Bag the Hun Resources

I am a big fan of air games. Especially those taking place early in WWII (and WWI for that matter). One web site that I keep going back to time after time is Håkans Aviation Page. If you are not familiar with this website, you are in for a treat. Håkan Gustavsson has a page that is priceless for scenario fodder for biplanes in WWII. The page features detailed operational histories of just about anyone who flew a biplane and scored a kill along the way. This site was a phenomenal help in scenario writing. What is great is that there are links in the text to jump you to other pilots pages when they are referenced. While the data is usually the same between accounts, there may be further details available based on if the referenced pilot is Italian or British.

My scenario that I am doing for the games day was taken straight from this site. He has sections on Swedish Aviators in WWII fighting in Finland and with the RAF. There are sections on BiPlane aces during WWII. This section features pilots from a large number of countries. Data on their prewar service is present (especially Italians fighting in Spain). Chinese and Japanese pilots are present. I did not know that the Japanese even had any biplanes. A large section is present on the Spanish Civil War as well.

Head on over and check out the site. Its a treasure trove.

New Distractions: Spanish Civil War Aviation

Having just finished the Falcon and the Gladiator, one theme that kept coming up was the large number of veterans from the Spanish Civil War that flew in North Africa. This sent me looking up more information about the SCW and the beginnings of a SCW supplement have started.

In reading up on the Aviazione Legionaria (Italian Aviation Volunteers), I stumbled upon some really interesting books. The first was by Frank Tinker who was an American mercenary serving with the Republicans. He wrote a biography of his time there called "Some Still Live." He was anti-fascist but interestingly, he was anti-communist as well. He spent the large part of his service in Escuadrilla de Lacalle, a Spanish unit flying Russian I-15 fighter aircraft.

Each of the Spanish Squadrons had 12 aircraft that were divided into four patrols or Patrulla. Each patrol flew in a 3 aircraft vee formation. Frank's patrol was labeled "Patrulla Americano" as the original four members were all American citizens: Charlie Koch, Whitey Dahl, Frank Tinker and Manuel Garcia Gomez. Whitey Dahl was also a mercenary like Tinker. Both were former military. Dahl would later serve with the American Volunteer Group in China during WWII. Manuel claimed to be from Guatemala but Frank believed he was actually from Paraguay. But Paraguay had recognized the Nationalist government and it would not be politically convenient for him to admit his home country. Also in the squadron was Ben Leider, another American who actually knew Spanish. Ben was an avowed communist and in some ways was separate from the other Americans. Charlie Koch fell ill prior to their deployment and was replaced with Jose "Chang" Selles. Jose was part Japanese who spoke English very well and was placed in the Patrulla Americano.

Tinker claimed that the American volunteers were better pilots than their Spanish comrades. The explanation was that the Spanish pilots had very few flying hours before being posted to fighter aircraft while the Americans had each been experienced pilots prior to Spanish service. He went into action with Escuadrilla de Lecalle in February of 1936.

I am thinking of changing the format of this scenario pack and concentrate on a couple of squadrons and organize them by squadron rather than historically. Any interest?

The Coming Thunder Reaches 50...

... sales that is. Fortunately, it was pointed out to me that Blogger did something odd with the page for "The Coming Thunder." The text was wiped out and replaced with... nothing. That should be fixed now.

I have just received a copy of Charge!(Issue 34). Scott Mingus did a nice recap of the scenario supplement. Thanks Scott. Hopefully, this will generate a little more traffic.

Following on with this, I have been making some real progress now on the East Front Supplement for IABSM. This morning, waiting on my desk at work was not only Charge!, but also IABSM version 3, the IABSM Card Deck and the IABSM tokens. All very, very nice. I am a very happy gamer. Hopefully, I can get some time and put a game together this weekend. Possibly.

On the Bag the Hun front, progress continues on the second desert supplement. Hopefully, I will have more on this later.

A Weekends Work

Surprise, Surprise. I actually was able to get some painting in this weekend. I managed to paint up 25 East Front Italians, a single 65mm gun and a staff car.

This was quite productive for one night's work, especially considering how slowly I paint. I still have to use the Army Painter dip, dull coat and base them up. But that is the easier part for me.

In other parts, I finally received my Christmas present. Håkan Gustavsson's awesome book "Desert Prelude: Operation Compass." This book should help me finish off my second Western Desert Campaign book. I was having difficulty with the scenarios during Operation Compass. Now I should be able to knock that out without difficulty. If you are interested in the air war in 1940 over the Western Desert, his two books on this period are probably the best there is on the subject. For the wargamer, you will not find a more detailed reference on individual battles to create scenarios from. He also has a fantastic website devoted to biplane combat in the second world war. Please check it out if you have any interest. He is also a very nice guy. He has responded quickly to any inquiry that I have sent him and been very helpful with the supplement. I was glad I could finally get his book.

Books, and other things.

It has been a while since I posted something here. Well, work and family have kept me busy and away from my queue of painting. The Frigate is on the shelf waiting out my indecision on what to do for sails. I think I have resolved that issues and I will attempt a furled main sail in the next couple of days. In terms of writing, the Prequel to the Desert campaign is coming along rather nicely. I have found a couple of great books that have greatly helped resolve the orders of battle and what units transferred in and out of theater and when. My current favorite is "Courage Alone" by Chris Dunning. This has proven to be quite helpful, especially where non-fighter units are concerned. Lots of other places have details on fighter units. Very few have anything on bomber and reconnaissance units. Even better, it covers every theater that the Italians fought in. Not much detail on individual actions but that is not what this book is about. Two books on my inter library loan list are "Desert Prelude: Early Clashes" and "Desert Prelude: Operation Compass." Both of these are by Håkan Gustavsson and Ludovico Slongo. Håkan Gustavsson is the author of the fantastic Håkans aviation page web page. It is a must visit if you have any interest what so ever in biplanes in WWII - for any front. It is pure gold when it comes to getting good information on how biplanes were used in the war. Since the Gloster Gladiator and the CR.42 are two of my favorite all time airplanes, this is a perfect place for me. I have spent countless hours pouring over this site. Lastly, I have looked at working more on a follow up to "With Fire and Sword" for Sharp Practice. It seems about time now and I really want to get in some more Sharp Practice games in. "With Fire and Sword" Left off after Musgrove's Mill and Fishing Creek in Mid August. The next one would cover Kings Mountain and the Cowpens Campaign. I am not sure how far to go with it. I want to cover Col Elijah Clake's South Carolina actions but not his Savannah adventure. I don't think I will cover any of Francis Marion's actions and instead stick with those of Sumter.

Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

Well I started work revising the original Western Desert Campaign and it morphed quickly into its own stand along supplement covering June 1940 to February 14th 1941. I have plotted out no less than 30 individual historical scenarios on top of the campaign system. It is sitting at about 60% complete at the moment. The scenarios are quite expanded from those in the original and include information to run both Bag the Hun and Check Your Six games with them. I have added Altitude, a map of the board with notes on entry, cloud cover information and cards needed for scenarios (BTH) to each scenario. In all, it is a great improvement over the original. Eventually, the original will get this treatment too. Original purchasers will get the upgrade of the original for free once it is done. Oh, Look! Shiny! Then I read a post on Ray's Don't Throw a 1 blog and am now distracted to a new period entirely. I am looking at making a skirmish army in 15mm for the 3rd Prussian Regiment - Anhalt-Dessau. I have some figures from another project that went no where that it seems would fit the bill. It would be a small force to start off with. Now I am off and looking for drill information for the period with reckless abandon leaving other project to collect virtual dust. According to the some spots I found on the internet, I can use the Peter Pig Govt Figures from their pirate range for these soldiers. Which is a good thing as I have some laying around collecting real dust. I was going to do a pirate game and that never materialized. Now I have a project to use these for. Never did buy pirate figures was part of the problem. So I have the basis of an infantry unit. Now rules..... Hmmmm.... Since I have Sharp Practice, that seems a good starting point. Beyond the information on the Wikipedia page covering the Nine Years War, I really know nothing about the period. Colorful clothing. That is about it. I gather that it was pretty much the world against France for much of the fighting of this period. (Here my ignorance stands as a shining beacon of non-illumination) Oh well. Back to Google to see what I can find.