SPANISH REPUBLICAN PARADE - 1936

 As a complement to this EARLIER POST, some more Spanish Republicans passing in parade:

Assault Guards with motorcyclists and armoured car..

Mountain Artillery with pack mules...

Motorised infantry. Cool command car and lengthy carrier...

Motorised Artillery. Interesting ways to bring the artillery into position...

The heavy stuff - Soviet supplied tank battalion, and another interesting armoured car...

Early tank transporters with French supplied FT-17s...

El Presidente with his escort. Mounted ceremonial squadron...

Bringing up the rear (for security), 179 "Mixed" Brigade of infantry and cavalry.

Lots of inspiration for a 1930s VBCW Platoon.....

SPANISH REPUBLICAN PARADE - 1932

"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" (LP Hartley, "The Go-Between") is one of the mottos of the Hereford 1938 campaign. (Didn't know we had campaign mottos? Well, we do now.) And after the excitement of Hereford's VE Day Parade, a parade slightly earlier in time, and definitely from a foreign country - the first anniversary parade (1932) of the founding of the Spanish Republic:

Smart Spanish marines, rifles at the slope...

Sixth Infantry Regiment...note LMGs as well as rifles..

Horse Artillery...

Motorised Artillery (interesting travelling position for the guns)....

Anti Aircraft unit with searchlights...

Air Force (note no camouflage)....

Motorised Infantry (fantastic trucks and variety of command cars)...

and finally (for now)...the Ambulance Unit (both mules and motorised!)

Great additions to previous blogposts on contemporaneous paper soldiers - and if there is any doubt as to these troops loyalty to the Republic, well, a propaganda unit has already been recruited.....

STALINS "RE-INFORCEMENTS"

After "The Disaster at Dinmore" and "The Martyrdom at Willersley", the rumour is that Comrade Stalin is intent on providing more troops to the suddenly hard pressed Kington and Presteigne Soviets:

Soviet Infantry in greatcoats with Moisin-Nagant rifles and budenovka headgear.

A nice military band to accompany the infantry.

Rather more useful Horse Artillery - and motorcycle despatch rider.

Searchlight truck, supply vehicles, and a unique looking Armoured Car.

Staff Commander A.D. Mann, spokesman for Lord de Braose, Governor of Hereford and Lord Warden of the Marches, has had no difficulty in dismissing such rumours, identifying Stalin's proposed contribution as, at best, "mere paper re-inforcements"....

Note: paper Soviets from c. 1932, via Pinterest.

FIELD HOSPITALS and AMBULANCES

While we wait for all the Battle Reports to come in from the Spring Big Game 2024 ("HM Government's Massive Counter-Offensive"), some useful contemporary paper illustrations of Field Hospitals and military ambulances:

Medical Crews from the SCW with Ambulance.

The same theme. This is from the same series of paper soldiers as
the Propaganda Set to be found HERE.

Print Modelling Challenge No.1 - make a paper (or card) ambulance for your Platoon !

Print Modelling Challenge No.2 - a more "elderly" type of ambulance for your Platoon.

Out of period (Korean War Americans) but that tent could be useful...
For other paper tents, see HERE

Why the focus on Field Hospitals and military ambulances ? Subject to the Battle Reports, we have more than a suspicion that certain individuals will be grateful for their services after Saturday's events, including a certain Eustace Spode......

CAMOUFLAGE MEA CULPA - 1930s PAPER SOLDIERS

After the embarrassment of "the three colour camouflage mea culpa", some images in further evidence, drawn from contemporaneous sheets of paper soldiers:

German Reconnaissance Troops. Probably early 1930s on the basis of the three
colour camouflage and the absence of armoured cars. All these troops wear gasmasks.

More familiar German armoured cars - Kfz 13, Sdkfz 221, 231, 232 -
 but all still in pre - July 1937 three colour camo. It is likely that any
German vehicles shipped to the Hereford VBCW in 1938 would 
still be in this camouflage scheme.

The motorcyclists are back, accompanied by a "dinky" armoured car, probably a Kfz13 with
a little artist's licence. While the Kfz13 is still in three colour camo, the motorcycles are now 
in "panzergrau" - save for the three colour panniers! Images probably, therefore, late 1937.

PROPAGANDA AGAIN !

In the ongoing "Propaganda Wars" preceding the Spring Big Game 2024, it is often said that Commissar Moody of the Presteigne Soviet's "Bureau Desinformatzya" learned "everything he knows" from previous experience in Spain. This is not quite true, as the Commissar also received extensive training in "photographic manipulation and airbrushing" (see HERE) direct from the Moscow School of Advanced Creative Arts. But the Commissar certainly looks back on his time in Spain with great fondness:

Contemporaneous "Paper Soldiers" sheet illustrating Republican propagandists at work.
Most notable, the "re-education class" being conducted on a blackboard, the mobile library
(state approved works only), and an armoured mobile loudspeaker (and support vehicle).
Could that be Comrade Moody himself - centre on podium, in blue boiler suit - addressing the troops ?