BEF Engineer Company

Been doing quite a bit of work on my early war British collection lately, and this is the latest result. Each battalion in an infantry regiment has a platoon of engineers attached to the support company but they can be brought together to form a fully independent unit like this, which speeds up the time it takes to build field fortifications, bridging, etc

Except for the radio figure in the command platoon (Airfix), these are standard Zevezda figures modified to suit the engineer role.

The Mascot

This was sent to me by another former professional soldier, Rusty, over at http://falklandsctg317.blogspot.com.au/

Most of my training instructors were veterans of the South Atlantic; they were not the sort of people to be trifled with and we learnt well from them. I have nicknamed this one 'Fuller' after one such veteran I served under whilst on operations in the Former Yugoslavia

This figure will be added to a place among my collection of special things, just because he a Marine.

Thanks Rusty

Airfix Resin Cafe

Nice little model buildings these, the only real drawback is the price :(

However, as noted in an earlier post, I got this one for $10

Went with my own colour scheme, here it is with the base coats on

You get three brass window frames with the model. I only used two but may add the last one to the front door frame later

Seen here with 1/72 scale figures but the difference is not too bad really. CD scale (1" to 50 yards) tends to breakdown a little bit when you put buildings and roads onto the map, and to help alleviate this a smaller building footprint can actually be a good thing; one building on the tabletop represents a group of three or four.

Old Matchbox Truck

Just an old 1921 Model T Ford. I rescued it from a junk shop a few weeks ago, thinking of my minor nations collection and their lack of transports; which you can never have enough of

The obligatory before and after picture 

Vallejo, Canvas and Black colours, some minor inking but nothing else. This will allow the truck to serve multiple different nations and theatres, as they did historically 

Many were adapted from the ambulance and machinegun carrier roles after the Great War. The Model T saw something like 15 million units produced before its retirement, so it is not that surprising that everyone from the Russians to the Japanese seem to have acquired a few somewhere along the line. Good score, wish I had more of them.

Palm Log Pillboxes

Some more excellent scenery from my friend, without a Passport, David Russell...

Nice low profile, fitting with the type of structure it is

On the tabletop. For CD3, most fortifications of this type can accommodate a single platoon  

Great stuff Dave.

Georgia 1957

A training exercise in Turkey goes horribly wrong when members of the Parachute Regiment find themselves over the boarder in Soviet Georgia. Phil played the Russians, I the British

The para set up a defensive position around some old buildings and a quarry, and wait for orders from NATO HQ

However, the Russians have already seen them land

Covered by 3 platoon, the CO explains to the Russian that he can't accept their surrender as he doesn't have enough men to escort them all

Two Soviet infantry battalions arrive in short order, and the minor incident becomes a major engagement

The reds begin a mortar bombardment of the British positions that was to last pretty much all game

The recon section gets too close to a hidden British platoon 

Soviet reinforcements, RHQ

The dice always seemed to work better for the reds early on, here Phil rolls up the MMG unit

The machinegun company inflicted several casualties on the forward most group of para

Next turn they disengaged and fell back through another British held position

The Soviets wasted no time in following up quick as the field position they vacated was very good

Turn 6. The reinforcement dice finally fell the way of the British, and an armoured column of Royal Marines arrives to begin the extraction process

On the left, Soviet platoons group for an attack on the quarry

Marines close assault elements of the Soviet RHQ group

Turn 8. Good reinforcement dice for the Brits but better for the reds, British units would have to get very close to this monster to have a chance of knocking it out. The Soviet mortar platoons in the fore were beginning to run out of ammunition by this time

The quarry position get the order to evacuate 

3 platoon has to remain to cover the withdrawal

The Royal Marines eliminate the RHQ platoons

And the mmg company to their right suffers a critical morale failure and surrenders

Russian infantry kept up running fire-fights with several British units, making it hard for them to evacuate in good order

More Marines and other British infantry arrive to assist with the evacuation

3 platoon still fighting it out in the quarry

Turn 9. The evacuation pulls out, harassed by Soviet small arms and mortar fire all the way

The last of the Marine platoons begin to pull out as the majority of the damaged parachute battalion is now safe from being over run

Last turn, Russian armour takes a parting shot at the British Armoured car, which it has missed twice previously

Third time lucky, the AC erupts into flame

A good game using the small cold war collection that I have here. Lots of infantry action where movement and concentration of groups of figures was important. Phil designed this scenario and it went pretty well; although we would change the way the reinforcement enter the board next time, as the Russians had too much ground to cover with too few troops.