2011 A look back.

We have reached the end of the year thus it is time for a look back.

The blog.
At the beginning of the year I set in my mind that i wanted at least 100 messages placed on my blog or close to that number. As you all can see I am not even close to it, as a matter of fact I even post less messages than last year.
I can come with a lot of excuses but the simple fact is I just didn't post enough. But to give some examples, I had planned to post more messages about Dutch WWII History. Also had some other projects planned but which never came of the ground. And real life got in the way, namely work. Hopefully next year is a better year.
Positive things are that this year the number of followers went over the 100 and that I had more than 15000 visitors, counter is now over the 17000.

Painting.
First there is my DAK kompanie. It should have been finished months ago but now with the year almost done I still have to paint 1 platoon. This was a frustrating project simple because of the fact that it was hard to get all the required platoons for my list. Now I hope this last platoon will be painted in the beginning of 2012.
About the new project I started this year, the "Escadron de Reconnaissance" for Early War. This project is on schedule maybe even a little ahead of it. This has always been planned as a long term project but if I can keep up with the painting there is a change that this company is already done before June / July coming year.
The failed project. I had planned to built a lot of terrain this year, like bocage, hedge and fences, just all kind of terrain for the FoW table. When you followed the blog you can see that I never posted anything about this. This was simple because I never even started with building any terrain. I feel so ashamed. This is something I really hope I can get of the ground next year.

Army files.
Maybe most of you already know but it was the year that i stopped with make army files for FoW briefings. I have one more planned and after that I only will make army files of those briefings I really like and army's I have myself. And I will update, if necessary, older files made by me.
Speaking of updated files maybe people should check it out because some files are updated.

Personal life.
Two major things has happened this year in my life. A surgery and a new job.
First the one with a major impact on my life. At the beginning of the year I had a 4 hours long brain surgery to remove a tumor from brain. It all went well and I am feeling great. Had a check up a some weeks ago (MRI scan) and all is looking great. There was nothing to see.
The other major thing is that I found a job. Maybe not the greatest job of all but it is good to work again and earn some money.

I like to thank all my followers and readers of this blog for being here and staying here and, hopefully, enjoying all my scribblings.

You all have a Great and Happy New-Year.

See you in 2012.

A new fresh look.

Some of you may have already noticed, others will when they read this post.
As you all can see I have changed the look of my blog. It is not that I didn't like the look of the old one any-more, one of reasons is that I just thought that after two and a half years and now that we are getting close to a new year it is time for a new fresh look.
At first I wanted to change the old blog by hand. Because that one was an old template I had to do all change by hand using HTML but at 1 point it became such a mess that I decided to choose one of the blogger templates and made the changes I liked. At the end this was much easier and it is now much easier to change things because I longer have to do it by hand.

What has changed.
Let's start with the minor things.
First the background. The background stayed the same but now it is fixed in place it no longer moves when you scroll up and down.
The header. The picture of the US paratroopers is gone and replaced by a picture which shows a little more what this blog is all about, painting WWII minis. I am not to happy with the picture and maybe will replace it later on but somehow I can't manage to take a nice and good looking photo.

What major thing has changed.
The blog it self. It just became must more clear to look at. The blog posts are in the yellow background while the links and other stuff are in the transparent part.

I hope you all like this new look and comments are always welcome even negative ones. :-)

Thanks for reading.

Almost Christmas time

Be good.

The Christmas present that I bought for myself.

I and the family never buy or bought presents for Christmas. This because of the fact that a few weeks ago it was my birthday and not only mine and at the beginning of December in the Netherlands we celebrate an other feast called Sinterklaas, a childerens feast. Although more and more people, mostly grown ups, instead of celebrating Sinterklaas are now give presents with Christmas.
Because of the fact that I and the family don't give presents I usually buy something for myself around Christmas time. This year the choice fell on some FoW blisters.

On the picture you can see 4 blisters with Panhard AMD-35, 2 Blisters with Renault AMR-35 and 1 Blister with a mortar platoon. All are for my French Early War company from the Blitzkrieg book.
With the blisters I can build: 1 Panhard AMD-35 platoon, 1 Renault AMR-25 platoon and 1 Mortar platoon.
This brings me 1 step closer to the end of a complete Escadron de Reconnaissance company.
Now all I have to do is to find time to paint it all.

Thanks for reading.

An apology and the new Ancible

I like to start to say Sorry that i don't give comments on other people's blog. The reason is that I don't have much time left because of the Christmas madness at work. And when I get home I am too tired to do something. I even haven't been painting minis for weeks. Hopefully with the start of the new year I have more time to give comments and start painting again. BTW this doesn't mean that I don't read the blogs.

Next I like to tell that I saw that the new issue of The Ancible is up for download. Issue number 12. I am a little late because it is already available since November.
In this issue you will find:
- Incursion SNAFU

- Watching Paint Dry
- Twilight
- Discworld
- Wargods
- Confrontation

The Ancible.

Thanks for reading.

Persons from Dutch WW II History: Hannie Schaft, The Girl with the Red Hair

Jannetje Johanna (Hannie) Schaft; Haarlem, 16 September 1920 - Bloemendaal , 17 April 1945

Hannie Schaft was a Dutch Communist and resistantance fighter during World War II.
She was born as the daughter of Peter Schaft, a teacher who felt strongly related to the SDAP (Social Democratic Labour Party), and Talea Aafje Freer who was a Baptist.
She attended High school and in 1938 she started to study rights at the Municipal University of Amsterdam. Here she became befriended with her Jewish fellow students Philine Polak and Sonja Frenk, who both later during the war went into hiding at Hannie's parents home. Because of this she felt, when the war began, personally touched by the persecution of the Jews.

As a student after she had refused to sign the declaration of loyalty*, she went back to her parents. She took an increasingly active part in the resistance and helped with hiding stolen ration cards and identity cards. Her pseudonym became Hannie and her nickname was the girl with the red hair. Eventually she joined the Council of Resistance (RVV), an organization that, by its close links with the CPN (Communist Party Netherlands), who were greatly distrusted by other resistance movements. Along with Freddie and Hilda Oversteegen she committed several attacks on Germans, collaborators and traitors.
*The declaration of loyalty was a declaration that students had to sign in 1943. In that statement they had to promise that they would "refrain from any action directed against the German Reich”. The statement was introduced by the Germans on 13 March 1943, the students had until April 10 the time to sign the declaration. Those who did not sign, could no longer follow any college.

On June 8, 1944 she with resistance fighter Jan Bonekamp committed, at Heemstede, an attack on the NSB (National Socialist Movement) member and confectioner Peter Faber. He died six days later. Schaft and Bonekamp then committed on June 21, 1944 an attack on W.M. Ragut . Here Bonekamp became mortally wounded, which made Hannie Schaft to decide to went into hiding. On September 5, 1944 ( Dolle Dinsdag / Mad Tuesday ) an attack of Hannie Schaft and Jan Heusdens on policeman Willemsen failed. Hannie Schaft and Hilda Oversteegen had planned to liquidate Fake Krist on October 25, 1944, but other Haarlem resistance fighters killed him before they could execute their plan.

On March 1, 1945 NSB policeman William Zirkzee was shot by Hannie Schaft and Hilda Oversteegen. This took place near Krelagehuis at the Leidsevaart in Haarlem. On March 15 Hannie Schaft and Hilda Oversteegen committed an attack on Ko Langendijk . This was the barber from Ijmuiden who started to work for the Sicherheitsdienst. A previous attempt on him in January by Bonekamp had failed.

Hannie was hated by the Germans, because at the end of the war she commited many, in their eyes, senseless attacks. She was, on 21 March 1945, arrested at a roadblock at the Jan Gijzenkade near the Mauermuur (Haarlem) when she was carrieing underground papers and a weapon. At the police station of Haarlem the Germans discovered with whom they were doing. It was Emil Rühl who brought Hannie Schaft from Haarlem to the House of Detention on Amstelveenseweg in Amsterdam.

Although at the end of the war, an agreement existed between the occupiers and Interior Forces (BS) to kill no women, Hannie, three weeks before the end of the war (on April 17, 1945), commissioned by Willy Lages, was shot in the dunes of Bloemendaal. Here she, after a glancing shot, coolly would have said: "I shoot better", which made member of the SD Maarten Kuiper to empty his machine gun at her.

On 27 November 1945, her remains were reburied with military honors at the Honour cemetery Bloemendaal at Overveen . Queen Wilhelmina, Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard were also present. For her fight against the Nazis Hannie was in 1946 posthumous honoured with the “Resistance Cross 1940 - 1945” and the “Medal of Freedom”, an American special award.

Because Hannie Schaft could serve as a political symbol of communist resistance for the Dutch Communists, which many did not like, her name lost much of its luster during the Cold War. In 1951 the government even went so far to deploy police and army - including four armored vehicles - to make the anniversary of her death impossible. Much later, when the communist hate had died down Princess Juliana unveiled on 3 mei 1982 a bronze statue, made by Truus Menger-Oversteegen, in the Kenaupark in Haarlem.

Thanks for reading.

Photo: Noord-Hollands Archief

What you can find when cleaning up a closet part 2

After "What you can find when cleaning up a closet part 1" here is part 2. As told in part 1 this has nothing to do with WWII but I found it interesting enough to tell here because it is about minis and a bit about casting.
What we have here are rubber molds from my childhood times. That is about 34 years ago. I found a date saying 1977. (I am feeling old now.) They were stashed away in a metal box.
The molds are to be used to cast historical minis.
As being a child at the time these molds are selected, it was not to form an army but they were more selected as what I thought where cool looking minis.
There are 10 molds and the molds are from Prinz August. Looking at it now I regret that I never bought the molds to cast horses to pull the cannon.
I am wondering if these molds could still be used to cast minis.
Let's take a look.

The molds

Mold example 1

What you can find when cleaning up a closet part 1

A few day's ago I was cleaning up a closest and boy what you can find when you haven't looked in it for many years. That is besides all the junk you can throw away.

First there is this box filled with 1:72 models mainly filled with WWII minis.
It contains, all kind of British troops, German troops, Australian troops, USA Airfield troops and USA WWI troops.
Some vehicles and last a Airfix pontoon bridge in HO-OO scale. This bridge has a total length of 65 cm.
All what you see here is between 30 and 35 years old.

Troops in a box

Vehicles

About the DAK Light Artillery Battery

The latest purchase for my DAK army, is the new DAK Light Artillery Battery box (GBX51).

Box cover

The box contains the following teams: 1 Staff team, 1 Command SMG team, 2 Observer teams and 4 10.5cm leFH18 howitzers.

Box contents

About the box contents.
There are 2 things I like to tell about. First, the less important one, what I miss is a diagram how to build the Howitzers. After laying out all the parts there was one thing left and I absolutely have no clue what to do with it. See picture.

????

Then second and the important part, the minis.
The first thing that I noticed was the look of the minis. They are, compared to the older models, not so bulky. They are thinner and finer. The height is the same although that is not how it looks but the new models have a much thinner tab and thus look smaller. This would be not such big problem if it wasn't that a few minis in the box are the older ones so you can see the difference. Take a look at the picture below to see the difference.
Further the minis have lots of flash and some are even not nicely cast.
It is not that I dislike the minis it is just that you can see the difference compared with the other older minis of my DAK army.

The difference

Thanks for reading.

90. Leichte Afrika Division Schützen Kompanie part 7: 5cm PaK38 Platoon

The completed PaK38 platoon with 4 gun teams and a Command SMG team.
None of the teams are sealed yet because I still haven't bought a new spray-can of varnish.
I am not too happy how the bases turned out but they will do, maybe in the far future I will change them.
With this platoon finished I only have to paint 1 more platoon: The Artillery.
Hopefully I can go and pick up the box this weekend.

The 5cm PaK38 Platoon

PAK38 Update.

First pictures of my almost painted DAK PAK38 platoon.
Painting is almost done. The crew need some minor painting, not much, and then of-course the base.
I also have to figure out what color the ammo had for the PAK38 guns.
Sorry for the somewhat bad pictures.

DAK PAK38 platoon

The Command team

One of the guns plus crew

Thanks for looking.

On the painting table.

Finally I can do some more work on my MW DAK company.
On my painting table is the MW PAK38 platoon.
The first problem that I faced with this platoon is that everything from the gun that could be bend was bend. So the first thing I had to do was to get it all straight again.

PAK38 platoon primed black

It seemed that there was a curse on my DAK company. It was a project that I started on March 2010 and the planning was that it would be all done at least by the end of that year. But because of all kind of problems, like the lack of Stug D's and PAK 38 because they weren't available for order, the end date that the company would be finished was replaced more and more into the future.
Now finally it seems that things come to an end. After the PAK38 platoon I only have to paint an artillery platoon. For this I ordered the brand new GBX51 DAK Light Artillery Battery box with the 10.5cm leFH18 howitzers. I can even already go and pick up the box. So with almost a years delay the company will finally be finished in several weeks.

Thanks for reading.

Today in Dutch WWII History: The Winter Famine

The winter famine was in the winter of 1944 to 1945. This was a severe winter with a great scarcity of food and fuel at the end of the Second World War in which twenty thousand Dutch people died of hunger and cold.

The Cause of the scarcity
The cause of the shortage must be sought in a reprisal by the Germans, following the general railway strike after 17 September 1944. In retaliation the German occupation forces blocked all food shipments to the west of the Netherlands. The blockade lasted six weeks and caused a famine in the western Netherlands disaster of catastrophic proportions. During this period, the South Netherlands was liberated. As the front line was now the Netherlands - roughly along the major rivers - there could no longer be coal transported from Limburg to the west of the Netherlands. Because the rivers and the IJselmeer were frozen shut, and because land transport is no longer possible, the west of the Netherlands was cut off from all supplies, fuels like coal, clothing and medicines. In the face of liberation in the first months of 1945 more than 20,000 Dutch died of starvation because of the blockade.

Life during the winter famine
People weren't allowed to be on the streets after eight pm in the evening (curfew). Because gas and electricity were no longer available, there was no light, no heating and no possibilities for cooking. With a mechanical flash-light you could have some light but many had to do with a candle and went to bed early.
If there even was a little food in the house, it had nevertheless to be cooked or heated. For that they often used an old tin can with a hole in the bottom, a little miracle heater. In there little twigs or wood chip were burned.
Due to the lack of fuel, the tarred wood blocks, that were installed between the tram rails, were robed. Also trees were cut down illegally. In the Amsterdam Jewish quarter and Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood the wood was taken from the empty houses from the deported Jews.
The schools were still open, but gradually the classes became smaller because many children were sick or stayed home. Shortly after the liberation, many malnourished children were placed for a few months with foster parents, including from the the United Kingdom, to return to strength.

Famine trips
Inside occupied territory, the situation was worst in the Randstad. Especially in large cities, the problem was acute. So the people themselves went in search of food. On the streets children were looking for something to eat in the bins.

At central kitchens, on presentation of a voucher card, people could get once a day a watery stew or soup of potato peelings. This led to long waiting rows which was not easy in the biting cold. Some people even tried to eat tulip bulbs and sugar beets.
Many people, especially women, cycled or walked to the east or north of the country, in order to find food, to exchange the little money they had or possessions (textiles, silverware, gold jewellery) for food. The so called famine-trips. Many farmers gave shelter to those who covered the street. Those people were called famine hikers. Some farmers did abuse the situation and enriched themselves.
In the cities it was sometimes very difficult to find a grave for the dead. The ground was frozen hard and the energy for excavation and transportation was lacking. Wood for coffins could also be better used as fuel. In Amsterdam the corpses were stored in the empty Zuiderchurch.

Help
In February 1945 Swedish white bread was distributed which was arranged by the International Red Cross. This bread was baked in the Netherlands, the meal came with a special transport ship from Sweden. At the end of the war in April food drops by Allied aircraft took place such as Operation Manna. Contrary to popular belief, these two events are stand alone projects: ​​there never has been Swedish bread dropped over the Netherlands.

Thanks for reading.

100 Followers

A week after announced that my blog had reached the 15.000 hits I can now proudly announce that I have reached an other milestone. There are now 100 people crazy enough to follow this blog. Still haven't figured out what goes on in those peoples mind that made them decide to even follow my blog.
Anyway a great welcome to all new followers hopefully you will enjoy the ride. And a thank you to all the old followers for staying.

Thanks for reading.

Update for the 11th Armoured Division During Market Garden army file

Some errors were found by 1stBN (from the FoW forum) and me in the Motor Company of this army file. I have now solved these errors and problems.
Next, the links that send you forward to the different sheets in the file are, if I am correct, now also working in the Excel file.
A new excel and odf file (Version v1.1) is up for download.
Army Files.

What you can expect soon:
Because I have no FoW to paint at the moment I am working on 2 new piece's of Dutch WWII history. Hopefully I can have the first one up soon.
My next painting project will be for my MW DAK company.

Thanks for reading.

Hit 15,000 times.

Today I reached the total of 15,000 visits on my blog. These 15,000 blog visits are good for a total of  28,705 page views. Where it took me 2 years to reach the 10,000 visits it only took 6 months to have 5,000 more visits to reach the 15,000.
As always the most visitors are from the US followed, although at a great distance, by the UK . The rest follows on an even greater distance.
The most popular posts and page are the ones about the home made army files.
I only need 7 more followers to reach the 100, but at the moment it seems that I am stuck at 93.
A great thanks to all followers and readers of my blog, I hope that you all still enjoy and will keep enjoying my blog.

Thanks for reading!

Irregular Magazine - Latest Issue

Just released, well yesterday to be exact, Irregular Magazine Issue #10 Autumn ‘11; Visions of the Apocalypse.
Filled with nice story's, painting tutorial of a space ship from the Firestorm Armada range, and lot's more. Most breathtaking is the nice cover of this issue.
You can download a copy here: Irregular Magazine.

Thanks for reading

My 2011 / 2012 FoW project 6: Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon (Colonial) painted.

First Sorry for the long wait but there is finally an update for this blog. I had some trouble at work that had to be solved first. Next I like to welcome all new followers of this blog.
What we have is a painted Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon (Colonial) for my France Early War Escadron de Reconnaissance army. Just like the Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon this platoon is not from Battlefront but from Forced in Battle.
The colors I used are all Vallejo.
Uniform and great coat: Green Brown (879)
Helmet: Olive Green (888)
Pack: German Camo Orange Ochre (824)
Blanket: Flat Earth (983)
Boots: Chocalate Brown (872)
Webbing, Canteen: German Camo Beige (821)
Gun stocks: Beige Brown (875)
Gun metal and tin-can on back: first German Grey (995) then drybrushed with Gunmetal (863)
When all the basecoats where done they all did get a wash of Game Color smoke with a few drops of the basecoat color added to this wash thinned down with water. After that a little drybrush is done using the basecoat color.
Base: Is painted using US Field Drap (873). Then after this has dried I used a mixture of GaleForce nine Spring Undergrowth (GFS010) + some cheap flock Fibres Medium Green, to flock my base. Also some real small pebbles are added. All this together gave a sort of rough terrain look.
With this platoon painted I now have 2 completed platoons.

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon front

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon back

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon Command team

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon VB team

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon Rifle/MG team

Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon Rifle/MG team

Thanks for looking.

Army file for the 11th Armoured Division During Market Garden

I have completely forgot to mention it here on my blog that I made an army file for the 11th Armoured Division during Market Garden, the Taurus Pursuant PDF.

Some notes:
- Important. The selection of jeep and tractors for the Light Anti-Aircraft platoon. I made it that you can select a jeep for 5 point if you take the SP guns. I know this is not official but in the PDF it says that you replace the Guns plus tractors for the SP guns. Nothing is said about the jeep. This made me decide to make it an option. The 5 points for the jeep is done because I ain't sure what else to do. I think 0 points would be better but as long as it ain't official I keep it at 5 point. It can always be changed. If you have a better solution let me know. Of-course you can always decide to not take the jeep with the SP guns.

- There is no Excel 2007 file because that one I can not update by using OpenOffice. But this should be no problem. If you have Excel 2007 it must be possible to use the standard Excel file without a problem.

- In the Excel file the links to the different sheets don't work for the simple reason that to make these links work in Excel works different compared to OpenOffice. I wanted to delete the links but decided to leave them in so people can see what company's can be found and may I ever have the change to work with Excel again I can make them work again. In the OpenOffice file everything should work fine.

- I hope that the Excel file works for everybody because the changes I had to make to the file were all done by using OpenOffice. Let me know if there is something not working correct.

Look for the links for the files here: Army files

For those who haven't read it on the FoW forum.
I have decided to stop making army files. I don't have the time for it anymore and want to spent more of the free time I have on painting minis. I go back to the point where it all started: Only making files for the armies I am playing. Of-course I will keep the files that I made up to date. Maybe in the future I will make 1 or 2 files but that's about it.

Thanks for reading.

The new Ancible Magazine: Issue 11

The people of the Ancible Magazine have released issue #11 of their bi-monthly magazine.
For those people who don't know what the Ancible Magazine is, The Ancible is a full colour digital magazine that specilises in the field of Science Fiction and fantasy wargaming and can be downloaded as a free PDF file.
Go and take a look at their site and download the latest but also the older issues.
The Ancible

Thanks for reading.

My 2011 / 2012 FoW project 5: Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon painted.

The first full platoon for my Escadron de Reconnaissance is painted. It is the Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon from Forced in Battle. Only thing left to do is to seal it but my spray can of varnish is empty and I want to wait with sealing the platoon until the Infantry platoon is also painted. The platoon normally comes with Laffly S20TL trucks but I will add these later as they aren't available yet.
I must say that I am pretty happy with the end result and the bases although the pictures don't do them any justice.

Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon front

Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon back

Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon commander

Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon HMG teams

Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon HMG teams

Thanks for looking.

Today in Dutch WW II History: Stamkaart and Distrubution Coupons

Well not really a "Today in Dutch WW II History" but something I wanted to show to all of you.
These are some pictures of a Stamkaart (Ration card or "books" as they were called in the UK) and Distribution Coupons ( I have 2 sheets only 1 is pictured here) that were used during WW II here in the Netherlands. These are special to me because it is a gift from my mom. The stamkaart is on her name and the Distribution Coupons were of the family. At the time she was only a child. The Coupons are for food supply and are for Potatoes, Butter, Bread, Milk, Flesh, meat, refreshments and general stuff. The coupons for the meat are used and thus no longer on the sheet. They were at upper right corner.
Coupon-sheets were for the 11th and 12th period 1944 (1 October - 25 November). As my mother lived at that time in the south of the Netherlands (Schijndel) in liberated part of the country she still used coupons to get all the stuff. The sheets were probably already given to the family before the liberation.
The Stamkaart was needed to get these coupon-sheets.
This is the Second Distribution Stamkaart. The first one came in use just before WW II broke out. The Second Distribution Stamkaart was introduced by the Germans when they occupied the country this was done to cut off all the people that were in hiding. No stamkaart, no coupons thus no food. To get a stamkaart people had first go to the German authorities with a legal identity card. Most of the people in hiding had a false identity card and thus couldn't get a stamcard.
This measure has been thoroughly sabotaged by the Civil Resistance. To irritation of the German government there were more stamkaarten provided then, what they thought, the population was big, this without getting it clear where the fraud could be found.
During the war resistance groups go out to raid the distribution offices where the coupons were kept. The stolen coupons were distributed to people who kept people in hiding, so that extra food for those in hiding could be bought.
Even after the war a lot of stuff could only be bought with coupons. In 1952 Coffee was the last product that finally could be bought without using coupons.

Stamkaart front

Stamkaart back

Coupon sheet

Thanks for reading

My 2011 / 2012 FoW project 4: List change and Infantry and HMG platoons primed

I have decided to change the look of my Escadron de Reconnaissance Company. I decided to make the change for 2 reasons. I did get an HMG platoon, a platoon that I didn't included in my old list but now that I have one certainly wanted to add it to my list and the other reason is that other players who wanted to make a German panzer list decided not to do so after looking at my old list because it was simple too strong for there list. As I don wanted to have an army only to stand on a shelf eating dust but actually wanted to use I changed the list. For the old list look here.

The new list  now looks like this:

HQ
1 Panhard AMD-35

Combat Platoons
Deep Reconnaissance Platoon 4 Panhard AMD-35
Deep Reconnaissance Platoon 4 Panhard AMD-35
Reconnaissance Platoon 3 Renault AMR-35 (7.5mm MG), 2 Renault AMR-35 (13.2mm MG)

Weapons Platoons
Fusiliers Machine-gun Platoon
Fusiliers Mortar Platoon

Divisional Support Platoons
Medium Combat Platoon 5 Somua S-35
Fusiliers-Voltigeurs Platoon (Colonial)
All-terrain Towed 105mm Artillery Battery

Air Support
Sporadic Fighter Intercept Moraine Saulnier MS.406

The infantry platoon and HMG platoon that were send to me as a gift are now based and primed.

Infantry platoon

HMG platoon

Thanks for reading.

Found in my mailbox.

Yesterday I found the following items in my mailbox. An early war French Infantry platoon and early war French HMG teams. They are a gift to me. The figures are not from Battlefront, the usual stuff I buy and paint, but are made by Forced in Battle. The figures look great. They have the same size as the BF figures. The figures have hardly any flash and there are no mold-lines to be seen. Maybe if you want to complain then it is about the variety of poses. The HMG teams come without an Command team but because I have some figures left over from the Infantry platoon I can use these as an Command team. Also both platoons come without bases, so I bought a blister with medium bases from BF to use these. Both platoons are a nice add to my France Early War Escadron de Reconnaissance army.

Infantry platoon.

HMG teams.

Thanks for reading.

Persons from Dutch WW II History: Reichskommissar of the Netherlands Seyss-Inquart

Arthur Seyss-Inquart, born as Artur Zajtich, were an Austrian lawyer and Nazi politician. He initially belonged to the moderate wing of the Austrian nazi's, later he would turn out to be a hard-liner in the occupied Netherlands. Seyss-Inquart was one of the 22 war criminals who were on trial during the Neurenberg process. On 1 October 1946 he was declared guilty on 3 of the 4 charges. Two weeks later he was brought to death.
 

Reichskommisar Seyss-Inquart 07/22/1892-10/16/1946

Seyss-Inquart started his political career in 1934 when he became a cooperating member of the Cabinet of Engelbert Dollfus.
In 1938 under tremendous pressure and the threat of German dictator Adolf Hitler, he was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs in the Austrian cabinet of Kurt Schuschnigg.
That same year he played a major role in the connection (called Anschluss) of Austria by Germany (so-called Greater German solution).
Under pressure and threat on the part of the National Socialist German Reich Government President Wilhelm Miklas of Austria appointed him, mid-March 1938, Chancellor, which made it easy for the German to occupy the country without any military resistance. Seyss-Inquart was only a few days chancellor. Hitler appointed him very shortly afterwards governor of the annexed Austria (Ostmark) which he remained until the end of April 1939.
On May 1, 1939, the Austrian Government ceased to exist. On the same date, Seyss-Inquart became Reich Minister without Portfolio, a position he formally held until the end of the war in 1945. Later in 1939, after the invasion of Poland, he also became the deputy of Governor-General Hans Frank of the occupied Polish territories.

In 1940 he became Reichskommissar (official "Reichskommissar für die besetzten niederländischen Gebiete") of the German-occupied Netherlands and in the Ridderzaal he was officially inaugurated by the German Wehrmacht generals and Dutch and German officials. This move from Vienna to The Hague was also seen by many as a degradation; Seyss was within the Nazi Party known as too moderate to resolve the "Jewish problem" in Vienna.
In the Netherlands Seyss-Inquart soon got a nickname: Zes en een kwart (Six-and-a-quarter) this was because he limped.
At first he tried gently to win the Dutch for the National Socialism, this included public appearances, strict standards for German soldiers and the establishment of German-Dutch friendship initiatives. But after the February Strike in 1941 the German oppression was also by Seyss-Inquart, who was put under great pressure by the SS, greatly increased.

When the war was almost lost, he became harder and more fanatically against the Dutch underground resistance. Several times, however, he tried hard to postpone or forbid revenge action by the SS, but because of Himmler's influence this became more and more difficult.

He was responsible for the deportation of over one hundred thousand Jews to concentration camps and extermination camps. Although he knew about the persecution of Jews and labor camps (including Westerbork), he claimed at the Process of Neurenberg that if it was brought to his attention of the existence of actual extermination camps in Eastern Europe, he would have done everything to stop these deportations. To Himmler, he, and that's a fact, several times tried to stop the persecution of Jews, arguing that during the war this would only led to unnecessary unrest, in both material production and among the rest of the "Aryan" population. He did not actually opposed to his superiors, presumably because of career and love of practical impossibility without deposition results.

In the last days of the war, Seyss-Inquart was personally involved in the negotiations with the Allies on food drops in the major cities of western Netherlands. During a meeting on April 30, 1945 in Achterveld Seyss-Inquart refused to surrender. This while he knew the war was lost. This refusal led to irritation at the American General Walter Bedell Smith, he said to Seyss-Inquart "Well, in any case, you are going to be shot" to which the Reichskommissar replied "That leaves me cold." General Smith then retorted "It will."

When the war was lost, Seyss-Inquart went from Flensburg, where he had a consult with the German government under Admiral Doenitz, with a submarine back to the just still "occupied" Netherlands, where he was arrested on May 8 by the Canadian navy and was held for weeks in a special prison in the city Delden Twente, near the castle Twickel where he had a country house.

In 1946 during the process of Neurenberg he was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity (Jews Deportations, executions of condemned resistance fighters, allowing retaliation against 'anti-German' prominent Dutch). In the shortly before his death written letters to his father-confessor (Bruno Spitzl) the later reconverted Catholic Seyss-Inquart laid here more or less an admission of guilt, especially about his performance against Dutch civilians and allowing the Jewish Deportations to Eastern Europe.
On October 16, 1946 in Neurenberg he was hanged. His last words were: "I hope that this execution will be the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War, and that the lesson learned from this war, may be that peace and understanding between people must exist. I believe in Germany. "

His ashes were scattered in the river Isar to prevent that his grave would become a gathering place for former National Socialists.

Before his trial, just as with the other arrested Nazis, they did an IQ test. Seyss-Inquart scored 141, which, after Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economy of Nazi Germany, was the highest score.

Thanks for reading.

Updated Army files 2

Here is part 2 of the updated Army files.

All the following files have the Carrier Patrols and / or Scout Patrols changed. The Boys Anti-Tank rifle and / or Piat anti tank projector that replaces an extra hull mounted MG at no cost. In the old files you bought these upgrades for 0 points. This was wrong and is now changed. You now pay the 5 points that normally the Extra hull mounted MG would cost. Also in the Scots Divisions army file the way you can choose the Boys Anti-Tank rifle and Piat anti tank projector has been changed. One thing, if you use the files check if the OoB has the correct printing size.

Which files have been changed:

-Grenadier Guards PDF (v1.4)

-Hell's Highway - XXX Corps (v3.2)

-Scots Divisions pdf (v1.2)

-Turning Tide - 7th Armoured, 4th Canadian Armoured Division Motor Company (v1.1)

-Turning Tide - 7th Armoured, 4th Canadian Armoured Lorried Rifle Company (v1.1)

-Turning Tide - Canadian Armoured Recce Squadron (v1.1)

Thanks for reading.

Updated Army files 1

This is for those who don't frequently or never visit the FoW forum. I am busy updating most of the army files I made. Something I started with before the crash.
Now the first batch of updated files are uploaded and can be downloaded. The second batch with updated files will follow soon.
The files can be found here: Army files
Here is a list of witch files are updated so far and what have been changed in the files.

- Sicherung in Warsaw(V1.1)
The Gepanzerte Pionier Platoon option wasn't working.

- D Minus 1 - US Airborne (V3.5)
In the old file you could choose between 2 different kind of Cavalry platoons. 1 from the book or 1 from a seperate pdf file. As this PDF file no longer exist I have deleted this option from the army file.

- Hell's Highway - US Airborne (V3.5) + Glider Rifle Company PDF (V1.5)
The Parachute OoB didn't show the Matador tractor when you did select it. The CoAx MG and Hull MG are now mentioned separately in the OoB and no longer together in 1 row. Also did I change in both the Parachute and Glider Company sheets the formulas in the cells that gives the points for the jeeps that can be selected with the Glider field Artillery battery. These weren't working properly.

- Turning Tide - US Airborne Divisions (v2.5)
Both the OoB didn't show the armor values of the Stuart tanks. Error solved.

- North Africa - US Parachute (book 2) (V1.8)
I know I did do something with this file problem is that don't know what it is. A day later my computer crashed.

- Turning Tide - 3rd Canadian, British 3rd, 50th T&T Infantry Divisions (v2.0)
Carrier Patrols. The Boys AT or Piat anti tank projector that replaces a extra hull mounted MG at no cost. Thing is that you could buy these upgrades in the files for 0 points. This is wrong and is now changed. You now pay the 5 points that normally the Extra hull mounted MG would cost. This also count for Recce scout patrols.
This change will be made in all the British and commonwealth files I made.

- Turning Tide - Tank Squadron (v1.2)
Tank Squadron sheet. Combat platoon totals wasn't working correct. solved
Tank Squadron OoB sheet. The sheet didn't show the stats for the Headquarters. solved
Universal carrier patrol. see above.

Thanks for reading.

My 2011 / 2012 FoW project 3: Somua S-35 platoon commander

This is an other test piece. I wanted to try and find a decent paint scheme for my Somua platoon. I am not completely happy how it turned out and the quality of the pictures doesn't make it any better.
The attena pot at the back is a home made one because when I opened the blister the second attena pot was missing. Because only the command tanks need attena's I will replace the home made one with an attena pot from another blister as soon as I have bought these.
The pictures.

Thanks for looking.

My computer is working again.

Well it took some time but my crashed computer is working again.
What did I do.
First I downloaded by using an other computer Ubuntu. Then I went to someone who could burn CD's, (the old one I was using as a temporarily replacement couldn’t burn CD's). After that I booted the computer from the CD. This made it possible to go into my computer without installing Ubuntu and thus made it possible for me to backup all the files I needed. When that was done I restarted the computer and used the CD to Install Ubuntu on computer replacing Windows XP. Only leaving me to do is to replace all the backed up files on my computer again. And now most things work again. Lost a few programs.
Me happy.

Thanks for reading.

New editions of Irregular Magazine and The Ancible

I am a little late with posting this but I must admit that due to my computer crash I missed it.
Released are:
-Irregular Magazine #9  Summer 2011 edition
-The Ancible #10
Both the teams who work on these magazines did another great job.

Links to the sites where you can download the new editions.
Irregular Magazine
The Ancible

Thanks for reading