Book Review: “The Battle of Long Tan: The Legend of ANZAC Upheld” by Lex MacAulay

Book Review: “The Battle of Long Tan: The Legend of ANZAC Upheld” by Lex MacAulay

General Description

I got the paperback version, so the page count is 184. It is broken down into 11 chapters and 6 appendices. There is a 14 page section of 50+ B&W photographs. There are an additional 8 maps scattered in the different chapters. The book covers the Australian side of the battle of Long Tan during the 2^nd Indochina War on August 18, 1966.

The Good

This is a good book of the Australian side of the battle of Long Tan. The author did a very good job interweaving individual accounts about the battle in the different chapters. As the author did not have access to the Vietnamese side of the battle, the author includes a paragraph every now and then of what the Vietnamese side probably was doing based on their standard operations and what they did do later in the battle. While I have read several books on the 2^nd Indochina War, all were accounts on US Army troops, except one which was about the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. So, this was the first book that I read about the ANZAC forces. While the battle barely lasted a day through a rain storm, it involved an infantry company of 108 men supported by artillery holding off an estimated force of 2000 NVA regulars and VC locals until they were relieved by a squadron of M113 APC’s and another company and a half of infantry. After the battle, the official Australian count was 245 Vietnamese were killed for a loss of 18 Australians killed. There is something to say about the professionalism and courage on both sides to continue to fight under these conditions.

The Bad

Really, I don’t have anything bad to say about this book. The only thing that I wish to be better was the lack of the Vietnamese accounts of the battle. But the author was hampered by the fact at the time of his research and writing of this book, the open communications with Vietnam was not available. The author does a good try to show what the Vietnamese forces probably did experience, so I have to give him credit for that, instead of totally ignoring their story.

Wargaming “Long Tan”

As in many battles where the odds are heavily on one side, it is hard to recreate the battle. Instead of trying writing up a scenario for Long Tan, I will mention that there articles for Long Tan in “Miniature Wargames” in #39 and #114. There might be more articles in other gaming magazines, but I am currently only aware of the two from “Miniature Wargames”. That would be the best route for starting to game this battle. But basically you have a company of ANZAC infantry spread out a little in platoon formations in a rubber plantation which would be a fairly clear of underbrush and good firing lanes. The ANZAC’s has a superior Forward Observer Officer and good artillery support and almost no air support, with the exception of some ANZAC Huey slicks flying in ammunitions, supplies, and evacuating the wounded. 

I would next encourage that “Charlie Don’t Surf” by Too Fat Lardies to be the rule set of choice. I think that would make the best system to reflect the ANZAC’s support and rigidness of the NVA command. Under “Charlie Don’t Surf”, the NVA must go for a military victory in destroying D/6 RAR, instead of a political victory.

A couple of painting notes should be that D/6 RAR worn black and green camouflage floppy hats that were specially obtained by the company commander. According to the personal accounts, most of the NVA were wearing their green uniforms.

Miniatures should not be hard find in any scale, accept maybe the ANZAC’s M113s. From the description of the book, the M113’s where pretty much split between having a gun shield for the 0.50 cal HMG and not having a gun shield. The picture in the book shows a gun shield like that on a M113 ACAV, but without the armored bucket. Later, the ANZAC’s M113s had a machine gun turret which is totally different than the ACAVs. It looks like that machine gun turrets came after Long Tan. If that is the case, the M113s should be available in any scale. But if any of them had the turret, I am only aware of Britannia’s 20mm M113’s with the turrets, but Britannia is no more with the pasting of the owner, David Howitt in Jan., 2011. Grubby Tanks is supposed to have the rights to the Britannia lines, but we will have to see if they are released. Liberation Miniatures list parts to make the turret for the JB Models, 1/76^th M113.

Personally, I have two scales for the 2^nd Indochina War: 10mm and 20mm. My 10mm is designed to be for larger battles where a company or battalion is on the board, so that is what I will eventually use for Long Tan (but I might disguise it by using an American company). My 20mm are ANZAC’s from Britannia and is a platoon size strength force. I can use them to do the action of the 11 Platoon as they fought off wave after wave of NVA troops.

Next Book Review

Well, it is back to the USA during its darkest of moments…Prohibition! The next book will be, “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by Daniel Okrent. This book is suppose to become a Ken Burn’s documentary for PBS, so I am really looking forward to it as I have enjoyed Ken Burn’s work.

Book Review: “Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z” by Col. Percy Fawcett

Book Review: “Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z” by Col. Percy Fawcett.

General Description

This book was published in 1953, years after Col. Percy Fawcett disappeared in the Brazilian jungle with his oldest son and a friend of his son’s in 1925. His youngest son, Brian Fawcett, finally published his father’s journals of his earlier explorations in South America in this book, plus he added two additional chapters about his father’s final exploration as well as some of Brian Fawcett’s personal accounts on dealing with the mystery of his father’s and brother’s disappearance. The book is just over 300 pages long, of which 274 pages (22 chapters) are from Col. Fawcett and the remainder are by Brian Fawcett. There is a nice map at the beginning of the book with the various explorations routes (with a note to what chapter covers what part of the routes) done by Col. Fawcett, including a general idea where he was headed when his exploration party disappeared. At the beginning of each chapter is a period (pre-1925) cartoonish (like an editorial cartoon instead of a funny comic) style drawing of an event that occurs in that chapter. There are also 43 B&W photos into two different sections which were mostly taken by Col. Fawcett.

The Good

I have always been amazed by exploration stories since reading “Kon-Tiki” by Thor Heyerdahl so many years ago. I found this book to be a smashing yarn about the dangers and hardships of exploring South America. About the first third of the book is about Col. Fawcett’s first two explorations for the Royal Geographical Society in 1906 and 1907 in Peru, Bolivar, and Brazil to determine national borders the jungle area known as “The Acre” as an independent third party. He writes of the slavery and abuse by the rubber plantations of the Indians, as well as the corruption of government officials once he gets past the civilized cities and towns.

It is not until after 2/3rds of the way through the book that he starts really talking about the Lost City of Z, but he does discuss about lost tribes, cities, mines, and treasures earlier in the book. According to Col. Fawcett, he knew Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and it is his tales of his expeditions is what lead to the Sir Doyle to pen, “The Lost Worlds”.

One of the stranger parts of the books is the ghost stories about haunted buildings and such; including one that Col. Fawcett slept in and experienced the ghosts. I personally do not believe in spirits or ghosts, so I have to take these bits with a grain of salt, but they are entertaining anyway.

I highly encourage anyone reading this book, to read “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon” by David Grann afterwards. I actually read it shortly after it came out, so I will not be doing a review of it. But it is a great book that covers more of the Col. Fawcett’s final exploration in the Amazon and about the author’s personal exploration into the Amazon to seek any traces of Col. Fawcett.

Also, while they are not about the Lost City of Z, two other books which are very good about Amazon explorations in the early 20^th Century are Theodore Roosevelt’s, “Through the Brazilian Wilderness” and Candice Millard, “The River of Doubt”, both which are about the Roosevelt-Rondon Expedition of 1910 up one of the Amazon’s tributary rivers. Roosevelt’s expedition is mention once or twice in this book.

The Bad

Even though Col. Fawcett speaks highly of native Indians and several noble South Americans, there is still a very strong “Anglo-Saxon” class superiority feel about the South Americans (including the Indians), and the Europeans that decided to go ‘native’ that he meets. Pretty much everyone is drunk, stupid, etc., except for most of upper society or the ‘wild’ Indians. This might turn off some people with his anti-PC view of South Americans. But, I remind anyone that first realize that he grew up in Victorian England from the middle classes and was a high ranking officer in the British Army. The day and age that he wrote this was not very PC to our modern day standards. I am sure that there is some truth to his tales about some of the unsavory lots that he writes of, but it probably was not as bad as he describes it. Because I have a strong interest in the 1920’s & ‘30’s, I have read several period novels and books and have grown to understand this, so it does not turn me off from his work.

Wargaming “Exploration Fawcett”

Wargaming expeditions in South America? Yes, it can be done and there are several rule sets and miniatures out there that cover this type of gaming already. With the rise of “Pulp” miniature gaming, a bunch of manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with miniatures and rules. Even Copplestone Castings makes miniatures specifically for South American Indian tribes! However, most of rules that are out there are geared towards gaming in Africa or China. With a slight re-wording of the rules/scenarios, they can easily be changed over to cover South America. If one can get a hold of the old Avalon Hill’s, “Source of the Nile” boardgame or New Breed’s RPG, “Dark Continent” (both are sadly out of print and both are extremely good games), they have a great mechanics for a campaign system to include mapping and outfitting a exploration. Even a slightly seasoned game-master can easily change them to be about South America.

Why South America? Why not! But really, with the rise of the “Dark Africa” gaming several years back and the China’s “Back of Beyond” in more recent times, several gaming magazines have published articles about the explorers, tribes, etc. so that some of the “mystery” has been taken out of the game by the players knowing too much about different tribes or geography of the areas, if they read them. But, not much is written on the South American explorers and tribes of the early 20^th Century in gaming magazines or games, so the “mystery” can still be there. Plus, you can make-up some things and most gamers would not have a clue to if it is correct or not, as you will have far less experts (or think they are an expert) on the tribes of the upper Amazon then you will ever have on the French Old Guard’s uniform buttons.

One interesting twist for gaming about South American exploration was most of the South American and European governments took measures to protect the tribal Indians from the capitalistic rubber plantation owners and slavers. A perfect example of this can be seen with the commander of the Brazil’s Indian Protection Bureau in the early 20^th Century, Col. Cândido Rondon. Col. Rondon had a well known standing order for his soldiers when dealing with the Amazon tribes, “Die if you must, but do not kill!” In other words, he expected his soldiers to do everything possible to make friends and protect the Indians, including not defending themselves from an attack! The soldiers were instead to sacrifice themselves rather than allow harm to the Indians. So shooting the Indians will actually cause negative renown from the South American and European governments for the explorers. That should put a wrinkle in your players’ trigger happiness.

In Col. Fawcett’s book, he talks about the various tribes (including cannibals and Neanderthals) that he ran into and trying to make friendly contact with them; legends of lost cities and treasures; and even the ghost stories can be food for a great RPG campaign or miniature game with a bit of role-playing elements.

Next Book Review

From the jungles and rubber plantations of South America to the rubber plantations of Southeast Asia, is where I am heading next with “The Battle of Long Tan: The Legend of ANZAC Upheld” by Lex MacAulay.

77th Ann. of Bonnie & Clyde and a Book Review: “Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend”

Well, I was not sure if I would have gotten this review done in time, but I did just in time for the 77th anniversary of the death of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow at an ambushed set up by law men from Texas and Louisiana. I am trying to type up the generic scenario for a famous Bonnie & Clyde shootout and hope to get it up on my blog within a few weeks. Be looking out for it.

Book Review: “Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend” by Paul Schneider

Why a book on criminals?

I have always been a nut for Film Noir movies/series and Hardboiled detective stories, so I guess it should be expected that I would have an interested in criminal history to go with my love of military history. I have been interested in criminal history from the 1840’s to the 1940’s for years. I read Bryan Burrough’s, “Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34” (An excellent book and I highly recommend it!) prior to the Johnny Depp’s movie being made and found that my interested in “The War Against Crime” period (1933-34), was seriously ignited above my initial interest in it. (The same thing happened with my interest in 1850’s gangs, when I read Herbert Asbury’s, “Gangs of New York”, before that movie came out. I also highly recommend that book.) While I have since read a couple of books on Dillinger, this is the first book that I have gotten around to reading on Bonnie & Clyde.

General Description

The book itself is 347 pages long, excluding the notes, Acknowledgements, the index, and a nice timeline. There are 23 chapters that are very well done for breaking down the time frame of events. There are 13 B&W photos scattered throughout the book, but mostly in the chapters with discuss the events where the pictures were taken or when they are relevant to the chapter’s topic.

How do I describe this book? I believe the author refers to it as a non-fiction novel. It is different and is usually good, but some parts I find very annoying, which distracts me from enjoying it as a whole.

What is a non-fiction novel? As the author describes, the book is written in a novel style as you follow the two main characters, Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow from their childhood up to their death. But it is non-fiction as the author only uses statements and information from police records, newspaper interviews, or family and friend’s statements, photographs, etc. The author built the story around all of this, but never states anything that was questionable as being facts (for example, some of the more earlier crimes that Clyde Barrow was may have been involved with, but there was never any evidence to have confirm that he was involved with it.) Instead the author basically leaves it up to open ended questions for anything that cannot be confirmed in just a way that it can that it addresses all possibilities.

The Good

I found a lot of the information about the pairs’ childhoods and growing up very interesting and quite well done in this book. Some other things that I enjoyed about the book is how the author includes snippets from newspapers and personal accounts, some having no connects to Bonnie or Clyde, to give a more colorful background to the period, places, or events to the background information, like what life was like living in the area where Clyde grew up in Dallas or what life was like in the Texas Prison farms, etc.. I also really enjoy the fact that it also it takes a little look back at the history of Texas Ranger Frank Hamer’s career (but not his childhood or early years) and the Texas justice/penal system to see what kind of man/system that would lead to laying the deadly ambush that killed Bonnie & Clyde. But more then all of this, I found the quotes from Bonnie’s & Clyde’s love letters to each other (and there is quite a few) just amazing on how much they really were in love with each other.

One final thing that I thought that was interesting, and that I did not know about before reading this, actually makes the story of Bonnie Parker that more tragic. Before she met Clyde Barrow, she was a waitress at a café near the Dallas County courthouse and government center. A young Ted Hinton remembers having a crush on her and tried wooing her, along with many other customers at the café. She never took interest in any of them, eventually falls in love with Clyde Barrow and becomes a hunted criminal. Later, Ted Hinton would see Bonnie Parker yet again. The final time was on May 23, 1934, on a lonely road outside of Gibsland, Louisiana, where he is waiting along with five other heavily armed policemen. Dallas County, TX, Deputy Ted Hinton armed with a Browning Automatic Rifle stood next to Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer and gave the word that he can positively identify that it was both Bonnie & Clyde in the car before the law men open fired hundreds of rounds into car with Bonnie & Clyde. It makes one wonder how much life would have been different for Bonnie Parker had she took an interest in Ted Hinton years earlier in the café.

There is also an interesting story about the author’s visit in Joplin, MO, during his research for the book in the Acknowledgement section. I don’t want to spoil it, but it is rather fun story.

Overall, I am glad that I bought this book and read it. I really was interesting to read more about their lives and found that this book delivered that.

The Bad

Two things annoyed me with this book. The first thing, which was the least annoying of the two, was the lack of footnotes in the text. There is a great section of notes in the back of the book, but the author did not note the quotes with numbers so I could easily look back in the notes section and see where the quotes originate from my own interest. Instead, the author gives in the notes section the page the quote is found in the text, the first few words of the quote, then the names the source of that quote. I found this confusing when there were many quotes on the same page.

But the thing that bothered me the most was whenever he writes of Clyde Barrow’s actions, he uses “you” so to have the reader try to image what it was like to be Clyde Barrow and what he may have been thinking or spurred him to do the things that he did. I am not Clyde Barrow, nor had I lived a life like him, so it was annoying to read something like “you hate Eastham Prison” or “you and your brother Buck”, etc. I really wish that he kept everything in third person. 

While it did not annoy me, I know that it probably will annoy other people is that the author also added in sound effects into the text (i.e. Bang!, POW!, Rat-a-ta-ta!) It seems childish, but since the author is going for a non-fiction novel verse a normal biographical book, it made sense.

Fun Facts For Gamers

While I knew that Clyde broke into National Guard armories to obtain weapons, this book explains how well several of those break-ins went. In all cases, the armories where not guarded in the evening. So Clyde and one other member of his gang would break-in, cut the locks off of weapons, and take everything that they could carry. For example, in the break-in of the National Guard armory in Enid, Oklahoma, Clyde was able to steal according to W.D. Jones: 46 (!) government .45 automatic pistols, several rifles, some bayonets, and two or three cases of ammunition. Other armories that they broke into gathered several Browning Automatic Rifles (B.A.R.s) and at least one time, as a joke, Clyde Barrow, “Buck” Barrow, and W.D. Jones stole some National Guard uniforms and wore them when they came back to their hideout scare Bonnie and her sister, Billie Jean, as well as Blanche Barrow into thinking that they were the law and had them trying to get out the windows.

Just as a side note, a couple of years ago I went on a Civil War historical road trip through the Mid-West. While visiting a local historical society’s museum in Baxter Springs, Kansas, I stumble across a reference that there was a store, Eden's Grocery Store (now abandoned), that was robbed twice by Bonnie & Clyde in the same week! Sadly, this store was not mentioned in the book. While I was there, I went over to the abandoned store and took couple of pictures of the building. Below is one of the pictures that I took of the old store.

Wargaming Bonnie & Clyde

To be added later as blog entry: War on Crime Scenario: Platte City, MO, shootout; July 19, 1933 

Next Book Review

For the next book review, I really wanted to start reading “On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde, Then and Now”, by Winston G. Ramsey or “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by Daniel Okrent, to stay in the US gangster 1920’s-30’s mood, but I left both of those back at home and I am working on the road for a while. So the next book is has me leaving the Great Dust Bowl of North America to the jungle hells of South America in, “Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z” by Col. Percy Fawcett. I am looking forward to reading this book as I have already read and enjoyed, “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon” by David Grann. Sadly, yes, I am also fascinated with exploration histories to go along with my love of military history and criminal history.

Book Review & Scenario Ideas - “Armoured Cars in Eden" by Kermit Roosevelt

Hello! Well I was able to type up another book review a little bit over the last few weeks and got enough time to post it on my blog. I am still on a long hiatus, so this might be the only entry for another couple of months. I am hoping to get another book review up next weekend (Memorial Day weekend), but we will see. On with the review! 

Book Review: “Armoured Cars in Eden: An American President’s Son Serving in Rolls Royce Armoured Cars with the British in the Mesopotamia & with the American Artillery in France During the First World War” by Kermit Roosevelt; originally published as, “War in the Garden of Eden” 

General Description 

This book is an interesting personal account of Kermit Roosevelt’s, Teddy Roosevelt’s son, WWI experiences starting with his transfer from training as an officer in the British Army to the Mesopotamia campaign and ending with his post-armistice occupation of Germany with the US Army. I had bought a paperback version of the book and later found that it is available online for free under the original title, “War in the Garden of Eden” as the copyright had expired for it. There is no additional information or pictures in the “Armoured Cars in Eden” version, so unless you prefer not to read from a computer, there is no reason why not read the online book. The following is the email address for the free online copy of “War in the Garden of Eden”: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13665 

The paperback book is actually fairly short, 135 pages long, excluding the pages containing the 19 B&W photographs. The book is broken into nine chapters, of which eight is about his time with the British Army and the final chapter about his transfer and time in the US Army in 1918-1919. 

The Good 

The book overall is a good personal account on the mundane things in life, the wonders of exotic places and customs, and some good telling about clashes with the Turks. But, it is a personal account and is not an attempt to give a detail unit history for the 14^th Light Armoured Motor Battery (LAMB), which he served with or give details of engagements that he was involved in against the Turks and Germans. Over half of the book is his description of land and the people in the Mesopotamia, which I found interesting. About a third of the book is about life in the service and including meeting Lawrence of Arabia and several other famous officers for the British & ANZAC forces, either in the Mesopotamia or when he had a chance to visit the Palestine. The remaining was about his experience in the US Army in France during WWI and the occupation of Germany after the Armistice. 

The Bad 

Personally, I enjoyed the book, but I had one issue with it. That is the lack of dates given. At no time did Kermit Roosevelt give a date for when he was stationed in the Mesopotamia or dates of his military actions. About the only time frame he gives is that he arrived after the First Battle of Gaza, (26 March, 1917) and he left some time after his fighting around Khan Baghdadi (26 March, 1918). If I dig around some more on the internet, I probably could find more information on the 14^th LAMB and Kermit Roosevelt’s service record, but that might be a lot of work. 

What would have been really nice, since this is reprint of “War in the Garden of Eden”, would to have had an editor add a forward of Kermit Roosevelt’s history, a time line of his service, and a map of the Mesopotamia with the locations of all of the named cities and towns that Kermit Roosevelt wrote about in his book. 

Fun Facts For Gamers 

Some things that I found interesting in the book where the following:

• Kermit Roosevelt hired a native guide/servant that rode with him most of the time in his armored car throughout his time in the Mesopotamia. But most British officers had an Indian servant that escorted them.
• The LAMBs usually worked with the British Yeomanry or Indian cavalry on the attack of Turks units or when Arabs were revolting. One time, Kermit Roosevelt’s section, along with some Indian cavalry, were sent off in a chase of a reported Turkish gold shipment.
• The British had Political officers that worn white tabs on their uniforms. The Political officers are the British army’s civil affairs and the LAMB patrols would usually escort them to or from their assignments.
• Gurkhas were issued pith helmets as the high command was afraid that they would suffer from the sun like the European troops, but the Indian troops retain their turbans.
• Steel helmets were issued to the British forces during Kermit Roosevelt’s service time, but only worn during the winter months
• Due to the high heat, dryness, and fine sands, aircraft had a high incident rate of failures.
• Because of the high incident rate of failures with aircrafts, sewn on the airplane’s fabric was a sheet that stated in several languages that a reward would be given for the safe return of the British airmen to the British troops sort of like the “Blood Chits” for the Flying Tigers in WWII. It was usually the LAMB patrols plus some infantry riding with them in the back of the armored cars that would picked up the downed aircrews .
• Arabs were an equal opportunity attacker and killing wounded soldiers for their equipment, but they preferred to kill the Turks. Rumor was that in one battle, the Turks requested a cease fire with the British so they could join forces and attack the Arabs was killing the wounded on both sides. The British declined the offer.
• Four of the eight Rolls Royce armored cars of the 14^th LAMB were named: Sliver Dart, Silver Ghost, Grey Knight, and Grey Terror. Kermit Roosevelt does not state what his armored car was named, but does mention that it was destroyed by an artillery gun near the end of the war after he had already left to join the US Army in France.
• There were Japanese destroyers in the Mediterranean involved in hunting German U-boats! Matter of fact, due to the lack of enough troop ships to sail from Palestine to Italy, Kermit Roosevelt sailed on one of the Japanese destroyers, the Umi. During his time on the Umi, it engaged German U-boats two different times before reaching Italy. 

Wargaming “Armoured Cars in Eden” 

The book has several good ideas for small action scenarios to wargame. The scenarios from this book would be based around a LAMB patrol of two Rolls Royce armored cars and two motorcycles scouts (referred to as “Hyenas” by the LAMBs troops), plus figures for the dismounted crews for the cars and scouts as your base force. The LAMB section could be then reinforced with a platoon of Indian cavalry or British Yeomanry troopers. Or the cavalry could be replaced with a half section of infantry riding on the back of the armored cars or a full section in several additional Model T Fords. Additional models should include a British Political officer, a downed pilot and observer, an Arab servant, and an Arab guide. Opposing forces would mainly be a Turkish infantry or cavalry platoon or two, with possible German advisors. You could even have a Turkish camel caravan convoy of gold! Also, a band of 30 or so Arab bandits can be used to fight your LAMB patrol, or they could be used as Arab rebels to help the British against the Turks. The scale of these actions would be very reasonable for number of miniatures required. Rules would need to be at a platoon level or lower, like Too Fat Lardies, “Through the Mud & the Blood” to be workable. Plus there is always the bonus naval scenario of having Japanese destroyers defending a British convoy from German U-boats in the Mediterranean! 

Next Book Review 

There is another book that I plan to buy and read about the armored cars in WWI, “Steel Chariots in the Desert,” by S.C. Rolls. Rolls served in the Armoured Car Brigade of the Royal Naval Air Service. He saw action in Flanders in 1914, also in the Senussi Uprising in Libya, and finally supported Lawrence of Arabia’s irregulars. It sounds like another interesting personal account.

But my next book will take me away from the heat of the Middle East’s deserts to the Great Dustbowl of Texas and the Mid-West States, to relive the lives of two hold-up criminals and part-time bank robbers, Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow in, “Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend” by Paul Schneider.

Book Review: “Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East” by Rodger Ford

Book Review: “Eden to Armageddon: World War I in the Middle East” by Rodger Ford

First off, currently I am about 3/4^th of the way through this book, but I feel comfortable enough from what I have read to make a good review of the book. Next, just bear with me as I have never done a book review since middle school, many, many, many years ago.

“Eden to Armageddon” by Rodger Ford, was published by Pegasus Books in 2010. It is a concise history of the war against the Ottoman Turks during World War I. The book is 419 pages long with another 56 pages of notes, plus another 12 pages of B&W photographs. There is a bibliography and index as well. This is first book that I have read on WWI dealing with the Ottoman Turks, with the exception of reading some small sections from the Osprey Campaign’s book, “Gallipoli” and a couple of magazine articles many years ago on the Siege of Kut in the Mesopotamia . Because of my lack of previous knowledge of the subject, I found this book interesting, but also that was part of my distraction from really enjoying it, which I will explain later in this review.

The book is broken down into the four main theatres of operations; 1) Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq); 2) the Caucasus, Armenia, Anatolia, and Persia (modern day Iran); 3) the Dardanelles and Gallipoli, and; 4) Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. There is also an opening chapter on the history of the Ottoman Empire up to WWI and a concluding chapter on the post-war effects on the Ottoman Empire and the countries created from it.

 

One of the good points is that fact that each theatre is its own separate section of chapters, instead of doing all four theatres together chronologically. Each of the section on the different theatres has four chapters, except the one on the Dardanelles & Gallipoli, which is only three chapters long. At the beginning of each chapter is a map of the region that the chapter covers which I found useful. Some chapters have additional maps to show detailed information for key battles, but this is mainly located in the chapters on Gallipoli.

 

Overall, I felt that the book was very concise with names, units, dates, and locations. However, I actually felt overwhelmed with the amount of information and started to get confused on whether a unit/person were Turkish or one of the Allies. Generally, I did not have that problem with UK/Indian/ANZAC names, but really got mixed up when discussing the Russians and the various ethic forces. One of the things that I would have liked to have seen then would have been have one side done in italic printing (either the Turks or the Allies) for names, units, etc. for ease of quick identification.

The other problem I had was with the regional maps at the beginning of each chapter. While it was very nice to have them for looking at the locations of rivers and towns, I personally would have benefited more if they had troop movement arrows so I could easily follow the path of the action described in the chapter. As it is, I had to hunt down the name of the towns/locations on the map (if even shown – some I couldn’t find) and then try to look for the next one a little bit later.

The third issue I had, which probably was at no fault of the author, was the amount of detail of the various units. For the UK/Indian/ANZAC forces, details were described down to the Battalion level, even Company level a couple of times. The Turkish units, however, were only described in very generic terms and at best, the Divisional information given. I realize that the UK/Indian/ANZAC WWI unit’s histories were probably more available to the author, both in English and just general availability. But I really would like to have had more information on the different Turkish forces, like Battalion numbers, the names of their commanders, etc. At times, I felt that I had no information about the Turkish forces.

In conclusion, I am happy to have bought the book and have read so far to date. I feel that it has given me a decent overall picture of World War I in the Middle East to be used as my primer for future books on the subject. I am now more interested in reading up on the Mesopotamia and Gallipoli campaigns. But I really would like to find a book that is more about the Turkish soldiers’ experience and more detailed accounts about their side of the war.

 

The next book that I will read will be Kermit Roosevelt’s, “Armoured Cars in Eden: An American President’s Son Serving in Rolls Royce Armoured Cars with the British in the Mesopotamia & with the American Artillery in France During the First World War.” It was originally published as, “War in the Garden of Eden”. I am looking forward to reading that book for a couple of reasons: 1) it is written by Teddy Roosevelt’s son, Kermit. I have always been a fan of Teddy Roosevelt and have found his family to be very interesting. Kermit volunteered to join the British Army before the US entered the war; 2) it is a personal account of the Great War in the Mesopotamia, which is something that I am interested in currently. Hopefully, I will have some free time to time up a review about it later.

Book Review: “Razor’s Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falklands War” by Hugh Bicheno

Book Review: “Razor’s Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falklands War” by Hugh Bicheno


As several people told, “Run, don’t walk to get this book.” I think that sums it up rather nicely on my opinion about this book. This is by far the best book I have read on the Falklands war. The book is published by Phoenix Paperback and was published in 2006. The page count is 344 pages, with another 14 pages of appendix material, 16 pages of both B&W and color photographs, and 12 pages of listings for bibliographies. There are also 41 excellent maps and diagrams located throughout the book.


A bit about the author first, Hugh Bicheno is a former British intelligence officer that was station at the Buenos Aires embassy in 1974. His mission was to report on the Argentine regime which allowed him to gain many good Argentine connects and have serious insight in the Argentine philosophy about how they viewed the British up to and during the Falklands War. Hugh Bicheno is also a successful historical author, so he also understands how to write to keep things interesting. The author is also not afraid to give his opinions throughout the book, with might turn some off. But even when I found that I didn’t agree with him, I found his opinion very informative. The other thing I liked about the author’s style is that he is not also afraid to place blame where blame should be put, but also gives praise to both sides where it is deserved.


The book has 17 chapters, in addition to a Foreword, Introduction, and Conclusion chapters. The chapters roughly break down into four chapters of the events leading up to the Argentine invasion, one chapter on the men & equipment, one chapter on the Argentine invasion, one chapter on the Falkland Islanders civilians, and the remaining covering the period of time of the British operations to retake the Falklands.


The author is very detailed on the battles at all levels, from the British Task Force Commander to the lowly Argentine conscript. He is one of the first that I have seen that goes into the level of detail to explain which Argentine platoons had their company’s night visions and where they were located in a battle, or the continuous failure of the British 84mm Recoilless Rifles in the army units. Also, the author finally gives the Argentine conscripts the better recognition of their role in the battles and refuses to accept the myth of their great losses and total poor performance by them against the British forces, but at the same time he is willing showing their failure of leadership, logistics, and training. Likewise, he shows the heroics and professionalism of the various British forces, but also writes of some of the pettiness by the various British commanders, the poor conditions of some British troops, and even barbaric acts like severing ears from Argentine soldiers by at least one British soldier.


This book, I think should be an absolute read for anyone interested in the Falklands war. I am extremely happy that I have read it.

The Evacuation of Vietnam...from this blog!

 
What happen to all of the 10mm Vietnam blog entries?!?!? Well, I am moving all of my 10mm Vietnam blog entries from this blog to a website that I set up for my Vietnam projects, called Sapper Joe's Vietnam Wargames. 

The reason for this is mainly that I wanted to do away of my insane ramblings of how my project is progressing and now start storing everything in a more traditional sense of a website with a more organized format, plus to free up some memory by deleted pictures that show WIP, when I have completed one of the same model. The website is still under construction, but pretty much the format that I want. I will still use this blog to show any new work for the Vietnam project and also for any AAR's. 

Also, you will notice some other changes on this blog. One, the new "hot links tabs" underneath the big picture at the top. Click on these and it will take you to a separate page with something about that gaming project. They are still WIP.

Second, you might notice that I removed a lot of the "tags" for the different posts. I decided to remove a lot of them to reduced the size of the "tag" bar in the left hand column and just to make it less confusing with all of the different options.

Next, you will notice that the sidebar on the right hand side is gone. As I created a "hot link tab" for links & other blogs. So I was able to delete that one column. I will update these links make them a little more specific to which projects that I am using them. Also I moved my "Followers" to the top as well.

Finally, you will see two new gadgets with links. The first at the top of my blog entries is "My Shelfari Bookshelf" which allows you to see what kind of books that I have or read. I have not figured out how to separate them by topic yet. At the bottom of the site is a music player of clips of sounds written by someone after see Antarctica on a tour. I guess since I have also had a moving experience on my tour, that I decided to add it to my blog. It will not start automatically and to hear it, you have to start it yourself.


Cheers,

Joe

Just a little urban renewal project

Below are some pictures of my 20mm urban residential board for my UK troubles games: Ireland (1920's and 1960's+), 2nd English Civil (1970's-80's), Cold War Hot (Red Dawn 1970's-80's), Operation Sealion & Case Green (German invasion in WWII of UK & Ireland), A Very British Civil War (1930's), Sweeneys & Blaggers (Cops & Robbers 1970's), and Zombies....yes, I plan to make the most out of this project! Also, if anyone can point me towards some 20mm Daleks and Cybermen, that would be great.

The board is 3'x2' in size, so it would be for very small actions and the rare platoon action. I will be also later be working on a same size board which will be an industrial area, including a brewery for the Irish to fight over who will be in control of it.

Since taking these pictures, I have redone several things so the roads, specifically the back alley, are now narrower then what is shown in the pictures. Remember, to click on the picture for a bigger version of it.

Now some pictures with various vehicles and figures to give it more life.

Sapper Joe’s Current Gaming Projects

Well, I know that I have been very quiet and a little distant lately, but I figure I should pop up and say what my current gaming projects are that I am working on and to also let you know that I will be redoing my blog in the near future. As for the changes to my blog, I am planning to create a couple of websites specifically geared towards specific period / game system. For an example, one website will be on my Vietnam gaming, which will include my 10mm & 20mm French Indochina and 2^nd Vietnam War gaming articles, as well as general information on both of those wars. Another will cover my UK’s troubles 20mm gaming and general information. I will still keep this blog for general gaming information and what I am doing, but the websites will be the “storage” areas of past blog entries and a more organized format for finding things. I don’t know when I will get stuff done, but I will post it up on my blog when it completed.

Now as for gaming, I have not been working on anything really productive for the last several months…err, year; but I am trying to get back into things. The following are the key goals for this year.

1 – I am still continuing to sort out and sell off miniatures, books, and other game related stuff for dead projects (which, sadly to say is a lot). I am also weeding through existing projects to see if I can reduce the number of figures that I need and sell off the excess, if any. I hope to make a major impact on my pile of unwanted and unpainted miniatures and books by the end of the year. Whatever I get from the sales, I am mostly turning around and using that towards the paragraph below.

2 – I just sent off my first batch of miniatures to be painted by a painting service. I have been looking into different painting services for about the last six to twelve months. I have saved up enough to make it worth my wild to give this a shot in getting some stuff done and hopefully on the board this year. The first batch has 20mm Post WWII Brits, including a Scimitar light tank, for various projects: Falklands, Northern Ireland, 2^nd English Civil War, Cold War Hot, and Zombies. (I plan to really make the most out of my 20mm UK urban board and vehicles). Also included were 20mm Argentines for the Falklands. The next batch will be 1970’s civilians, rioters, armed criminals, and some additional Cold War UK troops. The plan is to be playing Falklands, NI, and 2^nd English Civil War by the end of the year.

3 – I have been negligent into getting around and ordering the last of my buildings from Metcalfe for my 20mm UK residential urban board. I plan to order the remainder of them next weekend (finally). After they arrive, I will start finishing up buildings and streets part of the project. I will still have to pick up some more vehicles and street scenic’s (light poles, mail boxes, phone boxes, etc.) I have also bought some PDF files of additional UK buildings in 20mm that need to printed out and try my hands on them as well. I already have some buildings for the next board, which will be an industrial area – with a brewery for the Irish to battle for control over!

4 – I am dropping the use of “Cold War Commander” as my rules for 10mm Vietnam. While I enjoyed it, it was failing for a multiple player game system. I have been reading the Too Fat Lardies, “Charlie Don’t Surf” rules lately and got a set of CDS cards from Artscow.com. I also have an order out for some 7mm white & red dice and 7mm dice stands from S&S for keeping track of shock & kills on the different units. I am going to try to run a small trial game maybe at the end of this month to get more comfortable with CDS. If all goes well, I plan to start picking back up on doing 10mm Nam.

5 –Also on switching rules, I am dropping “Force on Force” for my Northern Ireland and other low level skirmishing (2-12 figures per side.) This is mainly due the results of my trial NI games of “FoF” for the low level skirmishing. The actions were too fast, making the games extremely short. Also, the results were too bloody compared to actual engagements. So I am looking into some different games systems that are designed specifically for very small actions, like “Geezers! Shut It!” by Killer B Games, “Cold War: 1983” by Wessex Games, and possibly “Flying Lead” by Ganesha Games. 

6 – I am also looking at Two Fat Lardies, “Troops, Weapons, & Tactics” / “Through the Mud & the Blood” for possibly doing my 20mm skirmishing, instead of “Force on Force”. Mainly this is because of the action / reaction / reaction to reaction / etc. system in FoF. Originally I thought it was good, but in each passing game, it became more and more bogging down of the fast flow of the system, especially if you have over a platoon with a couple of support weapons. I held off from pre-ordering the 2^nd Ed. of FoF, because I don’t know how drastic it has been changed or not from 1^st Ed. rules. If anyone buys the 2^nd Ed., let me know what differences there are and I will be willing to try it out. I know TW&T/M&B were designed to work for platoon size actions (20-50 figures per side) like FoF and they are suppose to be able to handle up to company size actions (50-100 figures per side). So I would like to try them out and see how they will work. Because, I am really looking for a system that will work well for small patrol actions as well as a two platoon assault without get grinded down into a standstill of dice rolling and reactions.

7 – While I am selling off a lot of miniatures and planning to do most of my work on the Falklands / Cold War troubles projects this year, I did finally decided that I will start one new project this year. By this, I mean a project that I do not have any miniatures already for it. It will start off as a medium size project (50 - 100 figures per side), but has the possibility to grow into a large size project (100-200 figures per side) over the next year or two. With that number of miniature involved, we are looking at 15mm for the scale. It is something that I have been thinking about for few years of doing, but just did not start over that time. I am going into the land war of the Great War, 1914-18. But I am going to do the Middle East / Asia Minor front with the forces of the Empire fighting Johnny Turk. I already had for years most of the terrain, several books on the subject, and the two rules sets that I will be using. What I am doing is mounting everything individually (except the MG teams) separately. This way I can use them for Too Fat Lardies’, “If the Lord Spares Us” (each stand is a platoon) and “Through the Mud & the Blood” (each stand is a man.) I looked up all of the ITLSU’s scenarios and made a list of what is required to cover almost all of the scenarios. I then decided on which scenarios had the most in common so not to buy too many figures and that is what I am going to buy for figures. Later on (next year), I will buy some more to do additional scenarios.

8 – In discussing of starting new projects, if I get time this year I will try to restart some old projects or add on to active ones. High on my list of projects to restart will be the Gangs of New York, especially with the beautiful Perry’s ACW rioters coming out (Dead Rabbits, B’hoys!) and add on to my 10mm Vietnam – maybe the “Snoopy” gun truck will finally be finished!

9 – In the non-gaming area, but sort of related to the gaming research end, I found out about a local monthly meeting of people interested in the Civil War. They normally have an author of Civil War books, or a university professor to give a one and a half hour presentation at their meetings. I have been to one already and really enjoyed it. Also with this being the 150^th Ann. of the ACW, I am planning more ACW weekend trips through Missouri. One of these trips will be to see the 150^th Ann. exhibit at the Missouri capitol (and hopefully see many more surviving flags), as well as visiting Wilson’s Creek for the 150^th Ann. I have been lay out a trip outline and will forward it on to anyone interested.

 

Well, that is about it for the planning of the year.

Joe

Fighting an Addiction – Or: My Battle with Lead Mountain

“Hello, my name is Joe and I have an addiction for buying too many miniatures…”

A few weeks back, someone I know was complaining about having to buy another army and the cost of certain figures, etc., and why he keeps putting himself in this position. While I never got around to replying, it did get me to think about my own addiction as a compulsive buyer of gaming stuff, mainly miniatures, and what I am doing to keep my mountain of metal under control. Plus, this could be a cool subject for my blog for others to think about before they start buying into a project that will go nowhere.

While I have always known that I had way too many miniatures, especially unpainted, it was about a year and a half ago that I realized how much unpainted miniatures I had in my collection. That is when I realized that I really needed to let some things go and stop getting involved in a bunch of periods, armies, or other projects because of something I read/seen/or talked about. I had made a decision to stop being a miniature-holic.

The first big step was to list out all of my projects by scale and armies that I have, have started, would like to do, or had at one time. After doing that, I saw that for some periods, I had multiple scales for it for the same armies. For an example, I had at one time or still have figures for WWII in France for 1940 in 3mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, and 20mm! Five different scales of the same French and German forces! (Literally – The French forces were the exact same force for numbers or each type of vehicles, infantry stands, etc.)

Next, I struck from the list all of the projects that I sold off or have given away. From there I made out a rough estimate of the amount of minis that it would take to finish projects that I still had, plus storage requirements for everything (armies, buildings, terrain, etc.) Once that is done, I started to cry over how unrealistic everything has been and how much larger my house would have to be to finish everything. Now, I was ready to start cutting the fat.

Then I reviewed all of the projects on the list. I first terminated the projects that I had I not started on, those that I didn’t have a solid start on, and also projects that I have absolutely no interested in any more. This was followed by marking what periods that I have finished, also finished, and those that I really still wanted to do. Everything in between I made a decision on whether to keep or get rid of based on interested, what is need to complete, storage, cost, etc. So now you know why I am selling off a lot of miniatures (unfortunately, which is rather irregular still.)

But now what is to keep me in check? Part of this is to control myself from starting new projects before I start buying a bunch of figures and drop it later. That is where I came up with a series of questions to ask myself as sort of a “litmus test” on determining if the project is something I want to give it a “Go.” All of these questions might not apply to everyone, but everyone should ask themselves some of the questions before they buy their first pack of miniatures for a new project.

• Do I really want to do this project and it is not just a passing fad?
• How many other projects do I currently have going on?
• Am I going to duplicate an existing or past project and why?
• How much am I willing to budget towards this project, $100, $500, $1000 (include everything – miniatures, terrain, bases, rules, paints, painting services, resource books, and shipping costs)?
• Am I going to have to eat putter butter & jelly sandwiches at work for a while? - Seriously, if you have to ask this question – get out now!
• Am I willing to do both opposing forces, terrain, and know all of the rules?
• How many gamers will typically play in a game and how many figures are needed per player for a normal game?
• Is there anyone else willing to help and how committed are they to the project if they are to do their part, especially if it is a vital part?
• Will this be a one-shot project (once it is bought, it is finished) or living project (you continuous have to keep adding more to it as rules/armies change – i.e., GW, FOW, Modern gaming)?
• Are the rules available to cover the project (do I have them or need to buy them) and do I like the rules?
• Basing requirements: universal (used by many rules sets) or unique (only one rules set) and do I want to commit to that type of basing?
• Miniature availability: What scales, manufacturers, and quality are available for the project and would I be willing to use a smaller scale, different manufacturer, or lesser quality to do the period to stay in budget (instead of 25mm, can I use 10mm, if they are available)?
• Can I cut down the number of figures needed or find other ways of reducing what is needed (maybe use 3 figs on a stand vs. 4)?
• What number of figures do I really need to play a normal size game (10, 40, 100, or 1000 per side)?
• Can I still play games with fewer figures / stands until I get everything done?
• Do I really have the time to paint that many miniatures or will I use a painting service?
• Can I use these figures for other projects or games that I might be interested in (like using a “commonly” played scale of miniatures that can be used to fight several different opposing forces vs. an oddball scale / army that can only be used for that one project )?
• Will I get enough enjoyment from this project for the effort that I will be required to put into it?

Anyway, I hope this helps someone from making that horrible discovery one day of a big sinkhole where your house use to be before sank due to the weight of all of the unpainted miniatures in your basement.