KotS at the Club

A big multiplayer game of the Wessex Wargamers Winchester house rules for World War One air warfare, Knights of the Sky, at the club this evening organised by Ian. This was a tactical bombing set up with both sides attempting to knock out fuel and ammunition dumps at either end of the table. I was flying for La France in a Breguet XIV but didn't have much luck in either the bombing department or shooting things down. It was good fun as always and reminded me of some of the games I have Ru in the past, albeit quite a while ago and when I had more time to get up to the club on a regular basis. 

Albatros D.Va Flieger Abteilung 304b

                

I'm taking a short break from the Algy Flies Down Under project to focus on my Death in the Dark Continent Nyamwezi army, but I've been continuing my background research and reading up on the Albatros D.Va equipped German units in the Palestine campaign. One of these was Flieger Abteilung 304b, commanded by Hauptmann Franz Walz, whose airstrip was over run by the Australian Light Horse in September 1918. The diggers captured the lot including the CO who had just landed in his distinctive Albatros D.Va marked with a horizontal black and white stripe and red swastika. It's a great story and the various photos taken afterwards are very useful painting reference. The RAF repainted at least one of the German aircraft and flew it once all the shooting had fizzled out!

Nyamwezi Skirmisher Spearmen

I already have a couple of units of figures based up for my Nyamwezi Death in the Dark Continent army, but here's the first of the new batch of units. These are all Copplestone figures and based as a skirmishing spearmen, for a grand total of 24 points. I have another unit of these ready to base but need a third to form the core of the army, which is based on List 1: Generic Villagers. Time to crack on!

Algy Flies Down Under Scenario Shortlist

After a couple of weeks of scribbling I've now got the scenario shortlist sorted for Algy Flies Down Under, with a total of five chronological scenarios ready to write up and a sixth bonus scenario* to tack on to the end, if I'm feeling like it. 

Here's a brief summary, complete with the aircraft required for each game:

A) 11/11/16.  

Beersheba. 

1 x Martinsyde G100

1 x BE2c

2 x Fokker E.III

B) 08/07/17

Gaza.

1 x Martinsyde G100

1 x BE2c

1 x BE12a

1 x Albatros D.III

1 x Rumpler C.I

C) 03/01/18

Mejdel.

1 x F2B Bristol Fighter 

1 x RE8

2 x Albatros D.III 

D) 28/04/18

Nablus.

2 x F2B Bristol Fighters 

4 x Albatros D.Va

E) 28/06/18

Amman.

2 x F2B Bristol Fighters 

6 x Albatros D.Va 

F)* 06/08/18

Jordan Valley.

2 x Albatros D.Va 

2 x F2B Bristol Fighters 

1 x Caquot Observation Balloon

Return to Darkest Africa

For various reasons my plan to do a solo skirmish small Footprint  2' x 2' project has hit the buffers, so I've had a rethink. Instead of starting something new as a rule I've had more success revisiting old projects that have been trundling along or fallen of the rails in the past. One of these is 'Darkest Africa', which I've had various dips into over the years and which even features in the very first post on the blog. This has gone through a variety of incarnations, the most recent being for Death in the Dark Continent, with a Nyamwezi or Tuta army as the most recent focus. 

I have already based a couple of units for this and have loads of figures prepared, so I'm going to get more basing completed and actually start painting some units next month. This will still be a solo project but may well end up being something I can take up to the club next year, especially as I have some fantastic modular terrain to deploy. I'm actually looking forward to a project in 28mm as well, which is a big shift up in gear compared to my usual workbench modelling and painting. 

Jasta 55 Pilot Roster

 

I've been on the hunt for pilots to populate the scenarios I've been devising for the Palestine campaign. This has been relatively straightforward for Flieger Abteilung 300, for which I have quite detailed lists, but less so for Jasta 55 / Jasta 1F and the other squadrons assigned to the theatre in 1918. The records for these units are very sketchy, no doubt due to the collapse of the front in the summer of 1918, when the relevant documents were probably lost or destroyed.

Luckily, I have been able to track down quite a few pilots from Jasta 55 in this book, which has quite extensive lists of claims and losses, including the handful from the Palestine campaign. At least one of these I already know for sure as a casualty but the others can be used to fill out the ranks, even if it is speculative. I only really need to include them as kettle leaders to be honest, so I should have enough plots to go round. 

Tally Ho!

The Eagle of Jericho

Hauptmann Franz Walz.

I bumped into this chap while researching the Jasta pilots in Palestine. Interesting story for a pilot with only a handful of claims (7), none of which were made in the Palestine campaign and mostly when he was flying two seater observation aircraft.

The Iron Cross, a Blue Max and the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern...quite a lot of gongs, primarily for his role as a CO, including commanding Flieger Abteilung 304b. He had been CO of Jasta Boelcke before this but hadn't been very successful, to say the least, so he was packed off to a hotter location.

Apparently, he made a much better fist of this and also flew a lot of sorties. Unfortunately, his was landing at El Affule on 20/09/18 when he was captured by the Australian Light Horse, who had overrun the airfield. They also captured his aircraft intact, a rather splendid Albatros DVa with very distinctive markings.

The Israeli post office has even put him on a stamp, not realising he was a general in the Luftwaffe in WW2. Anyway, I'm going to try to include him in a scenario if I can find an angle and a historical action which he might feasibly have taken part in. 

Watch out Fritz, here come the Brisfits

I've been a bit busy lately and haven't had time to work on the scenarios for Algy Flies Down Under, which is something I need to crack on with. 

On the plus side, the notes for Scenario A, B and C are nailed down, which means the latter scenarios D, E and possibly F, are now in my sights. These will all be in 1918 and so will feature the formidable F2B Bristol Fighter or 'Brisfit' which completely changed the balance of air superiority in the Palestine campaign. 

Not that it was all one way, of course, as the Germans reinforced, reorganised and re-equipped their units in response, with the Albatros DV and Pfalz DIIIa arriving alongside veteran pilots from the Western Front. All very good stuff and excellent for scenarios with a bit more punch. Tally Ho!

One Hour Wargames Small Footprint Solo Options

One of the things that persuaded me to get a 2' x 2' grass terrain cloth is the chance to revive my One Hour Wargames 2mm ECW project, which I tinkered with a year or so ago. This was scuppered by some dodgy basing that I screwed up, which put me off the project for a while, but it's otherwise still something I'm keen to have a go at. I may also try the rules with other periods and scales, up to 6mm or even 10mm, as I have a fair few options that wouldn't require much effort to get sorted, including 2mm Ancients using leftover bits from Strength and Honour. It's potentially the next thing to hit the workbench if the terrain cloth turns out to be too small for the 18mm Wiglaf Miniatures skirmish idea....?

Jasta 300 Albatros D.III conversion

I've nearly finished assembling the 1/600th scale aircraft for play testing the Algy Flies Down Under scenarios, with only four Albatros D.III / D.Va models to get sorted. These are a bit more fiddly than you'd expect as I am adding twin radiators to the upper wing centre section, which were needed for cooling due to the high temperatures of the region. To do this I've sanded down the wing to remove the existing radiator, then glued small rectangles of plastic card in place before sanding them down to the right profile. It's all a bit of a faff but will be worth it in the end?