Keep Smiling

Keep smiling is the personal motto of my great grand uncle.
 He was a signaler in the 14th Royal Irish Rifles B.E.F.
I was originally posting stuff in my other blog Dice of Doom. But I've decided to switch over to here as this blog is more wargaming focused I figured it was more appropriate.
My grandfather's uncle kept a diary of his experiences during the war. I have a copy of the typewritten transcript of his diary. I am intending to post on the hundredth anniversary to the day any of his diary entries. It's kind of an ambitious project but I look forward to it.

Entry #3  December 3, 1914 
We were removed to Bundoran. Three companies were billeted in the G.N.R. hotel, but my company was billeted in houses. We were lucky enough to fall in with a fine little cottage with only one inhabitant- an old man - who gave us the entire run of the house. So we had every comfort, and was a bit of a change from having to patrol the tent at nights to try and keep it down. Just before Christmas my company moved into the hotel, as half of the battalion was on leave. We slept on the floor of the smoke room. It was there I had my first Christmas dinner in the Army. Our officers were very kind to us. We had a splendid dinner, after which we had sports. And as the weather was very Christmasy we spent an A1 holiday. We remained here and repaving every day until the 30th.

Entry #4 December 30, 1914
I left Bundoran for eight days leave in Belfast. Remaining in Belfast until 8 January.

Entry #5 January 8, 1915
I joined Battalion which had in the meantime moved to Randalstown. This camp was situated in Shanes's Park and was very muddy at first but improved through time. Here we continued our training. Including some fine group marches with full pack to Ballyscullion and Drumadarragh, distance is about 30 miles. We also had a recruiting March to and through Ballymena where we got a fine reception. My spare afternoons here were spent either in Antrim or in Mr Mooneys, a kindhearted old gent who always made me at home. As I had my bike here I visited most of the surrounding country, and altogether had an a one time. I was very sorry to leave Randalstown, which we did on July 6.

Another Kick At The Can

Disclaimer; this battle actually took place back in November 22, but as I haven't posted about it yet until now kindly disregard any facts that don't match. My memory is not great.

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I say this because yet again I attempted to take the Germans to victory in my friend Wayne's 1915 Ypres scenario.

The starting lineup

 Once again I've decided to dispense with the machine gun unit to have an extra squad. The range of the machine gun is awesome but it is slow and only four extra Dice (not counting the crew). As opposed to 10 extra guys which is in most situations 10 extra dice. The extra manpower is effectively a meat shield against the expected casualties and there's usually a lot of casualties with this system. The iron Ivan rules tend to be a little bit on the bloody side but still great fun.

The stalwart defenders

Wayne has done a lot of research about the first world war. And it shows in his setup of the defending trenches. I can expect a lot of resistance from that direction. I can only hope that the gas does its work. My goal on this side is to breach at least one trench and do enough casualties to breakthrough beyond. Even with the gas it won't be easy.

Rushing towards the trench

My forces head off to the middle trench. I don't reach it before the gases swept past. And I lose a few of my men to defending fire. But not enough to stop the advance and I push on. It's quite hard to inflict casualties at range against units entrenched so I decide to put my trust in some hand-to-hand fighting.

The grand melee

The black markers represent those few lucky troops who have improvised a gas mask (in other words urinated on a handkerchief, yes really look it up) in the white markers denote soldiers who have picked up a Lee Enfield rifle to replace their somewhat deficient Ross rifle (the Ross rifle was issued to Canadian troops at the start of the war most were tossed away by frustrated troops after its tendency to jam). Between the gas and some lucky shots the entrenched troops are thinned down a little bit but have been reinforced from the flank trenches.

This trench is now German territory

After some tense rounds of hand-to-hand fighting I take the position. When he moves up support troops and puts the trench under fire. The gas has already passed them and with the cover they prove resilient to my counter fire.

Not as many as there was before

I managed to push back the defending troops a little bit. However the damage has been done. Wayne's defending fire and the gas lingering in the trench have taken too many of my remaining troops. And it becomes obvious that I lack the manpower to continue the attack. To the right I have control of one trench and therefore one of my objectives so the end result is a draw.

The butcher's bill

Catching Up

I have fallen behind quite a bit on posting stuff. So here's my attempt at catching up. There will be a bunch of posts to fill in the last few months. The management apologizes for any conclusions as might've caused.