More Bolt Action

Just a quick post today.

600pts each.

Obersts Will and John vs. Captain "big talk" Lee & Comrade Paulski.

Just a straight up fight for John's first game.

First turn went something like this....

Crack! German sniper kills the Russian sniper.

Crack! Panzer IV arrives and promptly destroys the American 75mm LH

Crack! German LH destroys the Russian mortar

Dice are rolling hot!!

I think it was at this point that John decided he likes Bolt Action....

The look on Paul & Lee's face = priceless.

The T34/85 has a crack at the Panzer IV. Both miss each other for a couple of turns.

Paul leaves for 5 mins giving Lee overall command. 

And his words on returning were.... "whats that burning smell...? Oh..." as he spots the burning T34/85 hulk.

Pretty much all downhill for the Allies from there as the casualties mount.

Only German unit to be killed is John's Lieutenant. At least 6 Allied units destroyed giving a decisive victory to Germany. 

And all the time the Bazooka hid in the woods..... ;-)

Return to Bolt Action

The sweet sweet smell of victory. Again. :-)

And a return to Bolt Action.

It would be Oberst Dallas and I in charge of German forces, whilst Captain Brent-what-oh and Comrade Paulski would be in charge of a combined Allied force (British & Russian). 600pts per person.

We rolled up Point Defence as the mission. Germany would be the defender. Deployment across the 3 objectives:

The mission opens with a preparatory bombardment which spread an annoying number of pins around. 

"....Russian commander to British commander.... attack on left flank.... refused flank..."

Herr Oberst, we are picking up Allied communications over open airwaves! Surely, they cannot be that silly......

Seems my Germans in the woods will bear the brunt of the Allied thrusts.

And we're off. A lucky shot from my infantry gun opens proceedings by destroying the Russian AT gun up on a hill guarding their axis of attack. This gives free reign to the Panzer IV & Sd Kfz 222....

With the 222 promptly nailing the British FAO before he can drop his load.

My Commander looks on anxiously as the Russians close for assault...

British forces take a beating as the Panzer IV terrifies them...

But then the assaults start rolling in....

End result... the Russians are holding one objective on turn 6 - a draw if we cannot get a German unit within 3"...

What's that I hear though.... Vroom! Vroom! The sound of Panzer IV engines revving up!

Charge! The Panzer IV crashes through the woods scattering the Russian troops to contest the objective.

Victory for Germany.

Although, the Panzer IV commander pointed out the next day that he needed to run into the woods to charge.... so a slightly illegal move (its been awhile! :-) ). Still, I think he would have been able to get into 3" of the objective with a normal move anyway.

Overall, good fun as always. Not too many rules errors for not having played so long.

I need to remember to use my Lieuteant to pull out order die and grab the intiative! May have helped blunt some Russian assualts.

Until next time! Thanks for stopping by.

New Toy

Just a quick post.

I've been thinking about replacing my kit lens (18 - 55mm) for some time, but couldn't decide what to get.

Yesterday I took the plunge and got a new lens to replace it!

Went with the Canon EFS 17 - 55mm f2.8 lens since I'm using a crop sensor camera (Canon 7d mk2).

Immediately after purchasing, I popped up to Auckland Domain to have a wander through the Winter Gardens & Auckland War Memorial Museum to try it out.

So far, so good :-)

New Zealand's Darkest Day

George Edmund Butler's watercolour 'Bellevue from Gravenstafel', shows the hill on which 843 New Zealanders died as it appeared circa 1918.

Image courtesy of the National Collection of War Art, Archives New Zealand. Reference: AAAC 898 NCWA 431

"On two days in October 1917, in the farmlands of Belgium, New Zealand suffered two of its greatest tragedies. On 4 October, 490 New Zealand servicemen were killed. Eight days later on 12 October there was an even greater loss. Of 3000 casualties on that day, more than 840 young New Zealanders lay dead or dying in the mud and uncut wire before the village of Passchendaele."

Excerpt taken from here.

In New Zealand, the battle of Passchendaele is less well known (along with most of the NZ involvement in the Western Front) as focus is always around Gallipoli. The number of deaths eclipse those from any natural disasters or other events in our history.

With it being a hundred years later, I figured I would complete a short post about it as remembrance.

Further images can be found here and more detail on the battle here.

I am currently researching and trying to understand my Great Uncle George Chappell's involvement in the war.

He'd signed up as a Private in May 1917 and arrived in Europe in July 2017. From what I can decipher of his records - arrival was at Sling Camp where he would be part of the reinforcement force.

Unfortunately these battles look like the reason why he was then sent to the Wellington Infantry Regiment in early November 1917 for active service.

Reading the NZ history, this was a relatively quiet period due to the mauling the Division had taken in Passchendaele with 3 weeks out of the line before moving into the Polygon Wood area for the winter.

He was back in London in March due to bronchitis / pneumonia (arriving the same day as the Germans commenced the Spring Offensive in 1918).

From here, its gets a little tricky to decipher the movements. I can see he was on board the hospital ship "Maheno" in August 1918 and (I think) eventually back to NZ in October 1918 (dates seem to match for when "Maheno" was back in Auckland for repairs). I can't quite figure out movements between March and August.

He was later discharged from service due to illness contracted on active service. Unfortunately I can't decipher what is written as the cause, but we believe it was both through surviving gas (contracting a form of tuberculosis) and some physical wound.

He was 38 years old on arrival at the front. The same age as me...  On return, he had a career in the railways and lived until 1977 (just over a year before I was born). Not a bad innings in the end.

Lest we forget.