BOOK REVIEW: TO THE LIMIT.

 AN AIR CAV HUEY PILOT IN VIETNAM.

Another book from my library. This one recounts the experiences of a helicopter pilot in 1967-68. The authors story is fairly typical  and reflects the severe danger that Huey pilots endured. The average death rate among US military personnel was 1 in 45 but for helicopter pilots it was a staggering 1 in 18.

The book clearly describes life as a pilot, and gives really good accounts of heavy combat operations as well as a lot about day to day life. The only thing I don't like is the "conversations" the author includes. Many of these are clearly intended to give background information about himself but they come across in a very stilted, unrealistic way that is just not  credible. Otherwise the book is well written.

The classic account of helicopter piloting in Vietnam is of course "Chickenhawk" which I also have in the library.  This book is not to that standard but is still a good read and illustrates well the particular horrors of  the Vietnam war.

UPDATE.

It has been several weeks since I last gave an update. I seem to have been very busy although as usual I really struggle to remember everything I have been up to !!!!

I have been engaged in some substantial work in the front garden. We decided to remove the brick pavers at the side and front of the house. These had been down many years and we have been experiencing puddles at various places when we get heavy rain. Clearly the water was no longer draining away properly. Anyway the pavers were dug up over the course of several days and taken to the local tip. (15 trips altogether but still a lot cheaper than hiring a skip !!!!)  The ground was levelled and a number of soakaways were dug and filled with broken bricks. The whole lot was then covered in a little over a ton of small gravel.

In addition a couple of small conifer trees were dug up and the small flower beds in the front were also removed and gravelled over. The end result is a much tidier and nicer looking front and side and hopefully the elimination of the puddling issue. The whole exercise involved the hardest work I have done for some years but to my surprise I suffered little which at my age was somewhat of a bonus !!!!

On the modelling front I have continued to build vehicles and paint soldiers for my new fourth army. I have now added some 2500 soldiers towards the new army since starting last year.  Currently in hand is a batch of 40 house bodied command wagons as shown below. Construction is complete and painting is about to start. 

I am also currently working on a cavalry regiment and yet another infantry battalion.

Readers may have noticed I have started reviewing books about Vietnam recently. It has been some time since I read any books about that war and I wanted a change of subject. As I have another four books yet to review I hope readers will continue to find the reviews interesting.

Lastly, I have noticed that some of the blogs I follow have not had new posts for some time. There has been discussion that some blog authors are not getting the feedback to encourage them to write as regularly as before. I have certainly noticed a drop off in the number of "hits" I am getting since the start of the year. Maybe it is about society opening up and people having more to do with their time now the pandemic is fading away rather than a loss of interest generally.  Any thoughts ???

CONSTRUCTION OF GS WAGONS.

HOW I MAKE AND PAINT GS WAGONS.

                                                                                                    

Having completed yet another batch of GS wagons I  photographed the whole process of construction and painting  so I can now share these with readers.

GS wagons are the most numerous vehicle in my armies. The total required for the army I am currently constructing is over 450. For the three armies already existing to date I have built almost 1400 !!!! The primary historical reference for these vehicles is the British mark X GS wagon made in large part by the Bristol Wagon Works and used in vast numbers in WW1 but I have also been influenced by the US army's Escort wagon and the products of both Studebaker and Murphy Brothers.

Construction starts with the cutting of balsa blocks. These are 30mm long and 15mm wide and are cut from 9mm thick planks as shown on the left of the photo below. I then take toilet tissue and cut small squares/oblongs which I screw up between my fingers as shown in the middle left and middle right of the photo below. These lumps are then glued to the approximate centre of the balsa blocks as seen on the right. The process is kept rough and non exact so as to ensure the lumps are all slightly different in size and shape as you can see in the photo.These lumps depict the cargo load in the wagons. 

The next stage is to create the canvas tilt cover to the wagon. I use the brown paper that comes from the large paper sacks in which we buy sunflower hearts to feed our garden birds !!!!!!!! These sacks are two ply and I use the inner ply. However you can of course just use regular brown wrapping paper too, I am just addicted to repurposing anything and everything I can to provide raw materials for my modelling activities because I am just odd like that !!!!  The idea behind using brown paper is simply that I have found it to be just the right consistency for this purpose. The paper is best used crumpled and a bit used, it then looks and creases more realistically.  

The photo below shows the roughly cut oblong of paper which is then glued onto the wagon body using hot melt glue around the edges. The paper is quickly and carefully pressed onto the hot melt glue to ensure a good bond all around. Any surplus glue oozes out and creases are created all at the same time. Practice will make perfect but be careful as hot melt glue is very hot and sticks to the fingers, and that hurts !!!!! The final stage of this bit of the process is to trim the brown paper tilt after the glue has gone cold as shown on the right side of the photo below. This can be done easily with sharp scissors which will also cut away any oozed out glue. After making hundreds of these wagons I have never found any two with the same exact pattern of creases which I think adds a lot to the aesthetics of the models.

The next stage  is to treat the end grain of the balsa wagon blocks  with sealer. I use MDF sealer which I find does a good job. This stuff is water based and soaks in well and drys quickly. The idea is to ensure a good painting surface that does not soak up gallons of expensive enamel paint, and it looks better too. I apply sealer at this stage because it is easier to file the end grain smooth after the sealer has dried  rather than later when other elements have been added. I follow the same process with all balsa block vehicles and equipments. For filing the end grain I use emery boards which are actually more effective for this particular task than my Excel belt sander as they are wider and do not create grooves if used too energetically.

The next step in the construction process is to add the shaft. These are made from long (average length 58mm.) flat toothpicks as shown below. Unfortunately these are only available in the USA but most large supermarkets over there stock them. I have bought large quantities over the course of a number of trips over several years. They can however be purchased on the interweb but the postage is high. Of course the best solution is to  actually visit the US or know someone going there !!!!. Please bear in mind that the wastage is high. You will find only at best a third of the contents are good enough to actually use so buy plenty.

Having glued the shaft on, next steps are to glue on the wheels and a towing hook made from a Bambi staple, also readily available online. In addition you will also need to cut and fix a block of 5mm thick balsa to the shaft on which you can mount the horses in due course. These elements are all shown in the photo below.

One last step before we  move on to the painting process is to trim the horse mounting block. I find that when fitting these blocks they are never quite square, therefore , to ensure the horses are fixed straight and level they need to be carefully trimmed by eye using a craft knife or the belt sander. Please ensure you trim the balsa block only and not your thumbs !!!!!!!!! I have a leather thumb stool but rarely remember to use it. Don't be dumb like me !!!!!!!! Once that is done painting can start. The first job of that process is to prime the wheels and the towing hook as seen below.

At the same time I also cut out the horse blanks needed to supply the batch of vehicles I am building and  prime them too. I find that partially painting the horses before fixing improves the strength of the glue joint. Therefore I  paint most of the inner surface of the horses. Do not forget that you will need mirror image horses for each side. The way I cover this is to paint either head up or head down. If you look carefully at the photo below you will see exactly what I mean by this expression.

Next job is to paint the wagons, in my case, olive drab.

At the same time I paint the horses brown, still one side only, again head up or down. Although my wife complains that my horses should be in a variety of colours, I decided long ago to have a standard "issue" horse colour, Humbrol Burnt Leather.

The next stage is to glue the horses to the wagons, ensuring you glue the painted side in. As soon as the glue has dried , the rest of the horse, that is the edges, outside and inside of the head can be primed and then painted brown just as soon as the primer has dried.

Almost there  !!!! Next job is to fix the twisted wire "harness" around the horses as shown below. I buy this wire online, there are many suppliers, just look for twisted wire. I originally used the sealing wire used on franking machine but that is no longer available in the UK. I just make a small hole in the wagon body and then bend the wire in my fingers then push home. Usually I can do it easily but occasionally there is a hard bit of balsa so then I just use pliers to push the wire home. I find no glue is needed. Be careful not to apply too much pressure to the horses during this operation or you will be re-attaching them  again and again and again !!!!

At this point I have a confession. The sharp eyed reader may have noticed that the photos above and  below are different in that the spare wheel has magically appeared on the vehicles below !!!!!! Despite the 1000 plus GS wagons I have now made , I actually forgot to fit the spare wheels to this batch until I was just about to paint the wheels black. I had to hastily fit the wheels and prime them. In fact, the spare wheels need to be added at the same time as the other wheels. I use no glue, just push fit the pins.

The very last job is to paint all wheels black as shown in the photo below. I only paint the outside of the spare wheel black. I paint the underside olive drab like the wagon, it's just easier.

The basic principles of construction and painting described above apply to virtually all the other vehicles and equipments I build. Unlike some of my other vehicles and equipments, the construction process for GS wagons is quite lengthy and complex. Given the quantities I make it may even seem arduous I guess to some readers. However the end results do look really good. To see hundreds of vehicles lined up alongside thousands of soldiers is what, being odd I suppose, gives me a buzz.

BOOK REVIEW: DOC: PLATOON MEDIC.

 Having exhausted my supply of new books I have turned to re-reading books from my library but decided to have a change of subject and look again at some of my large collection of Vietnam War books.

The author was drafted in 1968 and trained as a medic. He was posted to the 4th battalion 39th Infantry which was made famous by its illustrious commanding officer David Hackworth  also known as "Mister Infantry." Hackworth was a well known figure in the US Army of that era and his autobiography is a classic of Vietnam literature. Hackworth believed that even the average American draftee soldier could be victorious against the Communist enemy provided they were correctly trained and led. The author of this book was one of those soldiers and provides the soldiers view of that very successful strategy.

 Unfortunately for the US Army, Hackworth's example was not followed by other senior officers and he was consigned to professional oblivion by his peers who found his hard driving personality just too hard to handle. He was eventually forced to resign his commision following an unauthorised press interview where he laid out in great detail the failures of senior US Army officers which had resulted in the US losing in Vietnam.

Back to the book....the author provides a fantastic insight into combat in Vietnam with obviously a focus on the activities of medics in particular. The sheer misery of that war for the average US combat soldier is laid out in great detail and leaves the reader with a good understanding of why so many US soldiers who fought in Vietnam are still suffering to this day from the effects of their tour of duty. He also recounts the initial hatred  the soldiers of the 4/39th had for Hackworth before they realised that, in fact, Hackworths methods were working. From a situation where they rarely even saw the enemy but suffered constant casualties to a new reality where they started to inflict heavy losses on the North Vietnamese is clearly discussed.

The role of the medic is covered in depth and in the process the author provides a clear understanding of the bloody nature of combat in Vietnam. This is a really great book about the service of a very highly decorated medic in Vietnam and is highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: RADIO OPERATOR ON THE EASTERN FRONT.

 AN ILLUSTRATED MEMOIR, 1940-1949.

When I bought the book last reviewed, this one also came up. As it looked interesting I bought it too and I was not disappointed.

The author was a Sudeten German and was drafted in late 1940. He served with the 61st East Prussian Infantry Division as a radio operator through most of the war on the northern flank of the Eastern front. He took part in Operation Barbarossa, advancing through Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia into Russia to the siege of Leningrad and back again as the Russians counter attacked in early 1944. 

By late 1944 the division was moved to East Prussia. In January 1945 the author was sent on leave which meant he was then unable to rejoin his division when it was soon after cut off at Konigsberg and subsequently destroyed in April 1945.  However before his leave had even fully expired he was drafted into a reinforcement battalion and sent to Silesia where he was captured by the Russians on 10th May. He then spent the next four years as a slave labourer in Siberia before finally being released  and arriving back in Germany in October 1949.

The author states that he has no great adventures to recount or unusual stories to tell however he does himself a great disservice. His story is in fact an amazing account of combat on the Eastern Front. He does not hesitate to describe what he saw in graphic detail and certainly this book really tells in great detail what the average German soldier experienced in fighting Russia. He says his experiences of life as a prisoner would fill another book and uses only one paragraph to cover those four years of misery. Unfortunately, that second book was never written.

The book,  as is often the case with memoirs, is well illustrated with lots of the authors previously unpublished photos including quite a few of his comrades graves. Many of the photos show vehicles and equipment which is always of interest. Yet again the reader is left wondering how this man managed to survive four years of combat and then another almost four and a half years of Russian captivity, especially as barely ten percent of German prisoners ever got to return home.

A great book, well written and highly recommended. 

BOOK REVIEW: MORTAR GUNNER ON THE EASTERN FRONT.

VOLUME 11:  RUSSIA, HUNGARY, LITHUANIA AND THE BATTLE FOR EAST PRUSSIA. 

Readers may recall my review of Volume 1 of this autobiography some months ago. That was purchased cheaply in The Works. This second volume was available from Amazon but at full price. Recently I noticed it had been reduced so I used a gift card I received at Christmas to make the purchase.

Once again a good read. Another account of the desperate fighting on the Eastern Front against a far more numerous and more lavishly equipped enemy which always makes me wonder how any German soldier ever survived the vicious fighting against Russia.  The author managed, with a few others, in the final chaotic days of the war to disengage from the Russians, and travel west until he was able to surrender to US troops.  As a member of the infamous Grossdeutschland division he was under no illusions as to his fate if captured by the Russians.  After a brief period of captivity he was able to return home in July 1945, one of the few members of his division to survive the war.

One of the most interesting features of this book is the large number of photos, never before published , from the authors private records. These include lots of illustrations of maps, orders,  award documents, propaganda leaflets and suchlike which are fascinating in their own right, together with many general photos of the author and his comrades and their vehicles and equipment usually at rest or on the road.

Another well written book on the titanic struggle between Germany and Russia.