New England, War Plan Crimson, and Spray Paint, oh my!

This is what is going on with me lately.

New England

I am just back from my first vacation in many years.  I flew into New York City to visit a college friend that I had not seen in 12 or more years then got in a rental car and begin a two-week road trip through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Ontario, with a minor stop in Quebec.  I have now been to 49 of the 50 states of our Union! (Alaska, you’re the last one.) This trip was mainly a historical tour, but I did do some culture things as well.  When I get so time to sort through my pictures, I will post some of them up.

War Plan Crimson

Tiny Battles Publishing has just released a board game about War Plan Crimson (the US planned invasion of Canada in 1920s-30s), with the same title.  I thought this is rather cool since this covers the same gaming project that I am working on. The links to the buy a PDF version is here, or a hard copy here. 

Spray Paint

Just before I left for vacation, I got to spray paint a prime coat on my 28mm vehicles for War Plan Crimson too! (This was actually before I found out about the new board game).  In the picture, is the bulk of my Interwar US vehicles, plus a couple extra vehicles for other things.  Starting at the top of the picture (and to the left) is five Mack AC Bulldog trucks.  This was the main truck for the US Army after WW1 and up to the mid-1930s.  These truck were used to carry the M1917 light tanks up to the jump off point for combat since the tanks were so slow and had a very short operational range for fuel. 

Directly across from the trucks are five M1917 light tanks which are based off of the FT-17 tanks.  A US light tank platoon at this time had three tanks armed with machine guns and two tanks armed with 37mm guns.  That is the ratio that I have, plus I have one extra M1917 tank (not in this picture) that I am hoping to convert to radio tank. 

Next to the bottom M1917 tank is a US T16 light tank or also known as the Marmon-Herrington CTLS-4TAY tank.  This is not for my War Plan Crimson project, but just for display.  These tanks were designed for the Dutch East Indies armed forces prior to WW2, but as the Japanese attacked before they were delivered, they were transferred to the Missouri Army National Guard’s 138^th Infantry Regiment and were used during their deployment in Alaska.  Since I served in a unit with lineage to the 138^th, I had to get one. 

The large tank next to it is a Mark VIII Liberty heavy tank with the US Army used during the 1920’s and early 1930s.  I doubt that this tank would have been involved in War Plan Crimson due to the mechanical failures of this tank.  If anything they would have been placed on reserve to counter possible invasion beach heads on the coast.  But I went ahead and bought one for completeness sake, even if it is expensive as all get out.

The other large looking tank in the corner of the box is the US pre-WW1 Best Tracklayer Model 75 tank, A.K.A., the Bison.  Again, this is not for War Plan Crimson but more for display.  However, I am planning to start up the US Banana Wars project next year.  While I am planning to concentrate on Nicaragua and Haiti in the 1920s, the lure of pre-WW1 Mexico is there and maybe the California National Guard decided to deploy a Bison to the border with Mexico in response to the Zimmermann Telegram.

Just in front of the Bison is the Ford 3-ton M1918 tank. The US Army made a contract for 15,000 of these with Ford Motor Company during WW1, but over time the US Army felt that the tank could not live up to requirements in Europe and with the end of the war, the contract was voided with only 15 tanks built.  In my War Plan Crimson some of these may still be around.  I only got one, but might pick up four more to outfit a full platoon.

Finally, in the very bottom corner largely cut out of the picture is the Venezuelan Tortuga armored car.  While this is a Venezuelan vehicle built in 1934 (seven in total), it is much in the vain for a Banana War’s “tank” for the insurrectionists.  This will make the US Marines a bit more humbled in a game.

Final Notes

I actually got some reading/listening done for several books since my last entry.  I am updating my 2016 updates with them, but I am going to list them here as well:

WW1 & Interwar

Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia, by Peter Hopkirk

The Zimmermann Telegram, by Barbara Tuchman

The Fate of Admiral Kolchak, by Peter Flemming

Fiction

Kolchak: The Nightstalker: The Black and Evil Truth, by CJ Henderson

The Assistant Murder, by Dashiell Hammett

Red Wind, by Raymond Chandler

Until later, be seeing you

Sapper