Ran out of undercoat spray while undercoating the shanty town.
Kept making mistakes on the mammoth so gave up.
Did undercoat and put the horse flesh colour on these highway robbers for Silver Bayonet.
Almost finished some Insurgents for “In Country”, but only almost!
A bit more on the spiders but not much because I kept on getting interrupted. No matter how much I tell people my mobile is for me to ring them not them ring me they never seem to listen.
A bit more work on each of the giants.
But not much! Only some flesh colour and hair.
Did not quite finish this book!
These finally arrived. Nuts is a great WW2 skirmish game that uses a Reaction Activation system which is great. An example would be:
My turn:
my man moves around the corner of a building;
Your man is waiting for me in the bushes
we test to see each other and do;
you decide to shoot and miss;
you duck in cover;
Not knowing what else is there I decide to wait for additional support.
My turn over. Your turn begins.
This works well and over comes a lot of problems with the IGO/UGO game systems.
This one also arrived to add to the diminishing reading stock.
Having just finished this book you might be glad to hear that I am now down to my last three on the bedside table.
Although describing the overall campaign “Those Ragged Bloody Heroes” concentrates on the 39th Militia Battalion and is a stirring history of triumph, tragedy and controversy set in the mud and steaming jungle of the Kokoda Trail and the fire swept beaches at Gona.
During July to September 1942 the Japanese set about the capture of Port Moresby by an overland crossing of the Owen Stanley Range, and a landing in Milne Bay. To oppose a force of 10,000 crack Japanese troops on the Kokoda Trail, the Allies committed one under-trained and poorly-equipped unit – the 39th Battalion, later reinforced by Veterans of the 21st Brigade, 7th Division AIF. These were the men of Maroubra Force.
The Australians put up a desperate fight. They withdrew village by village, forcing the Japanese to fight for every inch of ground. Finally at Ioribaiwa, the Japanese turned away, beaten and exhausted. The Australian soldiers’ reward for their remarkable achievement was denigration by the High Command – General Blamey called them ‘running rabbits’.
Then in December 1942 when the fighting at the beachheads had produced little success, the former members of Maroubra Force captured Gona after heavy fighting – but at a tragic cost.
“Those Ragged Bloody Heroes” is the story of those battles told as never before, through the eyes of the Australian soldiers who fought there. It is a story that raises serious questions about the planning and command of the Kokoda and Gona campaigns.
Generals Blamey and Macarthur were so out of touch with the conditions, the difficulties of supply, and the fact they believed the Japanese to be out-numbered that they blamed the troops and not their total incompetence. Australian strategic thinking relied on a “Fortress Singapore” mentality so there was no consideration of fighting an South East Pacific war. The lack of foresight, planning. logistic support, intelligence and a distinct lack of mapping were the cause and not the fighting quality of “Maroubra Force”.
A cursory glance at the book will show you why Thomas Blamey was hated by his own troops.
His dressing down of “Maroubra Force” caused booing, interjection and turning of backs. The sacking of their Commander, Brigadier Arnold Potts caused a huge drop in morale and the resignation of most of the commanding officers. Potts refused to accept their letters and encouraged them to support the new appointment.
Potts fought alongside his men and his courage was demonstrated when Maroubra force was outflanked at the battle of Mission Ridge and their Brigade Headquarters was attacked at Battalion Hill is undoubted. He and the cooks clerks, storemen, and communications staff stood firm and repulsed the much larger Japanese flanking force. This was why he was so well liked.
The 39th were rewarded for their bravery by being totally dispersed among other battalions with the Australian Jungle Division reorganisation and totally expunged from the OOB
“Those Ragged Bloody Heroes” is meticulously researched with many eye witness quotes to reinforce the facts Peter Brune is presenting. Detailed notes references and index make this a superb piece of work. It may well be a polemic to put forward the true story of Maroubra Force and the 39th Militia Battalion in particular, but this is both understandable and to be commended. The book was very readable and hard to put down. Best I have read on Kokoda so far.
Two armies pushed each other back and forwards along the Kokoda track. The story from the Australian point of view has been well documented and I have reviewed a number of books on this blog. This book covers the campaign from the Japanese view point.
The book has received much criticism most of which I find unjust. Firstly the book is written as a narrative around the stories of Japanese soldiers. As such you are receiving a myopic view – which is what the book is all about. This should not be a criticism.
It is also true that it could have been better fact checked. For example on Page 26 describing the attack on Pearl harbour it mentions that a 189 assorted planes attacked from the Akagi. No aircraft carrier at the time could carry that many planes. The compliment of the Agagi carried an air group of 28 Mitsubishi B1M3 torpedo bombers, 16 Nakajima A1N fighters and 16 Mitsubishi 2MR reconnaissance aircraft, a total of 62 aircraft. As a piece of history this is sloppy but hardly a deal breaker for me.
Many other criticisms such as white washing atrocities, and several other minor errors of fact are either just not true or irrelevant to the books story.
The example often used for the white washing of atrocities is on pages 44 to 46, which is often called the “Tol Plantation” massacre. The writers indicate that about 150 prisoners were killed. One hundred and fifty eight bodies were later found, hardly an understatement. Only six of the Lark Force Australians captured survived that massacre. The statement made by then Pte A.L. Robinson regarding the Toll Massacre, as well as his survival story, is included in the book “Keepers of the Gate” by MAJ. F.J. (Bob) Collins. The statement is consistent with the authors account. See this information on the massacre.
The authors do describe that it was normal for new recruits to bayonet prisoners so that the would not hesitate in battle situations and that the psyche of the Japanese warrior was totally different than the allies. I do not believe that this is white-washing the atrocities, but the fact that they are included means that the reverse is more likely the case.
I remember a quote (but cannot find it to cite) where an Australian soldier said the “Japanese soldiers were excellent warriors, but were not honourable opponents”. The shows the Australian values not the Japanese.
The allies were also responsible for ensuring injured and captured Japanese soldiers were executed, especially if there was no way of detaining or looking after them in the dense jungle. This is recorded by Australian soldiers and is fact not a white wash.
This does not exonerate any of the atrocities it just shows different societal norms. What was normal for one was abnormal for the other.
What do I think of the book? The Path of Infinite Sorrow is one of the few books on the history of the Kokoda campaign from the Japanese viewpoint. Collie and Marutani have written the Japanese side of the story using, as a base, interviews conducted in the early 2000s with some Japanese survivors of the campaign. The result is an interesting and enlightening book with a totally different perspective.
The book also provides an excellent account of the build up and the changes of plans that were brought about by the Battle of the Coral Sea. The thinking behind the Japanese plans and their strategy I found enlightening. Starting as a reconnaissance mission it quickly turned into a full scale attack because of the martial spirit of the Japanese leaders, on the ground and in Rabaul.
As I said, it’s a story mostly from the Japanese side with extensive use of letters, diaries and interviews with survivors. The use of interviews as the basis for the narrative, brings the reader right into the misery and pain of soldiering in New Guinea in 1942. It is hard to understand just how miserable their experiences were, but this book comes darn close, but is not for the faint hearted.
There is some discussion of grander strategy, but as this book is focusing on the soldier’s experience, it is understandable.
Despite some historical errors and a very biased criticism of the white-washing of the atrocities this was an excellent book. Given the content, it is hard to say I liked it but it is a must read for those interested in the New Guinea campaign.
You may remember my shanty town from some of our recent “In Country” games.
The buildings are from “Crooked Dice’s” shanty town range. I have had these extra ones for a while and thought I should at least put them together. The painting takes some time as you can see from above but it is well worth. they are flexible and come with some bases that are suitable to make multi story “condos” from.
Unfortunately no painting today as am still a bit “crook”, but hopefully on the mend soon. i did, however, get some figures organised and even some undercoated ready for painting.
Figures yet to put together or paint. There are some others shown later that have just been undercoated.
Insurgent
Drone team
Insurgent
Insurgent
Tier 1 trooper or well equipped Insurgent
Insurgent
Insurgent
A second drone team
Scooter bandits
Scooter bandit
Scooter bandit
Scooter bandit
These have just been undercoated and a ready for painting.
Sorry for the late post but for the last few days SWMBO and I have been under the weather with a really bad case of Sinusitis and have not achieved much but sneeze and have trouble breathing. At least I finally finished my second LDV section. )nly one more to go.
At least we are on the mend and plan to take advantage of the sunshine and get out again.
Another joint effort between Guru and SOG. With me doing the hard bit (for both of us as we hate it) gluing the figures together, undercoating and basing, and SOG doing the painting.
The squad details for Bolt Action are:
Squad 2
Light Machine Gun Team 1
Light Machine Gun Team 2
Riflemen with Panzerfaust
Riflemen
NCO with SMG
That is two squads down so it will not be long and we will have enough for a game!
I have put together the four larger items of the collection.
I had trouble putting them together as super glue was not working, including on the ones that Azazel had put together as these came apart while trying to finish them. I tried a few options but ended up with Selleys “Fix and Go Shoe Repair” of all things. This is a clear contact adhesive like “Gorilla Grip” but slightly more liquefied. This worked well.
To make the base more solid and to stop the bottoms falling outwards while the glue dried (a few minutes) I found that the Kaisercraft mdf coasters fitted perfectly. This stopped the problem and made the models more stable.
I also glued the top on for the same reasons.
Two doors were left open to provide interest.
I have yet to decide if I want to paint the models in detail, as this would look superb, or to leave them more minimalist in just the one metal colour. At this stage this is what I am thinking but will provide interest with various metal colours like this one.
So far I am happy with the result. Unfortunately I only had a small amount of the glue left and the rest will need to wait until I go out to buy more.
