BOOK REVIEW : GERMAN MILITARY SYMBOLS.

 In anticipation of Christmas I recently ordered a number of books from Naval Military Press.  I have purchased from these people before and selected almost a dozen books from the latest list. Mostly these are very well priced, the average being only £3. Most of the books  were handed out to family to wrap for me as Christmas presents but I managed to get two of the books immediately, this is the first.

The book is a reprint of a US Army manual of German military symbols as used in World War Two. The contents are basically tactical markings as used on maps, vehicles and hardware. Of particular interest to me were the vehicle markings. I recall many years ago searching for information on German tactical signs but finding very little. The best source back in the 70's was transfers made by Almarks, long since gone way although I still have a number of sets of their transfers unused.

As you might expect, the German system of markings was very logical. Starting from basic symbols for artillery for example, other marks are added to represent the various different types like flak, anti tank etc. There is little narrative beyond a basic introduction but the lists of signs are very interesting.

Overall an excellent reference book for German tactical signs.

UPDATE.

Over the past two weeks I have had very little modelling time. I have spent some time writing blog posts but it seems that normal domestic activities have taken most of my time. I can report however that the final heavy weapons upgrade has been completed. I now have only one batch of 36 GS wagons to build and a final 192 Pioneer soldiers to paint until all my armies are complete to current organisational tables.

I have identified some new potential organisational changes that could lead to further upgrades. One of these is the introduction of the rank of corporal in infantry, pioneer and field police  battalions which would create a need to paint up to 1500 more soldiers !!!!!!!!.  However I have not made any definite decisions on any of these changes as yet.

I have now found a location for a new display unit which would enable me to build a fourth army. However I  need my wife's approval especially as a bookcase needs to be rebuilt to provide the space for the new display unit. I will be seeking that permission over the Christmas period.

In the meantime, thank you to all those who read my blog and especially those who take the time to comment. I really enjoy the feedback which is often thought provoking and always interesting. 

Merry Christmas to all and may 2021 be a much better year for everyone.

BOOK REVIEW: STANLEY SPENCER'S GREAT WAR DIARY 1915-1918

 

Yet another book from my library. The author joined up in 1915 as a private soldier and served in the front line with distinction from late 1915 until 1917 when he went home to be commissioned. He returned to France in early 1918 and served as an infantry officer until being demobilized in 1919.

This is an excellent record of a good soldiers service. He gives some of the best descriptions of life in the trenches I have ever read. Quite how the soldiers coped with the appalling conditions is almost beyond belief. The author had so many close shaves it is amazing he survived but I suspect many others had similar experiences. 

If you want to really understand what it was like in the trenches, this is the book for you.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 32.

 IRAN STRIKES BACK.

In early November 1885 a small force of mostly Iranian regular soldiers led by a Colonel Suleiman was moving carefully to the east of the main road to Tehran foraging for supplies among the deserted villages in the area. They had escaped the slaughter of the battle in October and now sought a suitable target for a revenge strike against UNION supply lines. Suleiman knew that the small amount of  ammunition they had would give them only one or two opportunities for battle so he had to select a target very carefully. The main road was crowded with UNION supply columns and patrolled by UNION field police. In addition UNION Pioneers were sweeping north destroying villages, cutting down trees and blowing up wells in the rear of the UNION front line.  They were accompanied by large numbers of Mexican cowboys who rounded up livestock and drove the herds south, even Mexico would gain revenge on Iran. None of these offered a good attack option. As they moved further north Suleiman noted that some of the columns were pulling off the road, forming camps and then convoys of wagons from the north arrived and supplies were transferred. These camps were clearly "refilling points" for the wagons of front line units.

Just after dawn on 26th November Suleiman's force located a large UNION supply park just being established about a mile from the main road. Wagons started arriving about mid morning from the north to collect supplies. He decided to attack at lunch time. His force of almost 1,000 carefully surrounded the UNION camp and at noon the attack began. The UNION force consisted of two Quartermaster Transport companies together with about 40 wagons from various battalions of the 20th Infantry brigade. In total about 800 UNION soldiers were present.

The first volley of gunfire caused heavy casualties among the UNION soldiers who were busy loading wagons. Chaos and confusion reigned as UNION soldiers rushed to take cover, grab their rifles and return fire on the largely unseen enemy. After several minutes of heavy firing Suleiman's troops started to rush the wagons. Vicious hand to hand fighting broke out in a number of locations around the camp. Soon the battle became a series of confused individual fights around and among the wagons with horses being shot and trying to get away and dragging wagons around, men shouting and screaming. and smoke from wagons catching fire . Gradually UNION resistance faded as more and more fell. After about an hour it was all over. The Iranians maintained the practice now usual in the war of taking no prisoners. The wounded were killed where they lay although none were mutilated, that being the practice of Republican Guards rather than regulars. Some 807 UNION dead were subsequently recovered together with 442 Iranian dead.

Suleiman ordered his troops to dispatch those of their own wounded who could not march, ransack the wagons for supplies especially arms and ammunition and then around 4pm they marched away to the north east. A UNION field police patrol along the main road saw smoke rising from the burning wagons around the same time. They cautiously advanced along the side road to arrive on the battlefield only a matter of minutes after Suleiman's soldiers had moved away. Immediately word was sent to Command of the massacre. The field police platoon followed Suleiman's trail until nightfall then returned to the scene of the massacre. By then a Pioneer battalion had arrived together with UNION medical teams. The dead were buried and Quartermaster units arrived to secure those vehicles not burned and such horses as remained alive.

Next morning the UNION 19th Pioneer battalion was on the trail of Suleiman's force. Over the coming days the pursuit continued until 4th December when the UNION troops fell into a carefully laid ambush. Once again the initial volleys caused considerable losses among the Pioneers but they soon formed defensive positions and their superior firepower began to tell.  Suleiman broke off the battle and continued his withdrawal again dispatching his badly wounded. The rest of the day the Pioneers tended to their 47 wounded and buried 29 dead as well as 42 dead Iranians. On 6th December the pursuit resumed. By then Suleiman was coming close to the UNION front line which was then less than 30 miles from Tehran. He realised that the best route would be to move to the east of the city, around the outskirts and enter the city from the north.

This strategy he carried out and his force of now only 460 entered the city on 8th December. The  UNION Pioneers stopped their pursuit as they came level with the UNION front line. Suleiman was greeted as a hero. His exploits were seen as a great victory against the hated UNION and he was promoted general on the spot and given command of the defense of Tehran. That done the government left the city joining the flood of refugees fleeing towards Iraq.

The exhausted Suleiman now faced the greatest challenge possible. With some 90,000 mostly untrained militia he was expected to holds Tehran against the most powerful army ever seen in Tian.

BOOK REVIEW: AMATEUR GUNNERS.

 

Yet another book from my library. As the regular reader of these reviews will have noticed, I have been reading a lot of books recently about artillery in the First World War. I do find that from time to time I get fixed on a particular subject and tend to read a number of books on that matter.

The author joined up in 1916 and was posted as a very "green" second lieutenant to a newly raised gun battery. The battery served in France, Macedonia and Palestine before returning to France still together as a battery in 1918. By then the author was a captain and he and his battery of amateurs were hardened professional gunners.

The book is in the form of an edited diary and is a very good record of service with lots of interesting information on life in a gun battery. However at the end of the book the writer gives a number of essays on various aspects of artillery matters including for example, the relative merits of horses and mules. These essays are exceedingly interesting and are an excellent reference source.

Another highly recommended book.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 31.

 THE INVASION OF IRAN.

Following the Iranian invasion of Mexico in Spring of 1885 the UNION government decided to launch a retaliatory invasion of Iran. The instructions to the UNION army were to destroy the Iranian army and Republican Guard and devastate the infrastructure of Iran to ensure that Iran would be unable to initiate any military activities for many years. This strategy would include the forceful removal of the civilian population from the southern part of the country, the most agriculturally productive area with the majority of the population outside Tehran.

The date of the invasion was set for 1st October 1885. UNION army command decided to use a full army for the invasion with an additional army to follow up and take positions to the west facing the border between Iran and Syria to prevent that nation coming to the aid of its brothers. The 5th army was given the task of launching the invasion with 6th army from Fort Laramie providing the follow up force. During the summer a railhead was built just below the border on the railway between Mexico City and Acapulco. The 5th army objective was to advance to the Iranian capital Tehran destroying all armed resistance and driving the civilian population before it. UNION Pioneers would follow the advancing troops destroying all infrastructure, in effect creating a scorched earth. On reaching Tehran, that city would be devastated by massed artillery fire before troops would enter the city to complete the destruction. The armies would then withdraw leaving Iran in ruins. As the distance from the new railhead to Tehran was only 500 miles no supply railway would be built, UNION forces would rely on wagon transport throughout the campaign.

After the return of their troops from Mexico the Iranian government waited for the expected UNION retaliation. As time passed without any UNION response the Iranians became increasingly uneasy. Vague reports came in of a UNION military build up in Mexico but at no time did Iran ever expect the invasion that crashed over the border on 1st October. Vast columns of UNION troops swept into Iran along a one hundred mile front.  The civilian population had been moved away from the border regions back in Spring but only about ten miles. By the end of the first day UNION troops were seizing Iranian villages, forcing the people to pack up and driving them north without mercy. Small groups of Republican Guards guarding these villages were wiped out, no prisoners were being taken.

By 8th October UNION forces were 120 miles inside Iran and showing no signs of stopping. The Republican Guard and regular army were ordered south to stop the UNION onslaught. Regular army generals urged caution knowing full well that without heavy weapons they could not take on the mighty UNION army in a pitched battle. They urged instead the use of ambushes and hit and run tactics as so well used in Mexico. However the Iranian leadership demanded they attack the UNION army head on. On 12th October the combined regular army and Republican Guard, some 55,000 strong, dug in across the main road from Mexico about 270 miles south of Tehran. UNION cavalry watched the Iranians deploying and , after reporting to Command, the whole cavalry brigade moved to the east and, out of sight of the Iranians, moved behind the Iranian positions.

On the morning of 13th October the UNION army of around 57,000 came into battle formation in front of the Iranian positions. At noon the UNION artillery opened a massive bombardment on the Iranians. The barrage, from 16 battalions of field and heavy artillery,  continued for three hours by which time the Iranian positions had been obliterated and  half their troops were dead or wounded with the other half shell shocked and incapable of resistance. UNION infantry swept over the Iranian positions during the late afternoon. Some groups of Iranians fought to the last man, but UNION infantry, taking no prisoners as ordered, soon reached the small Iranian baggage train which was quickly destroyed. Most Iranians who were able to flee north soon ran into the cavalry blocking force and were wiped out, very few actually manged to escape the battlefield.

However, on the far eastern flank of the Iranian positions, a regular army colonel, realising the situation was hopeless, withdrew his command of about 1,000 men, mostly regulars, and moved quickly east then south behind the advancing UNION troops. Although he had expected to be defeated, even he was surprised by the power of the UNION army. He decided for the sake of his country he had to strike a counter blow and the UNION supply wagon trains to the south perhaps offered that opportunity. Leading his men slowly south mainly by night he searched for a target.

UNION casualties were 147 dead and 257 wounded while they buried over 50,000 Iranian dead on the battlefield during the following days as they prepared to resume the march north. In Tehran panic broke out within the government and leading members of society. The hated UNION had somehow wiped out their whole army and would clearly soon continue their advance on Tehran. The government called for all males of fighting age to gather to defend the nation. Aid was requested from the other Arab nations who rushed to help. During the rest of October and early in November around 90,000 men were collected to defend Tehran. Arming this mass however exhausted the stocks of weapons in the whole Arab world. In addition the humanitarian situation in Iran was rapidly deteriorating as thousands of refugees flooded into Tehran from the south. Food stocks began to run out despite the arrival of extra supplies from Syria and Iraq. The government had little choice but to force the refugees to continue to move north towards Iraq in search of safety.

Early in November UNION forces resumed the march to Tehran. Far to the south a small Iranian force, living on what little they could forage, watched heavily loaded UNION wagon trains moving north.

BOOK REVIEW: BRITISH ARTILLERY 1914-19

 Another book from my library. This is a good basic reference book which covers the British Army's guns during the First World War. 

The one thing that strikes me is the number of each gun actually manufactured. Every student of the war  is familiar with the concept of massed batteries, usually  with guns axle to axle firing endless bombardments. However the number of guns built is much lower than I expected. For example only 10,400 of the standard 18 lb were ever made. In comparison, the German 88mm flak, which I reviewed recently, had over 20,000 examples made, and that was by no means a standard field gun which were presumably made in even greater numbers. 

Overall an excellent text book, my only criticism being the very limited references to the limbers and ammunition wagons that accompanied every gun.

UPDATE.

 My wife and I have never subscribed to any form of social media for a number of reasons. One of them is that the airwaves seem to have a lot of strange people who's only pleasure is to fire off abusive rants rather than engage in sensible conversation.

I have to report that unfortunately my blog has attracted the attention of such a creature. I will not engage with this "person" and can only contrast their ridiculous tirade with the highly intelligent, well reasoned and valid comments from Archduke Piccolo that arrived the following day. AP had reservations about something I had written and took me to task but in a very agreeable manner. I hope he is happy with my response. I am always delighted to engage with those who have a different opinion or view than me, that's one way in which we learn. 

There is no place on this blog for the abusive ravings of a moron but there will always be a welcome for intelligent, reasoned and good willed comment whether it is positive or negative.

That said, this week has again not produced much modelling time. All I have managed to do in finally complete the cavalry upgrade and paint arm of service and rank insignia on the last heavy weapons upgrade batch.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 30.

 WAR WITH THE ARABS.

At the beginning of 1885  Iran,  supported by their brothers in Iraq and Syria, had decided the time was right to launch a full scale offensive in Mexico to bring that country into the Arab world. All of the Arab nations had small, poorly equip but surprisingly well trained regular armies. Each nation also possessed a large body of poorly trained but fanatical religious fundamentalists known as Republican Guards. The Iranian group had been for many years the driving force in the endless terrorist operations in Mexico. The Arab strategy until now had been to launch repeated small scale attacks to wear down UNION resolve thereby causing public opinion in the UNION to lose the will to continue the fight. After many years it was clear this approach had failed so the new strategy was to launch a full scale nationwide assault that would encourage the Mexican people to rise up against the UNION occupiers.

It was also decided that the Iranian regular army would spearhead the operations. For years that body had requested involvement in action in Mexico but had always been ignored in favour of the Guards. The army generals were now told they could have their chance. The army carefully planned the assaults and included contingents of the Syrian and Iraqi armies to give the required numbers. All assaults would be followed up by large masses of Guards however the strategy was to avoid any pitched battles with UNION troops given their overwhelming superiority in firepower.

On 21 March 1885 the invasion began with 27 small battalions of regular soldiers crossing the border along its full length. Each battalion was followed by a large force of Guards and had a town or village as its objective whilst avoiding the six heavily fortified UNION army outposts scattered in the border region, each of which contained an artillery battery and  three infantry companies. Over the next few days reports flowed into UNION command  from many places as the Iranians seized their objectives. Early on 25 March just as orders were being issued for a UNION response, every single UNION outpost came under heavy sniper fire from all sides in a well coordinated series of assaults. It was clear to UNION command this was far more than just another terrorist attack.

With over half the UNION forces in Mexico pinned down in six different outposts it was clear that task forces would need to be organised to sweep though the border region relieving each outpost and reoccupying the captured towns and villages. The three infantry battalions available in Mexico City , 49th, 52nd and 60th, were deemed sufficient to carry out this task and were set in motion on the morning of 30 March each taking a different area of operations. Over the next week the UNION battalions moved towards the border region under frequent sniper fire. During that week every UNION outpost suffered at least one mass assault by fanatical Republican Guards. Although all outposts were able to repel these attacks it was clear they were facing a numerous and determined enemy and relief was needed sooner rather than later. UNION reinforcements were needed.

On 2nd April the 19th UNION infantry brigade entrained at  Fort Bridger for Mexico with instructions to move swiftly towards the border area and relive the UNION outposts. On the morning of 4th April the UNION 52nd infantry battalion moving into the border region marched into a well organised Iranian regular army ambush. By the end of three hours fierce fighting the battalion had suffered 50% casualties and the ambushers had successfully disengaged with minimal losses. On the very next day about 20 miles south west the same thing happened to 60th infantry battalion although with only 30% casualties. After these disasters, the three battalions were ordered to withdraw to the railway for a return to Mexico City it being clear that the Arab forces were too strong for single battalions to fight successfully.

On 7th April 18th infantry brigade was also ordered to Mexico from Fort Bridger. UNION strategy would now be to use full brigade sized formations to sweep through the invaded areas. Next day, as 19th brigade was nearing the first UNION outpost to be relived, communication was lost with the outpost. About two hours later the leading elements of the brigade entered the outpost to find it had fallen. The area around the outpost was strewn with dead Arabs while inside the UNION garrison was found wiped out. However about 30 UNION soldiers were found together in a line clearly shot by some form of firing squad. Additionally each man had been mutilated. After securing the compound the brigade started a forced march to the other outposts.

Four of the remaining outposts were successfully relieved by 19th brigade but the last, reached on 18th April, was found to have already fallen to the Iranians. Once again it was clear that a number of UNION soldiers had been captured and then executed and mutilated. Around this time the 18th brigade had reached the first  Mexican town targeted for recapture. The Iranians had clearly withdrawn as the UNION forces approached. However a scene of carnage was discovered as the UNION troops moved through the town. It seemed that most of the population had been massacred in the town square. A few survivors were found hiding who described how the Iranians had brought all the people together and demanded they take up arms against the UNION and their own government. When the people refused the Revolutionary Guards started firing into the crowd  killing as many as they could as people fled in panic. It was only the approach of UNION troops that stopped the massacre.

As UNION troops advanced throughout the border region the same scenes greeted them in every town and village. In each case the Iranians had fallen back towards the border leaving massacred civilian populations. In those places with either the usual nominal Mexican army  or police forces,  the survivors of the garrisons had been executed and mutilated. The Iranians and their allies had found that far from being interested in revolution the Mexicans had been universally supportive of their government and the UNION and the benefits that came to them from being allies of the UNION. 

In Tehran and the other Arab capitals there was much rejoicing . Although their crusade had failed they were very happy with their military victories over the hated UNION troops. The Iranian soldiers and Guards were welcomed back as they streamed back over the border loaded with vast quantities of looted goods from Mexican towns. As a precaution against UNION retaliation, the border regions of Iran were cleared of civilians and troops to minimise the impact of the expected  UNION artillery bombardments while the Arab leaders congratulated themselves and discussed their next adventure.

As UNION forces took up positions near the Iranian border the UNION government considered what form of retaliation should be meted out to Iran. After absorbing all the reports of Iranian massacres of both UNION troops and Mexican civilians they decided that Iran should be wiped off the face of Tian.