tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67109875208426603522024-02-19T23:08:45.913-08:00The Hissing FuseA blog on reading and gaming the history of the Great War.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-59856587370394551972016-07-01T09:03:00.001-07:002016-07-01T09:05:01.990-07:00The Start of the Somme Offensive Commemorated<br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-36683549">Somme marked by uniformed men across UK with #wearehere</a><br />
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<b>Go tell the Spartans, passer by, </b><br />
<b>That here, obedient to their word, we lie</b>.<br />
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Simonides of Ceos<br />
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<b>When you go home, tell them of us and say,</b><br />
<b>For their tomorrow, we gave our today.</b><br />
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John Maxwell Edmonds<br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/we-are-here-battle-of-the-somme-commemorations-soldiers-song-stations_uk_57763708e4b0c94608007862">Video and Twitter remarks</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-36676347">Scottish view of commemoration.</a><br /> </div>
Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-52112016388023970142016-05-25T13:23:00.000-07:002016-05-25T13:33:43.054-07:00Building a Mid-War French Force for Through the Mud and the Blood<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.151ril.com/images/bank/1/369.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.151ril.com/images/bank/1/369.jpg" height="320" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French infantry in the trenches. (http://www.151ril.com)</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Les Poilus!</span></b><br />
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One of my chum's sons, already an avid wargamer, has expressed an interest in playing a Great War miniatures game, with a particular interest in the French. Or some other options (he likes the underdogs), but since I'm learning and blogging about the great Verdun campaign just now, I seized on his interest as an opportunity to build a French force for <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=16"><i>Through the Mud and the Blood</i></a>.<br />
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He's OK with either early war or something later. But , although they would look glorious in <i>les pantalon rouges</i>, the early war French would be at best a platoon of 58 corporals and riflemen with a three sergeants and a solitary lieutenant as platoon commander. Not much chance of one of the regiment's two machine-guns, even.<br />
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But by 1916, though drabber in the <i>horizon bleu,</i> the platoon becomes much more interesting. A greater range of infantry armaments and more complex tactics to use them effectively created a more diverse platoon organization. Still commanded by l lieutenant and three sergeants, the platoon now consisted of 40 men, including 4 dedicated rifle-grenadiers (with two ammo carriers), 2 automatic-riflemen (with 2 ammo carriers and 2 assistant gunners), and a squad of 8 grenadiers (including throwers, ammo carriers, and assistants).<br />
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I also (since this was my delayed tax-refund splurge, and I was buying from <a href="http://oldglory25s.com/">Old Glory 25s</a> and thus using my discount from their Army Member programme), got some support elements. The platoon will be able to call on some Hotchkiss HMG support, a 37mm infantry gun, and some trench mortars, if needed. There are some special figures to represent any trench-fighting party they may send out at night to recce the enemy lines to to grab a prisoner or two. And they will have some extraneous chappies hanging about: some spotters for the divisional artillery, <br />
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I'll be going through all my old <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=15">Lardy Specials</a> as well as delving into the <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=28">M&B forum</a> to see if any ideas crop up that might be useful. But undoubtedly of most value will be all the posts on the excellent <a href="http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/">Roundwood's World</a> blog about his <a href="http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/search/label/Verdun">Verdun Project</a>. I'm also finding the website of the <a href="http://www.151ril.com/content/home">151e </a><i><a href="http://www.151ril.com/content/home">Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne</a> </i>(a living history group) invaluable.<br />
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As a starter, I'd like to portray an attack and a counterattack from the fighting over the Bois des Corbeaux (like my mum, I love the corbies) on the left bank of the Meuse, part of the beginning of the second stage of the Verdun campaign in March 1916. But first I need to do some painting!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.151ril.com/images/bank/1/018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.151ril.com/images/bank/1/018.jpg" height="262" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French field kitchen and baggage. (http://151ril.com)</td></tr>
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<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-74150125434639263502016-04-28T15:52:00.000-07:002016-04-28T15:52:07.778-07:00Verdun: SnippetsIt's been quiet here at The Hissing Fuse. Family matters and a project at work have taken a good deal of my free time and, more importantly, my energy and attention.<br />
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<a href="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2957278_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2957278_md.jpg" width="250" /></a>I do plan to play through a couple of the Verdun games I mentioned in the last post and report on the outcomes, but I'm handicapped by (a) lack of time, (b) lack of an opponent to give the games a proper two-sided playing, and (c) lack of a safe, cat-free space to leave games set up from one playing to the next. I'll try to play through the four (of the total of six games) that I own at some point, and when I do I'll relate what I find.<br />
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However, my Verdun game collection has grown slightly of late! I have been working my way through Alastair Horne's excellent, though dated, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/406776.The_Price_of_Glory">The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916</a>, and had just finished the section on the chasseurs' fight for the Bois des Caures when what should arrive in the post but <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/196700/trenches-coup-de-grace">Coup de Grace</a>, the latest module for John Gorkowski's <i>In The Trenches</i> tactical system. This has two scenarios on the Bois des Caures fighting--a German probe and the main assault. I may make that my first tabletop foray into Verdun.<br />
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Two of my friends have also shown an interest in Great War tabletop gaming with miniatures, so this made me pull out the different rules sets I have on hand and do a review (just for myself :-). Although this year's tax refunds ended up going to pay off bills from our wedding last spring (or, more literally, to fill the holes in our bank accounts from paying those bills), I do feel like a <i>small </i>treat would be in order, and Verdun seems to be the topic of the moment, so I've been trying to decide whose tiny Frenchmen (and possibly Germans, if I choose a scale in which I do'nt already have German troops) I might want to splurge on. Peter Pig makes lovely figures with lots of animation, but they're on the small side for 15mm. Battlefront/Flames of War does suiable French (since by 1916 <i>le kepi</i> and <i>les pantalons rouges</i> had given way to the the Adrian helmet and <i>l'horizon bleu</i>, but their only Germans have the later <i>stahlhelm</i>, not the still-hanging-on-in-February-1916 <i>picklehaube</i>. Blue Moon do rather large 15s. Great War doesn't do 1916 French in 28mm, but Brigade Games do. And there's always the 6mm Baccus line to be considered. A lot depends on whether one goes skirmish-level (<i>Through the Mud and the Blood</i> or <i>Price of Glory</i>), company-level (<i>No Man's Land</i> or <i>If the Lord Spares Us</i>), or battalion-level (<i>Great War Spearhead</i> or <i>Square Bashing</i>).<br />
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I'm not going to be linking on other media to my posts here in future unless
I'm able to put up a substantial piece of research, writing, or
analysis. My last post got a bit of stick on one wargaming board for not
having a great deal of substance. While that's true, I write here
mostly for my own amusement; I don't have the time or budget to write
scholarly history or in-depth game reviews or critiques.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-4938158965032625362016-04-07T15:01:00.001-07:002016-04-07T15:01:15.556-07:00Verdun Wargames: An Overview<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Verdon-landing-page.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.illustratedfirstworldwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Verdon-landing-page.gif" height="476" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French fortifications at Verdun (The Illustrated First World War) </td></tr>
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There are, that I can identify, six board wargames that focus on the battle of Verdun. I've been able to get my hands on four of the six, and I will try to provide an overview of them here. Later during the course of the year I hope to provide replays of all or most of them.<br />
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Most of the Verdun games cover only the opening month or so of the battle, perhaps assuming that if the Germans have not completely overrun the French defenses by then, the battle will lose interest as a game. While that may be an accurate assessment at the entertainment level, it seems to me that it completely ignores the historical context of the battle. Von Falkenhayn did not necessarily expect to capture the city of Verdun outright. He planned to hit the defenses of the fortified zone hard, putting German troops in positions that the French would have to try to recover. But, he assumed, German artillery was so much more powerful than that of their enemies, German skill at creating defensive positions so much greater, that when the French counterattack came, German forces would be in a position to destroy the counterattacking troops. The French would be forced to pull in more troops from other fronts, and the campaign would destroy France's strategic reserves of manpower, already considerably lower than Germany's at the beginning of the war and further depleted by the Allied offensives of 1915, in which France and Britain had suffered far more casualties than they had inflicted.<br />
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Historically the Germans did inflict something close to crippling losses on the French in the fighting around Verdun in 1916; France lost in the vicinity of 500,000 killed and wounded (and maybe another 100,000 in Nivelle's offensive the following year). But Germany had suffered crippling losses as well, because holding the positions that they took required the sacrifice of almost an equal number of troops to those that the French lost in attacking them. So I think one needs to look at more than a week or two of the offensive to determine whether the player can do better than their historical counterparts did. <br />
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<a href="http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic416409_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic416409_md.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a>Singular among the Verdun half-dozen is the most recent title, Roger Nord's <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40102/verdun-generation-lost">Verdun: A Generation Lost</a>.
Singular because of all the titles I've seen so far, it attempts to
cover the entire Verdun campaign, from its beginning in February to its
conclusion in December. The game includes separate scenarios breaking down the campaign into manageable pieces, but the option is there to play the whole eleven-month ordeal.<br />
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Also unusually, V:GL uses squares (each about 1000m across in scale) rather than hexes to regulate movement and
fire. Its map covers a wide area around the city and its defensive ring,
and it includes both the west and east banks of the Meuse. It gets the second-highest rating of the six, a 6.92 from 19 BGG users. Its rules cover 20 pages covering weather, bombardment, movement, assault, and reorganization of disrupted units, and an additional 12 pages of scenario information and tables. Resources available to one or both players include lifting or creeping barrages, smoke screens, engineers, flamethrowers, gas attacks, night attacks, counterbattery fire, French quick-firing 75mm howitzers, defensive fire, forts, mines, and air attacks. German units are depicted as regiments and battalions; French units are divisions and brigades.<br />
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Nord used the same system in his 2005 game <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13979/big-push-battle-somme">The Big Push: The Battle of the Somme</a>, which depicts 1916's other great and sanguinary combat. I'm looking forward to mastering this system, as I'm hoping to use both these games to gather some insights into 1916's two biggest Western Front campaigns.<br />
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<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5276/verdun-game-attrition">Verdun: The Game of Attrition</a> was published in 1972 by Conflict Games and designed by the late, great John Hill (father of <u>Squad Leader</u> and <u>Johnny Reb</u>). Its map covers only the fortress ring, and only the east bank of the Meuse. Units are rated for combat and movement and are exclusively infantry and artillery battalions. BGG users rated it 6.71 across 46 responses, making it the third most popular of this sextet (in addition to being the oldest).<br />
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One of the things that's remarkable about V:GA is the brevity of the rules. It comes with a generic introduction to board wargames that consists of one page of rules and a one-page FAQ. The rules for the game itself consist of a cover page and three pages of text and diagrams. Four or five pages of rules--most simple Euro games these days come with twice that much.<br />
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Despite that brevity and the simple counterset, the game includes period details like multiple varieties of artillery bombardment, counterbattery fire, phosgene gas, flamethrowers, tunnels, weather, demoralization, French fanaticism, and eight types of terrain. I'm going to try this game out first, probably, just because it has such an amazing combination of simplicity and detail.<br />
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V:GA was later (2004) republished with a graphics upgrade by Cool Stuff Unlimited. I don't have a copy of this edition, but I see nothing to suggest that the rules were edited or altered from the original edition.<br />
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The most popular of the Verdun games is <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19297/verdun-dagger-heart-france">Verdun, a Dagger at the Heart of France</a>, published in 1978, also by Conflict Games (and apparently reprinted at some point by GDW, to judge by some photos of the mapsheet) and designed by the famous Marc Miller (creator of the Traveler RPG as well as designer of many of GDW's historical offerings).<br />
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Billed in its BGG description as a "based on" V:GA, this title is also described as "a completely new game". It wins a 7.02 from 25 ratings. The BGG description refers to its mechanics as "conventional", but the game includes artillery ammunition rules as well as spotting, pioneers, poison gas, fortifications, and general supply rules. The map covers a broader area than just the fortress ring, and it includes both banks of the Meuse. Until I can find an affordable copy, that's about as far as my review can go.<br />
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In the middle of the pack, in terms of popularity, is Avalanche Press' <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24693/they-shall-not-pass-battle-verdun-1916">They Shall Not Pass: The Battle of Verdun 1916</a>, rated on average 6.61 by 82 BGG users. The stunningly ugly map covers the fortress ring on the east bank of the Meuse only at 700 meters per hex. Its rulebook is half-sized (5.5" x 8.5"), yielding about 11 conventionally sized pages that cover the basics like bombardment, movement, assault, morale, and breakthroughs as well as special rules for hasty defenses, fortifications, German pioneers, and French chasseurs a pied. Infantry units are regiments and battalions; artillery units are batteries.<br />
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Tied for least popular of the Verdun games is Joseph Miranda's <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16830/over-top-battles-verdun-lemberg">Over the Top! Verdun</a>
published in S&T by Decision Games. It gets a 5.86 from 36 ratings.
It is part of a series of Great War games that Decision has published,
covering eight battles in all from different periods of the war and
different theatres.<br />
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The other least popular version of the battle is <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9845/verdun-1916">Verdun 1916</a>, published in Vae Victis magazine. I can say the least about this game since I have yet to get hold of a copy of it. Its turns are a day each; its map scale is 850 meters to the hex; combat units are regiments and battalions. Infantry and stormtroop units have combat and movement factors; artillery have bombardment, defense, and movement factors; air units have bombardment factors; and command units have command range, defense, and movement factors. The map, like V:GA and TSNP, shows just the area in the immediate vicinity of the fortress ring, though it does include both the west and east banks of the Meuse. Since it was published in 2002 it has garnered 38 ratings to get it's 5.86 rating BGG.<br />
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Several of the macro games that cover the entire war in Europe or the war on the Western Front have scenarios that are billed as Verdun scenarios, but by and large they cover the entire front. While that does allow the player to explore the larger context of the Verdun campaign, they're not in quite the same category as these games, which focus on the Verdun fighting alone.<br /><br />Coming up: Vimy Ridge Day (April 9). Also, other theatres, other battles--1916 campaigns outside France and Belgium.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-56938116381206255422016-03-07T10:43:00.000-08:002016-03-07T10:43:10.611-08:00A Very Quick Post: Inside Fort Vaux<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Verdun being a very apt topic just now, I found my eye snagged in passing by some photos from the Hammerhead 2016 game event that happened last weekend in the UK.<br />
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One of the games put on show was one of the fighting inside Fort Vaux. The fort was part of the defenses of Verdun, north and east of the city. Like many of the supporting defenses, it was stripped of its guns so they could be used elsewhere, and the garrison had to hold out with resort only to their own small arms and support weapons. In June, after bombarding the fort, the Germans assaulted it several times, with the fighting in its underground galleries being referred to by some as the first battle fought entirely underground. Only after being shelled for six months and being cut off and repeatedly assaulted, out of food and water and with many casualties unable to evacuate to hospital did the fort surrender. Four months later, the Germans abandoned the fort without a fight after a heavy bombardment by French artillery, including 40cm guns. The French repaired the damage they and the Germans had done and extended the defenses of the fort, which they held for the rest of the war.<br />
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So, a chap named James Morris created what looks like a wizard wargame depicting the German assaults inside Fort Vaux. There are some photos on <a href="http://wargamesillustrated.net/hammerhead-2016-saturday-5th-march/" target="_blank">this Wargames Illustrated page</a>, about halfway down, showing the map of the galleries the game designer used and an overview of the barracks block and nearby tunnels used in the game. <br />
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<a href="http://paintingshed.blogspot.com/2016/03/verdun-at-hammerhead-march-5th-2016.html" target="_blank">This blog entry at Steve's Paintingshed also has some photos</a>, including more closeup shots of the model barracks and tunnels.<br />
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This looks like a great and imaginative game. Congratulations to Mr Morris on an impressive piece of work!<br />
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Wikipedia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Vaux" target="_blank">Fort Vaux page</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/verdun/vaux.html" target="_blank">Some photos of present-day</a> Fort Vaux<br />
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<a href="http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/battleverdun44/index.htm#02" target="_blank">De Eerste Wereldoorlog page</a> on the fighting over Fort Vaux, giving a detailed account of the German assault.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-47115829512933025912016-03-02T12:33:00.001-08:002016-03-02T12:33:10.187-08:00Black Contingents in Other European Forces<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-1-africa-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-1-africa-2.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="st"><em>Tirailleurs Sénégalais</em></span> in France, 1917 (okayafrica.com)</td></tr>
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My previous post touched on African troops in French service. Of course, France was not the only country to employ Black troops (either colonials or home-country citizens). <a href="http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/colonial_military_participation_in_europe_africa" target="_blank">This paper by Christian Koller</a> examines the African contingents in various armies, Europeans' perceptions of them, and the effect of the war on these participants and their cultures. <a href="http://warandcolonies.com/" target="_blank">Papers at this conference</a> explored some of the same themes. And another page includes <a href="http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/remembrance-day-black-asian-soldiers-in-ww1/" target="_blank">some rare and fascinating photos of Black soldiers</a> in the British and German regular armies (rather than in colonial units).<br />
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<b>British African Troops</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-1-africa-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-1-africa-1.jpg" height="296" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King's African Rifles corporal and privates (okayafrica.com)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The title of "most famous African unit" to serve in the British forces in the Great War undoubtedly belongs to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_African_Rifles" target="_blank">King's African Rifles</a>. Originally raised and serving as gendarmes (units with both civil police and military responsibilities), the KAR was expanded again and again during the Great War as the activities of Germany's colonial forces in German East Africa kept the British forces scrambling. By 1918, the KAR consisted of 22 battalions, well over 30,000 men. Disease had claimed an additional 3,000 men and combat more than 5,100 either killed or wounded. The KAR was originally formed in 1902 and replaced a number of other localized units from Kenya, Ugnada, British Somaliland, and Nyasaland (present-day Malawi). The KAR continued in their role as gendarmerie after the war and served around the globe in World War Two, continuing their reputation as brave and skillful fighters. <br />
<br />
Other African units, which together made up the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_West_African_Frontier_Force" target="_blank">West African Frontier Force</a>, were the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Regiment" target="_blank">Gold Coast Regiment</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_Regiment" target="_blank">Nigeria Regiment</a>, the Sierra Leone Battalion, and the Gambia Company. Another unit from East Africa was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland_Camel_Corps" target="_blank">Somaliland Camel Corps</a>.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.mg.co.za/crop/content/images/2015/03/27/sanlcmakingfood.jpg/600x324" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.mg.co.za/crop/content/images/2015/03/27/sanlcmakingfood.jpg/600x324" height="215" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Men of the South African Native Labour Contingent (Mail & Guardian)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://www.1914-1918.net/south_africa.html" target="_blank">South Africans</a> had mixed feelings about the war. Some attempted to overthrow the Union government, and though the initial coup failed, an armed uprising persisted for nearly a year. South African forces fought for Britain in German Southwest Africa and in East Africa; a brigade-sized contingent even served in Egypt and on the Western Front. But only White South Africans were allowed to serve under arms. Black and mixed-race South Africans were only permitted to serve as porters and labourers or in France in the South African Native Labour Contingent, part of the <a href="http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-labour-corps-of-1917-1918/" target="_blank">Labour Corps</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Rhodesia_in_World_War_I" target="_blank">Rhodesia</a> (technically two entities, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, both controlled by the British South Africa Company, rather than by the Crown or a dominion government) did not share South Africa's equivocal feelings about the war. Many White Rhodesians joined the British Army or the Royal Flying Corps directly, sometimes forming formal or informal Rhodesian subunits. Others volunteered for the 1st and later 2nd Rhodesian Regiments, all-White units that served in South Africa during the tail end of the rebellion there, then in Southwest Africa and in East Africa.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/1st_Rhodesia_Native_Regiment_in_Salisbury%2C_1916.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/1st_Rhodesia_Native_Regiment_in_Salisbury%2C_1916.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rhodesia Native Regiment on parade in Salisbury (Wikipedia)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Rhodesia also raised first one then two Black African battalions (still led by White officers) for what was eventually called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Rhodesia_in_World_War_I#Rhodesia_Native_Regiment" target="_blank">Rhodesia Native Regiment</a>. These troops served through arduous conditions and with great bravery in the East African campaign. When a contingent of 500 RNR soldiers, discharged and on their way home at the end of the war, reached the capital, Salisbury, they were greeted by a huge celebration, including the senior government minister, the territorial administrator, who gave a speech thanking the troops for their service and crediting them for having helped win the war.<br />
<br />
But without question the largest force raised in Africa by the British
was the conscripted labour force that supported British operations, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_Corps" target="_blank">Carrier Corps</a> of 400,000 men from East and Central Africa.<br />
<br />
<b>British West Indians </b><br />
<br />
Of course, one significant Black contingent in the British forces were not
Africans but troops from the West Indies. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_India_Regiment" target="_blank">British West Indies Regiment</a> contributed eleven battalions to serve in Europe, in Italy, West and East Africa, and
in Egypt and Palestine over the course of the war. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Militia_Artillery" target="_blank">Bermuda Militia Artillery</a> sent contingents to the Western Front with the Royal Garrison Artillery. (The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle
Corps, a white unit, also served on the Western Front). And civilians
contributed to war loans, bond appeals, and other fund-raising drives,
contributing considerable sums especially to the air services. One
Caribbean soldier, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/10/first-world-war-colonial-soldiers-racism" target="_blank">George Blackman, interviewed in 2002</a>, recounted some of his experiences of harsh labour and sporadic combat.<br />
<br />
<b>Black Britons</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/as-goog-as-any-man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/as-goog-as-any-man.jpg" height="320" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arthur Roberts, RSF (The History Press)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And perhaps the smallest, but by no means the least Black contingent in the British forces were those Black Britons who served in the Army, the Royal Navy, and other services lke the merchant marine. The <a href="https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/tull-black-heroes-british-army/" target="_blank">footballer Walter Tull</a>, probably the most famous of these, enlisted, served in France, was commissioned as an officer in the Middlesex Regiment, but was sadly killed in action in 1918. This <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31796542" target="_blank">article from BBC Magazine</a> relates the story of David Louis Clemetson, a Cambridge law student who served as a commissioned officer in the Territorials in Macedonia, then transferred into the Welsh Regiment. He, too, was killed in action in France in 1918. <a href="http://www.blackpresence.co.uk/good-man-scotlands-black-tommy/" target="_blank">The story of Arthur Roberts</a>, who served in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and the Royal Scots Fusilier, was a happier one; he survived the war to be demobilized, become a skilled tradesman, marry and raise a family, dying only in 1982. For a general study of Black British experiences of the war, military and civilian, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/">Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War</a> seems to be the most recent and comprehensive account. It is available as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sIxEBAAAQBAJ&dq=black+britons+in+the+great+war&source=gbs_navlinks_s" target="_blank">a Google eBook</a>, as well as in print.<br />
<br />
<b>Belgium and Others</b><br />
<br />
Belgium's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique" target="_blank">Force Publique</a>, another gendarme force with White officers and NCOs and African private soldiers, expanded during the war as it fought the Germans in West, Central, and East Africa. Starting 1914 with 17,000 men in four battalions, the FP expanded to about 25,000 men in 1916 and to 15 battalions by the end of the war with another 260,000 men conscripted as bearers.<br />
<br />
Portugal and Spain also raised askari (native troops) in their Saharan and sub-Saharan African colonies, but these saw little action in the war. <br />
<br />
<b>Germany</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dw.com/image/0,,17495741_403,00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.dw.com/image/0,,17495741_403,00.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kamerun Schutztruppen (Deutsche Welle)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On the German side, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutztruppe" target="_blank">Schuztruppe</a> ("protection force") of the colonies of German West Africa, German Southwest Africa, and German East Africa numbered over 6,300 men, including medical and technical staff. Each colony had slightly different policies; in Southwest Africa, because of Germany's genocidal war with the native Herero population, all ranks in the Schutztrruppe were White--either Germans or disaffected Boers. In West Africa (Kamerun and Togoland), Whites provided the officers and NCOs and Blacks the enlisted ranks.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-one-africa-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.okayafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/world-war-one-africa-3.jpg" height="256" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Schutztruppe soldier saying goodbye to his family (okayafrica.com)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In East Africa, the 14 companies of Schutztruppen included White officers and technical staff, some White NCOs and technicians, but also Black NCOs (three times as many as White ones) and Black other ranks. Each company also had a body of 250 bearers. Companies also had irregular native contingents, called Ruga-Ruga, of comparable size to the companies (150-200 men). An additional 16 companies were raised during the war, as well as eight companies of riflemen (<i>Schützenkompagnies)</i> which were originally formed by White settlers but became of mixed racial composition as time went on. Sometimes numbering only a few thousand men, the <i>Deutsch-Ostafrika Schutztruppen</i> eventually required close to a quarter of a million British, Indian, and African troops to be posted to the East African theater. At the end of the war, the DOS was still operating in the field, undefeated and uncaptured. When news of the armistice in Europe reached them, they laid down their arms. In 1919, they were honored with a march through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (only officers were able to participate, as the troops had been demobilized in Africa). In 1964, the German government voted to provide back-dated pay to all askaris (native troops) of the Schutztruppe who could present proof of service. As a commmentor to the previous post noted, the test that was eventually settled on was asking the claimants to perform the Schutztruppe manual of arms (weapons-handling drill). All 3250 who showed up to apply performed the drill correctly, more than 45 years after being demobilized.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>The War in Africa</b><br />
<br />
The centennial of the Great War has prompted a number of retrospective examinations of the effect of the war on Africa and of Africans' contributions to the war efforts of their colonial rulers. One effort to document the war's effect on the continent is <a href="http://wwiafrica.ghost.io/" target="_blank">World War I in Africa</a>.
The website provides some background to the project, founded by a French
geographer and a Tanzanian cultural activist, but overall the site
appears sporadically maintained. Their <a href="http://wwiafrica.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr blog</a> appears to be updated more often.<br />
<br />
Another source is the <a href="http://gweaa.com/" target="_blank">Great War in Africa Association</a>.<br />
<br />
Other pages include:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.dw.com/en/africa-and-the-first-world-war/a-17573462" target="_blank">this piece from Deutsche Welle</a>, Germany's national broadcasting system</li>
<li><a href="http://www.africaresearchinstitute.org/publications/counterpoints/how-the-great-war-razed-east-africa/" target="_blank">this piece on the war in East Africa</a> from the Africa Research Institute, a UK-based think tank</li>
<li>another <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/misremembered-history-first-world-war-east-africa" target="_blank">assessment of the war in East Africa</a> from a Kings College London professor, writing for the British Council</li>
<li>another page from the British Council, <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-black-soldiers-in-first-world-war-shaped-civil-rights" target="_blank">assessing the effect of Black servicemembers' example and experience on the civil rights struggle</a></li>
<li>BBC Radio produced this segment on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ngjv6" target="_blank">the Great War and Tanzania</a> [BBC iplayer may not work in the US]</li>
<li>the Imperial War Museum produced <a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/learning/resources/the-empire-called-to-arms" target="_blank">this collection of photographs</a> of troops and civilians from Africa and other British Imperial colonies</li>
<li>the Curzon Institute has compiled <a href="http://www.ww1commonwealthcontribution.org/index.html" target="_blank">this website on the contributions of Commonwealth troops</a> during the war.</li>
</ul>
For a broad review of the Great War campaigns across the African continent, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_theatre_of_World_War_I" target="_blank">Wikipedia's page</a> is as good a place to start as any. In future posts, I'll look at some different African campaigns individually. <br />
<ul>
</ul>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/140808111044-ww1-in-africa-dar-es-salaam-troops-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/140808111044-ww1-in-africa-dar-es-salaam-troops-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Schutztruppe soldiers in Dar es Salaam (CNN)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-59207790516617365012016-02-22T17:17:00.003-08:002016-02-23T10:04:03.413-08:00February: Verdun and French African Troops in the Great War<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://270c81.medialib.glogster.com/bobbyhsu5/media/86/86e087467a11c870974648cfd60f455056583fc6/pynln.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://270c81.medialib.glogster.com/bobbyhsu5/media/86/86e087467a11c870974648cfd60f455056583fc6/pynln.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German grenadiers and flamethrowers at Verdun. (http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of <i>Fall Gericht</i>, the German operation to capture the French city of Verdun. Or, more accurately, to draw the French Army into a battle of attrition over the city that would weaken it to the point that France could be induced to conclude a separate peace, leaving its allies Russia and Great Britain to fight on alone or concede victory to the Central Powers.<br />
<br />
Instead, the battle would prove almost as costly to Germany as to France. And it drew off French support for the year's planned offensive by the Allies on the Western Front, weakening it and leading in some part to the slaughter that was the Somme. But even with the massive casualties they suffered, the Allied forces on the Somme made some headway over the course of the ensuing months. By the end of the year, despite hundreds of thousands of casualties, the Germans had captured almost no ground around Verdun that the French had not been able to recapture, and in seeking to bleed France white, the Germans had taken staggering losses of their own. Instead of crushing French national morale, the Germans had created of the city a heroic martyr. France issued all troops who served in the region a special medal; the lone supply route into the city was christened "the Sacred Way", and even the villages destroyed in the battle became sanctified as sacrifices to the preservation of France. <a href="http://spectacle-verdun.com/" target="_blank">A public drama, part living history, part secular passion play</a>, is produced every summer to commemorate the siege.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/05/14/18/v2pg-22-verdun-1-gettyv2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/05/14/18/v2pg-22-verdun-1-gettyv2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French troops under fire at Verdun. (Getty)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
If you have sufficient French, I would recommend <a href="http://verdun2016.centenaire.org/" target="_blank">the centenary website</a> set up by the French government and a group of regional and historical associations, and/or <a href="http://www.verdun-tourisme.com/centenaire-14-18.html" target="_blank">this site set up by the tourism authority</a>. For an English language introduction, <a href="http://www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/" target="_blank">this website from Nederland</a> provides both a brief overview and more detailed accounts of events. Of course <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun" target="_blank">Wikipedia has an exhaustive set of articles</a> on the campaign.<br />
<br />
February here in the United States is also African-American history month. In 1916, American was still sitting out the war. The brave men of America's 92nd and 93rd Divisions, including the Harlem Hellfighters of the 369th Infantry, the Black Devils of the 370th, and the Buffalo Soldiers of the 371st and 372nd who would later serve in France's Red Hand Division were all still on America's shores.<br />
<br />
But France had many African heroes in 1916. France's colonial empire served as a recruiting ground for a large segment of the French armed forces, and unlike Great Britain, France was not chary about bringing its black African soldiers to fight in Europe against white European foes. In fact, France had counted on <i>La force noire</i> to help defend metropolitan France since 1914, and had included both sub-Saharan African troops and North African troops in its strategic force planning since the previous century, recognizing that with the birthrate of metropolitan France unable to keep up with that of Germany, the empire would have to help defend the mother country. France also brought troops from its Southeast Asian dominions to help defend France.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4069/5075092912_dd6f4c2311.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4069/5075092912_dd6f4c2311.jpg" height="264" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French African troops. (ww1centenary.net)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
French troops from sub-Saharan Africa were collectively know as <span lang="fr"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegalese_Tirailleurs" target="_blank"><i>Tirailleurs Sénégalais</i></a> (though not all of them came from Senegal). They served not only on the Western Front but as part of France's contingent in the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign and as garrisons in various overseas territories. They provided part of the occupation army that secured former German territory after the war. The <i>Regiments </i></span><span lang="fr"><i>Tirailleurs Sénégalais</i> (RTS) continued to serve France and fight loyally in her wars until 1964, seeing action in World War Two, Indochina, and Algeria.</span><br />
<span lang="fr"><i></i></span><br />
<span lang="fr"><i></i></span><br />
<span lang="fr">In June 2006, the African contribution to the defense of Verdun was recognized by the opening of a memorial to the Muslim troops--Algerians, Moroccans, Senegalese, and others--who fought for France in the Great War and especially those who died in defense of Verdun. <a href="http://www.centenarynews.com/article/president-of-mali-honours-the-fallen-at-verdun" target="_blank">Just last year, the president of Mali, visiting France, made sure to visit Verdun</a> and pay tribute to the sons of his nation who had fallen in France.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span lang="fr">Edited to add: I had the following exchange with a reader offline, and I thought it would enhance the post, so with his permission I'm including it.<br /><br /><b>Andrew</b>: Interesting that you mention this, as it is strangely under reported. I had never heard about African troops until I saw a bit about them in a documentary several years ago. Besides telling their story, one thing I've never seen any cogent discussion about is the effect of their service *after* they returned home. Before WWI, the colonial European powers looked pretty invincible to the colonials. After having served in Europe and fought Europeans, I suspect the mindset back in those colonies changed for those returning veterans; that aside, they returned home as trained, seasoned troops with tactical and organizational knowledge. The usual narrative is that the European powers bled themselves out in WWI which set the stage for colonial independence movements; but I suspect that colonial veterans of the Great War may have played as much of a part when colonial independence movements took off a generation later.<br /><br /><b>The Hissing Fuse</b>: There's been more discussion in recent decades of the effect of the wars on those countries. I'm hoping to do a couple of follow-up posts, as I ran across a lot of interesting resources on the web.<br /><br />Plus, this only briefly touched on African troops in French service. Of course, the British and Germans had large bodies of African colonial troops as well, and the Brits recruited a good many men in the West Indies, both in military and civilian roles.<br /><br />None of which touches on the European use of South Asians, Southeast Asians, and East Asians, both as soldiers and laborers. One interesting site I ran across covers a good many of these topics at once. Called "<a href="http://warandcolonies.com/" target="_blank">War and Colonies, 1914-1918</a>", it catalogues a conference and exhibition of the same name.<br /><br /><b>Andrew</b>: On a related note, one of my favorite anecdotes from WWI is the decision of Germany to pay back benefits to Askari veterans who served under von Lettow-Vorbeck. Many who reported to claim benefits had no record of their service, but even decades later were able to flawlessly perform the manual of arms given German commands. No good direct link in English, but it's mentioned with sources in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck#Legacy" target="_blank">Wikipedia article for von Lettow-Vorbeck here</a> and in a German article in <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-41458266.html" target="_blank">a 1975 issue of the magazine Der Spiegel here</a>.</span><br />
<span lang="fr"><i></i></span>Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-26761077405686994462016-01-27T14:44:00.000-08:002016-01-28T12:47:34.528-08:00Looking Back at 1915, Looking Forward to 1916.<b>1915 (<a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/timeline/1915.htm" target="_blank">a brief timeline</a>)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://greatwarproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Russian-prisoners-Masurian-Lakes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://greatwarproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Russian-prisoners-Masurian-Lakes.jpeg" height="290" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian POWs in the Masurian Lakes Campaign (Great War Project<b>)</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</b><br />
<br />
I never finished my overview of events in 1915. Baldly put, the Western Front, despite the first mass use of poison gas, was a gruesome stalemate, but not the hecatomb it would become in 1916. Several campaigns were begun, sputtered, and went out; the Second Battle of Ypres was perhaps the most notable.<br />
<br />
The Eastern Front saw more movement, with fighting in the Masurian Lakes of Prussia, and in Galicia and Poland proper. First the Russians suffered disaster, then the Austrians, then the Russians again, and the year ended with the Tsar taking over command of the war from the generals.<br />
<br />
In the Mediterranean, 1915 saw the bloody and eventually pointless Allied invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula of Turkey. Italy, lured by promises of increased territory, betrayed its pre-war allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary, sparking the repeated and useless battles of the Isonzo. Allied forces also landed in Macedonia in October, opening up a mini-front that almost immediately fell into senescence as they failed to advance far from their base at Salonika.The British campaign in Mesopotamia, that had begun in late 1914, crawled slowly forward, with the British winning several victories that gave them cause to hope the region could be subdued in the next year.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/communities/0/004/012/442/950//images/4614638180_448x297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/communities/0/004/012/442/950//images/4614638180_448x297.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artist's representation of a zeppelin raid (Ian Castle's <a href="http://www.iancastlezeppelin.co.uk/" target="_blank"><i>Zeppelins, Gothas and Giants</i></a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The war expanded into new dimensions, as Germany's zeppelins began bombing raids on the United Kingdom. And Germany declared a blockade of the UK as well, seeking to enforce it with attacks by its fleet of u-boats.<br />
<br />
Parts of my Great War-game collection that bear on events in 1915:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17863/western-front-1914-1918" target="_blank">Western Front</a> (Artois)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9113/flanders-fields" target="_blank">In Flanders Fields</a> (Second Ypres)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/130674/loos-big-push" target="_blank">Loos: The Big Push </a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170999/masuria-winter-battle-1915" target="_blank">Masuria: Winter Battle 1915</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7750/tannenberg-eagles-east-galicia-forgotten-cauldron" target="_blank">Galicia: the Forgotten Cauldron</a> <br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/7751/1916-brusilov-offensive-gorlice-tarnow-breakthroug" target="_blank">Gorlice-Tarnow Breakthrough</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11696/jassin-1915" target="_blank">Jassin 1915</a> (the East Africa Campaign)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7749/serbia-defiant-romania-transylvanian-gambit" target="_blank">Serbia the Defiant</a> (a second year of fighting sees the Serbian Army driven from their country, if not defeated)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7748/italian-front-1915-1918" target="_blank">The Italian Front</a> (First Isonzo) <br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25516/fatal-attraction-gallipoli-campaign" target="_blank">A Fatal Attraction: The Gallipoli Campaign</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41624/osmanli-harbi-ottoman-fronts-1914-1918" target="_blank">Osmanli Harbi</a> (the fighting in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Macedonia)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4319/zeppelin" target="_blank">Zeppelin</a> (the air war in Britain)<br />
<br />
<b>1916 (<a href="http://www.firstworldwar.com/timeline/1916.htm" target="_blank">a brief timeline</a>)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ansionnachfionn.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/british-troops-seal-off-dublin-streets-dublin-1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://ansionnachfionn.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/british-troops-seal-off-dublin-streets-dublin-1916.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">British troops in Dublin (<i><a href="http://irishistory.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Irish Republican History & Remembrance</a></i>)<b><br /></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The following year saw the clouds of war darken even further, if possible, casting more and more of the world into gloom. Ireland, the United States, Mexico, and Arabia felt themselves dragged into the swirling maw of war, whether directly or indirectly as a result of the European conflict. Russia landed hammer blows on Turkey in the Caucasus and Austria-Hungary in Carpathia. Germany overran the Allies' new partner, Romania. Turkey, meanwhile, surrounded and defeated a large part of the British force in Mesopotamia.<br />
<br />
And two of the most famous and sanguinary Western Front battles (in the large, world-war sense of "months-long conflicts over broad regions") took place: the battle of Verdun and the battle of the Somme.<br />
<br />
I'm hoping to read through some large chunks of my Great War library, ones that deal with these last two battles in particular. And break out a few of the following titles.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic106189_lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic106189_lg.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Big Push: The Battle of the Somme (ATO)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13979/big-push-battle-somme" target="_blank">The Big Push: The Battle of the Somme </a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16830/over-top-battles-verdun-lemberg" target="_blank">Over the Top! Verdun</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40102/verdun-generation-lost" target="_blank">Verdun: A Generation Lost</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17863/western-front-1914-1918" target="_blank">Western Front</a> (Verdun)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/7751/1916-brusilov-offensive-gorlice-tarnow-breakthroug" target="_blank">The 1916 Brusilov Offensive</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10221/over-top-four-battles-world-war-one" target="_blank">Over the Top</a> (Brusilov offensive)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7749/serbia-defiant-romania-transylvanian-gambit" target="_blank">Romania: Transylvanian Gambit</a><br />
<a href="http://spwgame.com/games/italian_front/" target="_blank">Italian Front</a> (the Strafexpedition)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41624/osmanli-harbi-ottoman-fronts-1914-1918" target="_blank">Osmanli Harbi</a> (the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and Suez)<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170994/suez-1916-ottomans-strike" target="_blank">Suez 1916: The Ottomans Strike</a><br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22405/pershing-hunt-pancho-villa-1916" target="_blank">Pershing: The Hunt for Pancho Villa</a>Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-55265512185173366982016-01-15T10:55:00.000-08:002016-01-28T12:50:32.016-08:00Closing the Books on 1915: New Games, Part FourQuick! I've got to finish off reporting on 2015 before 2016 gets any older! Last but not least in my tally of Great War games from last year, the operational scale games.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KydZK2cK6GBuw9jNheVIrI7W7_FHOdUYWO1s2jIuBfPg-bnXtmLl-Fn4ofQJRTH_zXDLHu4kdI47soJ6yGtJMBso9iV7o-dKgFqEJVxJeaTy8b5DfRH35xEqYR-y_VBFWGasjoh4x3cx/s1600/lodz.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KydZK2cK6GBuw9jNheVIrI7W7_FHOdUYWO1s2jIuBfPg-bnXtmLl-Fn4ofQJRTH_zXDLHu4kdI47soJ6yGtJMBso9iV7o-dKgFqEJVxJeaTy8b5DfRH35xEqYR-y_VBFWGasjoh4x3cx/s200/lodz.png" width="200" /></a>Let's start off with the games I can say the least about, because there's not much information or opinion on them out there yet. First in that category should be White Dog Games' <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172874/russian-empire-strikes-back-lodz-1914" target="_blank">The Russian Empire Strikes Back: Lodz 1914</a>, since I can tell you only the barest details about it. It features an 11"x 17" map, 88 counters, and an eight-page rulebook, which includes provisions for solitaire play. Michael Kennedy designed the game, which appears to be very fast playing, featuring a swirling winter battle on the Great War's Eastern Front. It has one rating (a 9) on BGG.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iB2itD97rx-ACKdlbWJykOsDI4NcQtoMM9qWbjFELHXv0akFKy_FFX2rLy-3EhqgqJ-vO8y9meGrnykQCl6K7MHLoxonEY2amHtayg4sO5W0hMtKMtZMwTPQW1GBRms_wTdj4mPUVx19/s1600/FD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8iB2itD97rx-ACKdlbWJykOsDI4NcQtoMM9qWbjFELHXv0akFKy_FFX2rLy-3EhqgqJ-vO8y9meGrnykQCl6K7MHLoxonEY2amHtayg4sO5W0hMtKMtZMwTPQW1GBRms_wTdj4mPUVx19/s200/FD.jpg" width="200" /></a>Next up would be <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/177665/fateful-days-marne-campaign-1914" target="_blank">Fateful Days: Marne Campaign of 1914</a> is one of ATO/TPS's Pocket Battle Games, games whose map, counters, and rules are all printed in on a card the size of an old-fashioned postcard, making them the perfect promotional piece and an easy way for a designer to get an idea out in the marketplace. It's designed by the incredibly prolific Paul Rohrbaugh. I have a stack of the Pocket Battle Games, but I don't have this one, so I can't give a report on the rules of how it plays. Four people have rated it in BGG: two 7s, a 6, and a 5.<br />
<br />
Third in this category is Decision Games' <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/187032/lettow-vorbeck-east-africa-1914-1918" target="_blank">Lettow-Voerbeck: East Africa 1914-1918</a>. This is one of Joseph Miranda's Mini Series games for Decision, 11"x17" maps with 40 counters and fairly simple rules. Seven BGG users have given this depiction of the fighting in East Africa a mean 6.69 rating. It's an area-movement game, with a card-driven dynamic (what DG refers to as the "Hand of Destiny" system). I have a number of DG's Great War games, but none from this Mini Series or that use their card dynamic.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyviBK4zehi9v4tvl2MHie8yKpb4wqrTjLpAGq_F_CrLOhZjc03u59l0h0dKgUBoMlUU4kbLWYIQHQGoJaXeRGQMQ04zpX84BDtGbCqIGTWKYMbEvT3V1ZbmOWYfX-bQiBqIZqGUIv3Nm/s1600/AID-Germany-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyviBK4zehi9v4tvl2MHie8yKpb4wqrTjLpAGq_F_CrLOhZjc03u59l0h0dKgUBoMlUU4kbLWYIQHQGoJaXeRGQMQ04zpX84BDtGbCqIGTWKYMbEvT3V1ZbmOWYfX-bQiBqIZqGUIv3Nm/s320/AID-Germany-2.jpg" width="227" /></a><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154098/1914-germany-war" target="_blank">1914: Germany at War</a> comes from the teeming brain of Emanuele Santandrea, designer at Milan's VentoNuovo Games. It's his first Great War game; the second, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156173/1914-austria-hungary-war" target="_blank">1914: Austria Hungary at War</a> is expected to hit the shelves in 2016. Santandrea and VentNuovo also published the highly popular bicentenary <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169366/waterloo-200" target="_blank">Waterloo 200</a> last year, but his bread and butter has been a series if World War Two games. VNG appears to be Italy's answer to Columbia Games, having published a slew of block games, starting with World War Two and now moving to the Great War; they have an inter-war period game, <u>Time of Decisions</u>, slated for 2017. Germany at War gets a 9.06 mean rating from 15 BGG scores. Judging from photos, it's a big, colourful game. I just skimmed some of the playtesting reports, but the fog of war resulting from the use of blocks combines with diceless combat based on strength differential (and some other considerations) to make this--I would guess, a rules-light but strategy-heavy game. I very much look forward to finding a chance to play either this or its Austro-Hungarian cousin. It's worth noting that <u>Germany at War</u> covers just the first four months of the campaign.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6iaXfqG5KKsxIdFxg0wdq24DJDFghTeWzBnfm-2rxbIqVpV1spEKWWmVm2TK5aAn5N_0_cjYyvPQmXyS7g57iQcoo1-_DtctgpYDzIC0C-QXiONfjFefGzT1qqyyYOYB6wPIaKvPg7_Y/s1600/SMS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT6iaXfqG5KKsxIdFxg0wdq24DJDFghTeWzBnfm-2rxbIqVpV1spEKWWmVm2TK5aAn5N_0_cjYyvPQmXyS7g57iQcoo1-_DtctgpYDzIC0C-QXiONfjFefGzT1qqyyYOYB6wPIaKvPg7_Y/s320/SMS.jpg" width="238" /></a>The latest entrant in Michael Resch's 1914 series is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134283/1914-serbien-muss-sterbien" target="_blank">1914: Serbien Muss Sterbien</a> (SMS). In the latest installment (preceeded by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21779/1914-twilight-east" target="_blank">1914: Twilight in the East</a> (TiE) and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46669/1914-offensive-outrance" target="_blank">1914: Offensive a Outrance</a> (OaO)), Resch portrays the opening portion of Austria's invasion of Serbia in 1914. Resch's games are not simple: they provide a highly detailed look at operational warfare waged by the Great War's huge armies, and they demonstrate the extensive research and modeling that Resch undertakes. SMS deals with some fairly arcane and complicated terrain and armies, as reflected by the game's terrain rules and by the sections of special rules for Serbian, Montenegrin, and Austro-Hungarian forces. But the size and scope of the campaign still makes SMS (one 22" x 34" mapsheet and ~500 counters) more approachable than TiE or OaO(each with three or four map sheets and over 2,000 counters). In addition, this title casts some light on geography and combatants not familiar to most wargamers, even many devotees of the war that was spawned by the tensions between the Dual Monarchy and its Serbian neighbour. This game has garnered a mean BGG rating of 7.76 from 20 users.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2696998_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2696998_md.jpg" width="247" /></a>The last title listed as published in 2015 is GMT Games' <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163319/gallipoli-1915-churchills-greatest-gamble" target="_blank">Gallipoli 1915: Churchill's Greatest Gamble</a>. This is rather an outstanding fudge, as Gallipoli has not yet been published. However, the publishers have supplied a good deal of information about it (<a href="http://www.insidegmt.com/?tag=gallipoli-1915" target="_blank">here's a link to the articles</a> on <i>Inside GMT </i>that are tagged for Gallipoli), and it looks like it's going to be a doozy. This will be a huge (three-map, 1,000-counter) game, covering the initial landings on the Gallipoli peninsula and the first three days of fighting. As such, the stalemate of May, June, and July, and the follow-up landings in August at Sulva Bay are left to a later game/expansion. But avid Gallipoliphiles will still have their work cut out for them here. The replays and introductions to the rules provided on GMT's blog have been clear and easy to follow, but they involve quite a lot of detail. The rules appear easy to learn, but there's a lot of tactical detail to appreciate and learn how to effectively manipulate. I expect that players will want to play and replay this as their grasp of the rules develops into a grasp of the way to fight their units in the campaign. Nonetheless, the whole package looks terrifically appealing; I've pre-ordered it myself and can't wait to see it finally come out.<br />
<br />
Gallipoli is, oddly, a campaign beloved by history buffs (wargamers included) and one that seems to cry out for the "what if" opportunities that games provide, but one that has been poorly covered. Paper Wars Games published a game on the topic (high level, low counter density) in 1979 called simply <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15997/gallipoli" target="_blank">Gallipoli </a>that has lived a somewhat obscure life (fewer than 50 BGGers own a copy and only 14 have rated it). And ATO's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25516/fatal-attraction-gallipoli-campaign" target="_blank">A Fatal Attraction</a> has been a classic ATO title: a fascinating subject given a highly original graphic presentation and an innovative design (Paul Rohrbaugh again) but crippled by poor writing and development. Even one of its strongest proponents on BGG (David Hughes), who loves the game and has played it against its developer, states in his review that "game just cannot be played using the rules as written". The central part of the command and control rules that determine how and when players can activate units "are impenetrable,
contradictory, over-concise, and have confused everyone I know who has
played," according to Hughes. The victory conditions are also, apparently, a problem, as the Allied player can manage a win by refusing to land troops, bombarding some Ottoman forts, and, essentially, declaring victory and sailing home. Undoubtedly a better outcome for all involved than thew historical campaign,but hardly a depiction of what happened. One hopes that someday ATO will clean up the rules and make the game more playable.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-45419328418996932892016-01-07T14:12:00.000-08:002016-01-28T12:54:00.826-08:00Closing the Books on 1915: New Games, Part ThreeSo, continuing the round-up of 2015 WWI games, the strategic titles. I'll reiterate, these are more "what I can make out about the games from their press and BGG reception" not proper reviews. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188573/1ww-world-war-one-europe" target="_blank">1WW: The First World War</a>: This appears to be a small game (11" x 17" map, 140 counters), published by One Small Step Games and published in the second issue of their magazine CounterFact, "journal of professional and commercial wargaming". I can't divine much about it beyond it's size (the map covers Europe from France to the Middle East; as an example of scale, the Franco-German frontier from the Channel to the Alps is five hexes), as there is one score (a 6) on BGG and no substantive comments (only four people are recorded as owning a copy). There's a short discussion on CSW Forum about it (a short discussion? on CSW-F? that says a lot), but so far it's mostly rules questions, very little discussion of the game as such.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176146/lamps-are-going-out" target="_blank">The Lamps Are Going Out</a>: Owned (apparently) by even fewer people so far (two, currently, on BGG), and rated a 5 by one user and a 10 by the other, this is another game I can offer little insight on. The title comes from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lamps_are_going_out" target="_blank">a quote by Sir Edward Grey</a> (British Foreign Minister in 1914 and a man I've always thought it would be fascinating to study, as he was active in British foreign policy for over 30 of Britain's most crucial years). It's a truly strategic area-movement game of low to moderate complexity. Its map covers roughly the same geography as that of <u>1WW</u> with the addition of an inset map of East Africa; by comparison the Franco-German border is one French area meeting one German one, with another French eastern area bordering the Low Countries. The primary thrust of the game is resource allocation, so it does not surprise me to to read <a href="http://theboardgamingway.com/a-design-analysis-of-the-lamps-are-going-out-world-war-i/" target="_blank">comments by the designer</a> crediting James Dunnigan's World War 1 as an early inspiration to him. <a href="http://theboardgamingway.com/the-lamps-are-going-out-world-war-i-an-overview/" target="_blank">A playtest report</a> suggests an interesting and challenging game with historical depth but still playable at a sitting. I'm certainly quite curious to see how this came out. CSW-F discussion ended in late November with the game still in playtest, and Compass Games' website shows it still in pre-order and suggests it is actually being shipped in January, so this is a bit of a fudge as "published in 2015".<br />
<br />
Also from Compass Games (but listed as on their site as "released" and with over 140 BGG members owning a copy, it is clearly "published") is the much larger and more complex <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156843/balance-powers" target="_blank">Balance of Powers</a>. With a mean score of 8.82 over 28 ratings, this is clearly popular with those who have tried it. Balance of Powers covers the war in a much larger way, with maps representing Europe, the Middle East, and East Africa, but on a much finer scale in keeping with its focus on corps-level action. It's designed by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/11876/john-gorkowski" target="_blank">John Gorkowski</a>, whose stable of published and unpublished designs is fascinating and runs the gamut from 19th century Central Asian geopolitics to modern naval warfare, from the tactical to the strategic, with a considerable focus on topics related to the Great War. The game has come in for a bit of barracking about its colour scheme (hot pink features, among other shades), but reviews online suggest even those players have enjoyed its play.<br />
<br />
No idea why I thought I was going to be able to cover all these games, even briefly, in one post. There will be a fourth and final post covering the operational titles, next time. After taking a look at VentoNuovo's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154098/1914-germany-war" target="_blank">1914: Germany at War</a>, I've moved it into that category. Despite the text on its BGG page (" game of World War I conflict simulation at the strategic level"), this is clearly an operational game, covering the first four months of combat on the Western Front.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-85281305318882296882016-01-05T13:56:00.002-08:002016-01-15T10:59:13.169-08:00Closing the Books on 1915: New Games, Part TwoAh, well, I didn't get this post in under the wire. I'll finish up anyway. And, to clarify, of course these are just my own observations about what has been published. I can hardly *review* most of these games, as I've only played a few of them.<br />
<br />
As I mentioned, thirteen entirely new games on World War I were published in 2015 (at least that I could find in Boardgame Geek). But, to avert ill-omen, let's make it up to fourteen by including GMT's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134283/1914-serbien-muss-sterbien" target="_blank">1914: Serbien Muss Sterbien</a>, as that is essentially a new game using an existing system.<br />
<br />
So, of these fourteen, four
are strategic in scope (The Lamps Are Going Out, 1914: Germany at War;
Balance of Power; 1WW: The First World War); five are operational
(1914: Serbien Muss Sterbien; Lettow-Voerbeck: East Africa 1914-1918; The Russian Empire Strikes
Back: Lodz 1914; Fateful Days: Marne Campaign of 1914; Gallipoli 1915:
Churchill's Greatest Gamble); four are essentially tactical and almost
Euro-ish (Wipers Salient, Les Poilus; Les taxis de la Marne; No Man's
Land); and two are intriguingly hard to fit into other categories (I,
Spy and Wings for the Baron). Here are some comments on the last two sections. Strategic and operational games comments coming in Part Three.<br />
<br />
<b>Tactical</b><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171668/grizzled" target="_blank">Les Poilus</a> has the distinction of being the only game among all of these that I've actually played myself. I saw it in the shops and was intrigued by its artwork and description and felt compelled to buy it. I'm glad I did.It's a cooperative card game for two to five players, who form a squad, mates from the same French village who join up together in 1914 and spend the game just trying to survive the war. Each turn, the squad has to go out on a mission and try to make it back intact. Completing the mission means success, but it isn't as essential as everyone getting back to their unit intact. Characters can be injured physically, but they can also suffer mental wounds that leave them less able to survive future missions. Occasional glimpses of good fortune tantalize the players, but this is a very hard game to win. If *any* of the players is seriously wounded or suffers enough shell shock that they have to be invalided out, the whole game is lost. Players come to depend on each other, and a blow to anyone hurts all of you.<br />
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One of the things that's interesting is that while the players represent French soldiers (the poilus of the title), the enemy is the war itself. No German soldiers appear. There are no hills to be captured, pillboxes to be blown up. Threats come from faceless shells, from cold and rain, from barbed wire and mud. Not only are you not fighting each other, you're not fighting anyone else. You're just fighting to survive. <br />
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I played this game a couple of times with a mixture of folks, some of whom are accustomed to wargames and/or familiar with military history and the Great War, others of whom are Eurogame players or not familiar with the war or frequent boardgamers at all. What struck me was that everyone was gripped by the themes of the game, frustrated by its difficulty and compelled to try to bring this bunch of friends through without harm. I'm impressed by how well the designers, developers, and publishers did in creating a game that conveys its messages so well. I'd say this is probably the best new game, on any topic, that I played in 2015. I note it's rated a mean of 7.42 over 1176 scores, which I think is fair praise for it's innovative design and beautiful production values.<br />
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Note: The English-language edition was titled "The Grizzled", which seems rather unfortunate. It's an attempt to provide a literal translation of the original title, but it just doesn't carry the same power in English. I would have gone with "Dogfaces" or "Poor Bloody Infantry"--depending on whether an American or British/ANZAC/Canadian audience were intended--to try to get the same motive impact. French soldiers were called "the hairy [ones]" to reflect their tired, dirty, unshaven appearance, but it was a term of affection, and that has a resonance that simply translating the word from one language to another doesn't convey. Plus, English doesn't give adjectives the same leeway to hang out on their own that French does.<br />
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/174431/wipers-salient" target="_blank">Wipers Salient</a> looks in some ways to be similar in theme to Les Poilus. It's a solitaire card game where a player tries to accumulate the means to survive a stint in the trenches in the Ypres Salient. Cards represent support, hazards, missions, and (unlike Les Poilus) the enemy. In a sweet touch, all the artwork on the cards comes from <a href="http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk/index_files/page0017.htm" target="_blank">Bruce Bairnsfeather</a> cartoons (for American readers, perhaps the best characterization of BB is "the British Bill Maudlin"). Less than a dozen ratings. I'd like to give this a try.<br />
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<a href="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2614408_md.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic2614408_md.png" width="222" /></a><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181005/les-taxis-de-la-marne" target="_blank">Les taxis de la Marne</a> is a cooperative game in which one to five players try to fill Paris taxis with mobilized <br />
soldiers and get them to the front. While overall it's another process-management game, I like the idea of theming it to represent military traffic cops trying to get men to the Front to stop the German advance on the Marne. It has only ten ratings so far, but six of them are 7 or 8, so at least some people enjoy it. In contrast to some other games in this section, it seems lighthearted and fun, a counterpoint to the (historically appropriate) gloom of Les Poilus. Less than a dozen ratings.<br />
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176478/no-mans-land-trench-warfare-1914-1918" target="_blank">No Man's Land: Trench Warfare 1914-1918</a> is the last of the tactical games in my list to comment on. It comes from Ludofolie. It has a small number of scores and even fewer comments. It's clearly an attempt to provide a low-level tactical game that can show the evolution of tactics throughout the war. It sounds as if it may have some difficulty in doing this, but with so little comment so far it's hard to say.<br />
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<b>None of the Above</b><br />
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In this category are two unusual offerings. One is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/162865/i-spy" target="_blank">I, Spy</a>, a game of pre-war espionage in which two to four players act as spymasters for different European powers. Each starts with the same resources, and each player's allegiance is hidden, only officially revealed at the end of the game, so it has aspects of Diplomacy and of the various "hidden villain" games. BGG players have rated it highly (a mean of 7.58 over 11 ratings), and the balance of text comments seem pretty favourable. I'm not likely to buy it right off, but if it shows up somewhere I can play it, I'll definitely give it a try. <br />
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Lastly, the ringer. I should have caught this in my prior post, but <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184866/wings-baron-second-edition" target="_blank">Wings for the Baron</a> is actually a re-publication by Victory Point Games of a title originally published in 2007. Be that as it may, I find the concept intriguing, so I want to give it a mention any how. In this game, three to five players act as German aircraft manufacturers supplying the Luftstreitkräfte with new models of combat aircraft for the war. Players use research and design efforts, finances, and espionage to try to win contracts. That's an innovate idea for a game, and it doesn't surprise me to see VPG pick it up and run with it. This I would really like to try.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-63940288332763508232015-12-30T16:08:00.001-08:002016-01-15T10:57:39.966-08:00Closing the books on 1915: New Games, Part OneI've sadly neglected this blog, neglect that I hope to repair in the coming year. However, given that 2015 is almost behind us, I thought there might be time to do a few quick wrap-up posts.<br />
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For one thing, my last post was a review of what was happening in the war on the Western Front in spring 1915. So a post to review what major events took place during the year, on the Western Front and elsewhere, might be in order.<br />
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Since I'm an avid wargamer, it seems that there should be a word or two about the score or more of wargames and game modules that came out in 2015.<br />
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If I had the time and resources, I'd like to post on the Great War books that hit the shelves in 2015. I certainly don't have time and space to review even a portion of the; I wish I could even point the way to some decent reviews, but that's bit too much to aim for at this late date.<br />
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<b>So, Games...</b><br />
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In 2015, going by Board Game Geek's records, publishers released 19 new games on the Great War, as well as 12 modules or other supporting material.<br />
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Six of the items in the supporting material category were new aircraft for the popular flying game Wings of Glory. I can't say much about them, as I haven't played the game much this year, and I've not played with any of the new figures, but they certainly look as gorgeous at those models usually do. Four are new fighters or ground-attack aircraft: the Hannover CL.III two-seater, the Macchi M.5 seaplane, the Nieuport 28 biplane fighter, and the Fokker E.V monoplane fighter. The other two are a bit of a cheat to include for 2015, but they're tremendous news: the "Giants of the Sky" aircraft--the British Handley Page O/400 and German Zeppelin Staaken R.VI heavy bombers. These ginormus twin-engine bombers have joined the WoG tabletop game by means of a Kickstarter campaign that raised six times its original goal. The aircraft models are rumoured to have arrived at the publisher's from the manufacturer a week before Christmas and may be flying around the world even as I write, but I'm not entirely sure they count as being relelased in 2015. <br />
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Five more of the "ad ons" are information books for the Great War at Sea system. Since they are all alternate-history products, I'm going to pass on by them. I'm also going to pass on two tactical modules for Critical Hit's "ATS" system (Blasted Woods and Tankschreken!)<br />
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So, on to the actual games. Six are repurposing of existing systems or republications, in whole or in part. The imaginatively titled <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173105/great-war" target="_blank">Great War </a>(complete with expansion, cleverly called <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/188609/tank-expansion-pack-great-war" target="_blank">Tank!</a>) is the latest implementation of Richard Borg's card and miniatures system familiar to players of Memoir '44, BattleCry, Battlelore, and the Commands and Colors series. They're always entertaining games; they don't often feel as if they have more than a passing relation to the history they purport to be about, but in the tired refrain of excuse-makers everywhere, "Any opportunity to get people playing history-themed games [or watching execrably unhistorical historical movies] is a way to teach them about history, right?" Well, yes, but often all it teaches them is wrong. I can't speak to Great War, but I played a lot of Memoir '44 back in the day and, while it was a great deal of fun, I can't say that it seemed as if it taught anyone anything about the history of World War Two except (possibly) the names of some of the battles. Just going by the photos on BGG, this looks to be the same, with opposing trenches right on top of each other, tank on tank combat, artillery deployed on the board, etc.<br />
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Another reimplementation is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/165967/great-war-commander" target="_blank">Great War Commander</a>, a repurposing of the Combat Commander system from Chad Jensen and GMT. I have tried several times to like Combat Commander but failed every time.The disconnect between the total randomness of the card-draw system and what it is supposed to represent creates an impassable gap in my willing suspension of disbelief. I have no problem with the use of cards in GMT's other CDGs like Paths of Glory, where they represent the scarcity of operational or strategic resources and cause players endless fits of indecision as they try to spread too few assets over too many problems. But in a tactical game like this, the inability of troops to take a perfectly normal action when in no way hindered by the enemy simply because they don't have the right card...I know I should wave my hands and say "fog of war" and "imperfect command and control" but it just breaks for me. Doesn't for others. De gustibus.<br />
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Also in the republication category are <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154795/first-battle-marne-1914ad" target="_blank">First Battle of the Marne</a> from Turning Point (a repub of One Small Step's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/143747/miracle-marne" target="_blank">Miracle on the Marne</a>) and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/188455/trenches-devil-dogs" target="_blank">In the Trenches</a> from Tiny Battle Publishing (republication of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/8345/trenches" target="_blank">the game of the same name</a> from Grenier Games). And SPW has published <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172493/tannenberg-introductory-game" target="_blank">Tannenberg: The Introductory Game</a> as an envoi to their Die Weltkrieg Series. Splitting off Tannenberg from their original Tanneberg/Galicia game pair and selling it as a ziploc with a weblink to video tutorials, SPW looks to give new players and easy way in to their complex (but rewarding) WWI family of wargames.<br />
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In a way, even <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134283/1914-serbien-muss-sterbien" target="_blank">1914: Serbien Muss Sterbien</a> is almost a reimplementation, as it uses the same system developed for <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46669/1914-offensive-outrance">1914: Offensive à outrance</a> (itself related to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21779/1914-twilight-east" target="_blank">1914: Twilight in the East</a>. But each volume in this series has tackled a different topic; here designer Michael Resch approaches the smaller (though not small) topic of the Austrian war on Serbia, instead of the opening phases of the Great War on the entire eastern or western front. I've not had a chance to play this yet, but I'm very much looking forward to.<br />
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Finally, there are the thirteen entirely new entries for this year. Four are strategic in scope (The Lamps Are Going Out, 1914: Germany at War; Balance of Power; 1WW: The First World War); four are operational (Lettow-Voerbeck: East Africa 1914-1918; The Russian Empire Strikes Back: Lodz 1914; Fateful Days: Marne Campaign of 1914; Gallipoli 1915: Churchill's Greatest Gamble); four are essentially tactical and almost Euro-ish (Wipers Salient, Les Poilus; Les taxis de la Marne; No Man's Land); and two are intriguingly hard to fit into other categories (I, Spy and Wings for the Baron). Tomorrow I'll take a look at these.<br />
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<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-5930172255774780252015-05-14T11:49:00.000-07:002015-05-14T11:49:24.186-07:00The Western Front in Spring, 1915While I've been writing recently about the 1917 battle for Vimy Ridge (which I'll be looking at some more soon), I'd like to step backwards for a moment and look at the centennial time line.<br />
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The Spring of 1915 had seen action on most of the fronts in the war. From January onward, fighting was taking place in in France and Belgium, in East Prussia, Galicia, in Turkey (the Dardanelles, the Aegean islands, and the Caucasus), Mesopotamia, Persia, the Sinai, Arabia, West, South, and East Africa, even in Afghanistan and India (that portion that is today Pakistan). <br />
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Naval combat had taken place in the Atlantic, including the North Sea and the Channel, the Mediterranean, even in the Pacific, where a German ship was sunk off the coast of Chile. Although not a combatant, the United States had seen its first ship attacked by German submarines (the SS <em>Gulflight</em> in May); Sweden had the dubious distinction of being the first neutral country to lose a ship to U-boats (the SS <em>Hanna</em>, sunk without warning in March). American had even "captured" its first German vessels: the armed merchant raiders <em>Prinz Eitel Friedrich</em> and <em>Kronprinz Wilhelm</em> were interned in Newport News, Virginia, in March and April 1915.<br />
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Some of the war's new horror weapons had seen their first use in the Spring of 1915. Germans fighting in the Western Front's trenches in February had used flamethrowers for the first time. The first use of poison gas by the German and French armies took place in April. German airships made their first bombing raid on England in January. <br />
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And under a manmade hill in Flanders, hundred of British and Australian soldiers dug like moles, building a system of tunnels that would be packed with more than three tons of explosives. These explosives would be detonated in the first of innumerable mine attacks that took place across the Western Front of the rest of the war. Battles were not now restricted to the trenches or the skies above, but also took place in muddy tunnels far below the surface, as one group of diggers tried to outdo, foil, or eliminate their opponents.<br />
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This mine attack on the promontory known as <strong>Hill 60</strong>, near the Belgian city of Ypres, was a relatively small British action sandwiched in among a series of much larger offensives. In December of 1914, the French had begun an offensive in Champagne, seeking to take advantage of a rumoured move of German reserves to the Eastern Front. Two French armies attacked, made limited progress, and stalled as they fought off German counterattacks. Supporting attacks in Artois and in the Vosges Mountains had even less success, either at moving forward or at forcing Germany to halt redeployment of troops from the West to the East. The <strong>First Battle of Champagne</strong> ended in mid-March.<br />
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At about that time, the British made a highly successful but limited attack, trying to capture some high ground and cut German supply and communications lines. Although the two British and two Indian divisions involved burst through the German frontlines after a powerful bombardment, they were unable to communicate effectively with their supporting forces after battle had joined, and so the army was unable to exploit their success fully. German counterattacks again halted the Allied advance but left them in control of the town of <strong>Neuve Chappelle</strong>. The huge drain on ammunition supplies that the bombardment caused was Britain's first hint of the wholly unanticipated demand that modern warfare would make on domestic industry's ability to produce artillery shells.<br />
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The Champagne offensive, the battle of Neuve Chapelle (March), and the attacks on Hill 60 (April) represented the Spring Allied initiatives on the Western Front. They were followed by a German offensive, which began the <strong>Second Battle of Ypres </strong>(April and May). This attack was the Germans' first to employ poison gas on the Western Front. At Gravenstafel, northeast of Ypres (and Hill 60), the Germans conducted a major gas attack on troops of two French divisions. The French forces, a Territorial division and a division of tough Algerian troops, broke in horror at the effect of the strange toxic cloud boiling over their lines. Apparently the Germans underestimated the effect the gas would have, as they had planned only a limited advance to exploit the hole made in French lines by this unexpected weapon. <br />
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Troops of the Canadian Expeditionary Force moved to hold the east side of the German breakthrough, and despite a second gas attack the following day, the German advance was brought to a halt, having driven in the northern flank of the Ypres Salient by as much as two miles. The Germans renewed their offensive in early May and again later in the month, using more poison gas, along with a heavy artillery bombardment, and further reduced the salient. <br />
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At the same time, the French and British were engaging in their last offensive for the Spring and Summer of 1915, an attempt to reduce a German salient in <strong>Artois</strong> that projected westward from Lens to just north of Arras and included our old friend, Vimy Ridge. The French planned a massive attack with six infantry corps, a cavalry corps, an infantry reserve of three divisions, and an artillery supporting force of nearly 300 heavy guns and over 1,000 field guns. The supporting British attacks featured three corps. German forces defending the region number slightly more than half the Allied strength, but they were heavily dug in, held the area in depth, and was well positioned on high ground in most areas. <br />
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The battle began in early May and lasted through late June. Fighting followed a familiar pattern: early French gains, following careful planning, new tactical training, and massive artillery bombardments, proved hard to keep building on. Communications and movement of reserves were slow and clumsy over heavily shelled ground, dogged German counterattacks and counterbombardments disrupted efforts to consolidate on captured positions and to push forward. Although many German reserves had been dispatched eastwards to shore up the front after disastrous Austrian losses, the <em>Westheer</em> still had more than enough troops and guns to blunt and in places reverse the French thrusts, especially since they were operating over less disrupted terrain.<br />
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Both sides learned different lessons. The French, always attached to the offensive, were heartened by their initial success--if the right preparations could be made, officers like Joffre and de Castelnau insisted, sudden breakthroughs could still be achieved. Others, like Foch and Petain, still believed in the offensive, but felt that operations in Artois had shown that more limited attacks, with limited objectives, gained ground more slowly but led to gains that could be held, rather that bold leaps forward that were just as quickly driven back.<br />
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The Germans, on the other hand, perceived that the Allies' preparatory bombardments caused significant disruption; they began looking for ways to make their defenses more resistant, both by digging them deeper and stronger and situating their main defensive belts in positions where they were not directly overlooked by Allied positions, so that they survived offensive preparations in better condition, making penetration and capture by attacking forces more difficult and more costly in causalities.<br />
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<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-37838521279282172015-04-21T11:19:00.001-07:002015-04-21T17:43:10.124-07:00Vimy Ridge: Replaying the Battle: The Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi50j3X1uhvSEWSolO14YQz0eFHC4fAF14YQ6xHkdie5jVYplOSBY8PbtFczFq4nsJcAYVaG_EsJL4JwaKz6lymxd_gLN4kiKC7Rcsg_Ydyc-9VDLtQPdYe_OPD5PKOmrnniI6_oOWDzLHz/s1600/VRMDGcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi50j3X1uhvSEWSolO14YQz0eFHC4fAF14YQ6xHkdie5jVYplOSBY8PbtFczFq4nsJcAYVaG_EsJL4JwaKz6lymxd_gLN4kiKC7Rcsg_Ydyc-9VDLtQPdYe_OPD5PKOmrnniI6_oOWDzLHz/s1600/VRMDGcover.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></a></div>
Having read and blogged a little about the battle for Vimy Ridge, I was curious to experiment with some simulations of the battle. Thanks to my short-term savings program (a.k.a., selecting the maximum income tax withholding level from my paycheck, so I always get money back at tax time), I had some funds to engage in a short spurt of WWI wargame buying. Two of the first subjects of that were the two existing simulations of the battle for Vimy Ridge, <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10932/vimy-ridge" target="_blank">that by Kerry Anderson</a> of Pacific Rim/Microgame Design Group and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144961/vimy-ridge-arras-diversion" target="_blank">that by Eric Harvey</a> of Decision Games.<br />
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I'm more excited by the Anderson design. For one thing, it's purpose-designed; Anderson set out to research and simulate this specific battle with his game, whereas Harvey's is an adaptation of an existing (Second World War) system to the battle. This difference<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MwqZpEEkKqnA_-mrJJRhJqftP_14nVj92IZdSxtzSBfOtZaslrVbZ7j7qRtomJoZJTYxM-vp2rM0cEIQ5MLT3cSKUHq8pMIn5Jlwr1IGXEWC3YeuK-Qg5-n6oQOzNSfvUXP7v3zj3U7E/s1600/VADcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MwqZpEEkKqnA_-mrJJRhJqftP_14nVj92IZdSxtzSBfOtZaslrVbZ7j7qRtomJoZJTYxM-vp2rM0cEIQ5MLT3cSKUHq8pMIn5Jlwr1IGXEWC3YeuK-Qg5-n6oQOzNSfvUXP7v3zj3U7E/s1600/VADcover.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a> seems borne out by the way each author uses the notes section of the rules. In Harvey's version, the notes serve simply to give the players a quick historical overview of the game; no insights into the design process are supplied. Anderson's notes, on the other hand, provide a brief look at the evolution of the game design and an explanation of many of the choices he made in putting the game together, trying to give it both historical fidelity and at least a modicum of fun playability.<br />
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Looking (briefly, so far) at the rules for the two games deepens this impression (that the Anderson game is more historically based, or at least more purpose-designed). In the Harvey game, the Allied player may set up his troops anywhere in the Allied trenches or behind. In the Anderson game, Allied divisions are restricted to setting up in their historical division areas of operation (though they are not restricted to operating there once the game begins). <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bFoGs27VKmsm6K2HRiFs6PgyUACPkDI6UgooRSOXW7t0c4kgjSndicA2aJ161fTSYPJTbjLsTIqYo4DxuYQojsblvjWJoAOpeEvoFNSL_d5N1KJQp9TAorYCvrywFgHN9Ay7zSJ2OAOh/s1600/VADmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bFoGs27VKmsm6K2HRiFs6PgyUACPkDI6UgooRSOXW7t0c4kgjSndicA2aJ161fTSYPJTbjLsTIqYo4DxuYQojsblvjWJoAOpeEvoFNSL_d5N1KJQp9TAorYCvrywFgHN9Ay7zSJ2OAOh/s1600/VADmap.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a portion of Harvey's Vimy map</td></tr>
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In the Harvey game, artillery and mortar fire are represented by a supply of counters that the Allied (or German) player can place on enemy units adjacent to or in line of sight of friendly units. No representation of the Allied initial bombardment or the methodical, highly detailed creeping barrage takes place, and Allied artillery are allowed the ability to directly target specific enemy defenses. In the Anderson game, the creeping barrage is an important element of the game, moving forward relentlessly as it pounds the German defenses and screen the Canadian advance. It cannot be slowed, speeded up, or abandoned.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfm5LI7PSnXOWElxAQ_LosYvimMTaPc_TbTI1NCCqAQ2Eqz6dCoOnPJ9DHLyO8FLnkUCHvjec1_h_Mw70FQwqQ_pXOSxl8Uv-G2mP3Qjv6YPqMsMXJ6w_HdP1SLgpdgoqNnL2Ap0UWtO3/s1600/VRMDGmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfm5LI7PSnXOWElxAQ_LosYvimMTaPc_TbTI1NCCqAQ2Eqz6dCoOnPJ9DHLyO8FLnkUCHvjec1_h_Mw70FQwqQ_pXOSxl8Uv-G2mP3Qjv6YPqMsMXJ6w_HdP1SLgpdgoqNnL2Ap0UWtO3/s1600/VRMDGmap.jpg" height="251" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anderson's Vimy map</td></tr>
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That said, the Harvey game specifically represents two things that are abstracted in the Anderson game: air observation and gas warfare. Both of these modify the effectiveness of Allied bombardments; a special "Red Baron" (or, more appropriately, Jasta 11) rule reduces Allied air unit supply over time (though accounts suggest that the casualties that Jasta 11 inflicted, though heavy, did not prevent the RFC from carrying out its missions). <br />
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The Harvey game also includes the limitation that the Bois la Folie is not subject to bombardment due to its reverse-slope position. This seems unlikely to be accurate, however, as it was specifically targeted by <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Vimy_Ridge_1917-barrage_map.jpg" target="_blank">the Allied artillery fire plan</a>, which included mortars and howitzers which would not have necessarily fired at a shallow trajectory.<br />
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So I still can't help feeling that, overall, the Anderson game hews closer to history. It also includes provisions for the tunnels that both sides used to bring troops forward without fear of shelling, the mines that Canadian forces exploded at the beginning of the attack, the (fairly ineffectual) tank support that the Canadians received<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkEq4UoLbVLUotJI2Mttrmgr6p_Ip1vQdkCROGZBcpieIsTUu9f8OXWz9S6bI3XNiv8NX4479Bf6Li_Yj4mNo7apR2AuaT9kMGjb-InyHfmNtsBoZ8NA6MuHp_WiS9g5ld1hHW2P7ySX6/s1600/VRMDGnewctrs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkEq4UoLbVLUotJI2Mttrmgr6p_Ip1vQdkCROGZBcpieIsTUu9f8OXWz9S6bI3XNiv8NX4479Bf6Li_Yj4mNo7apR2AuaT9kMGjb-InyHfmNtsBoZ8NA6MuHp_WiS9g5ld1hHW2P7ySX6/s1600/VRMDGnewctrs.jpg" height="51" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imaginative Strategist's replacement counters</td></tr>
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I should also mention, in reference to the games themselves, <a href="http://www.imaginative-strategist.layfigures.com/IMSTRAT%20GW%20Page.html" target="_blank">these handsome replacement counters</a> for the Anderson game, designed and shared on the Web by Ward McBurney of the <a href="http://www.imaginative-strategist.layfigures.com/index.html" target="_blank">Imaginative Strategist website</a>. It's nice to see all of the Canadians' fabled regiments called out by name.<br />
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Next: Playing the battle out on the gameboard.<br />
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-39359611923850197502015-04-10T13:07:00.000-07:002015-04-10T13:18:12.862-07:00Great War: plans and operationsOne of the enduring canards of the Great War is that attacks consisted simply of large numbers of men climbing out of their trenches and walking slowly through a nightmarish moonscape of shell holes and barbed wire into the teeth of enemy machinegun fire. In such scenarios, of course, everyone knows they are going to die as soon as they get out of the trench and, sure enough, most of them do. No support is provided to the attackers, the enemy are ready and waiting to receive them, nothing is accomplished, and the attackers perish, gallantly but pointlessly, in the archetypal example of the brutal wastefulness of war.<br />
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For the most part, this image is utter nonsense. The number of casualties suffered by both sides in the Great War was horrific, but then the scale of the war is close to unimaginable for many modern readers and viewers unfamiliar with military history. Armies of millions lined a network of trenches and bunkers that ran from the Channel coast to the Alps. In the first day of battle of the Somme, when the British and French armies famously lost over 60,000 men killed and wounded, the initial attacks had consisted of 750,000 men. For a modern American perspective, the combined strength of the US Army and Marine Corps in 2011 did not reach 740,000, counting all commissioned and enlisted personnel everywhere in the world, not just those deployed to war zones, let alone actually those in combat roles (for example, US troop strength in Afghanistan has never reached 100,000).<br />
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So, about three percent of the British troops who went into battle on the first day of the Somme were killed, and six percent were wounded. Fewer than one in ten were causalities in what is widely seen as the most horrific trench battle of the war--far from the near-total slaughter generally depicted in popular images of the war. <br />
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Also omitted in most depictions of trench warfare are the tremendous amounts of preparation that went into such attacks. And of this, the battle of Vimy Ridge (mentioned yesterday) is a prime example. One of the reasons that Canadian troops succeeded so brilliantly in their attack can be seen in the months leading up to the offensive. Strategic and operational planning for the April attack began in November of the year before, and tactical planning began in January, leading to a final plan adopted formally in March. Officers studied previous engagements under similar conditions, developed new tactics, trained and rehearsed troops repeatedly in the months leading up to the assault. Officers and men learned the roles and responsibilities of their superiors and subordinates, so as to be able to take over for fallen comrades. Aircraft and patrols thoroughly explored the enemy defenses, and tens of thousands of maps were prepared and issued from the squad level and higher.<br />
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Often given short shrift in popular depictions of the war is the crucial role played by artillery. Guns had gone, during the course of the war, from weapons firing individually at targets visible to them within a few thousand yards to firing bombardments by map direction at targets often miles away. The detailed artillery plan for the Vimy attack coordinated the efforts of over a thousand field guns, mortars, and howitzers. Plans included preliminary bombardments directly on enemy defenses, a moving barrage aimed to protect the advancing troops and suppress any defenses they might face, and preparations for counterbattery fire against any German guns that might respond to the attack. (Techniques of direction- and distance-finding based on sound-ranging and flash-detection had become quite sophisticated.) Troops often did advance to the attack slowly, but when they did it was because they were trailing behind a screen of shell fire that both obscured them from enemy view, smashed bunkers and trench defenses, and tore up barbed-wire obstacles. Before the battle, engineers laid hundreds of miles of telephone wire so as to provide instant communication from observers at the operation's start line to the rear area where the artillery were located. In preparation for a new offensive, batteries would often be re-sited so that enemy guns that had previously been able to fire on them would shoot at the wrong coordinates. Multiple firing locations might even be prepared. And careful calculations would be made from all these locations to ensure that the guns were aimed precisely at the enemy defenses. And, if needed, miles of light rail would be laid to bring forward a steady stream of shells from depots deep in the army's rear area to the batteries' firing positions.<br />
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And there was more than high explosive to fear. By 1917, both sides had developed tactics for the use of chemical weapons. Some gas dissipated quickly; other forms were persistent. Some killed quickly, other types merely caused irritation or nausea. Different varieties and combinations served different purposes. Once an enemy's artillery positions or supply depots were located, those might be targeted for persistent gas attacks. If below-ground barracks were observed, heavy, long-lasting gas that would sink into them might be fired into the area. Firing on a position that one expected one's own troops to assault and capture, only gas that would dissolve or blow away quickly, so the defenders would be incapacitated but friendly forces arriving to take possession would not be harmed.<br />
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Another tool used by armies preparing for a defensive was the shovel. Not only would new firing positions for artillery be prepared, and new saps (trenches leading towards the enemy front line) be prepared, but where practical troops would engage in mining. Digging deep in the earth, sappers would create tunnels to bring friendly troops to the front line under cover--both protected from enemy artillery and invisible to enemy scouts and reconnaissance aircraft. And more tunnels would reach forward under no-mans-land to the enemy positions; chambers directly under the enemy's strongpoints were filled with high explosive which, when detonated, would destroy the strongpoint and open a gap in the foe's defenses.<br />
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So, tremendous amounts of preparation (planning, training, movement of troops, build-up of supplies) went on before an offensive was launched. Most troops knew where they were going and what they were expected to do. Enemy forces were often subjected to weeks of artillery bombardments and mining before an attack, destroying their strongpoints and weakening their morale. Enemy defenses received saturation shelling as an attack began, and troops were often preceded by a curtain of flame and destruction, making it well-nigh impossible to target them as they advanced. <br />
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So why did so many attacks fail? Why did the fighting continue year after year? In a word, resiliency. Defenders learned to build defenses stronger and in greater depth; instead of one line of foxholes, a fortified trenchline; instead of one trenchline, two, one behind the other; instead of linear fighting positions that, once penetrated, could be infiltrated laterally, belts of concrete pill boxes with adjacent fighting positions, which could support each other with fire. Instead of one gun position, half a dozen for each gun, all carefully sighted, so that enemy attacks would have to waster fire on unmanned positions. <br />
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And attackers still lacked one vital component: the ability to swiftly communicate between advanced forces and the main body. The initial stage of an attack had the full weight of supporting firepower (artillery, machineguns, aircraft) behind it. But an attacker who achieved his objective, capturing the enemy's frontline trenches, had no way to communicate with those assets. Two-way radios were too heavy to carry forward, even to mount on aircraft. Communication lines (telephone and telegraph) could be carried forward as troops advanced, but any shellfire into no mans land was likely to break those lines. Flag signals could be used, but only for limited messages and at the reach of line of sight.<br />
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So, far too often, attacks succeeded but follow-on forces could not be directed to the right area, higher headquarters could only learn which units had failed and which succeeded by men running back across the battlefield to report. And an area pulverized by the explosion of mines and weeks of artillery fire was not suitable for the rapid advance of cavalry, motor vehicles (the Canadians had a contingent of armored trucks mounted with machineguns to use as a pursuit force). <br />
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One of the great operational breakthroughs of Allied doctrine was the development of "bite and hold" tactics. Instead of trying to make the ultimate breakthrough, rupturing the enemy lines and thrusting cavalry forces through to roll up his line and destroy his rear areas, troops focused on limited objectives, overwhelmed them, then occupied and rebuilt them as a base for the next attack. "Slow and steady wins the race" might be a way of describing this sort of action. Once the Allies adopted this sort of advance and stopped wasting men and material on huge operations that could never be fully executed, they started moving towards success.<br />
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And the battle for Vimy Ridge was, arguably, an excellent example of "bite and hold". <br />
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Next time: why this ridge?<br />
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Postscript: I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that, in addition to their tactical wargames, Too Fat Lardies has published a Great War kriegsspiel that directly addresses this sort of operational planning. It's called (in their typical hearty fashion), "Corps Blimey", and it's available in their <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15&products_id=20" target="_blank">2008 Christmas Special</a>. A quick description of it can be found <a href="http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=37" target="_blank">in their blog, here</a>, and they posted an AAR of a Corps Blimey playtest game <a href="http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=154711" target="_blank">to The Miniatures Page</a>. As chance would have it, the playtest scenario was a British assault on Vimy Ridge.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-19404884293714855292015-04-09T15:25:00.000-07:002015-04-09T19:50:46.934-07:00Vimy Ridge Day<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Today is Vimy Ridge Day. </b></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/The_Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/The_Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
This commemoration means nothing to most Americans, and it may mean little more to those from Britain, or France, or other Allied nations. But I believe it still has significance to many Canadians.<br />
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Because the battle of Vimy Ridge, which began on April 9th, 1917, and lasted for four days, served not only as one of the successful portions of the Allied Arras Offensive of that year, but as a historic milestone for the nation and people of Canada. The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together in one battle for the first time, methodically planned, prepared, and executed an operation that seized its objectives swiftly and efficiently. In doing so, they forced the German Army to give up ground it had held since the first year of the war and demonstrated that the Allies could push back the formerly immovable German defensive line through a slow and careful series of attacks.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/Vimy_Memorial_(September_2010)_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/Vimy_Memorial_(September_2010)_cropped.jpg" height="234" width="320" /></a></div>
Over time, the hard-fought Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge came to symbolize the pride and sacrifice of the Canadian armed forces and the resolution of Canadians as a people. The great monument on Vimy Ridge, commissioned in 1921 and completed in 1936, is one of only two National Historic Sites of Canada that are located abroad. The monument's figures represent universal emotions of nations caught in war: a desire for a return to peace, sympathy for those imperiled by war, steadfast faith with allies, the willingness to sacrifice for comrades, and the grieving of those left behind for those who have fallen. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa, recently the site of sad events, is based in part on elements of the Vimy memorial.<br />
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Wikipedia has well written articles on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge" target="_blank">the battle of Vimy Ridge</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Vimy_Memorial" target="_blank">Canadian National Memorial</a>.<br />
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Blogger Stanley Martens has found<a href="http://nerdlydarkness.blogspot.com/2015/02/vimy-ridgeresearch-check-in.html" target="_blank"> three rather good maps</a> of the Vimy Ridge operations.<br />
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For more on Canada in the Great War, I recommend <a href="http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/" target="_blank">the Canadian War Museum's website</a>, the <a href="http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/" target="_blank">Canadian Great War Project</a>, the <a href="http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/oh-ho/detail-eng.asp?BfBookLang=1&BfId=22" target="_blank">official history of the Canadian Army</a> in the First World War, and the <a href="http://ww1.canada.com/" target="_blank">Great War site</a> sponsored by the National Post.<br />
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There are two wargames that I've been able to identify that portray the battle for Vimy Ridge. <br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10932/vimy-ridge" target="_blank">Vimy Ridge</a> (first published in 2000 and still available from Pacific Rim Publishing; republished in 2001 by, but apparently no longer available from, Microgame Design Group) appears to be a moderate-complexity game with fairly good ratings on boardgamegeek.com.<br />
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<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144961/vimy-ridge-arras-diversion" target="_blank">Vimy Ridge: Arras Diversion</a> (published 2013 by Decision Games) appears to be a low-to-moderate complexity game, also with mildly favourable ratings (but fewer).<br />
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Also worth visiting are<br />
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<a href="http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war" target="_blank">Veterans Affairs Canada's page</a> on First World War remembrance<br />
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<a href="http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/Pages/military-heritage.aspx" target="_blank">Library and Archives Canada's page</a> on military history<br />
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the <a href="http://www.militaryhistories.ca/" target="_blank">Canadian Military Histories Digitization Project</a><br />
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<a href="http://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/" target="_blank">Canadian Military History</a>, a journal published by the <a href="http://canadianmilitaryhistory.ca/" target="_blank">Military, Strategic, and Disarmament Studies studies center</a> of Wilfrid Laurier University<br />
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the Canadian government's <a href="http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/html/default-en.asp" target="_blank">military history gateway</a><br />
<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-73425130999853240752014-09-28T20:54:00.001-07:002014-09-28T20:57:19.851-07:00Great War art: the Imperial War Museum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTrloA47mv_e3C9T_2RThb5aoDFpCofkkimTjUY59Ra0o9IMBoeZxKik8vXD44xjURr0G_dr5348hfcu4wg4GZngwgOp0-dw8rRZDIH8GFl3n9JlrUFN8MQ3RittrbQriAEWygvbxcoDy/s1600/logo-IWM-grey-139x87.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTrloA47mv_e3C9T_2RThb5aoDFpCofkkimTjUY59Ra0o9IMBoeZxKik8vXD44xjURr0G_dr5348hfcu4wg4GZngwgOp0-dw8rRZDIH8GFl3n9JlrUFN8MQ3RittrbQriAEWygvbxcoDy/s1600/logo-IWM-grey-139x87.png" /></a></div>
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Just as a quick second post for this evening, I wanted to highlight a page on the Imperial War Museum's site, <a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/12-paintings-of-life-along-the-western-front" target="_blank">a collection of a dozen paintings</a> of front-line life during the Great War.</div>
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Since it's not immediately obvious (or wasn't, at least, to me), what are shown are details--if you click on the image of the painting, a pop-up window will show the entire work.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-40951921945268134882014-09-28T20:46:00.000-07:002014-09-28T20:46:30.108-07:00The Marne: Two boardgame depictionsAs promised, I'm starting a look at the First Battle of the Marne through the eyes of a couple of different boardgames.<br />
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This entry contrasts two different treatments by the same designer. As I mentioned, I recently received <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158237/1914-glorys-end-when-eagles-fight" target="_blank">the new editions of Ted Racier's two early war operational games</a>, Glory's End and When Eagles Fight. A few brief words on opening that treasure trove follow.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dncu4O9A1D41Szfj1Z32et7_tjtczt_U6W9J39qulwlZJkQhFR77lw4aqUP_5AD6fH2dlOaZQz_JY6vhoq8dlgV-57rKFEAjVxv_LaRI1chZU6yvKeLxciHPoIdLzgnmsJ57pTiZpPsZ/s1600/box+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9dncu4O9A1D41Szfj1Z32et7_tjtczt_U6W9J39qulwlZJkQhFR77lw4aqUP_5AD6fH2dlOaZQz_JY6vhoq8dlgV-57rKFEAjVxv_LaRI1chZU6yvKeLxciHPoIdLzgnmsJ57pTiZpPsZ/s1600/box+front.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>First, the box cover: handsome cover art, a painting entitled <i>France! 1914</i> by the French war artist Leon Reni-Mel. It's quite evocative, in its depiction of a young <i>poilu </i>in the famous <i>pantalons rouges</i> at the moment of his death, rushing forward in the spirit of French Army's "attack, attack, always attack" doctrine.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpMufeu4F05Sp3xlfrGZ-Z1iIPA8nWmQRpH2-d8NK46YFUN37hb5ePI4encxqIs9ihG4cY4aILYBq9b5PiLnUsBUoJXj9OWgRrX1CE8Lly-7n6PLFqkkYqhFJueutZN6kMjO9fdLWv0qq/s1600/box+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcpMufeu4F05Sp3xlfrGZ-Z1iIPA8nWmQRpH2-d8NK46YFUN37hb5ePI4encxqIs9ihG4cY4aILYBq9b5PiLnUsBUoJXj9OWgRrX1CE8Lly-7n6PLFqkkYqhFJueutZN6kMjO9fdLWv0qq/s1600/box+back.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>The back of the box provides a look at the two major maps it contains, one of the western front (including Belgium, Luxembourg, and bits of France, Germany, and the Netherlands) and one of the eastern front (featuring pieces of Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany, and Romania). We get a sample of game pieces, a list of contents, and details on game scale. The design, development, and production crew are credited. And the box provides the publisher's assessment of the game's complexity (low-medium) and solitaire suitability (high--luckily for me!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifs5r86Momu2SiDYXm7axggSb0AL5YGgd0R39YslkndwaPkm8uW4NxQtQRiH1Rf-m3aDIXnp4CwioYPeJ3YFxwBI77yxfF22iA3Ld1ICRgnGQdlca1kiNOkJ-CK1Fqj23fjZUDniFPmOib/s1600/rulebooks+and+counters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifs5r86Momu2SiDYXm7axggSb0AL5YGgd0R39YslkndwaPkm8uW4NxQtQRiH1Rf-m3aDIXnp4CwioYPeJ3YFxwBI77yxfF22iA3Ld1ICRgnGQdlca1kiNOkJ-CK1Fqj23fjZUDniFPmOib/s1600/rulebooks+and+counters.jpg" height="150" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a>Inside the box we find the usual high-quality components one expects from GMT Games: rulebooks for both games, two sets of player charts for each games, three and a half sheets of counters (plus the ubiquitous GMT bundle of ziplock bags for counter storage), a mini-map for playing a short scenario of Glory's End, and the main map sheet itself. In a practical move, GMT has printed one sheet, double-sided, for the two games, with western Europe on one side and eastern Europe on the other.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYHVm1MZThv0Q73P6fW-HCWKZBYKsy62MtDGT7VIW_6AVX3ce9AnMulanFI3WCuzT652mdV8JT6byGITCVpmSaNDy02s6C0GuSHWGgIsyKYVurLjmeKzWVrRmcnNPACoptQu38TxhL3wq3/s1600/charts+and+mini-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYHVm1MZThv0Q73P6fW-HCWKZBYKsy62MtDGT7VIW_6AVX3ce9AnMulanFI3WCuzT652mdV8JT6byGITCVpmSaNDy02s6C0GuSHWGgIsyKYVurLjmeKzWVrRmcnNPACoptQu38TxhL3wq3/s1600/charts+and+mini-map.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a>Since my goal was to post a piece on the Marne battle, I was delighted to find the small map with the short, introductory scenario specifically focused on the Marne. I was particularly amused, too, since I had set up the intro scenario from Clash of Giants, which focuses on the exact same moment. Nothing would make it easier to compare the two games that to take a look at the starter's scenario for these two Ted Racier games of the early war on the western front.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcYt8HzIkGoSXPiH3rZkni7PDBNTbCgePUaPrG6H0ALzi0i2Xodbk30oVM-t3FX_jeHCEL0fCFmkGV0oSn4DQx_EOohQIR4_ImvIJ0hF1rUv0uW0wXlJU5EGDPPOan9tT4lwV4KCmAPCV_/s1600/COG+Marne+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcYt8HzIkGoSXPiH3rZkni7PDBNTbCgePUaPrG6H0ALzi0i2Xodbk30oVM-t3FX_jeHCEL0fCFmkGV0oSn4DQx_EOohQIR4_ImvIJ0hF1rUv0uW0wXlJU5EGDPPOan9tT4lwV4KCmAPCV_/s1600/COG+Marne+map.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is a look at the <i>Clash </i>map, set for "The Allied Counterattack" scenario, which begins as the French and British are about to spring their trap on the advancing Germans. I've provided only a small image, but to the west (left) side of the map, if you squint you can probably see the grey blob that is Paris, wedged in the loops of the Seine River. Around and to the north of it are the troops of the Fortified Camp of Paris, and in a north-south line to the northeast of the city is the advancing French Sixth Army. A few scattered blocks of grey represent the flank guards of the German First Army, most of whose combat troops are committed in the bulge east and south of Paris. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF), a few lonely stacks of khaki counters, screens the gap between the city of Paris and the French Fifth Army under it's newly appointed General Louis Franchet d'Espère. The Fifth faces not only von Kluck's seemingly triumphant German First Army but also von Bulow's Second Army, trying to widen the east side of the German penetration. To von Bulow's east is von Hausen's Third Army, Saxons all, and the screen formed by the scattered Fourth Army, the link to the (unseen Firth Army, battering the walls of Verdun and the Sixth and Seventh, deep in the hills and mountains of the Vosges.<br />
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East of the French Fifth Army is the high shoulder formed by the clustered French Ninth Army of the inimitable Ferdinand Foch, future commander in chief. And to their east, facing the German Fourth Army, is France's own Fourth Army, likewise spread thin to maintain contact with forces to the east. The date is the 5th of September, and the solid mass of Michel-Joseph Manoury's Sixth (French) Army is about to give Friedrich Sixt von Arnim's IV Corps a horrid surprise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKmBVyI7v4iEgIjcCmqOGv6KsJEZCkNOX5X91mI419QAYq14ejtxgmrMDTjJfSDZ3J93flh5Q7NF6brdmyFnM7SFS6LLcNCG4yW-9_DtkcB6k5A1qVHBZ_HnM8ngDkPeKYLHuicPv9K5ys/s1600/marne+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKmBVyI7v4iEgIjcCmqOGv6KsJEZCkNOX5X91mI419QAYq14ejtxgmrMDTjJfSDZ3J93flh5Q7NF6brdmyFnM7SFS6LLcNCG4yW-9_DtkcB6k5A1qVHBZ_HnM8ngDkPeKYLHuicPv9K5ys/s1600/marne+map.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a>Contrast that setup with the same scenario, more or less, in <i>Glory's End</i>, set up on the mini-map provided with that game (it's the same scale and size of hex as the main <i>Glory's End </i>map, but easier to set up in a small space). One thing you'll notice right away is that the map covering the same area is much smaller, the counter density higher, while at the same time the overall number of counters is much lower. That's because <i>Glory's End </i>packs the entire western front into its main map. Each hex is 9.5 miles wide, instead of the 3.3 miles of the <i>Clash of Giants: Marne</i> map. Most of the units in <i>Glory's End </i>are corps or corps-sized formations, while <i>CoG:M </i>units are most of them divisions. (Those three hexes covered with ignominious "Out of Command" markers contain the regrouping forces of the BEF.)<br />
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So, that's a quick look at the new title, and a swift visual comparison with another treatment of the same action by the same designer. I have a number of other titles that cover operations on the western front in 1914 (<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30216/great-war-europe-deluxe-edition" target="_blank">The Great War in Europe</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12282/grand-illusion-1914-campaign-west" target="_blank">Grand Illusion</a>, both also by Ted Racier, and Michael Resch's <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46669/1914-offensive-outrance" target="_blank">1914: Offensive a Outrance</a>), but none of them specifically call out the First Battle of the Marne for scenario treatment. There are half a dozen games that specifically focus on the First Marne, but none of them are in my library, alas.<br />
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Next time: that promised letter. And, soon, hopefully, an account of playing through one of these Marne scenarios.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-71096546670720580012014-09-26T15:34:00.005-07:002014-09-26T15:34:36.207-07:00preview of coming attractions: the Battle of the MarneI decided that a walkthrough of playing of the <i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2638/clash-giants" target="_blank">Clash of Giants</a></i>:<i> Tannenberg</i> game, even solo (with all the deficiencies in competitive thinking that that entails) would probably create an undue influence on developments in the triple-blind running of the game that's underway (we're partway through Turn 2). So I thought that instead I'd embark on the other title in the first CoG pairing, the battle of the Marne.<br />
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This idea was reinforced by the timely arrival of Ted Racier's latest effort, a reboot of his early war operational games, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158237/1914-glorys-end-when-eagles-fight" target="_blank"><i>1914: Glory's End/When Eagles Fight</i></a>, just published by GMT Games. The western front portion of this package features a short introductory scenario, also featuring the Marne battle. Between this, <i>CoG: The Marne</i>, and possibly a look at (though not a full playing of) relevant portions of GMT's other 1914 west front offerings, <i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46669/1914-offensive-outrance" target="_blank">1914: Offensive à outrance</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12282/grand-illusion-1914-campaign-west" target="_blank">Grand Illusion: the 1914 Campaign in the West</a></i>, we should be replete with lovely maps and examinations of the opening portion of the war, which everyone thought would go so quickly and which instead lasted a very long time.<br />
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The First Battle of the Marne was, of course, not the beginning of the war on the western front. That had been what was called the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Frontiers" target="_blank">Battle of the Frontiers</a>, where both the French and German armies began plunging swiftly into the breakneck operational advances that their pre-war planning had assumed would be the key to success. The French, underestimating German numbers and resolve, had committed on a tremendously wide front and were driven back bloodily. The Germans, partly due to superior numbers and more effective concentration, had succeeded in their offensive moves.<br />
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And because the British and French armies had not engaged in as much pre-war communication, planning, and liaison as they ought to have done, the Germans had also found an opportunity to drive a wedge between the British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army, creating a gap they were at pains to exploit. French and British forces scrambled backwards in the Great Retreat, an exhausting pell-mell attempt to redefine defensible positions somewhere short of the outskirts of Paris.<br />
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In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne" target="_blank">the battle of the Marne</a>, French (and allied) commander in chief Joseph Joffre used the success of the German armies against them. Rushing forward to capture their operational and strategic goal, the French capital, the German First Army had become dangerously separated from the rest of the German front line. By pulling together a scratch force, the Sixth Army, Joffre enabled the Franco-British forces to attack the Germans' most successful force in detail, driving it backwards and halting the enemy advance. One of the best-loved, if historically uncertain, elements of the battle's narrative was the delivery of several battalions of the attacking French Sixth Army at a crucial point in the engagement, but a fleet consisting of all the commercial taxis and buses of the city of Paris, pressed into service to rush 6,000 men fifty kilometers to forestall a German advance.<br />
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I'm hoping to post a quick "unboxing" preview of <i>Glory's End </i>this weekend (I'll confess, dear readers, I didn't wait to unbox it...). If I have time to walk through an attempt at playing its Marne scenario, as well as one of <i>CoG: The Marne</i>, I will, but that may have to wait until next week.<br />
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I hope to have time to post another of my grandfather's letters this weekend. We'll see how overly ambitious I'm being.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-49738104680302122012014-09-10T13:26:00.002-07:002014-09-10T13:26:58.531-07:00Tannenberg--lumbering closerThe Labor Day holiday weekend didn't give me the time I hoped it would to prepare for this campaign on paper, as a friend of my partner's was visiting us, and my game table is in the basement, which also serves as our guest room. <br />
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Nonetheless, I'm plowing forward (slowly) with preparations for our triple-blind simulation of this opening East Front campaign. I took a look at the rules for <i>The Cossacks Are Coming</i> and its successor, <i>1914: Twilight in the East</i>, and decided to go with a simpler option, <i>Clash of Giants: Tannenberg</i>. While I can simplify a great deal of the information management for the players, they need to be able to grasp the mechanics even if they don't see them all, and the mechanics of the other games are complex and will slow things down too much. So my next step is to put together a precis of information (basic parameters of the game system, how the refereed version will work, starting order of battle and positions) and share it with the players.<br />
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In the meantime, I've found a nice image of the starting positions on the map at Boardgamegeek; I hope the poster, Kevin Moody, doesn't mind my using it as an illustration here.<br />
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You can see <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/image/75541/clash-giants?size=original" target="_blank">the full-size image</a> on BGG if you log in there (membership required, but free).<br />
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The map depicts East Prussia and some adjoining sections of Russia (including Poland, at the time a part of the Russian Empire). If you look closely, you can see the thin broken brown line that represents the border. In the northwest corner of the map is the Gulf of Danzig, a southerly projection of the Baltic Sea. Also visible is the <span lang="de">Frisches Haff, now called the Vistula Lagoon, the large inland sea that lies between Danzig (to its west) and Konigsberg (at its eastern end). Spreading southeast from the Haff is an area of forests, hills, and other rough terrain, in the center of which are the Masurian Lakes. These are over two thousand large and small bodies of water, formed when retreating glaciers deposited piles of debris that blocked rivers and streams and many of them later linked by canals to provide transit across this dense terrain. Further south and east is a large body of marshland. This rather forbidding region is the area that lies, roughly, between the advancing Russian First and Second Armies.</span><br />
<span lang="de"><br /></span>
<span lang="de">The Second Army starts with much of its force on the board, along the south edge. Most of the First Army is just about to arrive--it's stacked on two entry points on the east edge of the map. </span><br />
<span lang="de"><br /></span>
<span lang="de">One part of German forces begin scattered in a defensive screen, some distance back from the southeren border, many of them in fortified positions or guarding railway junctions. Guarding them to preserve them for German use, rather than protecting them from Russian capture--Russian railways used a different gauge to German ones and were useless, for the most part, to Russian forces during the campaign. (This makes that thin broken brown border line we looked at earlier rather important.)</span><br />
<span lang="de"><br /></span>
<span lang="de">The main field
force of the German Army in East Prussia lies in and around the town of
Gumbinen, near the northeastern border and directly in the path of the
slowly arriving Russian First Army.</span><br />
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<span lang="de">Another part of German forces is guarding the East Prussian capital of Konigsberg and its extensive defensive network. They include troops standing along one of the main German rail lines (more important for supply than movement), which runs from the border to Konigsberg and then southwest to Marienburg. Another line runs roughly parallel through the center of the province, and a third runs more or less through the lake district. These, too, connect eventually at Marienburg and lead west to Berlin, though there is also a line through the fortress of Thorn to the southwest towards Silesia.</span><br />
<span lang="de"><br /></span>
<span lang="de">I mention the rail lines not only because the Germans will rely on them for supply, but because the Russian objectives lie most of them along the northern and central lines (as well as at the Frisches ports of Konigsberg and Elbing and the university town of Braunsberg).</span><br />
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The iron cross counters show victory locations that start under German control. The Germans will gain victory points for these if they hold them at the end of the game. Small red dots forther north and west are locations for which the Russians will get points (IIRC, some locations covered by German troops at deployment are also Russian VP hexes).<br />
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The game's sequence of play is fairly simple. Both sides check to see which, if any of their forces are out of supply. Then the Russian player places any arriving reinforcements or replacements, moves first one army, then the other, and resolves any combats. The the German player brings in reinforcements and replacements, moves his troops, and conducts combats.<br />
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One unusual mechanic exists in this <i>Clash of Giants</i> series. Both sides roll for the movement points of their armies; all units in an army (or, in the case of the Germans, their Eighth Army and the separate I Corps) receive the same amount of movement (exception: cavalry always receive a fixed amount), but it can vary from turn to turn from as few as one movement point (essentially slwoign the army to a crawl) to as many as six.<br />
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Another twist to this mechanic in the Tanneberg game is that, starting on Turn 4, the German player--before moving his troops--nominates which Russian army will move first in the next turn and watches the Russian player roll for movement points. Thus the Germans know while they execute their move which of the Russians will move next and how far. (On Turn 1, only the Russian First Army moves--the Second Army is still assembling itself in this period.) This advantage tot the German player is the designer's simple way of reflecting the superior intelligence the Germans got during the campaign when the Russians, outrunning their hard-wired telegraph network and short of trained radio cryptogrpahers, were forced to transmit most of their military communications between armies by wireless with no encoding. German radio operators simply listened in and copied down the orders being transmitted.<br />
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I'm going to brief the players now and, with any luck, we should have the first move underway soon!Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-69677776705524515012014-08-29T14:35:00.000-07:002014-08-29T15:16:48.717-07:00in the works: Tannenberg 1914<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_103-121-018,_Tannenberg,_Hindenburg_auf_Schlachtfeld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Bundesarchiv_Bild_103-121-018,_Tannenberg,_Hindenburg_auf_Schlachtfeld.jpg" height="228" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ludendorff explains the 22.5 Königsberg Corps rules to von Hindenburg.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To kick off my experimental study of the first year of the war, I'll be looking at the battle (camapign, really) of Tannenberg, the first large encounter of Russian and German forces on the war's eastern front. My first effort will be a solo play of GMT Game's <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2638/clash-giants" target="_blank">Clash of Giants: Tannenberg</a>. I'm looking forward to this, as I've played one of the games in this series before and enjoyed it<br />
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As a quick introduction, I can recommend this four minute overview of the events from <i>The Complete Landmark Television Series' World War 1</i> <i>in Colour</i>. Though the documentary images are indeed colourized in a rather flat, washed out way, the footage is itself still interesting, and the map animations simple but clear.<br />
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For a longer description of the battle, I can recommend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tannenberg" target="_blank">Wikipedia's article,</a> which covers the operations in quite comprehensive detail (though it curiously fails to mention Russian Northwest Front commander Yakov Zhilinski), while the FirstWorldWar.com website's piece on Tannenberg contains links to biographies of many of the senior commanders, as well as accounts of the engagement by German 8th Army commander Paul von Hindenburg and Russian First Army cavalry corps commander Vasily Iosiforich Gurko.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.c20warfare.org/191421/13th%20Bielozerski.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.c20warfare.org/191421/13th%20Bielozerski.jpg" height="195" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian Bielozerski Regiment relaxing while awaiting the next blog post.</td></tr>
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Given that a principal feature of the battle was the failure of the two Russian armies to coordinate effectively (due both to poor technical communications provisions and to major antipathy between the First and Second Army commanders), the Tannenberg campaign seems ripe for a triple-blind kriegsspeil. I've recruited three players who are willing to give it a try, so I hope to be reporting to you, faithful readers, on that project in coming weeks.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-69613562396072557882014-08-25T13:23:00.001-07:002014-08-25T13:23:07.745-07:00two interesting pieces in the news<a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--uuFTGXnv--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/z6cnc4ixgtiatslthzke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--uuFTGXnv--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/z6cnc4ixgtiatslthzke.jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a>Two articles that floated past my corner of the Internet seemed worth sharing with my Great War readers.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28420676" target="_blank">BBC Magazine ran a short article</a> on the German internment of British civilians at Ruhleben during the war. The rather short and facile piece touched on a few aspects of life in the camp in a reductionist, almost insulting manner. The Beeb seems to have gotten enough annoyed feedback from readers who had relatives in the camp that they ran <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28771145" target="_blank">a second article, featuring biographies of several of the internees</a>. These bios, wholly or in part supplied by information for readers, give a fuller and more detailed look at life in the camp and the different paths that led its inmates there.<br />
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The other article, curiously, comes from the science-fiction/futurist blog io9. This piece concerns <a href="http://io9.com/a-gallery-of-cats-who-served-in-world-war-i-1624713212" target="_blank">the (Allied) cats of World War One</a>. There's minimal text to it, but it features about a dozen and a half photos of cats in various Allied military settings in the Great War, including naval cats, air cats, and trench cats. I rather imagine the Central Powers forces had their cats as well, but no photos of them were included.<br />
<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-68273330245709155852014-08-13T11:26:00.001-07:002014-08-13T11:26:37.071-07:00a quick summary of recent links on the Great War from Society for Military History membersThanks to a follower of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/Society.for.Military.History/?fref=nf" target="_blank">Society for Military History's Facebook page</a>, here's a link to an article on <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/remembering-americas-official-artists-war-180952321/?no-ist" target="_blank">war art commissioned by the US military during the Great War</a>.<br />
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The article, on the Smithsonian website, contains a selection of images from the collection, a <a href="http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?view=&date.slider=&q=world+war+i+art&dsort=&start=0}" target="_blank">link to the digitised artworks</a>, a link to a republication of the collection in <a href="http://www.tamupress.com/product/Art-from-the-Trenches,3229.aspx" target="_blank">book form by Texas A&M University Press</a>, and a link to the <a href="http://www.nbmaa.org/" target="_blank">New Britain Museum of Art</a>, which houses work by one of the artists who took part in the project.<br />
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Other recent SMH posts concerning the Great War have included:<br />
<ul>
<li>an article from the US Library of Congress on <a href="http://www.loc.gov/collection/world-war-i-sheet-music/about-this-collection/" target="_blank">First World War sheet music</a> </li>
<li>an article from BBC History magazine on <a href="http://www.historyextra.com/feature/first-world-war/10-first-world-war-slang-words-we-still-use-today" target="_blank">First World War slang</a> that's stuck in the English language</li>
<li>a piece on <a href="http://www.switzerland1914-1918.net/blog/researching-individual-prisoners-of-war-and-internees-using-newly-release-records" target="_blank">researching WWI POWs</a></li>
<li>an <a href="http://ww1.canada.com/battlefront/canadian-soldiers-in-the-great-war-britains-shock-army-with-video" target="_blank">interview with the director of the Canadian War Museum</a> </li>
<li>an article in the Telegraph of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11003194/WW1-in-pictures-Poster-women-of-World-War-One.html" target="_blank">war posters</a>, </li>
<li>a review of <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/books-feature/9274621/wilhelm-ii-by-john-c-g-rohl-review/" target="_blank">a recent biography of Kaiser Wilhelm</a> and </li>
<li>a promo for <a href="http://pwad.unc.edu/wwiconference/" target="_blank">a joint UNC/King's College London conference on the First World War</a> taking place later this month</li>
</ul>
Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-87935226684920500292014-08-12T10:05:00.001-07:002014-08-12T10:05:34.773-07:00I've sadly neglected this blog, posting nothing at all so far in calendar year 2014. Seeing as this month begins the centenary of the Great War, I think it's a fitting time to try and breathe a bit of life into this small journal.<br />
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Since this is "a blog on reading and gaming the history of the Great War", I'm going to commit to doing both, as intensively as I can while the rest of life revolves around me, for the next four years. I'd like to say that I'll report on a game and a book every month over that time, but that would be setting an overly ambitious bar. I can promise to deliver a post a month, and I hope I'll manage closer to a post a week on average.<br />
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I think that both my game library and my printed library will be more than able to stand up to those requirements, even if my schedule can't. Besides the miniature games I've mentioned here already (TFL's <i>Through the Mud and the Blood</i>, <i>If the Lord Spares Us</i>, <i>Corps Blimey</i>, <i>Algernon Pulls It Off</i>, and the postwar <i>Triumph of the Will</i>), I have <i>Great War Spearhead</i> (now finally available in its comprehensive second edition), <i>Soldat </i>and <i>The Last Crusade</i>, and <i>Wings of War/Wings of Glory</i>.<br />
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The boardgame contingent, though, is even larger.<br />
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<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4359/1914-glorys-end" target="_blank">1914: Glory's End</a> (XTR/Command magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46669/1914-offensive-outrance">1914: Offensive à outrance</a> (GMT Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21779/1914-twilight-east" target="_blank">1914: Twilight in the East </a>(GMT Games) <br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4228/1918-storm-west" target="_blank">1918: Storm in the West</a> (XTR/Command magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13979/big-push-battle-somme" target="_blank">The Big Push: The Battle of the Somme</a> (ATO) <br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/69136/bloody-april-1917-air-war-over-arras-france" target="_blank">Bloody April, 1917: The Air War Over Arras, France</a> (GMT Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/508/blue-max" target="_blank">Blue Max</a> (GDW Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5929/clash-empires-august-1914" target="_blank">Clash of Empires: August 1914</a> (3W/The Wargamer magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2638/clash-giants" target="_blank">Clash of Giants</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13709/clash-giants-ii" target="_blank">Clash of Giants II</a> (GMT Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11993/cossacks-are-coming-2nd-edition" target="_blank">The Cossacks Are Coming!</a> 2nd Edition (Oregon ConSim Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25516/fatal-attraction-gallipoli-campaign" target="_blank">A Fatal Attraction: The Gallipoli Campaign</a> (ATO)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12282/grand-illusion-1914-campaign-west" target="_blank">Grand Illusion: The 1914 Campaign in the West</a> (GMT Games)<br />
The Great War in Europe (both the <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10149/great-war-europe" target="_blank">XTR/Command magazine</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30216/great-war-europe-deluxe-edition" target="_blank">GMT Games</a> editions)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11696/jassin-1915" target="_blank">Jassin 1915</a> (Khyber Pass Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4208/kaisers-battle" target="_blank">The Kaiser's Battle</a> (SPI/S&T magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8711/landships-tactical-weapons-innovations-1914-1918" target="_blank">Landships</a> (Clash of Arms Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2751/lawrence-arabia" target="_blank">Lawrence of Arabia</a> (3W/The Wargamer magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27817/marne-1918-friedensturm" target="_blank">Marne 1918: Friedensturm</a> (Hexasim)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22227/no-prisoners" target="_blank">No Prisoners</a> (Decision Games/S&T Magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91/paths-glory" target="_blank">Paths of Glory</a> (GMT Games)<br /><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23418/pursuit-glory" target="_blank">Pursuit of Glory</a> (GMT Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29382/rock-marne" target="_blank">Rock of the Marne</a> (MMP)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7749/serbia-defiant-romania-transylvanian-gambit" target="_blank">Serbia the Defiant/Romania: Transylvanian Gambit </a>(SPW)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3054/sideshow-campaign-german-east-africa-1914-1918" target="_blank">Sideshow: The German Campaign for East Africa</a> (SPI/S&T magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7215/green-fields-beyond" target="_blank">To The Green Fields Beyond</a> (SPI) <br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10397/togoland-1914" target="_blank">Togoland 1914</a> (Khyber Pass Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7753/when-eagles-fight" target="_blank">When Eagles Fight</a> (XTR/Command magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5297/world-war-i" target="_blank">World War I</a> (SPI)<br />
<br />
Plus, on related post-war topics:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11698/ataturk" target="_blank">Ataturk!</a> (Khyber Pass Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2998/reds-russian-civil-war-1918-1921" target="_blank">Reds! The Russian Civil War 1918-1921</a> (GMT Games)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8454/rise-house-saud" target="_blank">Rise of the House of Sa'ud</a> (3W/The Wargamer magazine)<br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/288/rossyia-1917" target="_blank">Rossyia 1917</a> (Azure Wish Enterprise) <br />
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2665/russian-civil-war-1918-1922-first-edition" target="_blank">Russian Civil War 1918-1922</a> (SPI)<br />
<br />
I think I have a couple more of Khyber Pass's products, and I have my eye on several GMT P500 games (a new edition of Glory's End and When Eagles Fight coming as a double title; Serbien Muss Sterbien, by the designer of Offensive a outrance; Eagle of Lille, an expansion for Bloody April; Gallipoli, 1915; and Illusions of Glory, an East-Front game using the Paths of Glory model).<br />
<br />
Even were I able to review one a month, that would nearly fill up the four years I've alotted myself. We'll see how I get on.<br />
<br />
Next up: a review of my bookshelves.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6710987520842660352.post-54408754814169584302013-12-10T11:28:00.002-08:002017-09-07T17:25:19.663-07:00a letter from France<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqKfhUZkMZcvdtIbKudSdFtsXf2qEZ2roYKYokkZqz0jRHgQSDPp_A1yj0dgA45eztI_bdAf1KOlakJ5e3FEE-XnwTo-fmLpNWB5lE54vt5bTKmbDUQDyPQHha2uuUJf7ZqXvAXI5cnQuU/s1600/photo(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqKfhUZkMZcvdtIbKudSdFtsXf2qEZ2roYKYokkZqz0jRHgQSDPp_A1yj0dgA45eztI_bdAf1KOlakJ5e3FEE-XnwTo-fmLpNWB5lE54vt5bTKmbDUQDyPQHha2uuUJf7ZqXvAXI5cnQuU/s1600/photo(1).JPG" width="240" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">As promised some time ago, I've begun transcribing a small cache of letters I've found from my grandfather, who was serving in the AEF in France during 1917 and 1918, to his sister Dorothea C. Paradise, who was living in England during the war.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are ten letters: four from 1917, six from 1918, and one written after his return to the United States in 1919. I am dismayed to say that someone has disposed of most of the covers; I have only four, and it is guesswork assigning which goes to which letter. I should, I suppose, have begun with the first in chronological order, but this one was the first that I opened when I found the package, and it starts during an artillery bombardment, just after his position has been bombed by German aircraft, so it seemed the exciting <i>in medias res</i> to start off with.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I've added a few comments after the letter. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">*****************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">[superscript
at 90* in the upper corner, presumably as a postscript] </span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is
splendid about your new gloves! Bravo!!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hqrs.
56th Inf. Brig.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">A.P.O.
744</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">October
23, 1918</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">My
dearest Dolly</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
Boche has just been overhead dropping bombs on us, so I begin to
understand your feelings when they did it to you in London. They are
rather dirty beasts, aren't they, although when they brought a
prisoner in the other night I didn't feel much but pity for him. He
was an Alsatian, the son of a French soldier, with three sisters &
a girl in Paris. He was helpless and pathetic & it made me more
disgusted than ever with the system that dragged him into this
heartless, senseless business. It has seemed more unreal & more
amazing since I have been here than it ever did before, & at this
moment, when the roar of an artillery operation is going on, I can't
realize [?] that it is grown men trying to smash other grown men in
the lovely golden woods I looked at today. It is too bad that the
spirit has to be born again in just this way. If all this labor had
been put into something permanent & constructive, what a
wonderful place the world would be to live in?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just
at that moment, they came in with a nice letter from you enclosing a
very interesting one from Bob. He writes splendid letters, doesn't
he? Well, there are two Paradises now in the arena & one just
outside it. I wish he could get an assignment to a regiment, because
you really do feel better in this part of the world even though it is
very much dirtier & rather more dangerous. I shall send you back
Bob's letter, because I have no way of keeping it in this land where
you travel with a tooth-brush, & quite soon lose that. It seems
incredible that people have houses and can have more than three pairs
of shoes & two suits at one time if they want to! I left
practically everything I own at La Brosse, which is an exceedingly
nice place. Did I tell you that I saw my nice Countess in Paris for a
few minutes & had a sad parting with her? We are really very good
friends, & I like her a lot. She paid me the great compliment of
saying that I was "délicat" & gave me an awfully nice
cigarette holder. It was great luck from a selfish point of view, to
fall in with the de la Chapelles, because we really saw something of
France, & have an open house here whenever we want it. I don't
suppose I can ask for leave for some time, now, because they will
probably put this division into a more active sector before long.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
am too sleepy to know what I want to say & I think that I shall
go to bed, & go on tomorrow. We shall probably get retaliation
for this artillery fire pretty soon & I had better get my sleep
now. Good night, my dear.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>The
next morning</u></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">They
bombed us & shelled us & shot machinegun bullets at us &
brought in German prisoners all night, but none of it was near enough
to make us get up and hunt cover. But it was rather irritating
because it wasn't very easy to sleep with our heads ready to drop at
any moment. The French on the left picked one of them up with a
searchlight & shot shrapnel at him, & it was a very pretty
sight.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
shall appreciate the home in America after all this, although I must
say the I rather enjoy this stuff. But I am nothing but a civilian in
khakhi [sic] -- and I shan't be sorry to be in mufti again. It was a
great thing to be born just when I was. Five years later & I
should have <strike>left</strike> lost the greatest experience of
generations, & the greatest opportunity. Life here is simple &
uninvolved with nothing but Germans & things to worry about,
nevertheless, and has distinct advantages.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
had a letter from Wayland in the same mail that brought your. He has
been over here for some time -- having flown across the Channel in an
aeroplane with some other people. Lately he has been in a hospital in
Tours with the Spanish flu, which is one reason you haven't seen him.
He liked you all very much, indeed.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Au
revoir, donc, ma chérie. J'étais enchanté d'avais recu ta lettre,
comme toujours, parceque elle me faisait comprendre un peu de la vie
que j'aime si passionement. Toutes mes remerciements.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mille
tendresses,</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Burton</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">OK</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">N.B.
Paradise</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">2nd
Lt., Inf., A.D.C.</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">[Translation
of last paragraph: </span><span lang="en" style="font-size: small;">Goodbye, then, my
dear. I was delighted to have received your letter, as always,
because it made me understand a little of the life that I love so
passionately. All my thanks.<br /><br />A thousand tendernesses,</span><span style="font-size: small;"> ]</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">*****************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmEedVECzuu9erWS5ouChFN1V-U9regaW_gx8NPv6Xb8Pk2A4xgO9-XfASvLUq-OsSu2gHLztgcU1vcl_NYCRsPsf5NS5i2EMjzqLkQRVwQmYnDU42gqA7dxQOdBeMhEXzQIO1us0VVc3/s1600/23Oct18+header.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmEedVECzuu9erWS5ouChFN1V-U9regaW_gx8NPv6Xb8Pk2A4xgO9-XfASvLUq-OsSu2gHLztgcU1vcl_NYCRsPsf5NS5i2EMjzqLkQRVwQmYnDU42gqA7dxQOdBeMhEXzQIO1us0VVc3/s1600/23Oct18+header.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I have to thank my grandfather, Burton (who, to my sorrow, died in 1942, before I ever had a chance to know him) for his excellent handwriting. It's generally very clear, and the few words that are sometimes tricky I can usually deduce from context.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Factoids: I'm hoping to learn more about the de la Chapelles, of whom I assume his comtesse is one. I'm hoping they are related to le Comte Jean Joseph Xavier Alfred de la Chapelle, who was a bit of a daring adventurer in the 19th century: California Gold Rush man, travelled to Australia, then to Morocco during the French conquest, then participated in and wrote a history of the war of 1870. I don't know whether La Brosse is their home; I'm assuming it is, but both la brosse (the brush) and la chapelle (the chapel) are such common words that it will take much more than Google work to find more information. (Though Google did help me find this entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: <span class="headword">La Chapelle, Victor Octave Xavier Alfred de Morton de</span>, Count de La Chapelle in the French nobility (1863–1931), <span class="occ">lawyer and wildfowler, possibly this friend of Burton's.</span>)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm pretty sure that the comtesse is the same person who, according to a family story, entertained Burton and his brother Bob (a decorated flyer) at a hunting lodge after to war and, when they sighted a handsome stag as they were out shooting one day said, "Oh, but that is Teodor! We NEVER shoot Teodor!"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm not sure who Wayland was, other than to presume he's a family friend (it's not a family name that I recognize).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm interested to see if NBP's attitude towards the war remains the same. I came across some stuff he wrote while he was in training back in the States, and it's pretty Boys Own Paper bumpf about freedom and humanity and fighting the beastly Hun. I don't know if this rather starry-eyed view of the war survived whatever front line experiences he had. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Edited to add: I'm pretty sure, by the way, that the last text block, which is written in the bottom left corner of the last page, is the "passed by censor" mark. Which suggests that he was taking advantage of his position as an aide de camp to the division commander to "censor" his own letters. Tricky bugger. :-) </span></span>Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07430151102779191991noreply@blogger.com3