UPDATE.

Since my last update I am still struggling to find much modelling time. Despite lockdown we seem to remain busy with daily walks and afternoons spent watching the TV or falling asleep !!!!!!! That said I have managed to complete the last of the original upgrade batches of 192 Pioneers. This now brings my three armies up to their authorised strength of 51,696. The final batch of GS wagons has been constructed and now await painting. 

I have completed drafting the painting schedules for the new upgrades previously mentioned. There are 46  batches of new soldiers bringing the three armies to a revised strength of 59,816. With the eventual addition of a fourth army and some new units for the first three armies, made possible by construction of a new display unit, the total strength of the army will rise to something over 80,000. The final number will depend on how many shelves I can build into the new unit. 

On that front, my wife has agreed the location for the new unit but has requested a different approach to the new bookcase I have to build. As mentioned before, the new unit will occupy space currently used by a bookcase. With the number of books we both have, it is impossible to lose a bookcase so I had planned to build a new one in another bedroom. That idea has been rejected.  Instead she has asked for a freestanding unit, perhaps incorporating a seat, in the spare room. I now need to get my woodworking hat on to design a suitable structure.

When I eventually get round to the construction  stage I will photograph progress and publish updates on the blog. Not really modelling but they may be of interest to readers. Any views on that idea would be very welcome.

BOOK REVIEW. VOICES FROM THE NAPOLEONIC WARS.

This is a book from my library read again while waiting to unwrap a batch of new books at Christmas. The book consists of 14 eyewitness accounts of military life in the early 1800's collected by the editor from contemporary writings.

The individual authors consist of both British and French officers, NCO's and privates. Their experiences cover a wide variety of battles and campaigns although as might be expected these accounts are not of battles in their entirety but reflect the very limited perspective of the individual himself. In that sense they give a wonderful insight into Napoleonic warfare and the harshness of military life in those days.

The most interesting aspect of almost all the accounts is that despite the appalling hardships they faced the authors found their time as soldiers to be the highlight of their lives and looked back with great fondness on their service and comrades in arms. I suspect something similar still persists among veterans today. As the years pass, hardships and terror are forgotten to some extent while the good times become even better. How interesting is the human mind !!!!!

For information the writers are as follows:

With Napoleon in Italy 1800.  Jean-Roch Coignet. 96th Demi-Brigade

A Foot Soldier in Egypt 1801. Sergeant David Robertson. 92nd Foot.

The Road to Corunna 1808-9 Rifleman Benjamin Harris. 95th Rifles.

A Dragoon in the Peninsula. 1809. Captain Thomas C. Fenton. 4th Dragoons,

Wagram. 1809. Marshal Jaques Macdonald. V Corps, Army of Italy.

Diary of a Cavalry Officer in the Peninsular. 1810. Lt. William Tomkinson. 16th Light Dragoons.

The Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. 1812. Lt William Grattan. 88th Foot.

Triumph and Tragedy: Salamanca and Burgos 1812. Capt. William Bragge. 3rd Dragoons.

Fighting the Redcoats. 1812-15. Corporal Samual Stubbs. Kentucky Militia.

The Retreat from Moscow. 1812-3. General Louis-Francois Lejeune. 1 Corps, Grande Armee.

Vitoria. 1813. Ensign George Hennell. 43rd Foot.

The Only Regiment of English. 1813. Sergeant Thomas Morris. 73rd Regiment.

The Battle of the Nations; Leipzig 1813. General Jean-Baptiste Marbot. 23rd Chaussers a Cheval

An Artilleryman at Waterloo. 1815. Capt. Alexander Cavalie Mercer. RHA.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 34.

 CATASTROPHE IN IRAN.

During mid December advancing UNION forces had moved round Tehran to the west and rejoined the road north towards Iraq. Although UNION cavalry had preceded them the road was still crowed with refugees. The 17th infantry brigade led the UNION army preceded by a mounted field police squadron who moved the refugees off the road into the fields on the western side of the road to allow the infantry to pass.  At 11.15am on the morning of 19th December as the foremost infantry battalion ( 77th ) passed by a particularly dense mass of refugees, five men carrying large rucksacks ran from the crowds towards the marching infantry. They threw themselves into the ranks of infantry and in the space of seconds each man exploded a suicide bomb.

On hearing and feeling the force of the explosions the police wheeled about and galloped the few hundred yards back. As the smoke and dust cleared they realised that the attack had come from the crowds of refugees. Immediately dismounting they poured a heavy rifle fire into the crowds. As the uninjured infantrymen gathered their wits they too started firing into the crowds. Companies of the following 51st infantry battalion rushed forward, formed ranks and also opened fire on the refugees even bringing a heavy machine gun into action. For some considerable time the fire continued unabated until senior UNION officers managed to call a ceasefire.

The scene facing the UNION commanders was horrific. The road was strewn with dead and wounded UNION soldiers for almost 300 yards while in the fields to the east lay literally thousands of dead and wounded Iranian refugees. Immediately UNION battalion medical teams rushed forward. Shortly after a UNION medical battalion set up nearby and began treating the wounded UNION soldiers.  The brigade commander also arrived at the scene and was shocked not only by the casualties among his men but also at the sight of thousands of civilian dead and wounded., He ordered the medical commander to start treating the civilians too. The UNION army commander ordered a halt to the advance and instructed the army to establish a screen of defensive positions just south of the massacre site.

UNION infantry excavated mass graves and under medical instruction began to bury the dead civilians. Many of the wounded could not be helped and were given morphine and left to die. UNION wounded were evacuated by supply trains and ambulances back to railhead.  Many weapons and other bomb filled rucksacks were found among the civilians, clearly a number of fighters had been in the crowds although none were identified among the wounded. After three days the final death tolls were announced. 255 UNION soldiers had died with a further 309 wounded. However some 17,087 Iranian civilians, men, women and children had died with another 8,467 wounded. 

Reports of the suicide bombings and subsequent massacre soon arrived in Rio Diego. The government and army were shocked at the use of suicide bombs and the appalling massacre of Iranian refugees. As news of the events appeared in UNION newspapers the public soon expressed their anger and horror. Both the British and Canadians were outraged at the massacre, even Mexico expressed concern. It seemed that whilst all were appalled at the use of suicide bombs and the loss of UNION soldiers, the resulting massacre was seen as a far greater horror. The UNION army in Iran spent a very unhappy Christmas in the field.

On 2nd January 1886 under instructions from the government, the disillusioned 5th UNION army began a slow withdrawal from Iran. The scorched earth policy was however to be continued. Even more than before, the UNION wanted to ensure that the southern portion of Iran was turned into an uninhabitable wasteland. On 4th January the UNION 6th army, deployed to the south west facing Syria, came under intense attack from the Syrian regular army supported by masses of  republican guards militia.

BOOK REVIEW: HISTORY OF THE ARMY ORDNANCE SERVICES.

 

This book is the second of the batch I purchased recently from Naval Military Press. Originally written in about 1924 in three volumes, this is a modern compilation reprint of all three volumes. As such it is over 1,000 pages long and took some times to read. The author served in the Ordnance department throughout the First World War and wrote the book after the armistice while serving as chief of the inspection branch.

The first volume deals with the origins of the Ordnance service right back to Tudor times. The second volume covers "modern" times from the Crimea war to 1914. The third volume covers the Great War. The level of detail as you might expect is amazing. Apart from the obvious even such matters as the origins and history of uniforms is discussed in great depth as well as the development of weapons and the organisation of the British army over the years.

I reviewed a book a while ago on the history of the Indian army ordnance department. I commented on the corruption that existed and this book illustrates not only the levels that existed in the British army of the 18th and 19th centuries but actually explains the origins of the administrative processes that allowed the rise of such malpractices.

The chapters on the First World War provide much useful background information on the extraordinary efforts made by the British in manufacturing munitions and the sheer quantities of other materials produced to sustain the war effort.

Overall a wonderful reference book and well worth while wading through provided, like me, you like to understand military logistics and administration.

UPDATE.

Happy new year to all. I am sure we all look forward to a better 2021 than 2020 turned out to be, hurry up with my vaccine please !!!!! Since my last update before Christmas I again have had little modelling time. Despite the lack of normal festive activities we seemed to remain busy although I confess I have no idea what we actually did to pass the time.

That said I have spent some time reviewing the organisational structure of my armies and have identified a number of new potential upgrades. Most of these involve the introduction of the rank of corporal to the armies. I have long thought there should be a "senior" soldier grade and having corporals seems to fulfill this need while also improving the command structure and of course increasing the size of my forces, always a major ambition. In addition I have decided to increase the size of Heavy Weapons battalions and QM Transport Companies . The net effect of the introduction of all this is to increase the strength of all three existing armies by a total of around 6,600. 

Additionally I plan to build the new fourth display unit a few shelves larger than the current structures. This will enable an increase in the number of Cavalry regiments and Heavy Weapons battalions in each army as well as obviously allowing for a fourth army. These extra battalions and regiments will add another 1,500 soldiers to the totals  giving an overall strength, including a brand new fourth army, of a little over 80,000. That said my wife is not keen on my plans for another display unit so I clearly have some more work to do on that matter. 

In the meantime I can make a start on the "corporal" upgrades to keep me occupied for the time being. Unfortunately there are few additional vehicles needed which is a shame as just painting thousands of soldiers can become monotonous without the fun of constructing and painting vehicles. That said I have always imagined that my heavy "house" bodied wagons and trailers, as used for medical, command, signals and workshop purposes, were equipped with fold up canvas extensions stored on the roof that could be folded down to provided additional working space much like awnings on caravans today. I think I shall now design some sort of fitting to represent that idea and fit the result on each of this class of vehicle. Building and painting such extras will be quite a substantial task and give me another source of modelling fun.

At present I am working on the very last of the "old" upgrades to my armies. This consists of a batch of 35 GS wagons and about 190 new Pioneers. The GS wagon bodies have been built as shown below.

The next steps will be to add the "pole", wheels including a spare and the horse mounting block before moving on to painting. The Pioneers have been fully painted with the standard uniform colour as shown below.

The next steps here will be rank and arm of service colours then varnishing. When these two sets of work are complete my current three armies will be finished to existing organisation tables with a total strength of 51,696 soldiers. As always any comments on any of the above would be very welcome indeed.

IMAGI-NATIONS. PART 33.

 THE DEFENSE OF TEHRAN.

Soon after the initial invasion of Iran, UNION command had realised that the cavalry forces available to 5th army in particular were insufficient. Therefore the cavalry brigades of 1st and 7th armies had been ordered to Iran. They arrived at the front before Tehran on 6th December as the UNION army took up assault positions only seven miles from the outskirts of the city. The three UNION cavalry brigades were instructed to move around the western edge of Tehran and intercept the huge columns of refugees leaving the city. Their instructions were to harry the refugees along their way and seek out and destroy any armed fighters found. Also around this time the government of Syria decided to move their army and Guard towards the frontier with a view to an attack on the western flank of the UNION invasion. In Iraq the government, shocked at the destruction of the Iranian army in October, ordered their army to move to the border with Iran and prepare to defend against a UNION invasion.

In Tehran Suleiman faced an impossible task. At least half of his untrained but fanatical army refused to accept his orders and moved out of the city to face the UNION forces with a view to launching an attack. The rest of his fighters he ordered to dig in inside the city. He concluded that house to house fighting offered more chance of success than meeting the UNION army in the field. However his efforts to deploy his forces were hampered by the literally millions of refugees pouring into the city from the south and the millions more, including the government and religious leaders,  leaving the city towards the north. Rather than being able to prepare defensive positions in the city he found his fighters acting as traffic marshals trying to control vast crowds of people pouring through the city streets.

On the morning of 10th December UNION heavy artillery started to bombard the city. As the heavy shells fell on streets crowed with refugees, destroying buildings and causing huge casualties the situation in Tehran rapidly descended into chaos. In the afternoon when UNION field artillery began to pound the southern edge of the city the situation deteriorated even further. Huge crowds of refugees to the south of the city rushed into the city centre into a nightmare of collapsing and burning buildings and streets strewn with rubble and dead. Overnight the artillery barrage continued without a break. As refugees rushed to escape the city towards the north, many of the fighters in the city by design or accident joined up in the exodus.

During the whole of the following day the same scenes were repeated as shells fell throughout the city which was now burning fiercely. Suleiman realised he could not defend the city and decided to abandon it. He left with those of his fighters as he could muster during the night. By morning of 12th December the city was a blazing wreak. All those who were still alive had left with only stragglers remaining trying to shelter in cellars. To the south of the city the large force of fighters facing the UNION army had watched in horror as their capital city was destroyed behind them. Now on the morning of 12th they had had enough and in their anger and hatred launched an uncoordinated but fierce assault on the UNION positions.

They were met with a hurricane of heavy weapons and rifle fire and point blank field gun discharges. Within an hour the attack had collapsed and the survivors had fled into the remains of the city leaving almost 30,000 dead and wounded on the field. UNION casualties were 16 wounded. UNION commanders decided that any advance into the city would be far too dangerous so held their positions and ordered the artillery bombardment to continue for the rest of the day and overnight.

The bombardment ceased at dawn on 13th December. UNION troops again held their positions all day but on the morning of 14th patrols began a very cautious advance into the city. As they moved in orders were issued to dispatch any wounded Iranian fighters found from the assault of the 12th. When they entered the city they found it deserted of any living thing. Buildings were continuously collapsing and fires still raged. Command decided it was still too dangerous so withdrew the troops. It was decided the army would move round the city to the west and commence an advance towards Iraq. Pioneer battalions were left outside the city to move in and complete the total destruction of the city as soon as they considered it safe to do so.

In the meantime UNION cavalry had moved around the city and had swept along the road from the city towards Iraq causing mayhem among the millions of refugees fleeing north.