10mm New Model General

I spent an hour searching through the PPCLI website and checking out their archives. A subseries called War Diaries. This is the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, Operations Report - Capture of Granarolo and the Senio River winter line - Jan 1st to 7th, 1945.  Check out this except, specifically   Note 2.   I love the humour.  The "V2". A slingshot used to lob type 36 grenades 100yards. The "Dagwood". A type 36 grenade "sandwiched" between two type 75 grenades, placed in a sack and tossed at the enemy.  Reports state, "they gave a bad morale effect on the enemy". I'm sure it did!  And once again we see the PIAT put to good use. I did not know they had an incendiary bomb for the PIAT.  The last page of the document is an appendix with lessons learned. Note 3 - PIAT is extremely useful! Although I'd hate to be the bloke who would have to carry the thing. Fun read, great stuff. The PDF is labelled: 74-16-2 or use the link https://archives.ppcl...

 I went on a trip down to southern Alberta and hit some used book stores and found a few old gems.  A decent start for research. Dickens of the Mounted and the Trial of Joan of Arc are more of a personal interest, the other three are for my Canadians World War II research.  These three books are copyrighted 1969. Reader's Digest created this two volume set with a Tools of War booklet. The have some handy maps in the back which I will make use of. The Tools of war has some neat illustrations. Including one of the most surprisingly useful weapons, the PIAT. My initial plan was to stick with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and follow them into Italy, sharing their history while creating some scenarios for historical tabletop rules sets. There are just so many interesting stories with other regiments as well.  I'll hit the books and follow a timeline as best I can. Once COVID has run its course and we can hit the tabletop again, After Actions Reports should follow.  Che...

The Loyal Edmonton Regiment's first taste of combat was the engagement 3 miles south of Piazza Armerina on July 16th, 1943. After having chased off the 2nd Battalion of the 104 Panzer Grenadier Regiment from that position, the Loyal Eddies were ready to advance on Piazza Armerina itself. Was it going to be heavily defended?  What was the enemies strength? Artillery fire from the Germans on the Canadian position was countered with counter battery fire and the German guns were silenced. By nightfall the Germans had vacated Piazza Armerina and the Eddies moved in. With 3rd Brigade pushing past the Eddies (who are with 2nd Brigade) in Piazza Armerina, the Eddies were able to take a bit of a breather before they were again called into action. Lieutentant Colonel R.M. Crowe and Major J.H.W. Pope - Commanding Officer and battalion second-in-command of The Royal Canadian Regiment, checking a map outside of Piazza Armerina on 17 Jul 1943. They were the only two RCR officers killed i...

An old friend of mine, who I haven't seen in a while, was able to come over to try his luck with Crossfire. We decided to play the 'Bocage' scenario from the 'Hit the Dirt' booklet for Crossfire. It's a great scenario as it covers hidden deployment, the use of snipers, off board mortars, tanks and anti-tank guns. Brian chose to play the British (I have no American miniatures) so I was the defending Germans. My view looking North towards the British edge of the map. My objective was to hold a line of sight on the road intersection by the time the clock ran out. Start time was 0600hrs game would end at 1100hrs, advancing 30 minutes on every role of 5+ on a D6. I had three advantages, hidden deployment, 2 minefields and 2 stretches of barbed wire.  The British advanced quickly on the West side of the road. Finding an open field (red chip) the Brit commander figured an ambush was imminent. He called up his Forward Observation Officers (FO) to give them a...

After the landings near Pachino on July 10th, 1943 the Second Canadian Brigade pushed North.  Canadians entering Modica  By noon on July 16th they were three miles south of Pianzza Armerina when a large explosion on the road halted their advance. At this point the Loyal Edmonton Regiment was in the lead. "C" Company had been riding on the sherman tanks of the Three Rivers Regiment in the vanguard. "C" Company dove for cover as they came under machine gun fire from the nearby slopes.  German MG position Brigadier J.C. Jefferson ordered "C" Company to take the slopes on the right side of the road and "A" Company was ordered to clear the left.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI) game takes place with "A" Company attempting to clear the left side of the roadway.  Here are our initial deployments ...

Pianzza Armerina, July 16th, 1943  (a Poor Bloody Infantry tabletop wargame) “It was some kind of country… everything went uphill! We had to march on primitive cobble roads; when these ended it was only a simple track. We couldn’t have done it without mules; no room for transport inland; this bears what I have said before – anything we did in England did not, in the end, prepare us for this terrain or fighting, other than (of course) stamina.” Interview, Private Stanley Chettleborough, Nov, 1983 Brown, Shaun R.G., “The Loyal Edmonton Regiment at war, 1943-45” (1984), Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive), 11, http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/11 With the success of the Husky landings on July 10th, the Canadian Second Brigade pushed North from the landing beaches near Pachino. By July 16th they were within three miles of Pianzza Armerina when machine gun fire and a large explosion on the road halted their advance. "C" Company of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment who were i...

There was an old soldier in my town named Peter Wilfred Tomkins, Service#M50680. I remember him telling me that he served with the Loyal Edmonton Regiment. He mentioned Italian towns like Pachino and Campobasso. He told his grandson (my good friend) that he used to climb into knocked out German tanks looking for schnapps and that some Italian girls wanted him to stay in Italy when the war was over. Old Peter's granddaughter thought that he served with the 5th Canadian Armoured Division not the Loyal Eddies (as the Loyal Edmonton Regiment was called). So I have a mystery; with whom did he serve? Fortunately there is the Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum here in Edmonton for me to start with.  Loyal Edmonton Regiment Military Museum I'll begin my search there. I came across some interesting write ups on the LERM Museum website including a Quarterly newsletter that they post to their website. I also found the Canadian Military History Journal. Canadian Military Hi...

Edmonton Wargamer's Group - December 17th - game night Rules: Crossfire Players:   Chen-song (British forces) and myself (German Fallschirmjagers) The game was an introductory game for Chen-song as he said he's heard about Crossfire but hasn't played it. I was thankful to run the game as I have to dust the cobwebs off my brain as I hadn't played Crossfire for a while. British launched an assault from the West upon the destroyed village of Ambreville with the objective to seize two of the three houses at the crossroads. Heavy hedgerows, forests and orchards provided cover for the infantry but were obstacles for the pair of sherman tanks that were to be used as support. First (Red) Company made a push to the south of the village. 1st platoon was immediately caught in some woods where they were pinned/suppressed by German MG42 fire. 2nd platoon was able to flank further to the South and brought some fire upon the entrenched Germans, killing a squad of Germans...