One of the things we often forget is what happens after the war? WWI and WWII may seems to be in a distant past but if we let the memories fade, we risk to forget the sacrifices and take for granted the freedoms they bought us. One organisation which does a lot to maintain the memory of the fallen is the Commonwealth War Graves Commision. In this post I would like to highlight the organisation and the important work they do.
I have already reviewed one of the sister games in the Birth of America series the 1775: Rebellion. But I got myself 1812: Invasion during a sales. So I wanted to review the differences and comment on which game I like the better. Read on.
England has often looked on the English Channel as a moat, a barrier to protect the home islands from the turmoil of the continentals. But such a barrier can only work if it is defended. Otherwise an enemy would be able to cross it at some point.
For protection the Royal Navy had always played a pivotal part and has often been promoted over the army. The threat of invasion has loomed several times but even more during the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. During WWII the battle was fought in the air by the most sophisticated fighters (and what could be scraped up from anywhere), similary during the Napoleonic Wars the battles were fought by the best technology available and that would be first rate ships of the line like H.M.S. Victory who would as Nelson´s flagship become the most famous of them all.
Can you refight 8 years of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in just two hours while still maintaining enough details to keep the interest of a history buff? Academy Games believes, they got a formula with their Birth of America series, so read on as I explore the second game in the series 1775: Rebellion.
I came out of the cinema wanting so much more of that, the movie is so intense. 106 minutes is short for many movies of these days, but the way the movie deliver the story, it is works. It is short but you are never out of the battle so it feels much more intense and longer.
But when I sat down with a beer afterwards and thought about it, I could not really be sure why I liked it. This movie is very different from most war movies. It is not a horrifying gore fest or patriotic flag waving to celebrate and glorify the deeds of great men in history, Actually this movie is not really about the history of the evacuation or war. It is more about the experience, about invoking feelings, this movie drops you right in the war and with minimum dialog instead try to show you the horror and let you react to it. It is fast paced but sometimes very subtle become very quiet to let in sink in only to break it up again by screaming dive bombers.
It is well made and beautiful and with a bold artistic angle, but it is probably the angle that does not work for me, and prevents me from thinking it is an instant classic.
———————————————-Very Minor Spoiler Alert—————————————————-
I realized from a narrative perspective does not work for me. I totally understand that this is a history movie and thus we all know approximately how it is going to go. There may be variations on who survives and who does not, but is maybe the only thing for us to find out, we already know the broad lines. It is a bit like Titanic, we know we are heading to disaster. I therefore understand it is more interesting to not tell it as a linear story but instead use multiple perspectives.
The movie has three perspectives: the soldier, the civilian sailor and the pilot. The movie try to tell each of their stories while slowly intertwining them, but it also uses different pacing. The soldier story is supposed to have a span of a week, the sea man a day and the pilot an hour which means bringing stories together with different pacing also mean seeing the same event multiple times from different angles. It makes the movie unneccessary hard to follow. Especially because if you blink at the beginning you will miss the text stating it at start of each story arch.
Another weird thing is, that I do not even remember a single name of any of the characters. it is not because they do not have names, it is because the movie wants to show rather than tell. There is very little conversation and very little connection with the characters. Because they are complete no-names with few revealed traits or character development, it makes it easier to feel it could be you and the movie therefore drops you in their boots. But if we do not care about the stories of the characters, we can better see the event as it unfolds.
In a way, it feels a bit like what I expect shell shock or traumatic experiences would feel like. I have never been at war and hope never to have to do so, but when I was a boy, I was caught up in a fire exercise that got out of hand and none had told us it was an exercise. In the stampede of panic, I with a small group 9-10 year olds got separated from the teacher and trapped in the end of a corridor, while the thick black smoke slowly advanced on us from the other end. We all thought we were going to die and I had one of these weird feelings, that I was kind of viewing everything from a 3rd person view. I can still recall me yelling to the others to drop to the floor below the smoke and I can see myself completely from the outside trying to bash in an armoured glass window until we gave up as the smoke was getting to near to us and simply put ourselves on the floor. I can hear myself thinking in my head: “this is it”. It was a strange out-of-body experience.
I kind of had the same feeling with this movie at times, I could have been any of those soldiers desperately trying to survive. The action seems real, the air attacks are sudden and sound effects make them terrifying but the amount of near-death experiences our soldier has seems get a bit repetitive. It is feels more like a horror movie, we lock all these soldiers in a location and ask: “who will survive?” At it seems like more people died than lived during the course of the movie. It did not sit well with my interpretation of history but of course our memory would also play tricks on us in stressful situations. The carnage and death could well be how some veterans, who were there, would remember it. It may be the closest some of us will come to a brief feeling of shell shock.
From the sea perspective we follow mr. Dawson who, when the call goes out for volunteers, steps forward and takes his son and his son’s best friend with him on his pleasure boat to go and help. I think from a narrative perspective this is the weakest of the three in the sense of immersion. Even though I really want it to be the strongest. As a civilian, I would have loved if the movie had explored their motivation more; would I have volunteered to go and help or simply handed over my vessel to the navy? Would I have risked my livelihood had I been a fisherman and tied to my vessel or would I have tried to protest it? But the movie has opted for minimum background for the characters because it is not about their stories but the event itself and that is cool, I am unsure who I am supposed to identify with. Mr. Dawson is duty bound and way too cool, so I guess I am supposed to identify with his son, but it never worked that well. The most touching but also totally out-of-place scene in the movie is the arrival of the small crafts, that is a total contrast to the bombing and strafing, the movie slows down, the music swells, and everyone stops to cheer. It is such a break from the pace of the rest of the movie that it feels clunky.
The air element although representing only about 1 hour over Dunkirk given the limited amounts of fuel is intense. That is about the best arial dogfighting ever put on-screen. It is beautifully shot and I really wanted to see more of it. Following the battle there was a lot of complaints about the lack of fighter cover over the beaches but actually RAF operated two patrols per squadron each day during day light hours (night fighting was not very well-developed).
The story telling this feels like a spiral where everyone ends up in the same place in the end. I did not like it but I can understand how that makes it more interesting to watch as it will keep surprises coming.
What I did not like about it
Even if it is a well crafted movie, it does have some annoyances and dashes some of my hopes for when I first heard about it. First of all that ticking clock and loud music on the sound track were getting on my nerves, no Germans are shown and the movie is depicted as a race against time and for survival but that ticking felt like trying to hammer it in with a sledge-hammer. Also there are a few such moments such as the arrival of the little ships which is over the top. The little ships are depicted to be the saviours of the day which hardly is true, only 5-10% of troops were evacuated by the small vessels, the mole at which the larger ships could come in was the main escape route.
I never liked the commander Bolton character. Many say it is a stirling acting performance, but I have very mixed feelings about creating composite or completely new characters to replace actual people. While I can understand the need for artistic freedom and it works well for Tommy, the soldier we follow, as he represents a lot of soldiers in the real event. I feel it is hard to do so with so pivotal roles as the land and sea commanders. Commander Bolton seems to be just standing at the mole as a captain on the helm offering stern advice and encouragement and showing the soldiers if officers can take it, so can they. But Bill Tennant whom the character is mostly based on, did so much more than being an immovable object in a sea of chaos. He and this team worked tirelessly to keep some kind of order while optimizing the lifting operation. I actually think the movie does not do him and his staff enough credit.
There was a lot of chaos, for all the death and destruction the movie dwells on, it is suprising to me it does not pick up on a lot of the things that actually happened. The town had been bombed to pieces, a thick black smoke from a burning oil tanks hung over the city almost like a beacon for friend and foe. the town actually looks way too neat. I was actually missing a lot on screen which could have added to the drama, for instance, the troops that came back into Dunkirk had no drinking water as the water supply had been cut off and so many of them took to looting wine cellars and so on, there was such a carnage, that it took quite some time to get things back in order. There are heart breaking stories of the tough decision not to evacuate the wounded as stretchers would take up too much space compared to fit people. In the movie it looks like wounded people are evacuated but in reality many were left behind with just about enough medical staff to them them, one per 10 or 20 wounded men. The staff had to draw lots on who got to stay behind and go into captivity with the wounded and who would get a chance to go on a boat. There are the heart breaking stories of troops fleeing into Dunkirk only to be swept up into units being sent back to hold the ever shrinking perimeter, some only holding out forced at gun point and a few stories of officers who had to shoot their own men to restore the fighting spirit. These are dilemmas and stories I would have loved to see be explored a bit.
What About the French?
I understand the survival perspective but I also miss a mentioning of the defence of the bridgehead. The bridgehead was continously defended and on a much larger perimeter than what is shown in the movie where we almost walk from the sandbag fortifications to the beach by turning a corner. The bridgehead was well defended and the French troops played an important role as more than 40.000 were left behind to cover the rear and casualties ran at 60.000. These are hardly mentioned in the movie and I therefore feel they are given great injustice. Even though the movie has a clear British perspective the evacuation of so many would not have been possible without the French army. I also feel the movie fails to mention the massacres of allied POWs but that would have failed and have vilified the Germans and taken focus away from the main narrative.
Do I like it?
Dunkirk is more of an experience than a movie. Nolan wants to put you there on the beach in 1940 with the men, the fear, carnage and shell shock. For 90 minutes you endure not really knowing what is next. I can understand if some people will not like it, I myself have a bit mixed feelings but the movie is crafted with such care, that it does shine.
For instance when the soldiers come home, embarrassed they have lost, they get served a cup of tea and there is an old man standing there saying: “well done, well done”. As they get on the train one says something like that old man did not even look us in the eyes. But in the movie he is shown to be blind and I cannot help to think perhaps it was the poison gas in the trenches of his generation. This is never explained but it is this attention to detail that makes me like it.
This movie is well crafted and has an interesting artistic direction, while it is generally true to the history behind it, I did not like the narrative and I feel a lot of history is left untold. It was not what I had expected but it is intense.
7/10
One of the unsung units of World War 2 was the British Glider Pilot Regiment. There are many reasons as to why this regiment has not been highlighted very often and I believe much of it is linked with its very short existence but also because its purpose is often misunderstood. In WWII the regiment provided the pilots for flying engineless glider air planes for delivering assault troops or heavy weapons with precision behind enemy lines.
When in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession a combined Anglo-Dutch fleet captured the peninsula of Gibraltar they inaugurated a new era in history of the much fought over peninsula. Gibraltar is a natural fortress, it is a mountain formed where the Eurasian and African tectonic plates meet giving dramatic rise to “the rock”, which rises sharply to 426m above sea level. With it’s strategic position close to the mouth of the Mediterranean and overlooking a bay means that a fleet based in Gibraltar could dominate the area around it.
The Rock of Gibraltar rises sharply. The reason for the sudden rise is that Gibraltar is actually part of the African tectonic plate and the rise is due to the collision with the European plate. The only landward access to Gilbraltar is very unique as it is across the runway of the Gibraltar airport.
No less than 14 sieges have been conducted and the area has been fortified already by the Phoenicians but it was not until the 8th century AD it really got recognised as an important defensive position. In 711 AD the Berber Tarik bin Ziyad created a fortified position to use as a base for the start of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula. Gibraltar is believed to take its name from Jebel Tarik (Tarik’s Mountain).
1160 the first orders were given for fortifying Gibraltar. The defences aimed allow only a single access from the landward side while further strengthening the harbour. Since then the Spanish and British have expanded on the fortress.
The Tower of Homage seen in the background. While it does not look impressive from the ground, it is quite so close up. This is one of the earliest Islamic fortifications
The Great Siege
The Great Siege of 1779 to 1783 is often overshadowed by much bigger events in America as the American War of Independence, but during this time the British was also engaged in a world war fighting France and Spain around the globe. Spain had both lost colonial possessions during the Seven Years’ War and the American revolution and French intervention presented an opportunity to recover these. In April 1779 the Treaty of Aranjuez was concluded between Spain and France, France would aid Spain in recovering Gibraltar, Minorca and Florida in return for Spanish support in the ongoing war against Britain.
On June 24th the French and Spanish commenced the siege, it was expected to be a short affair which would eventually free up forces for a direct attack on England. With Britain engaged elsewhere, the garrison was only 5800 men, the Spanish forces on the other hand numbered 13000 troops as well as a small fleet to block off British reinforcements and supplies. The naval blockade was important as the British had been able to resupply during the last two sieges and thus it was believed that it would only become a true siege with a complete naval blockade. A noteworthy note is that Gibraltar is actually lacking any fresh water sources due to its geology and thus have to rely on collection of rain water as well as using sea water for as many things as possible for instance these days the flushing of toilets.
The Siege Tunnels
For any visitor to Gibraltar the siege tunnels dug during the siege is worth a visit. In 1782 it was proposed to emplace guns on a small plateau on the northern side of the rock, a place refered to as “The Notch”. The Notch would make for a most excellent firing potision as it would cover a blind spot towards the Mediterrean Sea to the East however hoisting or lowering guns or building outside stairs going on the side of the cliff were not practical and it was finally proposed by sergeant major Ince of the Military Artificers (later Royal Engineers).
A view of the Notch. Note all the openings in the cliff for cannon
The work was carried out by the means of blasting and then clearing away with sledgehammers and crowbars, the directions of the tunnels were to some extend forced by the direction of natural fractures and thus the tunnels winds quite a bit.
It was found necessary to create a horizontal opening for venting in order to reduce the amount of dust and fumes harming the workers. When the ventilation shaft reached surface it was clear that there could be another military benefit as it overlooked the Spanish siege works and it was soon suggested to hollow out an area big enough to mount a 24 pounder gun. Each embrasure had rope curtains to protect against the elements as a kind of gun port and behind the working area of the gun a further curtain would be hung in order to prevents sparks from the gun being blown into the tunnels and create a safety hazard with the gun powder stored.
A gun embrasure, the curtains cannot be seen here
After the end of the siege the tunnelling continued eventually reaching the Notch but at that time it was decided of instead mounting guns on top to hollow it out and mount 7 guns inside the Notch. The large underground space became known as St. George’s Hall. The works would eventually extend for a total 277 m and have 4 more galleries built along the way to St. George’s Hall.
The Koehler Depression Carriage
One particular issue that plagued the defenders were the ability to fire down upon the attackers. For that lt. George F. Koehler invented a depression carriage which entered service in 1782.
While it was based on regular cannon carriages he added a hinge which allowed it to be depressed up to 70 degrees. Wadding was used to keep the ball in place while it was being aimed. A further refinement was that it used recoil absorption which meant the gun could be fired faster as it did not need extensive reposition and re-aiming after each shot as contemporary cannons would jump back violently from the recoil.
A further advantage was that the gun was mounted in a top piece which could rotate to the side meaning that gunners did not need to expose themselves when reloading.
For all its advantages it did have a few design flaws such as the preset steps for depressing the gun, as these were rather large steps it could be difficult to aim at certain angles.
A small blog post while working offshore, I hope to get a more thorough post together for next week. I have for a while wanted to do a post on this because it is important we do not forget.
The largest volunteer army in the world has largely been forgotten. It is an inconvenient story for the British Empire for which they fought as it sits uncomfortably with the story of heroic British stand against tyranny, and to Indians, it is and embarrassment that so many fought for the British oppressors especially after India got their independence.
Without the Indian army it is not unlikely that the Japanese would have been able to overrun India and possibly the Irani oil fields which could very much have changed the outcome of the war and it is likely that without the indian Army WWII could have been lost, but in the post-war reorganisation of the British Empire, that said very poorly with the ideas of a British victory rather than a commonwealth victory.
This left the veterans in a very difficult position, as they have never been recognised in their own country and largely forgotten in Britain. They fought to preserve democracy while receiving none of it under colonial rule.
Formation of the Indian Army
In 1939 when Britain declared war on Germany the viceroy of India announced that india was a war too and it was a fight to preserve freedom for all human beings, something that was not lost on the Indians as they were denied the freedom to govern themselves. The nationalist leaders urged non-intervention and to stay out of the British war but many volunteers feeling if they fought for Britain, Britain would have to recognise the Indian contribution and make concessions which could ultimately lead to independence. Churchill and other British leaders were initially against the idea of a large Indian army fearing it could form the basis of further resistance to colonial rule.
Indian troops were regarded as good and disciplined as soldiering was an honourable profession in India and oath breakers and cowards much despised, those who took the oath to fight were generally steadfast troops. At Dunkirk the Indian units managed to keep cohesion and received much praise from their commanders. After Dunkirk and with Britain under threat of invasion there were not enough troops to defend the empire and reliance had to be placed on more Indian troops. For instance of the troops facing the Japanese invasion of Singapore two thirds were Indians.
The Italian invasion of Egypt was beaten back by a largely Indian force and recruitment was stepped up and by the end of 1941 250000 Indians served in the Middle East and North Africa. It must be noted that the term Indian army did include recruitment in Pakistan and other territories on the subcontinent and was not limited to the current area of India.
General Auchinleck was a large factor in the good integration of Indian troops, he was commander of the Indian Army and had himself fought on the North-West frontier in India. He spoke some the languages of India and was very respected by the men. But Auchinleck was replaced by Montgomery following the retreat to El Alamein. Montgomery never endeared himself with the Indians and did make some remarks about the trustworthiness and combat value of Indian units.
Even though the Indian troops fought with professionalism they suffered from mistrust and were generally paid less and received worse living conditions. Furthermore Indians would at the beginning of the war not hold officer commissions.
Still the Indian army of WWII at its peak fielded some 2.5 million servicemen, all volunteers and received 21 Victoria Crosses, which is a clear indication of their bravery even when fighting for a cause that was not theirs. They would fight in almost every theater of war from the Middle East to Africa and in Italy and in the Far East in Burma and Singapore and beyond.
Indian National Army
Prior to the invasion of Singapore the Japanese had been in contact with Indian national leaders and wanted to support an Indian liberation army. After the garrison in Singapore surrendered the Japanese found Captain Mohan Singh who was willing to form an army to fight the British. This force became known as the Indian national Army (INA). It recruited from the POWs but also local Malay Indians. It even boasted a women’s regiment. However when the Japanese refused to treat the INA as an equal partner and insisted it was put under Japanese control, Singh attempted to disband it and the units fell apart. It was not until Chandra Bose revived it that it got into action in 1944.
Freies Indien Legion
Chandra Bose, who as a member of the Indian National Congress had been placed under arrest but had fled and made his way to Berlin to offer his suggestion for Indian independence and help to form the Indian Legion within the Wehrmacht. The lgeion would consist of freed Indian prisoners of war taken during the Africa campaigns. The Indian Legion 3000 man strong was indeed formed and fought in France during 1944. Hitler had no high opinion to India and admired the British Empire and thus the legion was mostly used as anti-partisan troops and in garrison duty. A similar unit was formed by the Italians but never saw any action.
Freies Indien Legionaire, note the shoulder patch
Chandra Bose was later sent to replace Singh as head of INA and travelled via submarine to the Japanese. Under Bose’s passion and inspired leadership the INA became a combat force.
In early 1944 Japanese forces and the INA invaded Burma and in the Arakan battles the two Indian armies fought each other. The struggle continued at Kohima and Imphal on the Indian border. It was hoped that with the INA the Indians would rally behind the INA and rebel against the British. Following the wave of nationalism it was feared that it would lead to open revolt against the British so promises of post-war independence were made for continued support. General Auchinleck was made commander-in-chief of the Indian Army and Indians were slowly beginning to be accepted as officers in Indian units.
Kohima did however prove a major defeat for INA and while it kept fighting had lost much of its fighting strength. It was cornered and surrendered around the battle of Ragoon the following year. After the war when the leaders of INA were tried for treason by the British but was set free under public pressure. The trials resulted in massive protests and even a mutiny in the Royal Indian Navy. The INA leaders became national heroes as people who had defied the British and won.
The INA soldiers returned as heroes and would be remembered in India as heroes where as the British Indian troops was received as traitors and were victims of public violence and threats. To this day the British Indian troops are not recognised. Where INA soldiers receive freedom fighter pensions, the Indians who fought for the British in the belief that it would be the best bid for freedom would be largely forgotten.
It is my hope this post will provide a bit of interest in the Indian Army to ensure we remember both sides of the conflict.
Indian Army Representation in Popular Culture
The Indian Army has been very underrepresented in media etc. but I have found it represented in Flames of War, which has the Indian army included with a rating of fearless trained/veteran to represent the tenacity and bravery of the Indian soldiers.
Lately the PC game Day of Infamy released in March 2017 has recently added Indian troops to the game in their Invasion of Crete map.
With some luck it can help increase awareness.
UPDATE: I know that this post has become very popular in 2019. It is however meant for version 3 of the Flames of War game. Full version 4 for late war is coming June 2019 which will put the post out of date, although background information will stay the same. But I hope to see the minor nations reemerge for version 4 over the next couple of years.
WWII was a global war and while we tend to hear mostly about stereotypical big nations, like the stubborn Brits, the heroic Americans, the horde of Soviets, the ingenious Germans, the fanatical Japanese, the stupid French or the cowardly Italians, there is a lot more to it, that these stereotypes and even then they only cover only a small number of the nations involved. When designing a game and to make a nation appealing so that players would actually want to play that nation, the game designer has to focus on the positive sides of stereotypes and thus we tend to forget about the smaller nations.
Many smaller nations contributed a lot to the war, for instance Romania was the fourth largest contributor of manpower to the allied cause after she changed side in 1944.
As WWII also encompassed many smaller nations either that got swept up into it or were motivated by different reasons to join the war. Many of the smaller nations had either limited arms industry or were possibly occupied and thus had to rely on volunteers and donations from other warring nations and thus were often trained and equipped similar to their host country. Without enough funding, manpower or training, these were often swept up into larger allied forces although some managed to fight as independent brigades within other national forces.
Flames of War as a WWII game does play a lot on (positive) stereotypes to add some favour and interest to all the different playable nations. It also allows for some minor nations to be played. However as Flames of War is also a commercial product, there is an interest in a limited product range that can sell while keeping low stocks. A lot of the focus has therefore been on small nations that used the same equipment and formations from other nations which means they can easily be represented with existing products but make for a bit of a of a different painting and modelling challenge.
In this post I will examine some of the smaller national contingents in the late war period, which can easily be represented by models of the existing parent forces.
Great Britain
The British Forces were one of the more diversified armies. With a lot of countries already occupied it was only natural to attempt to recruit exiles, expats and people trapped outside of their homelands for their liberation. For instance the merchant navies of Norway and Denmark did provide some recruitment as did overseas citizens such as immigrants to Canada or USA from all European nations. The Danish volunteers were generally assembled in “the Buffs” or Royal East Kent Regiment due to its connection with the Danish Prince George. The Buffs raised several battalions but apart from no. 1 to 5 and no. 7 battalion most were used for training and home defence.
I have been unable to find a source, but it is my belief that many of the smaller national contigents were raised as armoured or mechanized brigades or divisions as these would require less manpower for the same unit frontage.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia was one of the first countries to be occupied. It was done even before the outbreak of hostilities. Czechs had slowly been making their way to the UK and enough had joined for them to form an infantry brigade, this was later converted to an armoured brigade which joined the fight in August 1944. With a smaller number of troops it was designed to be a fast mechanized force with cruiser Cromwell tanks and mechanized infantry however it found itself wasted in the siege of Dunkirk for which a small and mobile force was wasted.
The Czech also deserve mention for their contribution of trained fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain but that is for another day.
Czech Forces in Flames of War
The Czech lose British bulldog but does not really need it anyway being mostly an armoured force but instead get a special rule called Rychla meaning rapid and allow sthe units with the rule on skill checks to move an extra 4” in the shooting phase instead of shooting.
Another interesting little gem is that the brigade also known as CIAB (Czech Independent Armoured Brigade) to use its heavy AA guns for bombardments, a tactic which was used during the siege.
The briefings allow for Armoured and Motor companies but are otherwise much like their British counterparts. For a bit more infantry teams if needed, Free French (FFI) forces can be attached instead of motor platoons.
Click to access Czech-Armoured-Brigade.pdf
Belgium
Belgium was invaded in May of 1940. The bitter fighting lasted for a few weeks before the Belgian army was forced to surrender but some politicians including the minister of transport Jaspar urged to continue the struggle and rather than surrender hoped the troops would follow the British and be evacuated from the continent. The men were reorganized in Wales as the FBGB (Belgium Forces in Great Britain). The force grew from emigres and evacuated soldiers and in 1942 plans were drafted up on how to make it into a homogenous fighting force. Another source of man power was Belgian Congo which also contributed to the allied campaigns in North Africa. The new force was named Brigade Piron after their commander major Piron. It consisted of three motorized infantry companies, an armoured car company and support companies. The Brigade reentered combat in August 1944 in Normandy and was meant be a fast force and scoot along the Channel Coast. The force went on into Belgium and the Netherlands but by November the force was worn out and needed refitting and was removed from the line. During this time with the influx of new volunteers the infantry was reorganized as a rifle brigades with the companies becoming battalions and the armoured car squadron became the start of the first armoured regiment.
Betuws Oorlogmuseum, example of uniform from Brigade Piron
The PDF briefing is taken from Normandy to the advance into Holland. They are trained in British methods and thus get all special rules except British Bulldog. In addition to that their recce units get the special rule Local Knowledge which allows them to reroll disengages due to their knowledge of terrain and language.
The armoured car squadron is special in that due to the lack of manpower they do not have an armoured car infantry support platoon nor a heavy platoon. The HQ is interestingly enough equipped with Daimler Is.
The armoured car platoons are equipped with 1 additional Daimler I which I have quite mixed feelings about as 5 vehicles are difficult to move around and hide but the larger platoons give it more combat power.
The motor infantry companies are interesting in that they were organized as motor platoons but did not get M5 halftracks instead they received trucks. On top of being confident trained having small motor platoons makes it a very brittle army.
The motor companies are weak in having much fewer AT guns than their British counterparts however for artillery the Belgians have 12 gun 25 pounder batteries which makes for an interesting bombardment.
Support comes in three flavours which are mutually excluding US or British early or late Support. The British early support is for fighting in the Normandy area and include paras, the late is during the Belgian phase when they supported British armoured divisions and finally the US phase where they were fighting alongside US forces.
Click to access Belgian-Brigade-Piron.pdf
I believe the briefing would not be completely unsuitable to use it for Princes Irene which was a Dutch legion much similarly organized.
Poland
There were enough volunteers to form the Polish Army in France of some 85,000 volunteers and while many unit were still forming these took part in the battle of France with some 20,000 escaping the fall of France before being pulled back to Great Britain. During this time they spent their time in garrisons building coastal defences in Scotland. It was decided to form the Polish I Corps. Despite its name, it never fought as a united corps but was split up, the Polish 1st Armoured Division fought with the first Canadian Corps, the 4th infantry division and the 1st independent parachute brigade and 16th independent armoured brigade. The 4th ID never saw combat but has used for coastal defence but a Soviet organized Polish 4th division did. These are not to be confused.
A lot of Poles fled Poland through Rumania in the beginning of the war to continue to fight against Germany of there. This led to the formation of the Carpathian Brigade which found first in the Middle East. It was later absorbed into the Polish II corps (with volunteers from the Soviet Union) and fought in France and Italy.
Following the Yalta conference where it was decided the Poles would not go on to liberate their homelands there was a sense of betrayal. The division stayed on duty until 1947 at which point it was disbanded but many of the men never returned home but chose to settle in exile in particular in UK.
Polish Forces in Flames of War
Polish forces in British service gain a special rule called “For your freedom and ours” which allows 2iC to reroll morale checks as well as the company command team to reroll company morale checks. This makes the Polish company a not more resilient. On top of this all Polish units are fearless.
There are two main sources for Polish forces; Polish First Corps is split across several books and briefings and the Polish Second Corps from Road to Rome.
The First Polish Armoured Division
It was first equipped with Crusader tanks but these were replaced in early 1944 with Sherman tanks and the division trained and waited impatiently to be committed. Following the Normandy landings the division was committed and attached to the First Canadian army and played a key role in the closing of the Falaise pocket.
The Polish armoured division is basically a British armoured tank force however has they were under strength they deleted one platoon per squadron (company) but having received full complement of Sherman Fireflies the HQ section can buy an additional one. The armoured recce squadron is equipped with Cromwell tanks have cautious move and thus makes for a bit of an interesting force as a price it completely lacks fireflies. The rest of the force is basically mech and standard infantry. All units comes as fearless trained but otherwise work as their British counter parts.
Click to access Polish-1st-Armoured-Division.pdf
First Independent Polish Parachute Brigade
It can be found in the Operation Market-Garden. As all British airborne forces are already fearless, the difference between the Polish Parachute and British Parachute companies are in the support. The British was dropped on the North side of the Rhine and fought alone against the Germans, the Polish who were supposed to reinforce them were dropped on the South side and saw the British ground forces catch up to them, so instead of the British relying on the parachute division for support, the Poles can rely on XXX corps with their armour.
The Polish II Corps
The Polish II Corps fought in Italy and is included in Road to Rome and follows the normal British company layout. However it comes in two flavours an early trained and a veteran trained version. It includes rifle, armour car and armoured recce variants.
Greece
The Greek 1st Brigade was formed in Palestine in 1941 from soldiers evacuated from the failed intervention against the German invasion of Greece and the invasion of Crete and overseas emigrants. The brigade took part in the battle of El Alamein and performed well. A second brigade was formed in 1942. However in 1944 a struggle over who would rule Greece after the liberation broke out between democratic and communist branches of the army and the communist troops mutineered. The most reliable of the troops was reformed as the 3rd Mountain Brigade. The 3rd Mountain Brigade was sent to Italy where they fought in the battle of Rimini before being deployed to Greece to deal with a communist uprising in the wake of the German-Italian withdrawal from the country.
In Flames of War it is basically a British rifle company with mountaineer special rules, the other Greek special rules are more or less renamed British ones. As it is only brigade strength the support elements come from Canada or New Zealand as historically correct. The only big change I can find is a much reduced number of carrier patrols which is expected from troops meant to be fighting in rocky and broken terrain.
The Jewish Battalions
Some 30,000 Palestinian Jews took up arms against the Germans during WWII as part of the British army although these have been largely forgotten. Just prior to the outbreak of WWII British Prime Minister Chamberlain issued the “White Paper” which revoked British support for a Jewish homeland and limited Jewish immigration to Palestine. The Jews were therefore a very overlooked and only reluctantly accepted as a source of manpower however following the fall of France Winston Churchill had a more pragmatic approach and some 15 Jewish battalions were established by September 1940 where they saw combat all across the Mediterranean and in Italy as well as garrison duties freeing up other forces for combat. In September 1944 an actual brigade was formed, the Jewish Infantry Brigade Group which consisted of 1st to 3rd Palestinian regiments and got the title of Brigade due to the including of a Royal Artillery regiment (200th). Even then the volunteers were subject to prejudice as some would dismiss the brigade as a token gesture. None the less the Brigade went on to render valuable services to the Allies in Italy during the final offensives of 1945.
In Flames of War terms this is basically a rifle company but without carry on, sergeant and British bulldog, instead they have Warriors of Giddeon which allows them to move further when moving at the double and Hear O Israel, which allows the 2iC to boost motivation ratings to 3+ which can make a huge difference at the point of contact with both 2iC and CiC nearby 3+ and reroll could be powerful.
A new briefing is coming for Forces of War app.
USA
Through lend-lease a number of nations received American equipment for fighting the war, however some also received US military advisors and training in order to have more smooth collaboration in the war zone hence a number of forces can be played using regular dough boy models.
France
Following the fall of France in 1940 the armed forces of France were divided in those who believed the exile government in UK were the true representatives or staying loyal to the new Vichy France. With the British sinking the French navy in Oran to avoid it falling into German hands and be used to invade the British isles the mistrust and divide between the two former allies grew with Vichy France breaking off diplomatic relations.
A number of separate standing forces were still scattered across the world and now had to decide which side to support. In North Africa and the Mediteranian area French forces generally stayed loyal to Vichy and some even fought against other Frenchmen during the allied invasion of Syria and during the landings in North Africa under Operation Torch some Vichy forces initially resisted the US forces as ordered by their CIC Admiral Darlan. The Torch landings actually had quite a large US profile as the Oran incident had not been forgotten and the Brits were mistrusted. Even though French forces quickly ceased action this did not exactly put them in a favourable light with the allies and when they changed side equipment was slow in coming and often second rate.
FEC
Following the campaign in North Africa it was decided to build a French force, the FEC (French Expeditionary Force) to fight along the allies. The sources of the troops varied with some 60,000 colonial forces, emgires and some 100,000 local volunteers of both French and native North African descent. In the end 8 divisions were formed along US lines and equipped and trained but creating a unified force too time and forces were generally not ready to join the fighting in Sicily. During the fighting in Italy the FEC was attached to the US Fifth Army where they played a major part in breaking the Gustav line. After that they went on to land in Southern France and went on to liberate France and fought on into Germany.
The FEC in Flames of War
The FEC is included in Road to Rome. The French can field two basic companies, the Tiraileurs which is basically a rifle company and a Spahi which while taking part in the late war period of the game still due to the second-rate nature of their equipment is still equipped as a mid-war recon company. This makes the Spahi quite unique and could be a fun way of slowly building a midwar force into a late war. In terms of special rules the French loses the technologically advanced automatic rifles, excellent communications and under command but instead they get assault troops to reroll rallies, reroll counter attacks and mountaineers which makes them amazing assault troops at the rating of confident veterans.
One unit that deserves mention even though it does not look like US forces is the 4th Division Marocaine de Montagne (DMM). It consisted mainly of Goums which were fierce mountain tribesmen of Morocco. While they received American weapons they often wore tribal clothes instead. The goums are basically an infantry company with different rules making them more aggressive in close combat.
Leclerc Monument M8 Greyhound with the Lorraine cross markings used on many French vehicles
The French Second Armoured Division
The French Second Armoured Division was a different source of French soldiers. The core of the division initially took part in the fighting in Norway as an independent tank regiment. They were evacuated to Great Britain after the fall of France and thus formed the first core of the Free French Forces under DeGaulle. They were sent to the French Central African colonies to rally them to the allied side. The regiment’s commander was Phillipe Comte de Hauteclocque but in order to protect his family still in France, he changed his name to Leclerc. Under Leclerc they rallied Cameroon and Gabon and went on to conduct raids on Italian held Libya before joining up with the British 8th Army. As an already formed force they did not join the FEC but was send back to UK after the fighting in North Africa came to a close to take part in the Normandy invasion. They were refitted with US equipment as all other French forces and as such was organized as an American armoured division. They came ashore in August of 1944 to take part in Operation Cobra and the battles at Falaise pocket. They would later liberate Paris and go on to join the FEC in France.
An interesting subunit was the 9th company of the 3rd battalion of the division as this unit consisted of Spanish volunteers. Following the Spanish civil war a number of Republicans fled to Spain. Following the fall of France the Vichy French started deporting them back to Spain but with Spain under nationalistic control, they faced persecution and thus many of them fled to join the French resistance and from there some went to join the Free French Forces and enough joined to become a full company.
Tank companies were slow to receive Shermans with 76 mm and 105 mm guns and thus these are only present in small number in the briefing.
Click to access 2DBIntelBriefing.pdf
Brazil
One of the most unknown contributors to the fighting in Italy was the Brazilian expeditionary force (FEB). The Brazilian army was originally organized along French lines having had military observers in France during WWI. In the interwar period Brazil became a dictatorship in 1929 and as such developed new German ties in the 1930s while also maintaining economical ties with the US. With interests on both sides Brazil was reluctant to join the war and it was not until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent German declaration of war on USA and uboat campaign which also hit Brazilian ships, that Brazil took an allied stand. The Brazilian forces were not prepared for a modern war and as such they became recipients of US lend-lease and received American equipment which replaced original French artillery and German small arms (which had been bought in the interwar period). The expeditionary force was organized and retrained as a regular US infantry division which started in 1943 although this went slowly. In July 1944 when the first troops arrived in Italy they had still to be equipped and trained. The Germans joked that the day the Brazilians would actually fight, would be the day the snakes started smoking. So the divisional motto because “when the Cobra smokes” and their unit patches featured a smoking cobra.
The Brazilian force is rated Confident Conscript (although also a Trained variant can be fielded) and this makes for the most interesting change. This means that the infantry company is typically filled with support weapons and full platoons and thus play very different from regular US forces. The Brazilians did not use M1 Garands and as such lose Automatic Rifles and Truscott Trot but get to reroll tests to dig in and the 2iC get to reroll motivation tests. So if the US rifle company simply does not have enough flavour I recommend this one but be warned, even though there is a ton of troops on the table getting hit at 2+ makes staying alive difficult. A small interesting option to the rifle platoon is the option of equipping one platoon with SMGs.
Finland
The Finnish army did contain a number of non-Finnish elements. One source of manpower was a small number of Swedish volunteers. As Finland is bilingual there were also Swedish speaking regiments in the Finnish army. While there are no special rules for Fenno-Swedish troops these would be equipped as other national Finnish infantry. Other foreign troops in Finnish service were Estonians and can also be represented by Finnish infantry forces.
Soviet Union
The Soviet army did incorporate elements from other nations such as Polish and Estonian although these do not have their own special rules as such. A Polish Strelkovy company (platoon) is featured in the Warsaw uprising briefing but do not have their own list.
For more inspiration on Estonians in Finnish, German or Soviet services, see:
Happy Valentine!
The post is about the most numerous British built tank chassis of WWII and you may not even have heard about it.
It made up 25% of all tank platforms build in the UK but yet it was not meant to be more than a stop-gap. On February 10, 1938, the War Office desperate for more medium tanks invited the Vickers company for a meeting ro producing a new tank. As the international tension mounted it was found the British land forces were not adequately prepared for war. Vulcan Foundry was working on the latest British tank the Matilda II and had their hands full and thus refused to offer to bid on a new tank design. The idea was to design a derivates of existing tank designs either the Matilda II or Vickers A10 to shorten development time and speed up production, it was to help things also accepted to lower design requirements from the Matilda II specifications. The Vickers company naturally chose to work with their previous design in which they had experience. The second meeting was held a few days later the day before Valentine’s Day. A name had to be chosen for the project which became known as Valentine and the name stuck. There are several stories regarding the name and while Valentine’s Day might have been on the mind of some designer given the date there are other plausible explanations. One is that the name was chosen in honour of Sir John Valentine Carden who had been a technical director at Vickers but had died in a air crash a few years before, other that it was chosen for the abbreviation of the company, Vickers Armstrong Limited (Engineers) Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Regardless of the name building a machine of war is not a joking matter and Vickers promised to start production in March of 1939 (only a year away) and at 2/3 of the cost of the Matilda II, this was only possible due to the fact that little retooling of the production lines were needed.
Infantry or Cruiser Tanks
Even though J. F. C. Fuller and B. H. Liddell Hart had done quite some work in the application of tank forces along the lines of blitzkrieg, these ideas were generally not heeded in Britain. Instead the British system used two types of tanks, infantry and cruiser tanks. The cruiser tank as the name suggested was supposed to steam into battle line abreast like battleships on land. These often sacrificed armour for speed and were supposed to operate on their own utilizing shock much like heavy cavalry of earlier periods. The infantry tank was a different beast. The infantry tanks to which the Valentine belonged were meant to be escorting the infantry forward working as mobile pillboxes and engaging enemy tanks. Armour was therefore more important than speed.
The Valentine is officially titled Infantry Tank Mk III Valentine but as many as 11 main variants were made. It was originally armed with a 2 pounder gun which was similar to the infantry anti-tank gun. Mk II and III were equipped with diesel engines with Mk III having a design adjustment turret to allow a third crew man in the turret for loading, something which had proven very successful in German tanks. The idea of a third crewman (the loader) takes a lot of stress of the tank commander, as he is burdened with surveying the battlefield and spotting targets, coordinating the tank crew and with higher formations and loading the main gun on top of it was extra work detracting from the other tasks. All three variants were shipped to North Africa to take part in the Desert War. While initially meant to be an infantry tank the Valentines often ended up as replacement cruiser tanks due to equipment shortages after Dunkirk. It also starting replacing Matilda IIs as infantry tanks. The Valentines gained re reputation as very reliable tanks even though meant as a stop-gap until Matilda production could keep up. A number of minor improvements continued bringing the Valentine to Mk VII but in September of 1941 the tank was declared obsolete and work on finding a replacement was conducted. With other replacements still under development it was decided to up gun the tank as another stop-gap but the turret was found too small to accept a 6 pounder gun and the turret had to be redesigned, which led to IX to XI versions each with better room to operate the gun but less stowage room. Even though obsolete, production was kept up due to lend-lease. At beginning of the German invasion of Russia the British started supplying arms to the Soviet Union and Valentines were amongst those. With Russian crews trained in their use production was kept up for much longer for export. A total of 7260 turreted tanks were built including 1420 Canadian versions of which 3665 were exported to the Soviet Union. The Soviets used the Valentine but preferred their own tanks and relegated it to secondary roles. 1056 other variants were built of which one, the Valiant, was a huge failure.
The Valiant (A38), the world’s worst tank design?
In May of 1942 the Tank Board wanted to have an assault tank and thus looked at uparmouring the Valentine X and equip it with heavy armour for approaching enemy positions (and surviving the heavier antitank gun fire). This was still held in the spirit of infantry tanks.
Designers were instructed to keep the weight to a minimum while increasing armour thickness. In order to save weight the hull was decreased. The driver compartment is almost moulded around the driver and the steering to difficult the driver had to almost sit crouched when operating the tank and was liable to hurt his back on the escape hatch or break his wrist when the gear lever came violently back when changing down from 5th gear. The driver hatches fouled the gun, the ground clearance too low and suspension too weak. Only one was ever build and it never completed trials, it was found to be dangerous to the driver and broke down running no more than 13 miles.
The only known completed Valiant tank on display in Bovington Tank Museum
The turret is overly large and gives the tank a very high profile, this was done on the insistence that the turret should have three crew members.
Other Variants
Another variant that was tried was the Bishop. Noting the success of German assault guns and doubling as a mobile artillery platform it was decided to use the Valentine chassis to mount a 25 pounder artillery gun in a fixed casemate. Production was commenced on a Valentine Mk III chasis but results were discouraging, with the arrival of the American M7 Priest, another self-propelled howitzer, the need for the Bishop ceased and the last versions were scrapped in 1944 leaving no surviving examples.
The Bishop even though having a massive superstructure actually had less working space than the US priest
Another very successful variant is the Archer. Already in spring of 1941 when the Valentine design started to know its age, it was suggested to mount a 6-pounder antitank gun on the chassis rather than spending resources on designing a new turret. The initial idea was either a gun on a swivel with a large gun shield or casemate like the Bishop. As the war progressed, tanks got more and more armoured and the British 17 pounder antitank gun were often needed for the heaviest German tanks. The idea was therefore revived as a way to use the tank chassis already built. Work to mount the massive gun on the small tank commenced but proved difficult, in the end the design had the gun mounted “backwards”, so the tank destroyger would have to reverse into position but drive forwards. 665 vehicles were completed and the design proved successful, the crew liked the ability to drive fast forward after having fired a few rounds from concealed positions rather than having to reverse out once revealed however complained about the thin armour, open fighting compartment and the exhaust smoke easily giving them away when changing positions.
The “back” of the Archer
Other variants include mine flails, DD swimming, bridgelayers and flamethrower tanks although few of thse actually saw combat, these were used to succesfully test a number of technologies that would equip the more famous tanks that followed such as the Churchill infanty tank and specialist sherman tank versions. All in all the stopgap tank proved an able WWII tank.
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