John Frost, Elliot "Roy" Urquhartand and Allison "Digby" Tatham-Warter - Red Devils commanders

Time ago I painted some Warlord Games miniatures to complete my collection of British airborne troops. I decided to take the British Airborne Characters blister: Frost, Urquhart and Tatham-Warter ... 

I knew some of them for my keen of history and also for the old movie ... "A Bridge too far" ... and it was a plaesure to paint them 

Major-General John Frost is a famous English officer for a lot of operations ... Op. Biting, North Africa, Sicily and so on ... even if he is best known for being the leader of the small group of Red Devils that arrived at Arnhem bridge during Market-Garden Operation

Warlord games decided to represent Johh Frost with his hunting horn that he used to call all the member of his unit ... I can imagine him into the action between the roads of Arnhem

Frost was captured after days of resistance and held as prisoner of war in at Spangenberg castle. He was liberated in March 1945 by USA troops

Another important Red Devils command was Major General Robert Elliot "Roy" Urquhart ... He was the General Officer Commander of 1st Ariborne Division. The unit that suffered severe casualties in the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944

He was portrayed by Sean Connery in the 1977 movie ''A Bridge Too Far" and so I tried to take a picture similar to one of movie scene

The last miniature of the box was Major Allison "Digby" Tatham-Warter ... member of the 2nd  parachute battalion ... he was famous for his umbrella

During Arnhem battle he  disabled a German armoured car with his umbrella, incapacitating the driver by shoving the umbrella through the car's observational slit and poking the driver in the eye. The took an umbrella during war operations as a means of identification because he had trouble remembering passwords and felt that anyone who saw him with it would think taht "only a bloody fool of an Englishman" would carry it into the battle.

1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigate at Driel and Gen Sosabowski - May 2022

The 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigate was an infantry brigade of Polish Army that was created in September 1941. 

The Brigade was formed by Polish soldiers in exile in UK with the aim of its being used to support Polish resistance during Ww2. 

Unfortunately, on July 27, aware of the imminent Warsaw uprising the British governement refused the idea to use this brigate to support the insurgents. Polish unit should have took part of Normandy assault but also this mission was cancelled for them.

On contrary the brigade was involved in Operation Market Garden in September 1944. This operation was a bold plan designed to caputure the Rhine crossing along the Dutch-German border and establish a foothold for an advance in Germany.

Owing to bad weather and shortage of planes the drop on their objective was delayed by two days. They dropped into Driel (near Arnhem) without British units of support and without radio contact with the main Allied forces. They were dropped directly under a significant German fire and they were forced to set up a defensive hedgehog position. 

They tried for two days to cross the Rhine to reach the British red devils. After 3 days about 200 Polish troopers reach the British 1st Airborne Division only to cover their fall back.

On September 26 the Brigade ... or better what it remains ...  was moved to Nijmegen. The brigade had lost 25% of its fighting strength

Till the end of the war the 1st Polish brigade was attached to the 1st Polish Armoured Division in occupation duties in Norther Germany. 

The commander of the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade in Driel was Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski. 

During the invasion of Poland he was colonel and he partecipated to the Siege of Warsaw keeping the position. After his success, Sosabowski was assigned to command of all Polish troops in the area of Grochow. Despite constant bombardement and German attacks he repelled the enemy attacks. Following the Polish surrender, he was made prisoner. Escaped he reach the Polish governement in exile. 

After the war he found a job as a factory worker in London. As well as many other Polish officers he was unable to return to Communist Poland so he decided for the exile. He died in 1967. Only in 1969 his remians were returned to Poland at Powazki Miliary Cemetery in Warsaw.

In the movie A Bridge too far he was portaryed by Gene Hackman

Brigadier Peter Young and Lord Lovat - British commando characters April 2022

Time ago I painted some British commandos ... and also some of most important commando officers of the Ww2

They were formed during Ww2 in June 1940 for a specific request of the Prime Minister Wilston Churchill

The idea was to create a force that could carry out raids against German occupied Europe

With their 20 units and four assault brigades, the Commandos served in all war theatres from Mediterranean to Middle East

Two of thier most important commander were: Simon Fraser and Peter Young

Simon Fraser 15th Lord Lovat ... he was made brigadier and appointed as commander of the 1st Special Service Brigade during Overlord operation in 1944. Lovat and his unit landed at Sword during the invasion. In the movie "The Longest Day" he was wearing a white jumper under his battledress and he was armed with a .45-70 winchester rifle ... in his memoirs he told that he used a US M1 carabine on D-Day

With Lord Lovat there was also his personal piper, Bill Millin. Personally instruced by him. These commandos took part of Pegasus Bridge action and a lot of other important ww2 battles

Brigadier Peter Young was  one of the most decorated English officers.  He was in Italy for Operation Husky (the Allied invasion of Sicily) and in Normandy for the D-day.

I've taken also some pics of this English officer

Ww2 - Warlord Games German army April 2022

Last week I was in my club and I have taken some pictures of ww2 troops ... only some photo shoots ... nothing else ...

A pionier with his Wien41 mine detector to locate enemy mines

Command group and ... 

... a company that advances

A panzerschreck team 

An LMG firing

A sniper team

Bolt Action Fire Fight - Jan, 15 2022

In the last weeks my friends played BA using Fire Fight rules ... 

They decided to play some Raid scenarios using Italian and English forces ... They created two tables ... Minis are 28mm painted by Riccardo and Antonio

... English SAS are approaching ,,,

... but the Italians are ready  ...

... BA Fire Fight is easy to play and very funny. 

Some other pictures of the game

... My friends

World Word II ... Is 20mm (1/72) a good scale?

My club is close in this period for Covid-19 emergency so I decided to write this post using some old photos

Sometimes I received messages from other wargame lover about the scale to use to play WWII… 15mm, 20mm or 28mm? Thanks to rules set as Bolt Action, Cross fire and so on … the most used scales is the 28 mm. This scale allows you to create great miniatures with high details level ... but also a 20mm miniature is not to discard.

In your opinion, what scale are the miniatures in these photos?

Obviously they are all 20mm

My idea in this post is to try to create a kind of guide for those who approach 20mm (1/72) for the first time.

Let's start with a list of advances:
They have a low cost (generally 9 - 15 euro per box)
They are easily to find (amazon, ebay are just some of the commercial sites ... in addition to the manufacturers’ ones  ... where you can find them)
They are faster to paint than a classic 28mm
You can re-create large scenarios (in particular if yuo want to use tanks, jeeps and so on)

… But there are also some disadvantages:

Poor level of detail
They are difficult to modify
The poses are sometimes a bit "absurd" ... many of the molds still used are a bit "old style"

In our association we play with many World War II rule sets: Bolt Action, Cross Fire, Rapid Fire… … for all these systems we use both 28mm and 20mm without problems.

One of the first problems to start playing with 20mm is: but what are 20mm miniatures like?One of the sites I use is: http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/PeriodList.aspx?period=1

It allows you to have a quick review of most of the 1/72 miniature boxes on the market. The site is not designed only for the Second World War but, thanks to the menu, it is possible to view the boxes of this period.

The second problem is… are we sure that the scale of the various manufacturers is "correct"?
This is also a problem for the 28mm but, to try and answer, I took this photo

It allows you to view the miniatures of five of the manufacturers that I usually paint. The miniatures are both in plastic (Caesar, Zvezda) and in lead (AB) and as you can see the scales are compatible. At least among these manufacturers.

I must admit that, the same manufacturer, sometimes builts sets that have not the perfect "dimensions" ... but the beauty of the miniatures overcomes this problem

For example, the Italeri winter Germans (miniature in the center) are a bit larger than the Zvezda miniatures or other Italeri sprues but can easily be combined

Third aspect to consider… they have few details and can hardly be changed.
This is not exactly the truth
This is the original image of a Zvezda frame

As you can see, with a few modifications, you can modify the pose

Without considering the awesome conversions of my friend Maurizio

A lot of wargamers tell me that 20mm miniatures have few details. As an amateur painter I admit that I prefer 28mm for painting but also 20mm… with the right scenario are not bad. The same miniatures out of the table...

And in action

I hope to help someone with this post