Fox & The Rat: Day 2 Battle 2 - Guns of Navarone (Sort Of!)

 0200 hours 11/10/1942

Location - Western Desert; Undisclosed location west of Benghazi, Libya

Roster: Lieutenant Tonkin

Sergeant Wilson

Troopers Crabtree; Flashman; Carstairs; Godfrey; Cooper

Moonless night.  Anti-tank gun emplacement.  Unknown number and quality of DAK sentries.

Sub-unit of L Detachment led by Lt. Tonkin charged with destroying an anti-tank gun emplacement in preparation for a breakthrough by the main column.

The intelligence was a heavily defended anti-tank gun emplacement was positioned roughly in the front centre of the attack zone.  This was defended by an unknown number of DAK Gendarmerie and sentries as well as a series of mined areas.

Lt. Tonkin led the majority of the force from the north-east/east - only Sgt. Wilson approached from a northerly aspect.  Lt. Tonkin & Pte. Cooper approached the defended zone along a dried up wadi while Pte.’s Carstairs and Godfrey approached from the east making the most of the undulating sand dunes with Crabtree and Flashman to their right parallel to the the line of the wadi.  The broad [lan boeing Lt. Tonkin and Sgt. Wilson, who were carrying the charges, would breach the perimeter, while the remainder would take up covering positions in the north-east/east zone to provide protective fire to facilitate a speedy exit for Lt. Tonkin and Sgt, Wilson.

The Jerry guards proved frustratingly unwilling to patrol away from the north-east corner of the perimeter but were seemingly unaware of the creeping Tommies blocking the route favoured to breach the perimeter.  Lt. Tonkin took the initiative by outflanking the barbed wire and minefield directly from the east to approach the gun emplacement unseen.  He despatched an unsuspecting guard at close quarters and hid the body before the alarm could be raised.  Fortunately, although Jerry patrolled in front of the gun emplacement they must have been distracted by something in the rear lines and were looking behind them.  This allowed Sgt. Wilson to scurry across the front of the perimeter - initially unsighted - heading for a gap in the barbed wire and a clear route to the gun emplacement.

Lt. Tonkin managed to get right up to where the intel chaps had specified the gun emplacement was only to find……it was further back on a south-west trajectory!  Bloody Intel Boys!  By this time Jerry’s carrots had kicked in and Lt. Tonkin had been spotted.  He managed to get cover behind some sand bags affording some protection from the DAK officer approaching directly from the south and miraculously shrugged off a burst of automatic fire.  This reprieve was short lived as a single sentry approaching the Lt. from the north shot multiple times and eventually took Lt. Tonkin down.  In the best traditions of the British Army leading from the front and not asking his men to do something he was not willing to do himself.

In the meantime Cooper, Carstairs and Godfrey had managed to take out some DAK sentries who had wandered outside their perimeter hunting the SAS.  Crabtree and Flashman accounted for the DAK officer while Sgt. Wilson avenged Lt. Tonkin and despatched his craven assassin!  The way was clear to the gun emplacement……

Sgt. Wilson crawled his way to the anti-tank gun and successfully placed and detonated his charges……Boom!  Everything was ringing and blurred - if hadn’t been 0200 hours it would have been pitch black too.  The fuse was too short, Sgt, Wilson had been floored - he was battered, alive but in the bag!

The remaining troopers used the confusion to make an orderly withdrawal and Lt. Tonkin, who ultimately suffered nothing more serious than an MP40 sting, also managed to crawl away and avoid endless sauerkraut with Sgt. Wilson.

This was a qualified success but L Detachment were lamenting the loss of Sgt. Wilson and were fired with desire to get him and Pte. Fraser out of whatever forsaken stalag they were locked up in.

  

  

Sengoku Japanese: Yumi Samurai

I've painted up some Ashigaru archers and now it's the turn of Yumi Samurai to join the Mori forces.

As before these are from Fireforge miniatures from the missile troops box.

As with my other Samurai units I've done a mix of armour colours and lace blobs to give an individual look to all the fighters. The sashimono on the leader is really the only way to differentiate the units apart for the archers as the missile armed troops don't have them.

The next ten will be added to the Shimazu force and then I think it will be the final models for the Mori from their leader box.

Sengoku Japanese: Mori Commanders

I've been working on the remaining Mori foot command from the leaders box this past week. It comes with a variety of Samurai and Ashigaru in various poses with different equipment. 

The Ashigaru leader is carrying what I believe is a range measuring stick to be used along with yumi (bow) armed troops. It could also be purely ceremonial like the Samurai's fan of command.

I'm not entirely sure what the portable chest is meant to contain, it could be ammo for the teppo (musket), as their is also an arrow case you can build, or perhaps a traveling tea set.

Here we have all the Mori I've painted up so far, I have Samurai archers on the painting table at present with mounted leaders after those.

I've also received word that the plastic Monks from Fireforge should be shipping very soon so I hope to have those in the mix before Christmas.

Sengoku Japanese: Mounted Samurai 2

Quick post to show that have indeed still been busy with the Samurai, this time it's the second batch of mounted Mori cavalry.

Again mostly Yari armed but this time aside from the Katana armed leader with have a Naginata wielding warrior.

That takes me up to 12 mounted Mori Samurai, I just have the three mounted leaders from the commanders pack to go before I can start on the Shimazu cavalry.

Fox & The Rat: Day 2, Minefield Clearance

Having successfully lead his men through enemy lines the night before to destroy the Commonwealth anti-tank gun Lt. Gruber was back in action again. This night he needed to clear a path through the minefield to help with the anticipated main assault.

The brave lieutenant was once again accompanied by Sgt. Klinkerhoffen and Pvt. Schafer with his sniper rifle. Pvt's Geerhart, Grosse, Weiss, Kopp, Leitz and Moller made up the rest of the attacking force. 

The defenders had already left a couple of routes through the mines for patrolling so Lt. Gruber split his force in half and worked down both flanks towards the mines.

Pvt. Schafer took up a central position with his trusty sniper rifle with the aim of providing covering fire once the alarm was raised. His hope was to further add to his three kills from the first patrol.

Both flanking forces initially made steady progress towards the minefield with Lt. Gruber even managing to start clearing a path but then things took a turn for the worse. A nosey British officer started to patrol along the stretch of mines the Lt. was trying to clear putting the area under a close watch which seriously hampered efforts.

Sgt. Klinkerhoffen had no such hinderances on the left flank and he and his men quickly opened up a path through the mines.

However Pvt's Leitz & Moller drew the attention of the guards as they pushed on to clear further mines and so decided to withdraw back into the shadows in the hope of throwing off the enemy.

At this point all hell broke loose as Pvt. Geerhart who was in the process of removing a mine instead managed to set of a chain of mines. Only quick reactions by his kameraden Grosse in pulling him to the ground meant he avoided being blown to pieces.

This however meant that the guards where driven into a frenzy of activity as the alarm was well and truly sounded.

This was particularly bad new for Pvt. Moller as the guards on the left flank started to fire wildly into the dark and he was struck. As he slumped to the ground Leitz could see he was already dead so had no choice but to carry on moving back into the night. This drew further fire from the guards nearby and things started to look bad for Klinkerhoffen and his remaining men. Fortunately at this point Schafer started to pick off the defenders one by one until three more men lay dead on the sand and the left flank managed to disengage. 

On the right flank the explosions had unnerved the British officer so he'd pulled back to a safer distance, spotting his chance to try and clear a path all the way through mine field Gruber darted forwards. In his rush however he too set off the very mines he was trying to clear. Again, either cat-like reflexes or god given fortune allowed him to come away unharmed.

Knowing that the game was now up Lt. Gruber also led his men back into the night, he just hoped they's done enough to allow the full scale attack to break through the enemy lines.

Sengoku Japanese: Commanders

This week's painting has been some commanders for my Samurai forces, once again making use of the Fireforge Games line of miniatures, this time from the command box.

This contains a good variety of poses and extra equipment not available in the other boxes they produce to add some extra flavour to the commanders.

You get one commander sat on a campaign chair with a couple of kneeling retainers and some Ashigaru carrying large banners and even a sun-shade. 

As I bought two boxes I have one for each side and will be painting up some further foot command figures for the Mori before I work on the three mounted commanders that also come in the box.