BOOK REVIEW : GERMANY ASCENDANT.

 THE EASTERN FRONT 1915.

This is the second in the series of four books I recently purchased covering the war on the Eastern Front 1914-1921. Once again a well written and exhaustively researched book with huge detail.

1915 started with terrible battles in the Carpathian mountains which more or less completed the destruction of the kuk (Austrian-Hungarian army) which had started in 1914. Neither side made any progress other than to increase the already vast casualty lists. During the summer the Germans launched an offensive, partially to stop the total collapse of the kuk but also to push the Russians back thereby reducing the pressure on the Eastern front so they could concentrate on the West. The offensive was very successful and resulted in the capture of most of Poland.

Later in the year the Germans and kuk launched an invasion of Serbia which resulted in the occupation of that country and the escape of the Serbian army to Corfu. The year ended with Germany returning troops to the West, the Russians and kuk exhausted and suffering from almost 2 million casualties each.

Generally speaking we all know of the dreadful losses on the Western front but these books show that the casualties in the East were at least as great if not larger. The conditions were brutal given the weather and terrain especially in the mountains. Although the Germans mounted a very successful campaign, advancing many miles over the summer, it was still necessary for them to halt every 70 or so miles in order to bring up further supplies. Each stop gave the Russians time to build more defenses which then had to be overcome. 

As well as covering the fighting this book also goes into great detail about the politics, economics and strategies of the various nations which really adds to the overall value of this excellent and highly recommend series of books.

UPDATE.

 I have managed a reasonable amount of modelling time the past couple of weeks and have now completed upgrade 45 of 49. In fact number 46 is three parts done too. With so little left to do to bring the armies up to full strength I will soon be constructing the "production lists" for the new fourth army. I will share some figures from those lists when they are finished.

On another matter, my armies use what I call "house bodied" wagons and heavy trailers in a variety of configurations. These include office, medical, signals and workshop  vehicles. I have always "imagined" some of these vehicles to be fitted with tent like awnings that can be "unrolled" so as to provide additional weatherproof working space. Over the years I have experimented with a number of structures to try to represent these awnings but nothing has been satisfactory....till now !!!!

When looking in my workshop drawers for some wall plugs recently, I came across some  old plastic "rawlplug" strips. These are about 12 inches long (300mm) and can be cut to length for use with extra long screws. They come in different colour coded thicknesses. After a bit of thought I cut up a strip, filled the central screw pilot hole with filler and fitted the pieces to a couple of wagons. The result is below.

I used the "red" thickness. These strips are not often seen in shops nowadays but are readily available online and are not expensive. I hope the picture is clear enough to see the painted strips on the wagon roof. I think this is the best way of representing rolled up awnings that I have found yet. However, before undertaking the task of retro fitting a few hundred wagons, I would appreciate readers views on this idea, does it look right ????

As some of you will know Archduke Piccolo has been wargaming a campaign based on my Imagi-Nations series. The battle reports are really good and the next installment is due shortly. I encourage all to visit his blog.

BOOK REVIEW: COLLISION OF EMPIRES.

THE WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT IN 1914.

 

 Sometime ago I reviewed a book from my library about the Eastern Front during WW1.  As a result I decided I needed to learn more about these fascinating campaigns. After some research I found a series of four books written  by Prit Buttar, who is a distinguished British based historian of the Eastern Front in both wars. This is the first of that set of books and covers the fighting in 1914.

The book is very well written and seriously well researched. Although it focuses on the actual battles it also covers the leading personalities and the political and economic situations in the three main protagonists, Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. The see-saw nature of the fighting, the dreadful loss of life and the terrible ground conditions are also discussed in depth.

It is clear that the fighting of 1914 broke the back of the kuk ( Austria-Hungary) army. A rather fragile force to start with, it never quite recovered from the huge casualties it sustained in those first few months. In fact I had not realised just how heavy the casualty lists were. We are all clear as to the size of the loss on the Western Front but in fact those on the Eastern Front were equally large and in fact, the number of prisoners, on all sides,  was much greater than in the West.

Although there was significant trench fighting it was on a much lower level than in the West. The distances involved meant there was always a flank that could be turned. Logistic issues also played a major role particularly in the offense where it proved impossible for an advance to go further than about 70 miles beyond railhead without a substantial pause for the railhead to move forward. In fact the Eastern campaign was always a war of maneuver similar to the first few months of 1914 in the West.

Overall an excellent book about a comparatively unknown campaign and highly recommended if you want to know about the Eastern Front in WW1.

UPDATE.

 With the advent of winter fast approaching I am getting a bit more time for modelling. In that respect I have now completed 43 upgrades out of the total of 49. The strength of the armies has now reached 59,040 with a target of 60,278.

Within the upgrades there has been only one that required more vehicles and equipment. This was the addition of an extra company to the three Heavy Weapons battalions. Each new company required two limbers, caissons and heavy machine guns and an ammunition wagon. These vehicles have been constructed as seen below. In addition, while issuing mounted corporals to the Field Police battalions a week or so ago, I found that one battalion was short of a GS wagon. I have no idea how that happened but a new wagon was constructed at the same time and can be seen on the top right of the photo.

It has occured to me that some of my readers may never have seen all my very old posts. As some of these, in my humble opinion, are interesting, it occurred to me to update and re-publish some of those posts. The first one was on Artillery Observation Wagons which I posted a few days ago. Over the coming weeks and months I will also be re-publishing and updating those posts relating to the organisational structure of my armies. Many changes have taken place since the original posts were drafted so I get to kill two birds with one stone.

Finally I feel I must share an interesting experience. Apart from starting this blog to share my armies with others, I have long wondered about exhibiting my soldiers at a wargame show. I sought advice on this idea and it was suggested to me that instead I should offer an article to one of the mainstream wargame magazines. Thinking this a good idea I sent a draft, with photos, to Miniature Wargames magazine.

The response included the words " pretty bonkers".  So maybe not such a good idea after all then !!!!   

I think  I will just stick to the blog from now on !!!!

BOOK REVIEW: SURGEON WITH THE KAISER'S ARMY.

 

This is a super book. I found it while trawling on Amazon for new publications. It is edited by the authors grandson having been originally written in the early 1960's.

The author was a medical student when he was drafted into the German army early in 1914. As a fully trained soldier by the outbreak of war he served on the Western Front before his regiment was transferred to the Russian front. Soon after going into battle during the German offensive in November 1914 he was wounded. By that time he had been selected for officer training. During his convalescence it was noted that he had been a medical student so he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Medical corp.

Despite not having completed his medical training he served the rest of the war as an army doctor on the Western Front. His experiences over the next few years are a fascinating, extraordinary and very illuminating record of Germany at war. Throughout the book he discusses the war from the German perspective and provides a very different view of the war, its origins and its progress from that we may be used to reading.

After the war he returned to university to complete his medical training and became a highly qualified and successful  doctor. However as a Jew he found the rise of the Nazi's intolerable and became an outspoken critic of Hitler. He left Germany and came to England  in 1933 following a tip off that the Gestapo were on their way to arrest him.

He continued his career as a Harley Street surgeon and served in the British army during the Second World War running a military hospital with the rank of Colonel.

This is without doubt one of the best books I have read for a long time. It is very well written and describes not only a fascinating war record but also gives a refreshing general view of the war from a German perspective. Highly recommended.

ARTILLERY OBSERVATION WAGON.

Sometime ago I was reading a book where a German artillery officer of early 1914 described using the "observation wagon " to locate British troops. I know the practice of British artillery officers was to use an up turned limber to see further but had not seen reference to a specialised  observation wagon. Such a vehicle sounded very suitable for my army. 

After some research I  found photos of such a vehicle in German service in WW2 but the photo showed the vehicle in the travelling mode. After more digging I at last found a photo of a vehicle from WW1 actually in use showing clearly a telescopic ladder mounted on top of a box like two wheeled trailer. 

I decided to provide my artillery battalions with this equipment. As a basis my standard box trailer was clearly  perfect.  I also use this vehicle as a base for field kitchens, signals and medical trailers and ammunition caissons. Each is distinguished by means of an addition such as a smoke stack, aerial , red cross or spare wheel. The obvious requirement for an observation wagon would be a ladder mounted horizontally in a travelling position. Next question, where to source ladders ?? especially over 40, that being the number of artillery battalions I have in service. I knew I could get ladders from a model railway shop but at what cost ??

I concluded I needed some sort of mesh which could be cut up into suitable scale ladders. Nothing obvious came to mind so I just started looking. A few days later during a visit to Poundland I spotted a pack of two fly swotters for a pound. This looked like my raw material. On getting home I attacked the swots with my modelling knife and soon enough had produced some 118 perfect ladders. After attaching  to a wagon body and painting this is the result.

Since then I have built many of these vehicles which now equip all 42 of my field and horse artillery battalions and regiments.