Recently painted No 30 Napoleonic Luneberg Light Battalion 1815

Light Field Battalion Luneburg was raised in 1813. By June, it was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel August von Klencke. It served in a Light Brigade with Count von Walmoden-Gimborn's Corps in 1813/14 in the campaign against Hamburg in April and May, in Mecklenburg from June to November and saw action at The battle of the Gohrde on 16 September 1813, They were also in Holstein in December 1813 to January 1814, They were part of the force during the Blockade of Harburg from January-March 1813. It was stationed in the Netherlands 1814/1815 as part of the Hanoverian Subsidiary Corps, in the 2nd Light Brigade of the Light Division.

At Waterloo they were part of the 1^st Hanoverian Brigade, Commanded by Major-General Count Keilmannsegge, along with the Breman, Verdun and York Field Battalions, the Grubenhagen Light Battalion and the Field-Jager Corps.

The figures are  MiniFigs, British 95^th Rifles, but are a very close match to the uniform of the Luneburg Lights. we added a flag as it is known that they carried one, apparently they were attacked by Dubois Cuirassiers at Waterloo, temporarily losing a colour, whilst redeploying to assist the garrison at La Haye Sainte, but unfortunately not what it actually looked like, so we used a generic House of Hanover Coat of Arms , for the central device.

The photos are not the best I’ve taken but are definitely not the worst, so apologies for this. Not sure what's going on with the writing on this post either????????

Ray

The Great Escape - A book review

If I'm ever dragged to a Boot Fair by SWMBO, I'm always on the look out for a bargin. At a recent trip to a local Boot Fair in Strood, I picked up this book among others for the princely sum of 10p!!!  The book only took me a couple of days to read and believe me that's some going.
The Introduction to the book was written by George Harsh, it just about sums the book up for me and I was hooked within seconds.

George Harsh

" And this is the only introduction this book actual needs: Yes, it really happened,. But because every man mentioned in this book was a friend of mine, because I have shared pitifully small rations with them, fought lice with them, baited the Germans with them and because many of them are now dead, I am grateful for this chance to point out that they did not die for a senseless reason"


The book was written by Paul Brickhill, in 1951, so some of the more age challenged among you may have already read it many moons ago. The book covers the planning, execution and aftermath of what became known as The Great Escape. Other escape attempts (such as the Wooden Horse) are mentioned as well as the postwar hunt for the Gestapo agents who murdered fifty of the escapees on Hitler's direct order.

Roger Bushell, Big X

Much of the book is focused on Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, also known as "Big X", including his capture, early escape attempts, and planning of the escape. All the major participants and their exploits are described by Brickhill. Among these are Tim Walenn, the principal forger, who 'gave his factory the code name of "Dean and Dawson", after a British travel agency; Al Hake, the compass maker; Des Plunkett, the ingenious chief map tracer, who made a mimeograph for reproducing maps; and Tommy Guest, who ran a team of tailors. 

Tim Walenn, The Forger

Major John Dodge, who was related to Winston Churchill, was one of the escapees. The German officers and guards (called 'goons' by the prisoners) included teams of 'ferrets' who crawled about under the huts looking for signs of tunnels. They were carefully watched by teams of POW 'stooges', one of whom was Paul Brickhill, 'boss of a gang of "stooges" guarding the forgers'. Brickhill was not involved in the tunnel building and did not take part in the escape, due to claustrophobia. 

In the end, seventy-six men escaped. Seventy-three were recaptured and fifty of those were shot by the Gestapo. Four of the remaining twenty-three later tunnelled out of Sachsenhausen, but were recaptured and chained to the floor of their cells. One of them, Major John Dodge, was released to secure a cease-fire.

Al Hake, The Compass Maker

The book is dedicated "to the fifty".

In the aftermath of the escape, according to Brickhill, 5,000,000 Germans spent time looking for the prisoners, many of them full time for weeks.

15mm Totem Pole

I bought this fine looking Totem Pole recently from Irregular Minis to add to my growing Indian village. I previously bought the same model around a year ago but was a little miffed as the model was miscast, the lower green, red and white face had half of it missing. I left it far too long to phone Irregular up and moan, so as Postie was ordering some Russo-Japanese figures, I got him to order me another Totem Pole. BUT this one was also a miscaste, so I moaned and groaned to Postie and he said he'd have a go try and fix it, which he did, and he made a damn good job of it!!!
Totem Poles are carved wooden pillars made by the first nations of the North-West coast, they were usually made from Western Red Cedar.  A Totem is usually an animal, that serves as an emblem for a family or clan. They represent a symbolic relationship between nature and human kin groups. The figures on the pole are mythical creatures from the First Nations ancestral past. The word Totem is derived from the Ojibwe word Odoodem, which translates to "His kinship group".
The pole is based on a large MDF base from Warbases and the three figures are from Frei Korp, now sold by QRF.
The last picture is of a pole from, Stanley Park in Vancouver. I based my colour scheme on this pole, and by the look of it, so did the Irregular sculptor.

Ray

Totem Pole at Stanley Park, Vancouver