CEF Supporting Arms

 Here are some supporting troops for my late WWI CEF - an 18-pdr, a Vickers MMG and some more signallers.  

By the later stages of WWI, most front line infantry were issued one or more Lewis guns per platoon.  With Lewis guns now issued to front line troops, the Vickers guns were mostly gathered into dedicated Machine Gun Companies.  This gun team has my attempt at the insignia of the 3rd Company of the 1st Canadian Machine Gun Battalion.  I assembled this gun out of pieces that were in my lead mountain. The front two legs of the tripod were missing, so I fabricated replacements from plastic rod.  Unlike the MMG team I prepared for the Germans, these are both fixed to the base.  

There is also an 18-pdr for the late war CEF.  I already have 5 early war 18-pdrs plus one more with winter kit - now the late war troops have their own.

For this gun team, only one gunner is fixed to the model.

 The rest of the crew are based individually for casualty removal or if a different number of crew members are required.

And to finish up here are some signallers (with the white over blue arm band), including one on a motorcycle, plus a trench raider and a couple of red-tabbed staff officers.

CEF Bombers, Rifle Grenadiers and Signallers for WWI

I am keen to use my CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) to play out some of the scenarios from TFL's Stout Hearts and Iron Troopers scenario book, specifically the 'training the Entente' scenarios.  Each of these are based on a British platoon that includes a section each of riflemen, bombers, Lewis gun and rifle grenadiers.  However, it turns out that I only had two of the required four rifle grenadiers, so I ordered another pack of Great War Miniatures from North Star. 

The pack includes two rifle grenadiers and four bombers.  In any other language, the bombers would be called grenadiers, but in the British Army, the title of Grenadier is exclusive to the First Regiment of Foot Guards - no chance that any pleb will be allowed to call himself a 'grenadier' simply because he is armed with grenades!  

The red patches on the sleeves show the formation patches for the 5th Battalion CEF, Western Cavalry (perpetuated today by the North Saskatchewan Regiment).  I did not remember making this decision, thinking that I would instinctively try to paint them as the 10th Battalion (perpetuated by my old comrades, the Calgary Highlanders). I assume that a small square on top of a larger square was just too finicky for me to paint, so I went for the easier to replicate circle!

I did my best to match the colour and style of the same figures I painted in 2008 (or thereabouts).  I think I managed ok, especially considering that the original base uniform colour was something that I blended from GW Catachan Green and Kommando Khaki!  In the comparison photos that follow, the 2008 versions are the ones with flocking on the bases, and the 2023 versions have unflocked bases.

While I was adding these extra bombers into the mix, I also found time to finish up some signallers - an officer with a field telephone, and a soldier sending a pigeon on its way.  I was of course thinking about poor old Speckled Jim as I painted him!

A tale of two Autocars

 Round about 2008 I decided to scratch-build an Armoured Autocar for my WWI Canadian army.  The Armoured Autocar was built by the Autocar truck company of Pittsburgh. Interestingly, Autocar still exists!  The armoured Autocars provided to the Canadian army were made by adding boilerplate armour to a standard Autocar truck chassis.

Most of my research was from The Armoured Autocar in Canadian Service by Cameron Pulsifer, published by Service Publications.  The book is a great reference and includes scale drawings at the centre of the book that I used to calculate the dimensions for the armour plate.

The Autocar was sent overseas in 1914, originally equipped with two Colt machine guns.  The Colt MGs were eventually replaced by Vickers MMGs, plus a Lewis gun mounted at the front of the vehicle. The vehicle had a crew of 8:  driver, commander plus three crew for each MG.  As there is no way I can fit that many in either of these models, my Autocars only have a driver, and two gunners.  

My scratch-build was based on a Model T Ford from Company B.  Using the Ford rather than an Autocar as a base meant that right from the start my model was a compromise with accuracy.  But it was a useful chassis for the main product, and the chassis is mostly hidden under the armour plate.  I think if it a bit like a movie production making an ersatz German Tiger tank out of a T-34 base!  My version of the model was built at 1:56, to match other vehicles in my collection.  The crew are Wargames Foundry.  

Many years later (2018, maybe?), First Corps ended up releasing their own version of the Armoured Autocar.  Their model is in 1:48, so obviously there is an obvious scale difference with my own build.  Note that the FC model only has two crew :)

Since the models are so visibly different, I decided that the FC model will represent the early version of the model to go with my early war army.  This version has the headlamps, and a much simpler paint scheme.  The scratch build is painted with the later insignia for the Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, based on the painting on the last surviving model on display at the Canadian War Museum.

On the left, all that text should be in a single line, but that is beyond my painting skills!

Here are a couple of shots with a Great War Miniatures sergeant to show relative scale.

The Armoured Autocar is a tragically underknown vehicle.  It served throughout the war, from 1914 to 1918.  It was very fortunate in that for most of the war, the vehicles were kept out of the front lines, as trench warfare was not conducive to wheeled vehicles.  The unit in which these vehicles served was also groundbreaking, as it was one of the first fully motorised units in war, as in addition to the armoured cars, there were also support vehicles to carry fuel and ammunition, and even an Autocar ambulance.  The Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade showed itself to be extremely versatile, able to move very heavy machine guns around the Western Front.  Their moment of greatest glory came in the Spring 1918 Michael offensive by the German Army, when the CAMGB's mobility was instrumental in intercepting the attacking enemy forces. The cars were vulnerable but in the right place and the right time, they helped to stop the breakthrough.

More Chain of Command on the BSC2021 Boards - Picture Heavy!

 Craig, Doug and Gord stopped by on the holiday Monday to try a game of Chain of Command on my BSC2021 game boards.  Thanks to Doug for contributing some photos to this report!

To shake things up, I teamed up with Gord to play as the HG PanzerGrenadiers as the attackers, while Doug and Craig set the Canadians to defend.  The scenario selected was 'Flank Attack'.

To allow for a full 4'x6' table, I purchased another couple more floor tiles.  For these ones, I left the extra treatment to an absolute minimum, just a thin layer of plaster and a couple coats of paint (yellow ochre base, dry brushed with Camel).  Eventually I may add some static grass and other vegetation, but for this game it was enough to cover them with other terrain - the village and some plowed fields.

What's going on here?  It must be market day!

Lots of lovely scatter terrain!

But then gunfire is heard and the civilians run for shelter.

Most of the JOP (Jump Off Points) are small, but here you can see the mule cart in the orchard that represents one of the Canadian JOP.  The two bicycles in front of the church represent another JOP, and there is a German JOP tucked beside the minefield behind the church.  That minefield was placed by the Canadian defenders to limit the space available for the German attack!  The two strips of barbed wire represent another minefield.

These two trucks represent a couple of German JOP.  The PanzerGrenadiers advanced as far as they could in their vehicles, then dismounted to advance the rest of the way on foot!

Barely visible under the bridge, the Germans begin their advance through the heavy brush.

Canadian section deploys in the orchard.

 

The defenders strike:  the white smoke shows where a ranging shot from the mortar battery has landed.  Right on target!

Knowing that the Canadian mortar battery has their range, the PG hustle away from the danger zone!

Back in the village, the Canadian FOO is joined by an infantry section in the church.  

They are about to engage with a gruppe of panzergrenadiers across the minefields!

The mortar bombardment begins, pinning one of the German gruppe and catching part of the other gruppe.  

Shortly afterwards, the FOO adjusts the barrage to pin the lead gruppe as well.  And so they remained for many, many phases, as the barrage continued and all the panzergrenadiers could do was hunker down and endure it. 

Just outside of the barrage area of effect, the Canadians are ready to pick off any Germans that escape the barrage.

At the other end of the battlefield, the Germans deployed another gruppe and put pressure on the Canadians in the church.

Here you can see Craig pulling more shock markers from the tub. One thing about CoC, you can never have too many shock markers!  As a change from my habit of using livestock, for this game we used the 'helmet on rifle' markers from Warlord Games.

A brisk firefight continues.  The Germans are taking some shock, but have brought their feldwebel into the game to ensure that the troops remaining motivated.  They've laid smoke to block fire from the orchard to the left, and with two MG 42 machineguns are steadily winning the firefight with the Canucks in the church.

The Canadians drop smoke to block the German MG fire.  Elsewhere, the mortar barrage has ended, and the two gruppe there dust themselves off and continue their advance.

It was about here that the game petered out.  The firepower of the German panzergrenadiers was too much for the Canadian defenders.  The mortar barrage was very effective at pinning half the German force for much of the game.  The Germans were not blessed with the command rolls they needed - they accumulated their command points slowly, and when they finally had enough to earn a Chain of Command point to end the turn, the Canadians simply played their CoC die to continue the barrage.

Finally, the Canadians rolled the infamous triple 6 to end the turn, and with it their barrage and smoke.  The Germans under the barrage only held out because they had their leutnant (SL) with them to rally shock.  Their numbers were reduced by the bombardment, but in the end they withstood the barrage.  But while under the barrage, their advance was halted.  A valuable lesson learned about the dangers of bunching up, so that two gruppe were caught in the same barrage.

Some thoughts on CoC:  Panzergrenadiers are deadly.  It's a big challenge to find a way to overcome the firepower they bring with those belt-fed MGs.  The barrage was a good start to trap the PG, but the firefight at the other end of the table was very unbalanced.  I think one of the answers, at least for Commonwealth armies, is to use the 2" mortar to lay smoke and force the PG to relocate:  when they are moving, they aren't shooting.  

We had a few questions about interpreting the rules.  There were a few things that didn't seem natural, so I think we may need to discuss them and decide on house rules for when the rules seem to defy common sense.  Some possible rules modifications to consider:

1. If an infantry LMG team is reduced to just the gunner, the JL should be able to join him and act as loader to keep the full set of fire dice.  (if the rifle team is still around, the JL could assign one or more riflemen to be gunners, but in case of necessity, he should be able to load).

2.  (This if from last week's game, which I may eventually write up!)  Universal carriers are not mini-tanks!  They should be vulnerable to small arms fire.  For starters, infantry should be able to close assault them, treating the crew as if in hard cover.  It may be worth allow infantry to shoot them as well, also considering the crew as hard cover.  

3.  Soldiers in a building should be able to move away from the windows, so that they can not be targetted by soldiers with small arms.  Basically, use a principal that if the troops can shoot out, then they can be shot at.  Otherwise they can hunker down in their hard cover.