do to use the block armies in the way they were intended but from a lower level perspective, particularly for games set in the 20th century, I have rather a lot more to ponder.

This post has been very much written on the back of an extremely helpful and generous exchange of emails from Andy Callan - his rules (which are very much a WIP) supporting his game are a revelation - and so i would like to extend my thanks to him and his advice to -

'Keep on Blocking!'

The Weekly Sitrep....Number 4

A wargame at a wargames show using Jenga blocks? Who would have thought it? Taken at the Battleground Stockton show by the convivial Mr Will McNally, to whom thanks are extended for, ahem, borrowing this picture....The game was organised by Andy Callan and is from the War of the Spanish Succession

It has been a relatively productive week all told although as usual not quite in the way I envisaged. I was able to spend some time on the 1:4800th scale models yesterday and have come to the conclusion that my initial estimates of how long they would take to finish may have been a little on the optimistic side. I have decided to split the collection into three batches for painting. The Germans consist of 10 ships, whilst the Royal Navy has 23, divided into 10 capital ships and 13 cruisers. You will have probably worked out the split - Germans, Royal Navy capital ships and then the cruisers. It means they will take a little longer to complete but are in far more manageable batches.

Post 1945 wars have taken up some of my time this week in that I have been reading up on Vietnam - inspired by revisiting 'We Were Soldiers' starring Mel Gibson and also the excellent book of the same name. Almost inevitably I have been drawn into looking at the earlier French Indochina war and as luck would have it I managed to grab a very cheap copy of 'The Last Valley' by Martin Windrow.

Again this is a conflict that I could very easily see myself tackling in some way and indeed, if you look at the blog of J Jackaman you will see reference to this conflict as well as some modern British colonial style conflicts. I really enjoy Jim's blog as his enthusiasm and sheer output has often shamed me into getting on with stuff rather than just thinking about it!

The pictures above has really pleased me in all manner of ways. To begin with it uses blocks as well as Town in a Bag buildings, what look like Cuisenaire rods as well as the plastic guns from Risk, sans the figures and mounted on bases. I liked the way that cavalry are represented (I had not thought of this) and indeed, placing all this on a very nice terrain mat you have what I think is an aesthetically pleasing looking game that looks like a real battle. I am HUGELY impressed with this and it has really given me much to think about.

Have you seen this man? Andy Callan at salute earlier this year fighting with some Peter Dennis 18th century paper soldiers. We had a really good chat about fighting battles using alternatives to figures.

I really need to get in touch with Andy Callan - I had quite a chat with him at Salute earlier this year - so should any readers be in contact with him please point him at the blog!

Topside Minis and the optional bases. 1:1800th is the main scale they offer - certainly for WW2 at present but WW1 and the Russo Japanese War can also be obtained in 1:2400th and 1:3000th.

Something else I had a look at during the week was the ships produced by an US company called Topside Minis. Basically the company produces a range of WW1 and WW2 scaled ship bird's eye views of pretty much most of the major combatants ships and aircraft scaled at 1:1800th with some also available in 1:2400th or 1:3000th. The last two scales at present are only available for WW1 but I cannot see any reason why the smaller scales should not feature for WW2. The ships are printed on high quality durable adhesive backed paper that requires cutting out and fixing to a base. These can be supplied (only for the 1:1800th ranges) although if shipping from the US this would push up the cost considerably. The ships and aircraft are lovely to look at and when based are quite durable and very easy to store. The website offers a free sample which I have ordered - merely for research purposes you understand....

Should I decide to order any - and my thoughts at present are along the lines of WW1 in 1:2400th - then a set for Jutland would cost $30 plus shipping. Naturally I would need to buy bases and 'assemble' them but trust me, cutting and sticking is a lot easier than gluing and painting and they would be a lot easier to store!

Something else to think about then.

Vietnam, Aden and Radfan

One of things about our hobby that never ceases to amaze me is how looking at a particular something can lead onto something else that is quite different on the face of it but with a touch of commonality.

Advance notice of what will be my Christmas reading courtesy of SWMBO and rather a lot of doubled up Nectar points! I am looking forward to reading about the French involvement leading up to Dien Bien Phu

The book is excellent and also covers the fighting at LZ Albany which followed on from the events depicted in the film at LZ X-ray

I mentioned previously that last weekend SWMBO and I spent rather a long time in our local Sainsbury taking advantage of the ‘double up’ on Nectar Points. To cut a long story short we acquired good to the value of £200 by surrendering £100 of Nectar Points. For the most part it was used to finish off the Christmas shopping (SWMBO is incredibly organised about this sort of thing – in fact she has not only purchased everything she needs to but it is also wrapped and tagged and waiting to go under the Christmas tree in two weeks’ time) for the family which for me came in the shape of the new book by Max Hastings about the wars in Vietnam.

Vietnam and I have enjoyed a rather long distance relationship from the gaming perspective in that it is a period I am interested in but aside from a few aerial games using SPIs Air War and the odd skirmish I never really invested in it very much. I have seen a number of the main cinematic stalwarts – Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, The Green Berets, Hamburger Hill and my personal favourite, The Odd Angry Shot – although for some inexplicable reason Full Metal Jacket is missing but soon to be rectified. Another film that I have seen is of course We Were Soldiers starring Mel Gibson. The film is about the vicious fighting that took place in the IaDrang Valley in November 1965 and is based on the book of (more of less) the same name written by (then) Colonel Hal Moore and Joe Galloway.

I use the word ‘vicious’ to describe the fighting in Ia Drang because it was just that. It was up close and very personal and with huge quantities of automatic weapons fire. The film captures the claustrophobic nature of the fighting very well and although it takes a few historical liberties it was generally well received and even Colonel Moore approved (he was quite scathing about other films covering the war and as he was actually in the firing line during the events depicted his opinion is important). As well as the film I also own a copy of the book which is very good indeed and for me really captures the intensity of the battle.

A number of years ago I acquired a number of boxes of 20mm plastics from Revell of US special forces and the VC but sadly these went awhile back. I even drafted a Memoir 44 based adaptation for the conflict based on using elements from the Pacific and Eastern front expansions. It is a conflict I would like to game but I am not sure how or even when.

Leading up to Vietnam (bear with me as this will illustrate how my brain works. Or not, as the case may be!) in my recent research was Aden, initially for the World War 1 angle. As you are aware Aden is going to feature in support of my Arab Revolt project – there was fighting against the Turks and with Arab allies present on both sides – when lo and behold  I came across mention of Radfan. I have familial interest in the Radfan campaign as my brother in law served with the Parachute Regiment there.

One on the 'to get' list for sure as it covers the WW1 period as well as the campaigns during the 1960s. My brother in law took part in this as a member of the Parachute regiment.

I had promised myself that I would familiarise myself with the British operations in Aden and Radfan for two reasons. Firstly because of the ‘colonial’ nature of the British involvement and secondly due to the family connection. If I am honest it is one of those periods I would like to game but am probably unlikely to do so although I will have the appropriate terrain to hand for the earlier WW2 operations. Mind you, having said that the idea of any games that involve ground attack Hawker Hunters would definitely weaken my resolve!

The Revell kit of the ground attack variant of the Hawker Hunter - the FGA 9

So, two modern conflicts fought in very different terrains by two major powers and each with their own particular merits as well a degree of commonality in certain areas. Something else to ponder methinks….

The Battle(s) of the River Plate

Methinks I need to do two things because of the above. 1 - paint up a Graf Spee with Ajax and Achilles (yes I have the 1:4800th scale models already) and 2 - try and watch Sink the Bismarck again....

Timing is everything they say and so it was that I noticed that available on BBC IPlayer was the 1956 British Film: The Battle of the River Plate. Needing some timely inspiration before painting the WW2 ships this coming weekend I decided that downloading and watching this would be a good idea - purely for research purposes of course....

I have seen the film but it was many years ago and so some of my memories have dimmed somewhat by the passage of time. I was very glad I did if only for the opportunity to see some actual WW2 era warships going through their paces. The full list looks something like this:

Ships used

• Pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee played by heavy cruiser USS Salem
• The supply ship Altmark played by the fleet oiler RFA Olna.
• HMS Ajax, flagship, played by HMS Sheffield
• HMS Exeter played by HMS Jamaica
• HMNZS Achilles played by herself (at the time in service with the Indian Navy as INS Delhi)
• HMS Cumberland played by herself when she joins the British squadron after the battle, (and by HMS Jamaica in the final scenes off Montevideo).
• German freighter Tacoma, which took the crew off Graf Spee before scuttling, played by RFA Fort Duquesne.
• Gunboat Uruguay, boarding the Tacoma, was played by a British Ton-class minesweeper.
• HMS Birmingham was used for the firing of some of the guns, and to depict the explosions on the foredeck of Exeter, and as Graf Spee during the Replenishment scene with Altmark, as well as the scene on the deck of Graf Spee showing the flag-draped coffins of dead German sailors laid out for burial in Montevideo.
• Destroyers HMS Battleaxe and USS William R. Rush were used as camera ships.

The film is very 'Brtish', complete with stiff upper lipped officers and 'gor blimey' style other ranks, excitable South Americans and brash American radio commentators - all very stereotypical and very much of the times, but overall it was very entertaining in a 'sunday afternoon after a large, torpor-inducing roast lunch' fashion. 

The one thing about the film that I had forgotten about were just how many subsequently well known actors had parts in the films - including Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee.

Details of the actual battle can be found here.

Initially designed to 'outshoot what it couldn't outfight or outrun what it couldn't outshoot'. In the film Captain Langsdorff (played by Peter Finch) said that he only ships that could successfully catch him to force an engagement were the Hood, Repulse and Renown. In reality Graf Spee was only marginally faster than some the more recently modernised WW1 vintage Queen Elizabeth class battleships.

I must confess to having a soft spot for any naval wargames that is 'raider' related and also for the ships of the Deutschland class. I have fought River Plate on many occasions with a variety of rules and the results are invariably the same - the Graf Spee gets royally battered whilst usually sinking at least one of the Royal Navy warships.  

There is an expansion to the Avalon Hill game Bismarck that extends the search boards into the South Atlantic expressly for the Graf Spee campaign. For completeness sake I shall look into this further. 

A Matter of Life and Death

After Get Carter starring Michael Caine the above has the accolade of being the second favourite British film of all time.

This is a post about death but not for one minute should it be seen as being depressing. This morning SWMBO and I went to a local solicitor in order to draft our wills. This is something that everyone should do regardless of financial situation and especially if you have any wishes over what becomes of your estate.

For us it was quite straightforward as the only asset we have to speak of is the house and in the event that either of us expire it goes straight away to the survivor. There is no portfolio of stocks and shares, overseas properties, fine art, race horses, classic cars or the odd yacht - just bricks and mortar and a small amount of cash.

For me having settled all of this for the family is of paramount importance - at least having the legal framework in place so as to avoid any hassles at what would be a very emotionally turbulent time.

One of the major concerns for me is what should become of my collection? I will say that in my case that this is very modest in that I do not possess thousands of finely painted miniatures and several book cases full of rare and valuable books. Having said that I want to make sure that when I shuffle off to that great wargaming Valhalla that my collection is dispersed in accordance with my wishes.

I have divided up the collection on a thematic basis and so those recipients will gain certain elements of the whole - primarily because I know that those individuals will appreciate what they are getting above and beyond any financial consideration.

The main bulk of my collection is books and mercifully the armies/fleets element is fairly modest even allowing for my ongoing projects.

My recent experiences with the collection of Eric Knowles and the logistical nightmare that his son, Bill, is having to tackle has made me glad that I have made suitable provision for my collection and so hopefully will avoid any hassle for the family. My collection is nowhere near the size and scale of Erics but the principle is the same and so proper preparation for the inevitable is of paramount importance.

A Matter of Life and Death was a famous film starring the late David Niven released shortly after the war. I mention this as not only is it a good title for this post but also my grandfather worked on the construction of the escalator that featured in the film.