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)

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MINOR) BRIGADE (5) - ARMOURED SUPPORT

The Public Schools (Minor) Brigade not only enjoys substantial artillery support, but is also extremely well-equipped with armour:

Light Recce Section. 2 No. ""Corgi Juniors" Daimler Armoured Cars. Slightly smaller
 than the Dinky version, and therefore more suitable for "schoolboys". The Corgi version
also comes with a FREE plastic bren gunner as a crewman.

Rear view of the Light Recce Section. The standing "Commanders" are Dinky.

Light Tank Troop. These Mk.6Bs are old diecast Dinkys; the Troop Commander, the top 
half of plastic Airfix 8th Army figure. These tanks are much cheaper on Ebay if found
without (the unrealistic, but original) chain metal tracks. Here cardboard has been
used to simulate track (although a bit more attention could have been paid to
the painting of the insides !)

A side on view of the Light Tank Troop. Definitely back to the paintshop for
 more track and lower hull work !

A Dinky Morris Recce Car converted by removal of the roof. This vehicle has not
yet been acquired for the Armoured Commander, but will be when the right Ebay lot comes along!

The price of the armoured section - a Heavy Tank. This is a cheap bodge made up
of the hull of a broken Dinky Centurion and the turret of an out of scale and equally broken
Lone Star Armoured Car. Somehow, it all works. Note to self - again, paint the tracks !

Concluding Campaign Note : with such reinforcement by the Public Schools (Minor) Brigade, Major-General Everard is now well on his way to achieving sufficient troops to undertake his much talked about massive counter-attack. Whether he chooses to use the Brigade as an attack spearhead, alternatively in a holding role along the Dinmore Hill Line, is just one of his forthcoming (and critical) "command decisions".....

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MINOR) BRIGADE (3) - LIGHT HOWITZERS

A nice discovery, in the course of putting together the Public Schools (Minor) Brigade, was that the Skybirds figures were entirely compatible with Dinky figures, particularly the Dinky Royal Artillery crew and seated figures, and just compatible with Airfix or HO/OO plastic kits:

An early attempt to put all these elements together into an artillery unit (as fully described in THIS POST) - the Anti-Tank Battery (Combined Public Schools) - was comprehensively destroyed by forces of the Independent Republic of Bromyard at the Second Battle of Leominster. However, this simply allowed further development of "the concept":

Airfix plastic Bren Carriers now fully crewed by Dinky and Skybirds metal figures,
towing HaT 1/72 WW1 German artillery converted by scale necessity to "light howitzers"

The "Light Howitzer" Battery "ready for action". Skybirds artillerymen "stand to their guns":
alternative Airfix Bren Carriers (without crew) indicate full deployment.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MINOR) BRIGADE (2) - HEAVY WEAPONS

It was - this is typical- only after the Great Ebay Joblot purchase that thoughts turned to the provision of heavy weaponry for the (minor) Public Schoolboys. The "Went the Day Well" rules allow for the provision of either a Mortar or a Heavy Machine Gun, together with some kind of Anti-Tank weaponry, whether an "AT Team" with sticky bombs or the like, or an Anti-Tank rifle - see the WTDW Platoon Generator HERE.

As it turned out, Skybirds had produced a Vickers Machine Gun (with 2 crew), but this was no longer readily available, and the figures were in any event modelled wearing gas masks - not very VBCW. If Skybirds ever did produce a mortar with crew, or an Anti Tank Rifle, both were clearly as rare as hens teeth....so a solution had to be found.

Mortar and HMG with Skybirds artillery crewmen.

The solution for the mortar and HMG originated in a quite different manufacturer from a different era - plastic 1/72 scale equipment from the 1970s Italian manufacturer, "Atlantic". The ever useful "Plastic Soldier Review" provided fully detailed (and helpfully illustrated) reviews of Atlantic's varied products, and had noted (from the point of view of the dedicated 1/72 scale enthusiast):

(1). of the HMG in the WW2 "Red Army" set - "...the heavy machine gun is a complete mystery. It is the size of a small artillery piece, and looks like an enormous version of the 1910 Maxim gun. If it is indeed meant to be this weapon then apart from the size it is incorrect in many respects. The gunner has been well done and actually holds the weapon's trigger, but because of its size he cannot possibly see what he is firing at.....This set is designed as a toy and that is all it is...."

The Atlantic Red Army HMG. [Photo from Plastic Soldier Review].

(2). of the modern-era "Machine Gunners and Mortar Men" set - "The mortar is enormous - much larger than most infantry mortars, but it is actually quite well detailed. Again, we could not match it up to any real mortar in existence, though in size and baseplate it has a little resemblance to the contemporary US M2 4.2 inch. It comes in three parts (base, barrel and tripod support) and remarkably it is a much better representation of a mortar than many others to be found in sets of far higher quality (Matchbox and Esci, for example).......

Atlantic "Machine Gunners and Mortar Men" box set. Another set, titled "Heavy Mortars"
has a number of the same type of mortar.

Reverse of the box showing the mortar.

"Larger" or "much larger" in 1/72 terms generally means that "it will probably fit in quite well with 28mm figures". It would, of course, have been easy enough to "bodge-up" a mortar from a short piece of tube, some plasticard and a suitably bent paperclip, but - by serendipity - another cheap Ebay lot of "Atlantic machine guns and mortars" provided all that was necessary : not only for the (minor) public schoolboys, but also for other factions then in the making, such as the Nuns of St. Mary Magdalene .

Which leaves the Anti Tank weaponry. A Boys AT Rifle could be liberated from the Perry 8th Army box, or one scratchbuilt (in the style of John Sandars) by inserting a suitable pin in the butt and stock of a Perry Bren Gun. Alternatively, the usual "spherical AT shell" could be placed next to a suitable figure, as per the Herefordshire Police AT units:

Herefordshire Police in the VBCW. The figure to the left, with spherical shell, is
 a part of an AT Team. The fence graffiti illustrates the problems
encountered in keeping law and order. 

Yet sometimes it is worth pausing for inspiration to strike. The Public Schoolboys (Minor) Brigade therefore lacks AT capability at present, waiting upon the time when a decision just has to be made (normally about a week before a Big Game). Something is sure to turn up for an interesting "bodge":

An "interesting bodge". Hinchcliffe 20mm figures with scratchbuilt AT capability -
1/35 or 1/48 Panzerfausts mounted on a home made wheeled chassis.
Should the Public Schoolboys (Minor) be similarly equipped ?

SKYBIRDS FIGURES and SGT ALFRED J. HOLLADAY CIV

As mentioned HERE, the idea for the Public Schoolboys (Minor) Brigade originated in an Ebay "joblot" purchase. The "joblot figures" were wholly unidentified, and thrown together in a large pile for the seller's (rather dimly lit and uninviting) photograph. No scales, heights or measurements of any kind were given, and nobody was bidding on these chipped and rather sad lead men. But they were clearly wearing British helmets and greatcoats....and they were very, very cheep.....

Now (borne out by hard experience) the risk with these Ebay lots is that one finishes up with useful fishing weights, rather than useable figures, but sometimes, just sometimes.....

Reorganised, rebased, repainted Ebay joblot

......things actually do work out. The figures turned out to be slightly larger than 20mm in height, but by no means giving the impression of 1/72 or 1/76 scale - possibly because they were modelled with a substantial "girth" - rather like, back in the 1970s, Minifigs 25mm were "smaller but stouter" than the leaner Hinchliffe 25mm. The few figures with broken rifles had the remnants of their Lee-Enfields replaced with 28mm Lewis Guns from "Colonel Bills" without any apparent visual ill effect. Some simple spraying and painting later, and four sections of "schoolboy infantry" emerged -

Mitigating height difference - the schoolboys have acquired "thicker than usual" MDF bases.
Their comparators are 28mm First Corps refugee figures - to the left on the usual plastic base
and to the right unbased. A reasonable fit - and First Corps are not the smallest 28mm.

Never having seen figures of this type before, however, the nagging questions remained - who had made them, and when? A bit of research later, and the answers emerged. Who? A.J.Holladay & Co. Ltd (trading as "Skybirds" and "Givjoy") of 3, Aldermanbury Avenue, London EC2. When? From 1936 - mid 1940s, which made these figures (or at least their moulds) quite as old as the VBCW itself !

Confirmation - Skybirds British Infantry on a reproduction header card.

A chance find in the Airfix Magazine back catalogue (see HERE) confirmed that the range of Skybirds figures included British Infantry, and yielded some useful line illustrations. The same article disclosed that modellers and wargamers were already waxing nostalgic about the Skybirds range more than fifty years ago!

Airfix Magazine 1969.

The figure range seems to have been ancillary to Skybirds' main business, i.e. the production of aircraft kits and accessories:

Proper "old skool" modelling - the Skybirds Fairey Battle kit

Suitable for 1938 - the Skybirds Gloster Gladiator

It appears that Skybirds were the first to introduce 1/72 scale for aircraft models - long before companies such as Airfix or Revell entered the scale modelling market. Compatibility between man and machine then explained the (nominally) 1/72 scale of Skybirds figures:

AA guns naturally follow aircraft - Skybirds produced a complete AA set, including 
sound detectors and height/track predictors with crew.

Investigation of the "Skybirds" range produced something even more interesting, however - some information about the proprietor of the company, Alfred J. Holladay. Some twenty or so years before he started producing his ground breaking 1/72 models, A.J. Holladay had produced one of the very first sets of wargame rules:

and a boxed set of  Victorian - era soldiers to go with them:

"Wargames for Boy Scouts" identifies the author as "Sergt. A.J. Holladay, late C.I.V." - it's very likely, therefore, that Holladay fought in the Boer War as a City of London Imperial Volunteer. The Victorian era flavour of the rules is inescapable from Holladay's own introduction, beginning "...I say, comrades...." !

For those that care to examine such early rules (apparently first published in 1910, and therefore three years before H.G. Wells "Little Wars") a complete PDF of "Wargames for Boy Scouts" has kindly been made available for free download by Jonathan Linneman on HIS BLOG.

Holladay therefore appears to have started out as a mixture of the Donald Featherstone and Peter Gilder of his day, before going on to a remarkably entrepreneurial career in military modelling and production. Sadly completely forgotten now......and all of this information from an Ebay joblot of unidentified lead men.....

Notes:

(1). Jonathan Linneman's TMP thread (from 2016) on the "Wargames for Boy Scouts" rules is HERE

(2). The "History of Wargaming Project" by John Curry publishes a book ("The Wargaming Pioneers") including these rules, together (amongst others) with "The Liddell Hart Wargame" from 1935 - see HERE

(3). The Brighton Toy and Model Museum Index has more information on the Skybirds range HERE

(4). There is a lengthy and interesting thread on Skybirds 1/72 aircraft on the "Solid Model Memories" message board HERE. Lots of photos of 1930s aircraft models !

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MAJOR) - UNIFORM REFERENCES

The major English Public Schools are the so-called "Clarendon" schools (so called because of the Clarendon Commission of 1861 - 1864), namely, Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Westminster and Winchester. As noted in the previous blogpost, they retained their social distinction during the VBCW by entering combat in their distinctive school uniforms, rather than adopting, as per the Minor Public Schools, a more conventional military uniform (of the smaller sizes):

Eton Rifles at present - in morning dress

Eton Rifles off to war - I say, out of our way, oiks !

Harrow School Infantry Section off to the armoury to collect their (inevitable)
Lee Enfield .303 Rifles. This is clearly an early war photograph, as the white flannels
 and straw boaters proved socially correct but slightly impractical "on campaign".

PUBLIC SCHOOLS (MINOR) BRIGADE (1) - INFANTRY and COMMAND

Major-General Everard, C-in-C of Crown Forces in the County of Herefordshire, has long been calling for reinforcements - sometimes rather desperately. Edward VIII has now despatched to the County "the flower of Royalist youth", none other than the newly uniformed and heavily equipped Public Schools (Minor) Brigade: 

Minors from the minor Public Schools - 4 sections of Schoolboy Infantry

HQ Command Section - CinC, No.2, Medic, Standard Bearer (no standard yet) and 2 "runners"

Command Section Transport - comfortable C-in-C saloon and Recruiting/Supply Vehicle

March-past in parade order : the C-in-C reviews some infantry sections.

Notes: 

(1). these are identifiable as boys from the Minor Public Schools because they are conventionally uniformed (in the smaller sizes). Combat units from the major public schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Winchester, etc., obviously went into battle in the VBCW in top hat and tails, or boaters and short jackets.

(2). the officers and nurse are slim 30mms from Marks Little Soldiers - an irresistible purchase from HERE. The "boys" themselves were obtained via a "very cheep unlabelled" joblot purchase from Ebay - more on their origins in blogposts to come. For the moment we can only say that, notwithstanding their purported youth, these infantry figures are in fact as old as the VBCW itself !

AT BATTERY (COMBINED PUBLIC SCHOOLS)

After this post on the flags of the English Public Schools (or at least the base material in order to make them), it is ironic that the very first Public Schools unit to make an appearance in the HerefordVBCW did not have a flag at all - and for very good reason.

Service with an Anti Tank Gun was considered somewhat beneath the aspirations of the usual public schoolboy - all that dragging shells about and operating machinery. Horror! Much better to be in a whip smart rifle unit. Hence, AT recruits usually came from the socially unacceptable at school - tugs, tykes, nargs, fatties, gingers, speccies and, worst of all, "mathmos". Even with these criteria and more than the usual degree of "Tom Brown's Schooldays" bullying by the prefects (i.e. just about everything short of crucifixion), recruitment to the Anti Tank Batteries was slow, forcing the authorities to form a "Combined Public Schools" unit. 

Hence, no flag - but, nevertheless, expensively purchased equipment:

Staff Captain Maynard, C-in-C His Majesty's Forces, having become increasingly concerned by reports of "considerable enemy tank strength" encircling Leominster, has now rushed this Combined Public Schools AT battery "to the front" with orders to assist where needed. It remains to be seen quite how effective they will be.

Notes: AT Guns scratchbuilt - metal Napoleonic trails, Airfix WW1 British Artillery gun barrel and shield, odd plastic wheels from the "bits box". Crew all vintage lead figures of "Dinky" size, i.e. shorter and slighter than 28mm. Carriers Airfix 1/72.

PUBLIC SCHOOL CIGARETTE CARDS

During the slight hiatus in the Herefordshire VBCW [note 1], the Bishop of Ludlow has been riffling through his collection of cigarette cards - publishing this collection of "Arms of the Public Schools". Not the most strenuous activity, admittedly, but its preferable to the Bishop delivering yet another lengthy sermon. And with a bit of photoshopping, the cigarette cards could make very useful VBCW flags....

When's the next VBCW battle? Old Etonians happily race towards the Cadet Force's armoury....

[Note 1]: By this Autumn, it will be (unbelievably) two years since the last Hereford VBCW Big Game - see the (October 2019) "Battle of Mortimer's Cross" HERE. Such has been one (extremely minor) result of the Covid pandemic and UK Government lockdowns. Happily, the 1/55 Herefordshire VBCW universe operates on a completely different (and often indefinable) timescale, and thus the Bishop, his allies and enemies, may only have experienced a delay of two weeks or so since the last engagement. 1/55th scale Herefordshire, of course, has never experienced a pandemic (unless you count the 1919 'Spanish Flu' pandemic, where HMG's advice to the population seems to have been to "Keep Calm and Carry On", no doubt with the stiffest of upper lips). As "the past is a foreign country", particularly where 'the past' is completely invented, we hope to return to it by way of an October 2021 Big Game....