MILITARY UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE OVERSEAS, 1938 (4) - HYDERABAD STATE FORCES

After this post on the Bikaner State Forces, another John Player cigarette card celebrating Britain's Indian Empire:

Hyderabad State Forces

The reverse of the cigarette card (No.32 of 50) states:

"His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad is the Ruler of the premier Indian state, which has a population of over fourteen million, and covers 83,000 square miles in Southern India. He maintains three regiments of Lancers organised as a Cavalry Brigade and, in addition, three Infantry battalions, a Horse Artillery Battery and a Transport Section. His forces number nearly five thousand in all. A regiment of Hyderabad Lancers served with the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade on the Suez Canal and in Palestine during the Great War. The officer shown in Full Dress in our picture is the commander of the Cavalry Brigade; the Char Minar, Hyderabad, appears in the background."

Notes:

(1). a useful historical summary of the "Hyderabad Contingent" can be found HERE

(2). notwithstanding the scarlet of their Brigadier, the Hyderabad Lancers appear to have been uniformed in blue:

Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry

Officer, Hyderabad Lancers, 1917

while the Hyderabad PBI appear to have been uniformed in traditional scarlet:

Hyderabad Contingent Infantry, 1903

(3). for suitable 28mm figures, a "hidden in plain sight" gem of a manufacturer - Tradition of London. One of the oldest retailers of toy soldiers in varying scales, Tradition carry the venerable Charles Stadden 30mm line, including a small range of  "Indian Army c.1897". Although these 30mm figures remain imposing next to even todays 28mm figures (think of the size of Bob Murch's Pulp Figures and add a couple of mm), there is nothing quite like them elsewhere:

Charles Stadden 30mm Indian Infantry at attention. The range
also has a Bugler, Sergeant and Officer at attention. A simple
"paint job conversion" will produce Hyderabad Contingent Infantry.

Charles Stadden 30mm "Indian Trooper turning in saddle".
The range has a variety of other poses, including "parade positions".
Here painted as Skinners Horse, a liberal application of blue will
produce a Hyderabad Contingent Cavalry Trooper.

(4). although the Nizam and his Hyderabad Contingent sadly had no place in post 1947 India, the "Char Minar" still stands in modern day Hyderbad:

The Char Minar. This modern day view is pretty much the same shot as the background
 of the 1938 cigarette card. More INFO HERE

(5). For information as to Hyderabad's forcible annexation by India following independence and partition, see HERE. Bob Cordery of the "Wargaming Miscellany" blog has been doing some interesting work on this action, known as "Operation Polo" - see HERE.

A map of Hyderabad, showing its central size and importance to India.
Arrows show "Operation Polo" of 1948.
 From Bob Cordery's Wargaming Miscellany Blog.

CORONATION POST (1) - THE ANGLICAN CLERGY

The Coronation on 12th May 1937 proved to be a gift to the manufacturers of contemporary cigarette cards, celebrating the key players in the Coronation rituals - none more so than the senior Anglican clergy:

"Archbishop of Canterbury - Primate of all England, and taking precedence next to the Members of the Royal Family, the Archbishop of Canterbury occupies an exalted position in our national life. The first to hold the historic office was Augustine, in A.D.597; the long line of Archbishops since that date includes such famous names as Becket, Cranmer and Laud. The present Archbishop (the 97th in succession) is the Most Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang D.D., D.C.L., L.L.D. The Archbishop of Canterbury arranges and conducts the Coronation Service and it is he who, by ancient right, performs the crowning ceremony."

"Archbishop of York - The Archbishopric of York dates from the 7th Century, when England was divided into two archepiscopal provinces. On Easter Day, A.D. 627, King Edwin of Northumberland was baptized in a small wooden church on the site of which the magnificent edifice of York Minster now stands, the ceremony being performed by Paulinus, who a few years later was consecrated first Archbishop of York. The present Archbishop (the 90th in succession) is the Most Rev. William Temple D.D., D.Litt, who was appointed in 1929. The Archbishop of York assists the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Coronation Ceremony; in 1911, the then Archbishop of York preached the Coronation sermon."

"Bishop of London - Mellitus became the first Bishop of London in AD 604. The manor of Fulham was given to a later occupant of the See, Bishop Erkenwald, about AD 691, as a residence for himself and his successors. Much of Fulham Palace as it now stands, however, was built by Fitzjames, Bishop of London from 1506 to 1522. The present Bishop, the Rt.Rev.Rt.Hon. Arthur Foley Winnington Ingram, D.D., LL.D., was appointed in 1901 and has officiated at the Coronations of King Edward VII and King George V. At the Coronation Ceremony, the Bishop of London carries the Paten - the dish upon which is borne the consecrated bread for the Holy Communion."

"Dean of Westminster - The Dean and Chapter of Westminster play a very important part in the Coronation. Their right to instruct the King and Queen in the rites and ceremonies of the Coronation has been admitted by the Court of Claims. In addition, the Dean assists the Archbishop of Canterbury during the Ceremony, and holds the Eagle Ampulla containing the oil used for the Anointing. By ancient right, the honour of putting the Coronation vestments on the King also falls to him. The present Dean of Westminster is the Very Revd. William Foxley Norris KCVO, D.D., who was appointed in 1925."

VBCW Notes : save for the Primate of All England's notable conduct during the early days of the VBCW and the famous Royalist "Drive on Canterbury", relatively little has been recorded as to the civil war careers of these notable Anglican personages - for the most comprehensive coverage, see the Solway Sourcebook, "The Anglican League". Most, no doubt, were either in prison or leading Armoured Assault Groups by 1938. Still, the above full dress uniform references are excellent!

CADBURY'S MARLBROOK

Keen students of the Hereford VBCW will remember His Majesty's Government's disastrous loss of Leominster to the newly raised forces of the Bromyard Social Democratic Republic, the precipitate retreat to Hereford of Commander Queeg's WYRD Force (all aboard the Black Arrow!) from Leominster Station, and the voluntary self immolation, contrary to orders and in the face of overwhelming numbers of Presteigne Communists, of Staff Captain Maynard and Eustace Spode at Leominster Brewery.

While Spode has proved to be the beneficiary of the complicated politics of the Welsh VBCW, the sad Staff Captain (now stripped of all privileges and reduced in rank to Private, 3rd class), still labours dawn to dusk in the newly opened Salt Mines of the Black Hills. Not that "dawn to dusk" has any meaning when one is imprisoned as deeply underground as Staff Captain Maynard...

And so the strategic picture "in County" changed, and then changed again. HMG's disordered retreat from Leominster to "the Dinmore Hill Line" (the last naturally defensible geographical feature before Hereford itself) has left uncovered one of the most valuable economic assets in Herefordshire - the Cadbury's Factory at Marlbrook, just off the A49 to Hereford:

The modern day entrance to the Cadbury's plant at Marlbrook.

Cadbury's built the Marlbrook Factory in 1936, just before the outbreak of the VBCW. Nowadays, according to the BBC, it produces 97,000 tonnes of "milk chocolate crumb" per year, processing 180 million litres of fresh milk, 56,000 tonnes of sugar and 13,000 tonnes of cocoa liquor in the production process.

Many passing the present Cadbury's factory on the A49 will have little idea of its pivotal importance in the Hereford VBCW...

The unobtrusive modern day Cadbury's factory from the A49

identifiable only by a discreet corporate logo..

The Marlbrook chocolate factory of today in fact bears little resemblance to its predecessor of 1938. Whether this is due to post-war commercial expansion or the explosive destruction of the plant during the VBCW is still a matter of opinion and extensive historical research...

In search of milk chocolate crumb...the Cadbury's Plant at Marlbrook
still attracts legions of distinguished VBCW researchers, anxious to establish
the true events of 1938. This is the traditional commemorative picture
of a visit to Marlbrook.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Happy New Year to all, and to a 2023 bound to be dominated by the Coronation of King Charles III (not forgetting "Queen Consort" Camilla) , due to take place on Saturday, 6th May 2023 at Westminster Abbey. A Bank Holiday will follow on Monday, 8th May 2023:

In prospect - a Very British Coronation

All of this may, or may not, receive more press attention than the truly seismic events of the forthcoming year, namely the Hereford VBCW Spring and Autumn Big Games 2023:

Hereford VBCW? King Charles auditions for the infamous 
Bromyard Morris Men VBCW Re-Enactment Group
 Or perhaps not.

For those trapped - or luxuriating in - the Very British Civil War timeline of 1938, of course, the most important coronation has already taken place, on 12th May 1937 - albeit it proved not to be the happiest event:

leading, as the better type of historians acknowledge, to strange consequences:

Hopefully, Charles III will do rather better than Edward VIII. More "Coronation" posts inevitably follow this year...

MILITARY UNIFORMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE OVERSEAS, 1938 (3) - AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE

Another cigarette card from the series issued by John Player in 1938:

Australian Light Horse

The reverse of the cigarette card (No.8 of 50) states:

"Members of all the Australian Light Horse Regiments served in the South African War and sixteen Regiments carry battle honours for the Great War. The members of the Light Horse Regiments, which are mostly drawn from country areas, are volunteers who provide their own mounts. The Regiments are numbered to correspond as far as possible with those of the Australian Imperial Force, but they also retain the old titles, "Royal New South Wales Lancers", "Victorian Mounted Rifles", etc. by which they were known before the Commonwealth took over control of defence matters from the separate states in 1901. We show a trooper of the Australian Light Horse; the City Hall, Brisbane, appears in the background."

Notes: 

(1). The 1938 ALH uniform appears unchanged from the 1914-1918 uniform, and there are a couple of 28mm WW1 ranges that provide suitable figures. Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog has some nicely painted figures from Brigade Games, while the OverOpenSights blog has some splendid painted versions from Blaze Away miniatures (now marketed through Lancashire Games - including mounted and dismounted, and a Hotchkiss LMG), plus a lot more helpful information on the ALH.

(2). YouTube is awash with videos of the Australian Light Horse. Amongst others, here they are in 1939; and their fathers ("The Lighthorsemen") at Beersheba in 1917 (well worth a watch!)

(3). The City Hall, Brisbane, still stands - but now dwarfed by modern steel and glass development:

The City Hall, Brisbane, today.

VBCW HEREFORD - THE BATHTUB HYPOTHESIS (4) - TERRAIN

Being the fourth in an irregular series of blogposts considering the application of Frank Chadwick's "bathtub" campaign ideas to the VBCW in Hereford. For earlier posts, click on the "Bathtub Hypothesis" label to the right...

So now we've got some cracking maps and have worked out a suitable ground scale - "one inch (on the campaign map) to one foot (on the tabletop) to two miles (on the ground)" - or about 1/10,000, as there are 5280 feet in a mile. The next challenge for a "bathtub game" has got to be the tabletop terrain....

Unfortunately, there seems to be no photographs available of Frank Chadwick's "Operation Barbarossa" bathtub game - other than the front cover of the scenario booklet itself, showing a nice "town" with external fortifications and tank traps:

Command Decision - Barbarossa 25

In the search for "terrain orientated photographs" of other wargamers "bathtub - type games", it didn't take long to run across a comparable British variant of Command Decision 25 (although developed independently), namely "Megablitz":

Megablitz Rules - see HERE for a summary

The Introduction to the Megablitz Rules set out what the rules were trying to achieve:

"...The skirmish level game is excellent if one wishes to reproduce the problems faced by squad or platoon commanders using a variety of infantry weapons, while the battalion level game allows players to see the interaction of a wider range of weapons types in the context of a larger scale battle. They do not, however, give players the opportunity to command higher level formations, where they can experience the problems of 'generalship'. At the other end of the spectrum, board or map games permit players to recreate the sort of decision making faced by Generals and Government leaders at the strategic level, but do not satisfactorily provide for players the opportunity to experience what the Russians call the "Operational Art" ('operativnaia iskusstva').."

"Operational Art" is apparently defined as "the intermediate level between the tactics of individual battles and the strategy of an entire war" with the result that Megablitz (and bathtub type games generally) "falls somewhere between the conventional board or map game and the normal brigade or divisional level wargame that uses large numbers of figures and model vehicles."

As to the tabletop terrain necessary for a "Megablitz" wargame, the rule authors specifically noted:

"Because these rules are intended to reflect the problems of fighting battles at operational level, the terrain used will be less detailed than that normally seen in games involving models. It is perfectly acceptable to use a suitably scaled map (particularly with smaller scale models). If, however, three dimensional terrain appeals, it is recommended that simple terrain showing only the major geographical features of the battlefield be used...It is also suggested that terrain features be of a smaller scale than the models being used, as this helps to remind players of the scale of the game. In general, this means using 15mm or 1/300 scale terrain features with the larger scale models (i.e. 20mm figures)..."

The "Megablitz" scale (for 20mm figures and vehicles) is 1:25,000, which the rules explain as "...4cm on the wargames table = 1km in reality, so a 6 x 4foot table represents 45km x 30km". This certainly means that one can represent a very large battlefield on a normal table - but a cost in the traditional visual/terrain element of the wargame:

May 1940 - Northern France on six tables.
The anxious French staff gather round for a pre-game briefing.

"The terrain used will be less detailed than normally seen...." The French point of view.

A different Megablitz game, but the same concept. The roads are drafting tape, only the principal
towns are represented, and then with 1/300ish buildings. No hedges, walls (or even hills) here...

Another game, but still France 1940. Here the town of Arras is modelling in "Megablitz scale"
The troops are 15mm. Note width of road, rail and river systems.

Same game further down the same table. Arras has three buildings - anything smaller than a town\city
is represented by a single building.

For more photographs of "Megablitz" scaled games and lots of enthusiastic commentary, check out these links:

(1). French Air Commander : Chris Kemp of the Not Quite Mechanised blog;

(2). French 53rd Divisional Commander : Bob Cordery of the Wargaming Miscellany blog

(3). French 18th Divisional Commander : the Dancing Cake Tin blog

(4). An overview of the whole (in 9 parts starting here) : Tim Gow of the Megablitzandmore blog

(5). A TMP discussion of the game and views on the "sparseness" of the terrain v the scale of the game.

Whatever one's views on "bathtub terrain", it should be noted that the Megablitz scale of 1/25,000 is significantly bigger than the intended "Hereford 1938" bathtub scale of 1/10,000, and both are dwarfed by the Command Decision "Barbarossa 25" bathtub scale of one inch (on the map or table) equalling 25 kilometres/16miles (on the ground) - or about 1/1,000,000! (there are 1,013,760 inches in 16 miles). This means:

(1). the photograph on the front of the Command Decision 25 "Operation Barbarossa" campaign booklet (above) can only be a "mock up" rather than a record of actual terrain used. The "town" represented looks to be about 12 to 18 inches across - or at least 192 real miles wide. Not even 1941 Moscow was that big!

(2). the "HerefordVBCW" ground scale of 1/10,000 will still mean that 1/300ish sized buildings will need to be used on the tabletop, but with the ground scale at around a third of the "Megablitz" scale of 1/25,000, the "sense of scale shock" should be somewhat reduced - and terrain appearance improved;

(3). the challenge will be the contrast between the 1/10,000 ground scale, the 1/300 buildings scale and the 1/55 figure and vehicle scale - not so much in relation to the representation of towns and villages (where wargamers are used to the representation of '1 model house = a village') but in relation to the representation of roads, railtracks, etc., particularly the width of a 'scale road' in comparison to the width of, say, a 'scale tank'....

(4). still, with so many elements of the game represented at different scales, the players should always be visually reminded that they are engaging not in a normal wargame, but in the fabled "Operational Art" !

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

As the Hereford VBCW campaign exists in a notional timeloop, where no matter the number of battles - nor the rise, fall or explosive evisceration of campaign personalities - it is always, but always 1938, the celebration of Christmas can only take place once - and that is not yet. Still, this has not prevented the various factions, keen as always on propaganda and the currying of favour, producing their varying Christmas cards in anticipation:

A restrained offering from the Anglicans, featuring the Cathedral and Coat of Arms
of the See of Hereford. Restrained possibly because the Dean and Chapter are
presently in exile in Ludlow and the Cathedral closed to public worship
(by order of the BUF)

The BUF's own offering (an actual card from 1937).
Rather gloomy and teutonic...portrait of 'the Leader' free inside!

Speaking of Leaders, Comrade Colonel Professor "Bill" Winters (of the Presteigne Communist Faction)
has his own jolly offering, inevitably featuring Stalin. Not being a Christian (although
seminary trained) Stalin clearly offered an alternative Christmas message...

Whatever the factions various efforts, with the recent blogposts on No.1 Squadron RAF and the Hawker Fury, we thought some aerial action mixed in with a dollop of winter sentimentality might prove to be this year's best Christmas offering:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all!