TYPES OF THE VBCW (16) - WOMEN'S INSTITUTE ARTILLERY OBSERVER

An "observer" figure helpfully extends the range of a "Big Gun" under the WTDW Rules. A 28mm figure with binoculars or a telescope is instantly recognisable on the table as an artillery observer, and here is a female d'un certain age that fits the bill admirably:

 Pulp Figures "Miss Marple". Very nicely painted by "Orctrader"

Correctly attired for the period, "Miss Marple" makes the ideal artillery observer for a Women's Institute Platoon, ready to bring down fire upon "enemies of the King/the Church/the People/the Parish" (choose as you will!)

COLONEL ALFRED WINTLE - ENGLISHMAN and VBCW ICON

The search is officially over. Of all the characters, real or imagined, that could take their part within the VBCW, nobody, but absolutely nobody, could possibly reflect the VBCW spirit better than Colonel Alfred Daniel Wintle MC, of His Majesty's 1st Royal Dragoons, veteran of the First and Second World Wars:

Colonel Wintle MC

For once, Wikipedia's biographical entry cannot be bettered. Prepare to giggle uncontrollably - SEE HERE.

And for those who enjoyed the Wiki Entry, keep your eye out for the Colonel's autobiography, "The Last Englishman":

ARMY MEN STOP MOTION

What happens when you mix in the imagination of the average 12 year old (of, say, 1970s vintage), plastic toy soldiers, a healthy dose of 21st Century technology, and clearly an excess of spare time? With absolutely no "trigger warnings" (excuse the pun), and as Hollywood weeps, this is the result:

With apologies to "Commando Comics" for this animation....

VBCW COMMERCIAL TYPES (1) - 1930s CIVILIAN "UNIFORMS"

Before the internet, before "pop up shops" and hypermarkets and supermarkets and out of town "destination shopping" - in other words back in the 1930s - the sturdy independent retailers of the local High Street provided all of life's necessities. Contemporary ephemera, in this case a 1930s card game, give some idea of how these retailers looked (or could be stereotyped):

White jacket, bow tie and stiff collar - the immaculate grocer.

A man who enjoys his product - the butcher in striped apron and straw boater

Overalls, apron and rubber boots - the Fishmonger.

Top "uniform information" for 1930s VBCW small traders !

CHEAP VBCW TANKS (5) - SHODDY TURRETS

As noted in the 500th post, the most popular post of all time - on this Hereford1938 VBCW Blog at least - was the subject of the 2019 Modelling Challenge, the infamous and cheapy-cheep-cheep, roughly 1/55 scale,  "Shoddy Tank":

Cheep Chinese Plastic from Ebay - the "Shoddy Tank". 
Full background link HERE

The 2019 Modelling Challenge was to turn this plastic toy into a VBCW style tank, and different gamers had different solutions. The most powerful tank conversion, as it turned out, was LAF Bearwoodman's "Super Shoddy":

LAF Bearwoodman's "Super Shoddy" before painting
- a symphony of plastic bitz, tubes, card and varnish
together with totally unfeasible main armament.

All such clever conversions - which mostly centred on the removal or "disguising" of the "too thin original turret" - took time and imagination. The former quality, however, is always in short supply - particularly when "tank megalomania" is only too common within Hereford1938:

Tanks awaiting the conversion process at LAF Bearwoodman's "Shoddy Factory".
By no means the only sufferer from "tank megalomania" within Hereford1938,
but perhaps the only one brave enough to "come out". Medic !

With so many tanks awaiting treatment, the search was therefore "ON", not for a "conversion", but for a pre-fabricated turret - in any material, but probably best in plastic - that could be simply snapped on to the Shoddy Tank chassis in order to achieve the desired "1930s look". After a lengthy search (and many failures), finally the solution presented itself:

Airfix "Poly" plastic "Patton" tank - from the same venerable range of kits as the Airfix Poly SP Gun

Modelling tips - Remove turret from chassis (with fingers!)
Snip off the MG on the cupola, and halve the length of the main armament - there is even
a casing around the barrel at precisely the right point, creating an instant muzzle brake.
And that's all you need do before painting to taste.....

The taste on this occasion being Oxo Beef...an Airfix Poly Patton turret on the chassis
of a "Shoddy Tank", painted in Oxo Corporate Colours. The Lledo Oxo van gives a
good idea of scale compatibility.

Now you can churn out as many "Shoddy Tanks" as you want - here is the (Combined Corporate)
Guards Armoured Brigade. Three Shoddy Tanks with Patton turrets, each in their corporate
livery. The Lledo Silver Rolls Royce again gives a good idea of scale compatibility.

Now all we need to do is find a use for all those Airfix Poly Patton tracked chassis....but that's for another day.......

CHEAP VBCW TANKS (4)

Well, more "Cheap VBCW Self Propelled BIG GUNS" than actual tanks, but that would be splitting hairs:

A Self Propelled "Big Gun" painted in Cadbury's Corporate Colours
Seated Crew - Reiver. The gun can be raised into firing position
or lowered into travelling position.

The basis of this particular SP "Big Gun" is the old, nay "venerable", Airfix "Poly/Snap-Fit" 155mm Self - Propelled Gun, first produced way back in 1966:

Airfix SP Gun with Box 

The Airfix "Poly" model seems to be a simplified version of the M40 (or M43) Motor Gun Carriage, just coming in to service with the US Army at the end of WW2. For that reason, although huge numbers were produced by Airfix, it doesn't seem to have been a favourite of 20mm WW2 wargamers, even back when model choice was limited. For another reason, the howitzer itself is grossly oversimplified, long and spindly, resembling more of a peashooter than a big and powerful artillery piece.

So these "Poly" models regularly pop up cheaply on Ebay - don't go for the boxed ones (as collectors like them), but for the most "beaten up" types, even without the long and spindly howitzer, as you simply have to ditch that anyway. You could make your own replacement gun from any bits of tube, plasticard, wire or card-brushed-with-varnish (see HERE) as you like - or you could (as above) take a cheap plastic oversize 25pdr (Hong Kong variant), remove the wheels and most of the trail, then "chop it about" until it fits snugly into the Airfix model.

The good thing about the resulting "bodge" of a Self-Propelled Howitzer is that it is "scale compatible" with that armoured mainstay of the Hereford VBCW, the "Shoddy Tank" (see blogposts passim):

Another example of the converted Airfix SP 155mm, on this occasion in Fyffes Corporate Colours,
following a "Shoddy Tank" into action. Reiver seated crew again.

And while we are on "good things", Ebay prices can be such that a whole battery of these "SP Big Guns" can be purchased and bodged for very little:

An "SP battery" awaiting conversion (and their crews). Total cost less than one "historic 1/55" tank
model - and you wouldn't want to paint a historic model purple or yellow anyway!

RORKE'S DRIFT (1) - 22nd January 1879

One hundred and forty five years ago, on the afternoon and evening of 22nd January 1879, a company (well, 141 men) of the 24th Foot (subsequently the South Wales Borderers) held off an attack by some 5,000 Zulus on the Mission Station at Rorke's Drift. Here is a list of all the officers and men present, as drawn up, in later years, by Colour Sergeant Bourne himself : 

and of equal interest, a similar list in the handwriting of Lt. Chard, RE, drawn up only some 10 days after the Battle:

A fascinating document - download and enlarge if you wish to study.

Now the Zulu War "isn't our period", as it were, although the legend of the defence of Rorke's Drift no doubt formed part of the "collective historical memory" of those who took part in the Very British Civil War of 1938. These two documents are reproduced simply because they are very interesting and, oh, also provide us with an appropriate opportunity to pay homage to one of the greatest Very British films of all time:

Stanley Baker as Lt. Chard and Michael Caine as Lt. Bromhead in Cy Endfield's 1964 classic, "Zulu".

Nigel Green as Colour Sergeant Bourne. "Because we're 'ere, lad. Nobody else. Just us."

It must be for these reasons that, many years before the "Sealed Knot" was thought of, the Hereford VBCW had its own (heavily armed, of course) group of "historical re-enactors":

Rorkes Drift Re-Enactment Society (on Field Exercises), Spring Big Game 2017 - see HERE -
Attack on an Armoured Car.

TYPES OF THE VBCW (15) - IRASCIBLE NEWSPAPER EDITOR

A classic VBCW personality figure:

"Colonel Marbles" - a "Frothers" personality figure sculpted

by Shane Hoyle and painted by Ben Brownlie 

Rear View

A dyspeptic Colonel in civvies and retirement, a choleric land owner - this figure could fulfil any number of roles. However, we imagine him as the fiercely independent but irascible editor of a local newspaper:

A slight different but equally impressive paint job. Unknown painter.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 1924 ?

We should really have begun the year with this post, but things got in the way.........anyhow, here's what was happening one hundred years ago this year:

1st January - Meteorological Office issues its first broadcast Shipping Forecast.

3rd January - British Egyptologist Howard Carter finds the Sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

10th January - British submarine HMS L24 sinks with all hands in a collision with battleship HMS Resolution in the  English Channel - 43 dead.

21st January - In Russia, Vladimir Lenin dies at the age of 53.

22nd January - following Stanley Baldwin's resignation after the Conservative Government loses a vote of confidence on the King's Speech, Ramsay MacDonald becomes the First Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority Government.

23rd January - Margaret Bondfield becomes the first woman to be appointed a Government Minister.

25th January - in the French Alps, the first Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix. Great Britain and Ireland compete and win 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

27th January -  in Russia, Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square.

1st February - the United Kingdom recognises the Soviet Union.

5th February - the Greenwich Time Signal from the Royal Greenwich Observatory ("the Pips") is broadcast by radio for the time.

12th February - in the United States, President Calvin Coolidge makes the first Presidential radio speech.

12th February - in the United States, the first performance of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at New York City's Aeolian Concert Hall.

14th February - in the United States, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR), based in US State of New York, is renamed International Business Machines (IBM).

18th February - commissioning of HMS Hermes, the RN's first purpose-designed aircraft carrier:

HMS Hermes

1st April - in Germany, Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg Prison for his participation in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

6th April - in Italy, the Fascists win a General Election with a two thirds majority.

16th April - in the United States, media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ("MGM") is founded in Los Angeles as a result of the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

23rd April - The British Empire Exhibition opens in London. First radio broadcast by King George V.

26th April - Newcastle United win the FA Cup Final, beating Aston Villa 2-0.

4th May - in France, the 1924 Summer Olympics opening ceremony is held in Paris. Great Britain and Ireland will win 9 Gold, 13 Silver and 12 Bronze medals during the course of the Games. 

10th May - in the United States, J. Edgar Hoover is appointed Head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

11th May - in Germany, Mercedes-Benz is formed by merger of the companies owned by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz.

3rd June - Gleneagles Hotel opens in Scotland.

8th June - in Nepal, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by their team mate Noel Odell. The two mountaineers are never seen alive again.

2nd June - in the United States, President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the United States.

9th June - in the United States, "Jelly-Roll Blues" is recorded by the blues great, Jelly Roll Morton.

7th July - Chariots of Fire (1) : Harold Abrahams wins 100m gold at the Paris Olympics in a time of 10.6 seconds. YOU TUBE

11th July - Chariots of Fire (2) - Eric Liddell wins 400m gold at the Paris Olympics in a world record time of 47.6 seconds. YOU TUBE

7th August - Housing (Financial Provisions) Act provides government subsidy for the construction of houses to rent, principally by local authorities ("Council Houses")

13th August - Campbell Case. The MacDonald Labour Government forces charges of incitement to mutiny against Communist newspaper editor J.R.Campbell to be dropped, leading to its defeat in a vote of confidence in the House of Commons.

16th August - in France, the Dawes Plan is signed in Paris, temporarily resolving German war reparations disputes.

28th September - US Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. It has taken them 175 days and 74 stops before their return to Seattle.

9th October - dissolution of Parliament for a General Election.

15 October - in France, the first Surrealist Manifesto is published, in which Andrew Breton defines the movement as "pure psychic automatism".

24 October - the Foreign Office releases the Zinoviev Letter, which is published in the following morning's "Daily Mail". This purports to be a directive from Grigory Zinoviev, head of the Communist International in Moscow, to the Communist Party of Great Britain, ordering it to engage in seditious activities within the UK.

25 October - in India, authorities of the British Raj arrest Subhas Chandra Bose and jail him for the next two and a half years.

29 October - the General Election is won by the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin, who duly becomes Prime Minister again. Conservatives have a majority of 209 seats, with Labour losing 40 seats, and Asquith's Liberals being electorally destroyed, going down from 158 seats to just 40 seats. Oswald Mosley (standing for Labour) loses to Neville Chamberlain in Chamberlain's Birmingham Ladywood constituency - but only (after 3 recounts) by 77 votes.

2 November - the "Sunday Express" becomes the first newspaper to publish a crossword.

4 November - in the United States, Republican and sitting President, Calvin Coolidge, defeats Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Robert M. La Follette Sr. in the Presidential election. It's a Coolidge landslide.

7 December - in Germany, the Social Democrats win the national elections with an increased vote share.

20 December - in Germany, Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison, having served only nine months of his five year sentence.

24 December - Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.35 G-EBBX crashes at Purley short after take off from Croydon Airport, killing all eight people on board. It is the new airline's first fatal crash, leading to the first UK public enquiry into a civil aviation accident.

30 December - Edwin Hubble announces existence of other galactic systems.

SPRING BIG GAME 2024 ("HM MASSIVE COUNTER-ATTACK") - SCENARIO !

The present campaign situation is outlined in full (and lavishly illustrated) HERE. Up to date, chap? Then read on:

Campaign Map - Road System

 

Major-General Everard (and his coterie of keen young Staff Officers) have spent a great deal of time considering their massive counter-offensive. But where to strike ? Southward, against the traditional Anglican power-base in Ross on Wye ? Or North, to recover fallen Leominster from the Ludlow Expeditionary Force ? Perhaps North East, hoping to drive the Communists back towards their bases at Kington and Presteigne ? Or South-East, against Sir Gilbert Hill's so-called "Golden Valley Invincibles", aiming to capture Pontrilas?

Having cleared his throat portentously, Major - General Everard provided the long awaited strategic answer. He would clear his lines first, aiming to "make sure" of the east - west A438 road link between the BUF Mailed Fist Battlegroup (in Ledbury) and his own Crown Forces (in Hereford), and between his own Crown Forces and the newly installed "Blackshort" Garrison in Hay-on-Wye (not shown on the above map, but not far from Eardisley, which is).

It is well known that the supply lines along the A438 has regularly been "cut" by all sorts of raiders - the Anglicans, the Social Democrats of Bromyard and Sir Gilbert Hill's forces across the A438 (East) between Hereford and Ledbury, and the Communists and Sir Gilbert Hill's forces across the A438 (West) between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye. Major-General Everard will soon put a stop to this outrageous behaviour !

Hence, it has been agreed that the Blackshort Forces of Hay-on-Wye will "sally out" from Hay-on-Wye east along the A438, with the aim of "making a rendezvous" with Crown Forces advancing west along the A438 from Hereford (Table 1 - A438 West).

Simultaneously, it has been agreed that the BUF Mailed Fist Battlegroup will advance from Ledbury west along the A438, with the aim of "effecting a conjuncture" with Crown Forces advancing east along the A438 from Hereford (Table 2 - A438 East).

There are dark rumours of "strong Rebel forces" raiding across both parts of the A438, marching both north/south and south/north, aiming to "prevent any Government stranglehold" on such an important supply artery.......

Can Major-General Evarard "clear his lines" along the A438? Will he live to shake the hand of Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, leader of the Hay-on-Wye Blackshorts? Will the BUF "Mailed Fist" Battlegroup from Ledbury live up to their name, or go down to shattering defeat on the field of the A438 (East)? And can normal commercial traffic resume without fear of kidnap, highway robbery and roadside bombs? All these critical questions can only be answered by attendance at the Hereford1938 VBCW Spring Big Game 2024, Yarkhill Village Hall, 9th March 2024 (10am - 5pm) !

Absolutely, Major-General : the Ledbury BUF receive their campaign orders from Everard's HQ.

Gamers Notes

(1). The scenario should set us up for two "encounter battles" on classic lines, i.e. 3 Platoons attacking (Govt. Forces) v 2 Platoons defending (Opposition Forces), but with a novel twist - while the attack goes in on an East/West axis, the defending forces are not "sitting waiting" as usual, but are themselves playing "across the table", i.e. along a South/North axis. A suitable "commercial vehicle" (or vehicles) will be made available to HMG Forces to drive along the A438 in demonstration of their magnificent victories - or be captured and/or blown up in demonstration of their miserable defeat....

(2). The Umpires are way ahead of themselves this year. Normally at this stage of the campaign cycle, we've no idea whatsoever of the scenario for the Autumn Big Game - and sometimes barely an idea of the Spring Big Game ! However, with a definite air of smugness, we can announce that the Autumn Big Game 2024 is titled "Springtime for Stokkies" and will be a highly detailed simulation of the famous escape attempt (from Anglican captivity) by the lecherous unsafe in taxis swashbuckling commander of the King's Own Colonials, Stokkies Joubert !

(3). Hereford1938 VBCW Modelling Challenge 2024 and Spring Big Game 2024 SPECIAL PRIZES to be announced in forthcoming blogposts.....stand by........

CLIVE OF PERRYSTONE COURT

Now who is this fine military chap ? 

Lt-Gen Sir (George) Sidney Clive, GCVO, KCB CMG, DSO, DL, JP
of Perrystone Court, Herefordshire.

We'd better let his "Who's Who" entry summarise a distinguished career:

Lt-Gen Sir (George) Sidney CLIVE, GCVO., cr. 1937; KCB cr. 1933 (C.B. 1918); CMG 1919; DSO 1915; late Grenadier Guards; Marshall of the Diplomatic Corps, 1935 - 45; b. 16th July 1874; s. of late General Edward Henry Clive and Isabel, d. of  Daniel Hale Webb; m. 1901, Madeline, 2nd d. of late F.W. Huxton M.P.; two s, two d. Educ: Harrow; Sandhurst. Entered Army 1893; Captain, 1900; Major 1909; Maj-Gen 1924, Lt-Gen 1932; passed Staff College 1903 - 1904; General Staff War Office and London District 1905 - 1914; served Nile Expedition, 1898 (two medals, clasp); South Africa 1899 - 1902 (Queens Medal, 5 clasps); European War, 1914 - 1918 (DSO, Bt.-Col, C.B., CMG); Military Governor at Cologne, 1919; Commanding 1st Infantry Brigade, Aldershot 1920; British Military Representative, League of Nations, Geneva, 1920 - 1922; Military Attache to Paris, 1924 - 1927; Director of Personnel Services, War Office 1928 - 1930; Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War, 1930 - 1934; retired pay 1934; a Director of the Royal Academy of Music; President Union Jack Club and Hostel, 1944; Hon F.R.A.M. 1939; Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class (Russia); Grand Croix Legion of Honour; Order of the Crown Commander; Croix de Guerre, French and Belgian, J.P., D.L., Herefordshire, High Sheriff County of Herefordshire, 1939. Address: Perrystone Court, Ross, Herefordshire. Clubs: Guards' Brooks's.

Two generations of Grenadier Guardsmen - Sir Sidney with his son, Archer Clive

It appears that Sir Sidney spent much of the Great War as a liaison with French GHQ, which no doubt explains his subsequent quasi political appointments as the British Military Representative to the League of Nations and then Military Attache to Paris (as well as his Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre). But it is his final appointment, as Marshall of the Diplomatic Corps, that brings him into our period of the late 1930s:

Introducing the new German Ambassador to the Court of St. James, 1936.
Behind the sinister figure of von Ribbentrop, a pillar of the British Establishment,
in monocle and ostrich plumed bicorne - Sir Sidney Clive (of Perrystone Court,
 Herefordshire) performing his duties as Marshall of the Diplomatic Corps.

Escape to the country - interior of Sir Clive's Perrystone Court.
Early 20th Century watercolour.

After one final public appointment within the County (as High Sheriff in 1939), Sir Sidney finally retired. It was a long retirement, cut short by tragedy - an appalling house fire on 7th October 1959 that destroyed Perrystone Court and cost "the old Grenadier" his life. From a retrospective piece in the "Hereford Times":

"Sir Sidney had, over the years, looked across from his country house towards the distant Church of St Mary at Ross. On an October day 46 years ago it was the setting for his memorial service. For three centuries the Grenadiers' March had been beaten to mark the return home after a campaign. At St Mary's that day two drummers of the Grenadier Guards, standing in full dress uniform in the north porch, beat out that march to the accompaniment of the organ. Music at the service included an anthem of Sir Sidney's composition, "Whither Thou Goest". All was carried out with pomp and ceremony and military precision - a far cry from the chaotic and grim scenes that had unfolded at Perrystone Court a few days earlier.

Jean Rundell, a nurse living in a flat at Perrystone, was awakened at 5.30 am by her mother who had heard a crackling sound. Looking through a window she could see a rosy glow of fire reflected on trees. Flames and sparks were coming from the morning room window. Perrystone housekeeper Gertrude Enseleit awoke other members of staff in the servants' wing and then ran to the neighbouring Bothy Cottage of air traffic controller Ronald Wilson, shouting `Fire!' and `the General is still in there!' He and his wife tried to enter the mansion but were driven back by dense smoke. But he was not to be defeated and later recalled: "The gardener got a ladder and I went up to the General's room. Down below the morning room was like a torch and the hall was beginning to blaze. I had to make two or three attempts to get across the room before I located General Clive. He was lying on the bed. I dragged him to the window and the people below had got a bigger ladder. Chauffeur Michael Cullum came up with a rope and between us we got it round the General's waist and got him out and down to the ground."

Jean Rundell carried out artificial respiration until the ambulance arrived. En route to hospital the grand old military man died. It was thought that the General's faithful old sheepdog Tony had perished but he was later found asleep on a rug in the housekeeper's room.

Many valuable paintings, including Gainsboroughs, and silver were taken to safety from the house by members of staff. Damage to Perrystone Court - bought by the Clive family in 1865 - was severe. A number of rooms were completely gutted and the roof of the main part of the house had collapsed as had a massive chimney stack which crashed into the middle of the building.

At the inquest later that month South Herefordshire coroner Cyril Shawcross heaped praise on Ronald Wilson for his courage in entering the blazing mansion. He also complimented chauffeur Cullum for his quick-thinking...."

St. Mary's Church, Ross-on-Wye.

Note : Sir Sidney's son, Archer Clive, continued the family tradition. Educated at Harrow and then Sandhurst, he fought with the Grenadier Guards during WW2, being awarded an MC in 1940 and then commanding the 6th Batt., Grenadiers, between 1941 and 1943. Retiring from the Army in 1947 with the rank of Brigadier, he became a Justice of the Peace in Herefordshire and served as Deputy Lieutenant of the County in 1960. He died in March 1995. See his WIKI entry here.

AMBASSADOR RIBBENTROP, 1938 - COLOURISED

Having met Soviet Ambassador Ivan Maisky and United States Ambassador Joe Kennedy, time to continue our tour of the London Diplomatic Corps and pop in on the German Ambassador in 1938, Joachim von Ribbentrop:

von Ribbentrop, German Ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1938.
Suggestions that he was recalled to Berlin in February 1938 in order
to become Foreign Minister of the Third Reich clearly belong to
alternative history.

von Ribbentrop "colourised". Nicely done, but the green shirt
must surely be an error. And the blue pen must be wrong, too.

Von Ribbentrop in "full parade rig". The brown shirt is much better.

And here he is, colourised and finally properly dressed for an Ambassador,
on the steps of the German Embassy in London. For the connection to
Herefordshire, see HERE

SPRING BIG GAME 2024 ("HIS MAJESTY'S MASSIVE COUNTERATTACK") - EARLY NOTICE !

The Hereford VBCW Spring Big Game 2024 will take place at YARKHILL Village Hall, Herefordshire, on:

Saturday 9th March 2024, 10am - 5pm

       Full exciting scenario and background to be published in due course - this is just your "keep the date free" notice.

Add Edit - we belatedly realised that the original date of 2nd March clashed with a VBCW Game at Armageddon, so we swiftly move our Big Game to a week later.

PUBLIC SCHOOLBOY TO PANZER COMMANDER

If there is any doubt as to the general usefulness of public schoolboys in battle, confirmation from an unlikely source - the son of the German Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Joachim von Ribbentrop. In certain timelines, Joachim von Ribbentrop's ambassadorial appointment in England started on 30th October 1936 and finished on 4th February 1938, when he was recalled to Berlin to replace von Neurath as the Third Reich's Foreign Minister. In our VBCW timeline, of course, von Ribbentrop's appointment as ambassador continued throughout 1938.....

But that's as may be. What is certain is the von Ribbentrop brought his sixteen year old son, Rudolf, with him to London, and (after he was rejected by Eton) enrolled him at Westminster School. Rudolf spent a year at Westminster before returning to Germany for his further education [note 1] :

Rudolf von Ribbentrop, 1936. Leaving Eaton Square and
heading towards Westminster School

Upon the outbreak of war in 1939, Rudolf joined the SS Infantry Regiment Deutschland as a private soldier, serving during the Western Campaign in 1940 (where he was wounded) and being awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class:

Rudolf von Ribbentrop with Iron Cross and SS collar flashes.
Probably the only "Westminster old boy" to serve in the SS.

After some recuperation, officer training and time fighting on the Finnish Front (where he was wounded again), by February 1943, Rudolf was serving as a Hauptsturmfuhrer with the newly formed Panzerregiment of the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ("LSSAH") at the Third Battle of Kharkov, as a result of which he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross:

A long way from Eaton Square - Rudolf von Ribbentrop in a Panzer IV, Kharkov 1943

On 1st August 1943, Rudolf was transferred as a company commander to the newly formed 12th SS Division Hitlerjugend, and fought with them during the Battle of Normandy, the escape through the Falaise Gap, and the Battle of the Bulge:

Rudolf von Ribbentrop in Normandy 1944. Clearly under significant strain.

Rudolf surrendered with the Division to the Americans at the end of the war, on 8th May 1945. Post war, he built a career as a wine merchant and banker and latterly published a book about his father, "My Father Joachim von Ribbentrop : Hitler's Foreign Minister, Experiences and Memories". He died on 20th May 2019.

Notes

(1). Peter Ustinov was a contemporary of Rudolf von Ribbentrop at Westminster, and perhaps contributed to Rudolf's departure to Germany after having "sold a story" about him to the London Evening Standard. He wrote in his 1977 memoir, "Dear Me" that Rudolf arrived at school each morning "dressed like the rest of us but with the Nazi Party youth badge - swastika, eagle and all - prominently and incongruously displayed in his lapel." The photographs suggest that he was indeed wearing something on his left lapel....

Another shot of Rudolf von R in Eaton Square, 1936.

(2). For a highly detailed review of Rudolf's WW2 career, see HERE

(3). For the 12th SS Division Hitlerjugend, see HERE

(4). Rudolf's book in English translation (Pen & Swords Books) :

TROOP MOBILISATION - 28mm and 20mm BICYCLES

All factions in the HerefordVBCW seek a high degree of tactical mobility - and like to stay at the technological cutting edge. Hence the demand for bicycles:

28mm bicycles from Warbases - 3 for £2.

And for the smaller Scouts or Public Schoolboys (Minor) Brigade:

20mm bicycles from Scale Model Scenery (Ebay) £9.79 for 25.

Bicycles - the VBCW way to "get there the fastest with the mostest" (attrib. Nathan Bedford Forrest)