I have been to.... Norway

We've been to Norway a couple of times already but just the south (Oslo, Bergen etc) , this time we took the plunge with a Hurtigruten cruise up to Svalbard and back. Hurtigruten mainly run the ferry service up and down the coast, so the cruise facilities are a bit basic but fine. They make lots of port stops to pick up and drop off cargo, so you get to visit loads of places which are otherwise pretty inaccessible. 

As ever, I'll focus on stuff primarily of historical interest. 

After setting off from Bergen in pouring rain (as usual) we pitched up at Andalsnes, scene of the disastrous British/French landings in April 1940. The town is down at the head of fjiord at the bottom of the mountain. 

The local war memorial has an awful lot of names for such a small place. 

The town was largely destroyed in the war, but there is a model of Andalsnes as it was in 1940 in the local library. Unfortunately it was closed so I could only take a photo through the window. 

There are also a lot of trolls around! This one was guarding the car park outside some flats... 

We crossed the Arctic Circle  north of Andalsnes, this marker shows the boundary as we sailed past. 

To safely navigate the arctic, we had to placate the sea god Njord (in the yellow hat) by making a sacrifice. This involving tipping a ladle full of ice down our necks. Brrr! But we did get a certificate.... 

We stopped briefly in Bodo and I spotted this rather sleek frigate. 

We stopped at quite a few places in the Lofoten Islands. This is Reine. The islands were the scene of a number of commando raids in the war, attacking oil storage facilities including fish oil. 

One of many statues of Roald Amundson, this one is in Tromso. 

In the middle of that island in the distance  is the Tirpitz memorial, just outside Tromso. The wreck is on the bottom. I didn't get a chance to go to the Tirpitz museum as it is well out of town and we only had a couple of hours as the ship made a passenger stop then a cargo stop.

Also spotted in Tromso was a six wheeler Unimog command bus. This one was clearly being used as a camper van as it had solar panels on the roof! 

And straight out of "Where Eagles Dare" is this fabulous old cable car carriage. I can just imagine Richard Burton swinging off the roof. Oddly it was mounted on a trailer, I think it is used as a mobile coffee shop in summer. 

This was as far north as we went on mainland Norway, Henningsvag, the northernmost city in mainland Europe, although Hammerfest disputes this. The town was almost entirely destroyed by the Germans as they retreated from the Russians advancing  from Archangel in 1944 with only the church surviving. It was rebuilt after the war.  It is a fairly short drive from here to the North Cape itself. 

The local museum included a clipping from the Daily Mail about the Battle of North Cape. 

North Cape itself, a pretty impressive spot with 1000 foot cliffs dropping straight into the sea. It is also incredibly windy! 

There was a very good display in the North Cape visitors centre about the Murmansk convoys and Battle of North Cape. A nice model of Scharnhorst. The wreck is about 90 miles offshore. 

A statue of Bamse the St Bernard in Henningsvag. He was the mascot of the free Norwegian forces in WW2 and served on a destroyer. Supposedly he used to get the bus on his own from Edinburgh to round up the crew from the pub! He died in 1944 and is buried in Montrose. 

As we were in the arctic, we were treated to various displays of the Aurora when the clouds cleared. 

Bear Island, as featured in the Alistair Maclean novel and site of the last German surrender in September 1944. The unfortunate Kriegsmarine weather crew were abandoned couldn't find anyone to surrender to until some seal hunters turned up.

130 miles southwest of here is the wreck of the Komsomol which went down in 1989 with a full load of nuclear weapons and has busily leaked radiation into the Barents ever since. Nice! 

Longyearben on Svalbard, originally  a mining town, now arctic research (there is a University) and tourism. Nothing much military going on here due to various treaties, but the town was shelled by Scharnhorst in WW2. The shelling started a coal fire which burned for 20 years. 

It really did feel like the top of the world up there, although it was still 800 miles from the North Pole. It is north of the top of Canada and pretty much level with the top of Greenland. 

Statue of Amundson in Nye Ålesund on Svalbard. He died in 1928 in a plane crash looking for survivors of an Italian airship expedition to the pole which set off from here. 

The local museum has quite a bit about the various air expeditions to the pole. This is a model of Amundsons airship. 

Although the airship shed is long gone, the mooring pole is still out on the permafrost. 

Due to the threat of polar bears, you can't leave the settlements with a rifle and flare gun, or an armed guard. Although I could have rented a rifle (Mausers are about 30 GBP a day) it seemed a lot safer to go with a guide! 

An abandoned light steam train of German manufacture from the turn of the twentieth century. This originally served the coal mines.

While it's very beautiful, I'm not sure I'd like to live here. 

We were blessed with good weather on Svalbard, but Njord had his revenge on the return trip with a 24 hour gale and a 20 foot swell. A proper Barents Sea experience, it usually takes a fair bit to make me seasick, but I was this time.

I was very glad indeed to get back to dry land after the big blow.  This is the war museum in Svolvaer back on Lofoten, but I'll do that as a separate post. 

This reminded me of being a kid though, when there were old mines all over the British seaside, converted to charity collection boxes. 

One of our last stops was inAlesund in pouring rain. This is a memorial to the real life "Heroes of Telemark" who attacked German deuterium production in 1943 and 44.

After two days of torrential rain it was back to Bergen in blazing sunshine! 

That was a great trip, really enjoyable with amazing scenery and tons of stuff to see and places to go. I'd recommend it to anyone. It is especially good if you like baked goods and beer....

Battlefield 3D T12 75mm SP

 Along with the M8, another US vehicle I've been vaguely thinking of converting for ages, is the SP 75mm halftracks Tank Destroyer. I've got loads of unbuilt M3 halftracks and I've even got a spare long barrelled gun, but I've just never quite got around to to doing one.

But lo and behold, Battlefield 3D come riding to the rescue with this beautiful Night Sky Models rendering. Pete doesn't normally print the NSM models in 1/100th as they are so finely detailed, but this one came out really well.

This is the earlier model without the more enclosed gun shield. For some reason loads of 3D printers do the 105mm version (which is pretty useless for most things unless you want to do Kellys Heroes) but the 75mm version does not appear to exist apart from this one.

The detail is very fine as the master is aimed at larger scale models, you can just see the v. thin forward gun shield supports which are a fraction of a mm across. This is supplied as a multi part kit with separate wheels, tracks, driver, gun+crew and a separate loader. It went together easily with mixture of UHU and superglue though.

I really like the folded down front screen, and the driver is actually holding the wheel and gear stick, while wearing shirt sleeve order. He just looks so natural.

The main missing peice is a .50 cal AAMG which is supposed to be on that pole in the back, but there is no way I could figure out how to fix it on so it would stay there for any length of time. I might fix a plastic one with a tubular collar, but I think it nk it would still be very fragile. 

The two crew are printed integrally with the gun, so there is no need to position them in a fiddly manner. Why can't other printers do this? There was a third gunner holding a shell and he ended up in the turret of the M8. 

Like the driver, the figures are beautifully proportioned and animated. No bloated dwarves here, more like 1/100th scale AB miniatures.

I just did this plain OD with a liberal application of mud all over the lower areas. I picked out the tools but didn't add any markings as I have a vague idea some of these might have been sent to Russia (or maybe a 57mm variant?). Anyway, I'd like to keep the option.

I'm delighted with that and I'm planning on re-doing my Kasserine Pass scenario just so I can incorporate this into the game.

Battle 2025 Pt 3. Reconnaissance in Force - the troops gather

 Back when I first read 'Battle', I was entranced by the account of the 'Reconnaisance in Force' game. Unlike the other two battles in the book, it was recounted without photos and instead just maps and accompanying text from the point of view of the Red player. 

Although I played the other two scenarios a number of times, I never owned the requisite number of 20mm toys to play this one. And by the time I did (in 6mm) I'd already been lured away from the childish delights of Battle into what felt like the much more serious WRG 1925-50.

One of the two main objectives of this little project is to actually fight the third scenario from the book, the second being assemble some forces in an appropriate scale to mirror the sorts of armies that Charles Grant and his opponents had. Hence my obsession with 15mm stuff and 1/100th scale plastic kits, far closer in size to the models Grant used rather than modern 20mm and 1/72nd scale stuff. The old Airfix 'Combat Group' figures (of which I still have some) are barely 1mm taller than my Peter Pig figures, and the same size as my more bloated PSC figures.

I've already covered most of the rules updates in my previous couple of posts, but a couple of things have been neglected.

Artillery. The original book devoted a fair bit of space to indirect fire, organisation of artillery etc. as it was a key feature of WW2 warfare. Once again it used various 'gadgets', in particular the HE blast template and had a very lengthy process to actually get the guns on target, which would, on average, require nine turns (!).  We are used to slightly more responsive artillery these days, so along with simplifying radio comms (anything but a 1) I just have a simple artillery ranging roll using band two of the to-hit chart - so 6+ on 2D6. The HE template also fits neatly in my 150m x 150m hexes, so as with MGs and mortars, I just roll 1D6 per base in the target area with the caveat that if the to-hit roll is a natural 10+, it is a 'direct' hit and you roll and extra 1D6. In the original rules you need a 5+ to actually drop the shell/bomb on the things you were aiming at, everything else scattered but part of the template was usually over the original target. 

Direct HE fire. The original rules made no mention of this whatsoever, and at the time I figured out that you could just use the standard HE blast template, with a to-hit roll instead of an artillery ranging roll. So that is what I'll do for this.

Engineering. The original rules did cover engineering in a minimal way - flamethrowers, mine laying and mine clearance. Interestingly although Grant made flamethrowers lethal against soft targets (hit on 2+), they could only destroy an AFV on a 6, unlike many wargames which treat flamethrowers as if they are viable AT weapons. I kept those numbeds but rolled their use into close combat resolution. The mine rules were fine, but the timescales were ridiculous as he tried to stick to his 1 turn = 1 minute scale. No-one was going to bother with mine warfare if it took 20 turns, so I just upped the notional turn length to 15 minutes, which seems to work for battalion level games (like Command Decision) OK.

And I think that is about it for rules. As this game is a large one, I'm going to switch back to basic vehicle moves being 2 hexes cross country and 3 hexes on roads or the time and space don't work correctly.

So, onto the forces. In the original scenario, Grant used a full mechanised infantry battalion with the TOE comprehensively outlined in the text, plus a section of two x T34/85 and a battery of artillery (two x US 105mm!) in support. The Germans are a bit vague, but you do glean snippets from the text. I think there are probably a couple of leg infantry companies, with the sorts of support weapons you would expect - some Panzerschrecks, tripod MGs and an 81mm mortar or two. They also have a towed 50mm AT gun, a pair of Panzer IV and are supported by a battery of offtable artillery.

In reality there was no such thing as a Russian mechanised infantry battalion mounted entirely in armoured halftracks(!), here is my effort to update the forces to something more realistic, yet still retain the balance of the original.

This is the closest thing the Russians ever had to an armoured infantry battalion, a late 1943 Soviet Reconnaisance Regiment at 1:3. Happily it also has integral tank support in the Regimental Tank Company, albeit not T34/85s!

First up we have the tank company. Originally these comprised armoured cars and light tanks, but by 1944 had been upgraded to a company of T34s. I felt three x T34/76 was a reasonable approximation of the firepower of the pair of T34/85s in the original scenario, and at 1:3 neatly represents a 10 tank company.

Next up we have the Regimental APC company. We've met these chaps already in the Action at Twin Farms. I've gone for a 50:50 split of SMG and Rifle stands as recce units used a lot of SMGs. Motorised recce units decentralised a lot of their battalion support weapons, and  companies had an integral MG platoon, so I've given them a section of Maxims. They also have a section of 50mm mortars from the regimental mortar battalion (which had 18 tubes in real life, a mix of 50mm and 82mm). They don't appear to have been allocated any ATRs, which I find surprising, but I left the ATR stands out. I'll assume they have Molotovs. Company HQ rides in style in a White APC (which was actually a more common APC than the halftracks).

One of the two motorised recce companies. Exactly the same infantry organisation as the APC company. A motorcycle battalion would generally only have one of these, and most likely on motorcycles, to go with the APC company. This company  is riding Peter Pig Gaz AA trucks though, and HQ has a small car.

As it is a Recce Regiment and not a battalion, it has another motorised company, organised identically the other one. These guys are riding Zvezda Gaz AAs. This reminds me I should paint a few more Russian motorcycles. 

Although half the mortar battalion has been dished out to the rifle companies, this is the rest of the regimental mortar battalion. 9 x 82mm mortars (or three sections of mortars), with battalion HQ and the FOO with a Gaz jeep. I've assumed they can all fit in one truck, but I could always give them another I suppose. The FOO and HQ have radios.

This is the equivalent of the mortar platoon in Grants organisation. There isn't a separate MG company as the guns have all been dished out to the rifle companies.

The regiment was also allocated one of those wierd AT/artillery battalions with a mixture of AT guns and field guns (irl 8 x 45mm and 4 x 76mm). I've rounded up the 76mm guns to give this a company of 2 x 45mm AT guns and a company of 2 x 76mm guns. The guns are all towed by tractors of various types, and there is also a battalion HQ and an FOO for the 76mm guns in  a Gaz jeep. 

These are the equivalent of the AT platoon and artillery battery in Grants organisation.

Finally we have Regimental HQ. A staff radio truck (converted from a Zvezda Gaz) and a tactical HQ with the COs personal ride - a Lend Lease bren carrier!

There should also be a motorised engineer company, but these guys were most certainly not assault engineers. Their job was route improvement/denial, terrain recce etc, so I decided to leave them out. Strictly there should also be a separate battalion HQ for the three rifle companies, but I'm using a three figure HQ stand so maybe the two HQs combined? For the game I'll dig out a separate Regt CO figure.

I'm pretty pleased with that lot. It is an actual historical TOE yet bears a strong resemblance to Grants original. The only realistic alternative would have been a motorised SMG battalion, but they certainly didn't have any APCs, tanks nor any integral field artillery.

As for the baddies (or 'Black'), well this is a typical 1944 Grenadier company. Three weak platoons of six figures each (if it was a full strength company I might give them an extra stand per platoon) and the company weapons platoon with a section each of 81mm mortars and tripod MG42s. It was very common to detach these assets out from the battalion weapons company by 1944.

There is also a section of Panzerschrecks from the regimental AT company. I'm not going to worry about panzerfausts. Finally there is company HQ with the CO and a radio operator. These guys are all on foot. 

I'll give the Germans two of these companies.

The rest of the Germans. Instead of a pair of Panzer IVs, I'll give then a pair of Stug IIIGs. That seems more likely for a leg infantry unit, and at 1:3, neatly represents a battery of six guns. 

Instead of Grants artillery battery for the Germans, they have the battalion 120mm mortar platoon with two sections of towed 120mm mortars. These weapons were as powerful as 105mm artillery anyway, so will do as the German 'artillery'. They also have a FOO riding a Kettenkrad and battery HQ with the CO and radio op.

I do like the way Grant makes you include the rear radio links. I could have just 'factored it in' I suppose, but it was nice to get the extra toys out. A bit like all the optional stuff in Command Decision.

Finally we have a towed Pak 38 and halftrack tractor, the same as in Grants scenario. These were still quite common in infantry division AT companies in 1944. 

 

Beneath the Med

 Our latest remote mid-week outing was another trip to a GMT solo game, this time covering Italian submarine operations in WW2 and entitled 'Beneath the Med', published by GMT. 

Tim provides a promotional shot of the box art. 

There are a whole series of these covering submarine operations in various theatres. We've already played 'The Hunters' about U Boats in the North Atlantic.

Each type of sub has its own data chart covering stuff like system damage, how many torpedoes are left etc. We were assigned to a fairly short range sub called the Maccale, so Med operations only. It was somewhat less well equipped with torpedoes than its Germans equivalent with six tubes and only six reloads, but had a hefty 100mm deck gun.

 Irl it had the distinction of being the first submarine of its class to be lost in the war, being sunk when it ran aground on 5th June 1940! Well, as long as we can do better than that.....

Although  it is designed as a solo game, we played it as a team with each of us assigned to a particular role. This generally involved rolling the dice appropriate to that position. Tim had done a lovely crew chart with all the correct Italian ranks etc. The general roles were as follows.

Micheal - Commander

John B - 2iC and operations officer

Me - Guns (and third officer)

John A - Torps

Russell - Engineer

Pete - Medic

Mark - Lavatory orderly

In the U Boat game I'd been Torps, so running Guns made a change.

The general sequence of play was the same as the U-Boat one, we were assigned a sector and mission for a given month. Then moved through various sea areas to the mission zone, rolling dice for encounters. After a mission the sub refitted for between one and several months depending on the degree of damage sustained.

The individual actions were covered by the QRS which included gun and torpedo attacks, escort actions, air attacks and damage location resolution.

We rapidly discovered that the Med was a very different beast to the North Atlantic. Enemy aircraft and escorts seemed to be everywhere! The Second Officer recorded the log:

June 1940

Central Med patrol.  While transiting from La Spezia, officer of the watch spotted enemy aircraft.  Excellently executed crash dive.

Enemy tanker Barthon 9,800t, sunk in close night torpedo attack.  Some damage from escort.

Small enemy freighter Tuva, 4,700t, sunk in night torpedo attack.  Some damage from escorts.

Night encounter with enemy submarine Triton.  Honours even.  Some damage.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  14,500t sunk.

July 1940

Comandante Beraducci awarded Bronze War Cross.  Crew awarded Submarine Badge.

Run ashore.

August 1940

Extended repairs in dock.

Another run ashore.

Sept 1940

Western Med supply run.  Attacked by enemy aircraft.  Heroic defence by officer of the watch.  Some damage taken.

Supply mission successfully completed.

Enemy tanker Viva Borthn, 7,000 t, sank.  Some damage from escort.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total 21,500t sunk.

Oct 1940

Run ashore

Nov 1940

Further extensive repairs in dock.

Another run ashore.

Dec 1940

Central Med mine-laying.

Enemy freighter Empire Centaur, 7,000t, sighted but mine warfare mission has priority.

Enemy aircraft - another superb crash dive.

Mine-laying mission successfully completed.  Enemy tanker Barbo, 6,300t, sunk.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total 27,800t sunk.

Jan 1941

Run ashore.

Feb 1941

Central Med patrol.  Enemy tanker Casanare, 5,400t, blown out of the water.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total 33, 200t sunk.

March 1941

Comandante Beraducci awarded Silver Cross.

Run ashore.

The rather dry 'some damage' taken somewhat underestates the relentless air and depth charge attacks which caused serious hull damage, flooding and knocked out key systems including our aft torpedo tubes, half our engine capacity and our AA guns! The Med seemed to be far more tenaciously defended than the Atlantic, and one very persistent escort managed no less than five depth charge runs before we broke off. We were very lucky to escape with our lives from that one.

I missed the Wednesday session, but the mission log was very exciting indeed! Just look at the August 1941 entry....

Excerpts from the Log of the Royal Italian Submarine Macalle

April 1941 to March 1942

April 1941

Central Med - minelaying

Sighted enemy freighter Neptunium, 5,200t, with escort.  Continued on mission.

Mines laid successfully.

Sighted enemy freighter Anna Vore, 3,300t, and escort.  Continued back to base.

Mines sank tanker Horn Shell, 8,300t, and freighter Pisarro, 1,400t.

Total sunk now 42,900t.

May 1941

Run ashore.

June 1941

Eastern Med patrol. 

Sank freighter Empress of Canada, 21,500t.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total sunk now 64,400t

July 1941

Comandante Beraducci awarded Gold Cross.  All officers receive War Merit Cross.

Secondo Bassetti and Torpedo Chief Silurio recognised as experts in their field.

Run ashore to celebrate.

August 1941

Eastern Med - intercept enemy convoy HALBERD.

Sighted enemy lt cruiser Calypso.  Dived to avoid contact.

Engaged and sank enemy battleship Nelson, 34,000t.

Evaded enemy destroyer Havock, 1,300t.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total sunk now 98,400t.

Sept 1941

Comandante Beraducci receives bar for Gold Cross.  Also Iron Cross (2nd class) from Berlin.

Run ashore for further celebration.

Oct 1941

Central Med patrol.

Enemy freighters Orao, 5,100t, and Longworth Hill, 7,600t sunk.  Evaded enemy cruiser Sydney.

Returned safe to La Spezia.  Total sunk now 111,100t.

Nov 1941

Comandante Beraducci receives Kinght's Cross of the Iron Cross from Berlin.  

Comandante Beraducci promoted to Capitano Di Corvetta.

Chief Engineer Fachetti promoted to Capo Di Prima Classe.

Run ashore.  Great celebration.

Dec 1941

Eastern Med - launch three SLC against enemy fleet in Alexandria.  Two maiali penetrated harbour defences.  Enemy destroyer Hotspur sunk.  One SLC crew lost, two captured.

Exited Alexandria harbour successfully.  Enemy destroyer Hyperion, 2,100t, engaged and sunk.

Attacked by enemy destroyer Legion.  Some damage.  Successfully evaded by going deep.

Returned safely to La Spezia.  Total sunk now 114,500t.

Jan 1942

Comandante Beraducci 

awarded second bar for Gold Cross.

Further great celebration.

Feb 1942

Extensive repairs.

Another run ashore.

Hangovers.

March 1942

Eastern Med patrol.

Sank enemy freighter Moldanger, 6,800t.

Engaged and sank enemy destroyer Latona, 2,700t.

Returned safe to La Spezia.  Total sunk now 124,000t.

It was an absolutely brilliant game, and it seemed to work even better as we were remote, so each crew position was in its own 'compartment'. The attacks were very tense and I even got to fire my guns at a surface ship on one occasion, sending it to the bottom. The 2nd Officer heroically engaged an enemy aircraft with the AA when we were caught on the surface too.

A very good game, highly recommended, and I hope we play it or its cousins again soon.