MODELLING CHALLENGE 2023 - THE RESULTS !

The Modelling Challenge 2023 ("Technicals") proved to be the most competitive modelling challenge in Hereford1938 history, with fully thirteen entries in total ! Unlucky for some? The competitors, in no particular, but nevertheless blog, order:

(1). No less than FIVE heavily armed entries from Mr Frank Richardson of the Wye Valley Reclamation Depot (Alan);

(2). A diminutive "Combat Car" in service with the Irish Lilliputian Leprechaun Legion (LAF Moriarty);

(3). A "Little Hereford Farmers' Co-Operative Big Gun Technical" (Umpire Clive);

(4). TWO Multi Machine Gun Technicals in service with the Independent Labour Party (prop. Mr Benn, aka Jon);

(5). a "King's Own Colonials 47mm Gun Recon Technical" (Umpire Roo);

(6). TWO MG Technicals of Doc Daktari's Shangani Patrol (Umpire Clive again); and

(7). "The Mosley Mobile" (LAF Bearwoodman).

The International Judging Panel, for reasons explained at the end of this previous post, had already decided to create a new category of "Disabled Technicals", in order to cope with the "entirely off-piste" (according to the French, Italian and Swiss judges) entries from LAF Bearwoodman and - here there was much controversy, not so much "off-piste" as "piste-off" - LAF Moriarty and the Irish Lilliputian Leprechaun Legion.

Against all the physical evidence, LAF Moriarty insisted that his Irish Combat Car "was 1/72 scale, which as we all know isn't 20mm at all, but the same as 25mm, and that's perfectly acceptable with 28mm, begorrah, all this scale growth in recent years...."

Declining to become involved in yet another interminable discussion on the subject of scales, heights, the history and interaction between wargaming and model railway gauges, whether "scale height" should be measured to the line of the eyes or the top of the head, etc. etc., the International Judging Panel simply ruled LAF Moriarty's entry as "too damned small" and assigned him to the "Disabled Technicals" category. Still protesting loudly, it was only when Mr Frank Richardson of the Wye Valley Reclamation Company lit up his blowtorch in a meaningful manner that LAF Moriarty allowed himself to be led away by the Italian judge........

Tall and short, big and small, 1/72 and 28mm. The Italian Judge provides
some practical rules guidance - and consolation - to the
newly "disabled" LAF Moriarty.

Having dealt with the much discussed "Moriarty controversy", the Judging Panel made another swift executive decision. Given the number and quality of the entries to the Modelling Challenge 2023, there was only one way to find out who should win:

The distinguished Chairman of the International Judging Panel announces their "executive decision".

The rules : one lap around Hereford Race Course (facilities kindly donated for the day by HMG and Major-General Everard), first past the post, "modest firing" allowed (subject to judicial penalty) and "quality control by red flag". The competitors lined up, with the "Disabled Technicals" placed in a separate lane, the starter fired his revolver, and THEY'RE OFF !!

OR NOT !

To horrified shrieks and groans from the watching stands, none of the Wye Valley Reclamation Company's five Technicals crossed the starting line, nor even started up at all ! What was the matter ?

But one example of the Wye Valley Reclamation Company's Technicals - "the Stinger"

It subsequently appeared that, in an impossible to ignore breach of the Challenge rules, none of the Wye Valley Technicals had been supplied with a crew - or drivers. This posed obvious difficulties in racing anywhere, let alone a competitive lap around Hereford Racecourse. 

Mr Frank Richardson therefore "retired hurt" from the Challenge, little consoled by the Judges' award of both the Stakhanov Award for Productivity (in Gold) and (given the amount of heavy weaponry fixed to the Technicals), a one half share in the Muammar Gadaffi Megalomanic Prize Fund. He was last seen screaming over the recumbent body of the Chief Designer of the Wye Valley Reclamation Company, while removing the said designer's molar teeth with large pliers - but without anesthetic. At least, we think it was Mr Richardson's screams.... 

And the King's Colonials leapt forward into the lead, chased around the first corner by Doc Daktari's Shangani Patrol, the Little Hereford Farmers, and two badly smoking Independent Labour Party Technicals:

The unfeasible ILP Technicals immediately before the Race.

Heavily overladen with multiple machine guns of all sorts (Soviet Quadruple AA MGs to the rear, twin Vickers K guns for the front seat passenger, with but a single measly Lewis Gun for the deprived driver), the ILP Technicals were simply unable to keep up with their lighter competitors, and the very many heavy boxes of ammunition required for this insane amount of ILP armament soon resulted in gear and engine trouble of a terminal sort.

Pulling up in clouds of steam and smoke, Degsy Hatton of the ILP leapt from the cab of his PMW 1.5 tonner to receive his richly deserved half share in the Muammar Gadaffi Megalomaniac Prize Fund and the "Thanks of the Soviet Military Attache" for so effectively showcasing his country's armaments industry.

Which left but three in the race going down the back straight, and - what's this ? It can't be ?! A Judges' "red flag" for the Shangani Patrol !

Umpire Clive's Shangani Patrol

Yes, as even Umpire Clive subsequently admitted, the Shangani Patrol had been "a bit of a rush job just before the Big Day" and "had too much Khaki Serge and not enough Khaki Drill". There was no VAR appeal (or rather, "cinematic projector appeal") against the Judges' "Red Flag for Quality", with Doc Daktari left to pick up "The Most Innovative Camouflage Scheme" Papyrus Scroll and a stern warning from the Judges to "get himself touched up smartened up for next time".

Which left the Hereford Farmers' Co-Operative neck in neck with the King's Colonials as the race rounded the last corner. The crowds in the stands rose to their feet, breathless and cheering. Who would win the Modelling Challenge 2023 ?

Umpire Clive's Hereford Farmers' Technical

Terrain Tsar Roo's King's Colonials Technical

It had been thought that their "snazzy 1930s three colour camouflage scheme" might give the Farmers' some speed advantage, but this was obviously countered by the huge amount of cut foliage with which the Farmers had sought to disguise the outlines of their Technical, and the sheer weight of their "Really Big Gun". The more nimble King's Colonials therefore drew ahead, just as the Farmers made their ultimate tactical mistake:

"FIRE !"

Some subsequently blamed the Farmer's "home made ammunition". Others argued that "farmers can't be expected to understand physics, after all". What was certain was that, in a vain attempt to blow up the King's Colonials Technical (the shot missed, and badly), the Farmers had put themselves into a catastrophic Big Gun recoil, resulting in their explosive reverse up the straight, through the guard rails, past the tea stand, and then (unhappily, due to the incline of the ground) into a giant airborne backward  leap that appeared to end, so far as anyone in the stands could see, somewhere around Aymestry. That seemed to be the general area from where the smoke of impact was rising, anyway.

The Farmers had, quite literally, triggered themselves, leaving the Kings Colonials to pass the finishing line and perform a victory lap of honour. Winners of the Modelling Challenge 2023 !

To the cheers of the crowd, the King's Colonials Technical drives up
 to the Winner's Enclosure at Hereford Racecourse.

Terrain Tsar Roo, having received only "Fell at the First" Certificates in recent Modelling Challenges, now raised, in triumph and acknowledgment of the crowds, his "From Zero to Hero Trophy" (a gilt edged exclamation mark on an ivory stand) alongside the much coveted "Winner's Cup", and was soon led away for an exclusive interview with the sports correspondent of the "Hereford Times"....

BUT WAIT....

What happened in the quite separate "Disabled Technicals" race?

We should like to draw a discreet veil over such proceedings, or perhaps more appropriately, a large number of shrouds.

Placing the largest ever known Modelling Challenge entry (the 1/43 scale Mosley Mobile) in a lane next to the smallest ever known Modelling Challenge entry (the 1/72 scale Irish Combat Car) was no fair match-up, particularly when many observers argued that the Combat Car was actually 1/76, or possibly 1/87, with a few "outliers" arguing for 1/100....

And it was too much to expect a merciful approach from Oswald Mosley.

The diminutive (and doomed) Irish Combat Car

The gigantic (and unmerciful) "Mosley Mobile"

And so it was that, right at the starting line, the Mosley Mobile performed a dastardly manoeuvre, simply turning and driving straight over the Combat Car with a horrible metal-on-metal KERRUNCH ! This same manoeuvre (known colloquially as "The Mosley Rightward Swerve") is still popular with certain VBCW re-enactors, particularly in the United States:

It was therefore a somewhat dazed and battered LAF Moriarty that received his special prize - the "Jonathan Swift Special Engraving for the Representative Use of Lilliputians in Modern Warfare" (together with solicitous enquiries as to his health):

The Jonathan Swift Special Engraving.

leaving Oswald Mosley (and LAF Bearwoodman) to "savour their triumph" in the "Disabled Technical Section" and parade their "Most Brutal Dictator" award (deepest black withal, with rare and specially pleasing "Ungentlemanly Conduct" ribbons) around the the Winner's Enclosure of Hereford Race Course....

And so on to the Modelling Challenge 2024 !

The people of Hereford congratulate all the participants in the Modelling Challenge 2023.
What will happen next year ?

FOOTNOTE OF UTMOST IRONY

It was suggested in THIS POST that LAF Bearwoodman had entered a state of "suspended animation" after his production of the 40K Shoddy Tank(s) back in 2019. We now recognise that this is NOT TRUE, and that contrary to such ill-informed reports, LAF Bearwoodman was in fact still beavering away on "Shoddy Tank" conversions as recently as March 2022, producing Hereford1938 VBCW's VERY FIRST CULTIST VEHICLE for use in the Spring Big Game of that year.

And here's the rub. The subsequent owner of the Cultist Vehicle ? LAF Moriarty. The return gesture for LAF Bearwoodman's generosity ? A 28mm Oswald Mosley figure, obtained by LAF Moriarty as one of the 10th Anniversary Free Figures, as then painted up by LAF Bearwoodman for use with his "Mosley Mobile".

In short and for those who appreciate the concept of karma, for the purposes of the Modelling Challenge 2023, LAF Moriarty found himself being driven over by the very same Oswald Mosley figure that he had previously given away.....

It's a small world, Hereford 1938. In more ways than one......

OSWALD MOSLEY UNIFORM REFERENCES

 Some uniform references for the Tenth Anniversary Free Giveaway VBCW Figure :

The orator in full flow. This is the Warlord figure stance, but Mosley is in his "fencing jacket" fatigues
rather than full uniform. Behind Mosley and to his right, Neil Frances Hawkins, "Director General"
of the BUF.

The same public meeting, different rhetorical pose.
Mosley is surrounded his personal protection guards,
known as "The I Squad" or "The Biff Boys".

Different meeting, different uniform. This is the full
uniform as modelled by the Warlord figure.

The same uniform, now in colour. The (half cut off) figure to the left
is William Joyce, then the BUF's "Director of Propaganda" (and for a short
 while, until 1937, Deputy Leader) later to achieve notoriety as Lord Haw-Haw
and to be hanged for treason.

A close up portrait. The cap has both the BUF Flash and
the Italian Fasces symbol. Tie and collar, officer style jacket,
brightly polished buttons.

The Bolt Action Mosley as painted by Warlord. The dark grey
trousers/breeches seem, from most of the photo references, to
be historically accurate.

The Bolt Action Mosley painted by No Man's Land Studio.
Black breeches this time, another historical option - but the
pistol holster is an alt history invention (and surely should
be black leather, rather than brown).

A close up reference for the facial detail - and a front cover that
the Editor of Tatler will no doubt be keen to forget!

TECHNICALS INTERLUDE (2) - THE MOSLEY MOBILE and BEARWOODMAN !

The final entrant to the Modelling Challenge 2023 (Technicals) reveals a twisted tale of travel in time and space, child sweated labour, 1930s British social attitudes, odd bits of cardboard and the welcome return of LAF Bearwoodman!

Regular readers of this blog (and who is not?) will recall LAF Bearwoodman's intergalactic intervention in the Modelling Challenge 2019, when he translated the concept of the (haphazardly) armoured tank products of the Shezuan Ordnance Depot and Delivery Yards ("Shoddy") into the 40K universe (complete with wonderful "White Dwarf" parodies), produced the "Super Shoddy" tank with little more than cardboard, a flourish and an old metal washer, and was the first to introduce - to an astonished universe - the now famous "GW - Shezuan Exchange Index", noting that:

"...buyers can acquire 52.42 Shoddy 40K tanks for the cost of one Leman Russ (at current UK prices) making it attractive to Adeptus Mechanicus bean-counters and frugal xenos invaders alike....."

And then.............silence. Aeons passed. Empires rose and fell. Somewhere beyond the stars, out past the Gates of Antares, LAF Bearwoodman curled up his multitude of converting limbs (biological and bionic) and entered a state of suspended animation, knowing that only one thing could ever re-awaken him...

The irresistible lure of cheap Chinese 1960s plastic !

Not having taken part in the Spring Big Game 2023, and therefore not having received a FREE GIFT of a suitably sized vintage plastic jeep, the Modelling Challenge 2023 presented a particular problem for LAF Bearwoodman : he lacked the necessary "donor vehicle":

Cheap plastic - jeeps here, jeeps there...and nary a one for LAF Bearwoodman !
The Spring Big Game 2023 donor vehicles - the smell of vintage plastic
had clearly wafted from Earth to LAF Bearwoodman's intergalactic lair..

Not one to be put off by such an insignificant initial hurdle to ultimate modelling success, we shall let LAF Bearwoodman himself take up the tale:

"...Fortunately, I am blessed with a teenage daughter who (as a result of being cursed with a miserly father) has become adept at scouting charity shops for bargains. She has found that her meagre pocket money allowance goes further if the clothes she buys are 'pre-loved' and I thought I might put this skill to good use. I asked her to keep a look out for a second hand cheap plastic model jeep while she trawled and promised to re-imburse her if she found one and brought it back to me.

Weeks went by, and every time she returned from an expedition I would ask her if she had secured a cheap plastic jeep. Inevitably the answer was 'no' and it became a sort of running joke. She started pre-empting my question with a roll of her eyes and a 'Hi Dad, no I didn't buy you a plastic toy jeep thing, but look at these hardly worn Converse High Tops/distressed denim shorts/etc...

That is, until one day she returned with a triumphant look in her eye: 'I got one Dad ! You owe me £1.50'. And she presented me with this: "

A 1/43 diecast 1980s Land Rover - wrong scale, wrong material, very wrong decade.....and
no flatbed on which to mount a heavy weapon, thereby producing a "Technical".
 As the curmudgeons say in Hereford1938 - "the result of sending a woman to do a man's job".

However, constrained by paternal duty, and not one to be put off by such a multiple of hurdles to ultimate modelling success, LAF Bearwoodman consoled himself with the fact that his daughter's find was "at least green, and that was a start...." and set to work with an iron will and pile of cardboard:

Back to the 1930s ! New cardboard wings...

New radiator shape, VBCW protection for the windscreen, 1930s running boards and
further work on the wings ...a strangely familiar 28mm VBCW figure
 looks in on LAF Bearwoodman's workshop..

Rivets, turrets, machine guns, milliput and cardboard lights...

"The Leader" inspects the latest work.

Conversion finished...milliput loudspeakers, cardboard bonnet, door reinforcements, more rivets..

And painted ! Not quite a Technical, but a heavily armed converted 
civilian vehicle nonetheless, fit for none other than...

"The Leader" himself, Oswald Mosley !

beautifully painted 28mm example by LAF Bearwoodman.
For uniform references, see HERE

"The Leader" in front of his "Mosley Mobile".
A clear breakthrough in "Personal Messaging"....

...with multiple machine guns if the populace don't appreciate the message...

A side view. You will love my message, and spontaneously so...or else !

Microphone atop the "Mosley Mobile".

An ideal position for a political rant..."the Leader" in full flow.
Wonderful modelling !

So what did the international judging panel of the Modelling Challenge 2023 make of LAF Bearwoodman's entry of the "Mosley Mobile" ?? It has to be confessed that the "Mosley Mobile" breaks pretty much every rule of the Challenge, as solemnly laid down HERE, save for the most fundamental: LAF Bearwoodman's back story made all of the judges quietly giggle. And there was one more factor - another Modelling Challenge 2023 entry that, due to its non regulation beginnings and diminutive size, could not enter the main Challenge concourse.

Hence, in their wisdom, the judges created an entirely new category for the Challenge - the "Disabled Technical" lane. While attitudes to disability were very different back in 1938, the BUF Leader and his Lorried Loudspeaker Machine were back in the hunt for modelling prizes.....could he yet triumph ?

Attitudes to disability were very different in the 1930s.
Read on to the next thrilling blog instalment to discover
the fate of LAF Bearwoodman !

10th ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY VBCW FIGURE !

The Spring Big Game 2022 is the HerefordVBCW campaign's Tenth Anniversary. Yes, it really has been all of ten years since JP and Giles organised the very first Big Game ("The Battle of Ledbury") in February 2012. Although JP's blog suffered a few years ago by reason of the Great Photobucket Debacle, Rob B's blog still has a few photos of the action, including the only known shots of "those fighting Abyssinians" in Herefordshire (apparently Hailie Selassie was living in exile in Malvern at the time)...

Well, we had to mark the forthcoming occasion somehow. It's been fashionable over the last few years for every wargames show (Salute, Partisan, Hammerhead, etc. etc.) to issue an exclusive, limited edition figure to guests, so we thought we'd do a variant of that - given our campaign resources, it's not exclusive, it's not even a limited edition, but it is a FREE FIGURE for everyone coming along to the Hereford Spring Big Game 2022 (well, the first TEN through the door, anyway)....

It's that central VBCW personality, Oswald Mosley himself!

TEN Oswald Mosleys from Warlord Games - the  HerefordVBCW 10th Anniversary Free Figure

It's not too hard to work out where the Warlord sculptor took his inspiration from:

and those accustomed to playing HMG Forces may be only too pleased to paint up their free figure in the traditional colour of black - very black, with a wash and highlight of black........but what of everyone else? 

Well, given that at least one 28mm representation of Stalin has finished up as an "ice cream man" in the VBCW, the field is pretty much open - Mosley impersonators, Mosley as a figure of a fun for Anglican war bond drives, Mosley's uniform painted anything but black (green/khaki as a general, or shocking pink?). As ever with the VBCW, it's all up to you....

The usual caveats apply. First come, first served. When they're gone, they're gone. The Burley Gate Village Hall will be open around 9am-ish on Saturday 26th March 2022, so now there's even more incentive than usual to come along early to help with the set-up of terrain.....

Additional Note: the (sadly now defunct) Gentleman's Wargames Parlour post action thread on "The Battle of Ledbury" can still be found HERE.

MITFORD MANIA !

As the Hereford VBCW sustains a sudden spasm of Spodemania, news that the Ludlow Peace & Reconciliation Institute has been suffering from a similar psychological condition - a long term bout of "Mitfordmania", with a variety of (relatively) recent blogposts on the notorious sisters:

Diana Mitford (subsequently Guinness subsequently Mosley)
dressed as the Goddess Venus. Mistress and thereafter wife of
"The Leader" himself.

Diana as the Goddess Venus - "colourised".

These photographs, of Diana as Venus, were taken by a remarkable lady photographer of the 1930s, "Madame Yevonde" (aka Yevonde Middleton), either at a party in Claridges in 1935, or at a subsequent studio sitting in the same year for Madame Yevonde's "Goddess" series i.e. English society ladies dressed as Classical Goddesses.

The Ludlow Peace & Reconciliation Institute's blogposts (so far) -

(1). The Mitford Sisters - What would they have done ?

(2). Hitler Groupie - Unity Mitford

(3). "The Leader's Mistress" (and then Wife) - Diana Mitford

(4). Diana and Unity Mitford

(5). Unity, Diana and the "Osteria Bavaria"

(6). Diana and Unity at the Nuremberg Rally, 1933

Whew ! Next up (sometime soon), the Stalin-loving "Red Sheep" of the Mitford Sisters, Jessica. And it surely can't be long before some 28mm "Mitford Sisters" appear in the Hereford VBCW itself.......

After marriage but before "the Leader" - Diana seems to have
 enjoyed dressing up - and displaying a rather arch sense of humour.

Add Edit: The late great Christopher Hitchens, while reviewing Jan Dalley's "Diana Mosley : A Biography" for the London Review of Books back in 1999, caught something of the causes of Diana Mitford's enduring notoriety:

"...We are confronted, here, with the worst and not the least bright of the Bright Young Things: with a vile mind and a gorgeous carapace, and with a maddening class confidence allied to a tiny, repetitive tic of fanaticism. It is easy to see how Diana Mitford/Guiness/Mosley attracted the obvious cliches about the huntress and the nymph. Anyone with her first name, and a pleasing profile to boot, can earn such leaden gallantries.....She kept a circle of gay male friends, from Gerald Berners to Cecil Beaton, at a time when homosexuals were being whacked to a pulp in German and Italian prisons. When occasion demanded, she could speak with conviction about the 'old gang' of politicians, and about the woes of the unemployed. But something else made her different from dozens of other women and men of her class, who didn't share her Bloomsbury connections but did echo her enthusiasm for the New Order and the New Germany. Just this: she kept it up longer than most of them did and in more arduous conditions....it isn't quite accurate to say, as Dalley rather awkwardly phrases it, that "in her personal story there is an almost eerie absence of the horrors that underlie all our thinking about fascism, Nazism and the Second World War". Sir Oswald, for example, always tried very strenuously to distance himself from the horrors after 1945 and, though he was unconvincing in his rewriting, at least made the attempt. His widow has never even bothered to feign that effort, and is sometimes too languid and spiteful to conceal her prejudices even now. The subject clearly fatigues and irritates her. A part of her, like the ghastly girl in Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square, was and is secretly gleeful about fascism. Dalley describes as "unusual" her attendance at a Hyde Park rally in 1935, where she threw up her right hand in a Nazi salute while Clement Attlee was addressing a mild-as-milk protest against Hitler's early barbarities. It is improbable that she just stumbled on such an opportunity, or simply found herself taking it. That's on a par with her claim that Adolf Hitler was chief guest at her wedding because he lived so handily nearby and chanced to drop in. The illicit thrill of evil is the point - a thrill indulged by someone whose own circumstances and life chances gave no evident cause for complaint."

Diana Mosley by Jan Dalley

OSWALD MOSLEY - REVOLVING !

As a post-script to the last post on Oswald Mosley uniform details, here is full detail, front and back, of the Warlord figure (from the Warlord site): a revolving Oswald Mosley! 

This may or may not have been his agitated response to news of the latest battles around Leominster.....

SHOBDON : COCKPIT OF HISTORY (2) Shobdon Instructional Centre

While Comrade Professor "Bill" Winters, the "Red Ogre of Herefordshire", ponders his options, just a short post to point our VBCW players in the direction of a lengthy, learned and, gosh, would you believe it, now almost six year old post HERE from our own JP in relation the real-life "Shobdon Instructional Centre". A "labour camp" or a "brave social experiment" dependent upon your point of view, but in any event a fascinating piece of 1930's local history. [note1] 

In the timeline of the Herefordshire1938 AVBCW, of course, the "Shobdon Instructional Centre" has not been re-named by HM Government, but re-purposed : surrounded now by wire and guard towers, it no longer contains the unemployed (very considerably reduced by reason of the manpower demands of the Civil War), but certain "high value" and closely guarded prisoners "internees" deemed "politically unreliable" by Edward VIII and his "Prime Minister Mosley" and now detained indefinitely under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1937 and Regulation 18B of the notorious Defence (General) Regulations.[note2] 

Note1 : and one that may well be modelled in 1/60 scale for the Spring Big Game 2019!

Note2: just another example of "real life" paralleling - or inverting - the events of the Hereford VBCW. In 1940, during the height of "Fifth Column" fears within the country, Sir Oswald Mosley and his wife, Lady Diana, were detained without trial under Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations 1939. Both remained imprisoned until late 1943, when Mosley was released by Herbert Morrison, then Home Secretary, on the grounds of concerns as to his health. There was a strong public backlash against the restoration of their freedom, with (amongst many others) even the Council of Civil Liberties arguing that the Mosleys should remain in prison. MORE HERE

THE BRISTOL FLEET O/C

Elements of the Bristol Fleet were inspected by HM Edward VIII at Spithead
on the occasion of his (very much disputed) Coronation in 1937. HMS Argos
can be seen in this aerial view, starboard of the Royal Yacht.

As the Bristol Fleet leaves port, heading north, clearly intent on traversing the coast of Wales on a 'punitive expedition' (now the worst kept secret in the Navy), the Admiralty has released "details of officers commanding" to the expectant newspapers of Fleet Street. Such biographies have clearly since been amended by various wags, hacks and low scribblers:

(1). ADMIRAL  SIR  MORTIMER  SILVERFLINT, CB, DSO and Bar

A long-serving naval officer from an old naval family, Sir Mortimer joined the service as a 14-year old midshipman, and later fought at Heligoland Bight in 1914 and the Dardanelles in 1915. Thoughtful, and well-respected by his peers as an able tactician,  he is also popular with the rank-and-file for his caring attitude towards their welfare. Admiral Silverflint has recently assumed the overall command of the Bristol Fleet, raising his flag aboard the battleship "HMS Woolworth".

(2). CAPTAIN  AUBREY  ‘JINGO’  SINKIN

A stuffy and unimaginative dullard, Captain Sinkin owes his current command of the battleship "HMS Woolworth" to his father, the 4th Earl of Skegness, rather than any exploits in the Personnel (Filing) Department of the Admiralty where he has spent most of his uneventful career. A stickler for rules and regulations and lover of spit-and-polish, his (or rather his father's) desire to add much needed lustre to the family name has resulted in this, his first sea-going command.

(3). CAPTAIN  RORY  ‘BUGGRIT’  FOULBOTTOM, DSO

A crusty red-headed Irishman, renowned throughout the navy for his fiery temper and immoderate language, Captain Foulbottom is aptly named. He is a strict disciplinarian, who won his DSO for gallantry under fire while taking part in a raid on Bolshevik warships at Kronstadt in 1918. A fierce anti-Bolshevik since that campaign (at least, although possibly from the cradle), Captain Foulbottom was recently the subject of an ongoing and highly controversial court martial for expressing his political views, allegedly contrary to the "traditions of the service". His career saved by political intervention following the accession of Mosley to power, Captain Foulbottom then transferred to the newly founded (and thoroughly ideologically sound) BUF Naval Service, taking command of its first and most important ship, the escort carrier Charles A. Lindbergh (a gift to PM Mosley from "certain American well-wishers who desire to remain anonymous").

(4). CAPTAIN  COLIN  WOOD

The son of a grocer, Captain Wood joined the navy as a Boy Sailor, serving on Yangtse gunboats and fighting at the battle of the Falkland Islands in WW1. His natural charm and intelligence have made light of his humble beginnings, and combined with his dashing exploits and inspiring leadership have ensured his rapid advance through the naval hierarchy. Technically minded and interested in naval aviation from its very beginnings, Captain Wood has recently assumed the command of the Fleet Carrier, "HMS Argos".

(5). WING  COMMANDER  ARTEMIS  MAYFLY

A somewhat unusual choice for this command, Wing Commander Mayfly is an intelligent, indeed eccentric, free-spirit. An amateur naturalist and explorer, he has sailed up the Amazon and was made an honorary chief by Dyak headhunters while exploring Borneo. He first flew as a balloon observer in WW1, but thereafter became a competent pilot and expert navigator. Wing Commander Mayfly commands the RNAS Air Wing aboard "HMS Argos".

(6). WING  COMMANDER  BRIAN  ‘BUZZ’  BOMME

Wing Commander Bomme is a daredevil flyer who became an Ace with the RNAS in WW1,being credited with 11 victories (and 6 downed balloons). He was one of the first pilots to fly on and off aircraft carriers. Leaving the Navy due to service cuts after the war, he travelled the world to fulfil his love of flying. He was the first man to fly over Mt. Kilimanjaro, and then flew as a stunt pilot in flying circuses in the USA. His strong anti-communist views and a chance meeting in Chicago with the Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston (step-mother to Oswald Moseley’s late wife, Cynthia, and also, for a while, Mosley’s lover), led to Brian Bomme being invited to join the BUF Air Service, where his experience has proved invaluable. Wing Commander Bombe commands the BUF Air Wing aboard the Charles A. Lindbergh.

A specially published propaganda leaflet circulating as the Bristol Fleet left port.
"HMS Woolworth" here leads the line of battle.

NOTE : With many thanks to Alan for all his literary efforts in providing the original biographies!

BUF MEMBERSHIP CARD (EARLY)

An example of an early BUF Membership Card - 

The BUF "General Headquarters" was situated at 1, Great George Street in Westminster before moving to Whitelands House on the Kings Road, Chelsea (notoriously rechristened the "Black House"). Mosley's original flag raising at 1, Great George Street can be seen HERE. The entrance to Mosley's subsequent "Black House" in London (together with notes on Hereford's own "Black House") can be seen HERE. Interesting that the "Objects of the Union" promise the abolition of poverty and the "barriers of class" through the establishment of a "Corporate State", but make no mention of individual liberty. Equally interesting is the reduction of the BUF's programme to one pocket-book sized page, whereas Comrade Colonel Professor Winter's Communists need a whole paperback book to set out their programme:

13th Party Congress, Communist Party of Great Britain (1935)
Apparently - bread, concrete housing blocks, happiness.