Keep Smiling

Entry # 7 September 4 1915

Arrived at Bramshott Camp, a fine spot n the well known Hants Commons. During my spare time I visited all the surrounding towns. And  I was very sorry to leave Bramshott shich we did , after a fine send off of the ladies of the district, on October 3rd.

(another late post, I need to set reminders over the long breaks in the narrative)

Keep Smiling

Entry #6 July 6 1915

In Seaford, a fine little sea-side place on the south coast of England. we carried on with our training. We bathed here daily and had a fine time. My Saturdays and Sundays either being spent in Eastbourne or Brighton, two very fashionable sea-side resorts. We left here on September 4th.

 (this was a late post, I mixed the dates up and thought it was next month) 

A Final Victory

A few weeks ago, January 17th to be precise I took what my friend Wayne promised to be the final assault on those trenches at Ypres. Wayne will be running the scenario for Hotlead and I have been helping him play test it. So after a few tweaks for the last battle we try again.

I once again take the extra squad rather than the machine gun section. Meat shielding and mobility for the win. 

And in this corner

Due to an overlooked rule about not allowing troops to run in the terrain I was forced to slow down. I could only take the maneuver option of  6" movement instead of running at 9". The up side was I could now fire at the trenches before assaulting them. The downside being the greater amount of time required to get there.

Shell craters do not make good cover

As it took much longer to get to the trenches I was taking more hits form the trenches. But bad luck for Wayne with poor shooting and gas affect rolls evened it out a little.

In the open and under fire

 As the gas did its grim work the volume of defensive fire dropped off and I moved up for the assault.

The big push into bloody hand to hand

Some bad luck for Wayne in the trench fighting led me to take it with a still sizable force left. Supporting fire from the squad left in the objective trench to the far right further whittled down his defending troops. By the time I had settled in to the trench and turned the defending machine gun against its former owners it was obvious he had little left to defend and prevent me from taking both objectives. Victory at last. I guess the old saying "At first you don't succeed, try try again." does apply sometimes. I'd like to claim tactical brilliance but in reality luck had more to do with it. 

my dead pile

Wayne's dead, mostly from gas I think

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.

Third Time's The Charm

 I am currently play-testing My friend Wyane's 1915 Ypres scenario using a modified Iron Ivan games' Price Of Glory WW1 rules. It was my third attempt playing the Germans and this time I finally emerged victorious.
the map, this is a section of trench line in 1915 after the Germans released Chlorine Gas ;

This is from my second attempt where I tried to do an end around move 

The green cotton balls mark the limit of the gas cloud and the other green bits are felt marking the areas of trench and shell holes the gas has sunk into, a dangerous place to be without a gas mask.
At the start of the scenario most of the allied troops have run off in the face of gas leaving only the Canadians to hold the line. The German objective is to take the first trench (at the bottom left) and the CP at the rear of the other side (top right). Th Canadians have it tough; no gas masks and only Ross rifles to start! They do get a chance to pick up a SMLE each time they move across the field and when they enter a gas area they have a chance to "improvise a gas mask"
(pee in a handkerchief and tie it around their face).

Third attempt starting positions

My opponent Bear ran the Canadians. This time I rushed forward towards the center with most of my troops leaving only the machine gun team to secure the trench objective. I concentrated on the middle trench hoping to push off the defenders.

Every general's dream, the big push in action

I got lucky and Bear failed a critical morale roll and I pushed him off the center. Between the gas and my machine gun the causalities mounted up for Bear and he soon capitulated. 

Canadian causalities

German causalities , looking quite confused

I took very few hits from gunfire and I was careful to stay out of the gas (the germans have gas masks but they are not 100% effective) so my causalities were light. Unlike the previous try.

The Price of Glory was high that day

 My newly constructed dice rolling box was broken in for the first time during this battle And I am happy with how it turned out (although its luck seems fickle).

Its a box to roll dice in