Prisoner of War Guard Duty

 

Here is another installment of my father-in-law’s memoirs of his time in Korea, 1952-53. My notes before and after are in italic. Everything else is in his own words. His previous post can be found here.

     On December 12, 1952, during the Korean War, the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the Second Division was relieved of duty along a particularly active section of the front line and sent to a blocking position in the valley leading to Seoul called Camp Casey. At the time, Camp Casey consisted of only four metal buildings. It is now a major Army base. I was the platoon leader of the 75 MM Recoilless rifle platoon of First Battalion Heavy Weapons Company.

 

     Dog Company had only two officers, The Company CO and me. That gave me all the “In addition to your regular duties” assignments. I was also the Co. Recon Officer. When off line, I was the officer in charge of the company motor pool, (13 jeeps, two 3/4 ton trucks and a Duce and a half (2 ½ ton truck) , all pulling trailers. Also, the mess hall. I had very experienced sergeants running both so I let them use their judgement, and got them out of trouble when needed. The Company CO was a National Guard Captain from North Dakota who was a streaky by the book officer. I believed in considering circumstances around situations when making decisions. We did not get along well together.

 

     While in reserve, we received intensive training from Division on guarding prisoners of war, a subject completely missed in our prior education. It was apparent that the 23rd Regiment would be off line for several months. Most American soldiers had at least a working knowledge of 12 gauge pump action shot guns that they would be using as guards but the ROK soldiers assigned to me had never seen one before. All took extensive target practice. We were also lectured on the Geneva Convention as it applies to POW treatment.

 

     By way of background, after the Incheon landing, the North Korean and Chinese forces attacking Pusan were trapped and 150,000 taken prisoner. They were kept together at a United Nation prison camp on Koje do (“do” meaning island). Hard core Chinese communists ran the camp, and there was a riot . On May 7, 1952 American Brig. General Dodd in charge of the camp was taken hostage. The US Army quickly ended the uprising and the general was released. The Chinese prisoners were then separated from the North Koreans and sent to Geoje-do POW camp. That became out next assignment. Our second and third battalions remained in Pusan where there were over 100,000 refugees from North and South Korea, in addition to the Koje-do POW camp.

     

     The first Battalion, 23 Inf. Regiment traveled by slow unheated train to Pusan and on January 9, 1953 boarded a WW II LST (Landing ship-tank) for the 52 mile ride to Geoje- do. The sea was rough with a strong cross wind causing the shallow draft LST to roll and pitch. It had to go slowly to keep a load of lumber on the deck from going overboard. We arrived late and missed the high tide so the ship had to stand off for the next high tide which came after dark. (The island had no seaport facilities) . At high tide, the LST beached on the rocky shore, and we were all glad to be back on land.

                                               THE POW CAMP

     Geoje-do is an oval shaped volcanic island in Jeju Province, 45 miles long, and 19 miles wide. It has an extinct volcano in the center, called Mt. Hellasan (“san” is a term of respect added to older people’s names and places in the orient) . Mt. Hella is 6,400 feet, the highest point in South Korea. Small fishing villages line the coast, each with a high wall made of lava rock, and a guarded gate. The houses were all small, also made from lava rock, with thatched roofs. Each town had a place where all inhabitants brought their laundry to wash.

 

     The islands airport has a single grass runway, no lights, control tower or hangers. Landings and take offs can only be done from the ocean end with good visibility because the mountain blocks the other end of the runway. Mail and supplies were flown in by twin engine cargo plane daily from Japan , weather permitting. Letters from home arrived in batches, sometimes six or seven letters from the same person. Christmas presents finally caught up with us.

     The prison consisted of eight barbed wire enclosures designed to hold 700- 1,200 prisoners each. Thousands more POW’s were moved to Geoje.-do after the Koje-do riot causing great overcrowding. The compounds were about 20 feet apart, leaving room between for walking and jeep mounted guards. The guards walked posts in shifts, day and night. They carried 12 Ga. Pump action shot guns with full choke short barrels like what you might see in a police car. Guard towers armed with machine guns were located along the perimeter of the camp.

 

     The dedicated Chinese Communist leaders in each compound ran everything inside the wire. They could withhold food and medical , hold Kangaroo courts, even execute fellow prisoners who did not comply. At night each compound would sing in giant choruses to relay information between compounds and to guerillas in the hills. Most prisoners had improvised weapons such as lances, clubs, knives and stones and sharpened tent poles. I felt some sympathy for amputees hobbling around on a home-made peg leg or crutches.

 

     Those POW’s who wanted to could volunteer for outside work details, doing pick and shovel work on roads and landscaping. Each work detail required several guards. One informer told us about a Chinese general who was hiding in one of the compounds and was planning a mass breakout to take over the Island. The general was quickly captured and isolated.

                                                        POW work details

     Life as a guard was much better than combat duty. Men slept on cots in heated tents, had three hot meals a day and time off between shifts.

 

     As an officer, I made inspection tours to be sure the guards were awake and alert. I had a small hex tent to myself. The company had a “House boy”. Kim was a North Korean whose family had been executed because of their beliefs. As an orphan, he attached himself to out unit during the fluid period of the Korean War. His only pay came from donations from the officers, but he was fed and clothed by the company. He could not join the ROK army because of his heritage. Kim set up my hex tent, complete with a pit in the floor to keep beer cool. At night when I slept, he shined my boots and cleaned my weapons, did laundry. Kim could speak English, Korean and Chinese so he also served as our company interpreter.

                                          MOOSE PATROL

     In spite of many warnings about VD a few members of the battalion would go AWOL at night to patronize prostitutes in the local fishing villages. These were young girls who lived with their parents who permitted then to earn money that way. They were called “moose -a -may” in pidgin English used by Koreans and American troops.

 

     Lieutenants in the battalion were assigned by roister to lead patrols into the towns at night and round up the AWOL troops. We called these “Moose Patrols” We had a local policeman for authority to enter homes. Also, a member of the permanent staff of the POW Camp who knew which houses to enter. I brought our company house boy as an interpreter.

 

 

    Each village had a high lava rock wall and a gate which had a raggedly dressed sentry to let us in. The houses were all one story, usually two or three rooms. On a good night we rounded up three or four AWOL’s. A few made it out a back window less their clothing. AWOL’s were returned to the stockade and held for trial. AWOL is a serious crime in time of war.

 

     ROK soldiers attached to US forces did not get leave time. They were paid by the Korean Army,  about $2.00 a month, which they usually mailed home.

 

     At one house we found a ROK soldier sitting at the dinner table enjoying his native food and conversation with the house occupant, his fellow countrymen. He did not seem to be there for any other reason, so when we got back to camp, I let him go near his tent, with a strong warning.

                                      DEER HUNTING IN KOREA

     Not many Korean War veterans can say that they took time off from the war to go deer hunting. I did, and this is how it happened.

 

     There was a small fuel oil fire around the stove in one of the permanent buildings. It was quickly put out but we pulled up a few floor boards to make sure. There we found a box double O buck shotgun shells hidden by some former occupants. On February 22, 1953 six of us decided to go deer hunting in the hills behind the towns. The deer on the island were about the size as a large dog. We brought 12 ga prison guard shot guns. We also carried our issue arms in case we ran into guerrillas known to be in the hills.

 

     We drove jeeps as far into the hills as we could then followed a path up into the hills. From about 1000 feet up we could see the entire lower end of the island and out to the Yellow Sea. Outside each village there were small vegetable gardens, each surrounded by a low lava wall.

 

     The path led past a cave carved about 25 feet into the larva hillside. At one time it might have been a bomb shelter dug by the Japanese who occupied the island only seven years earlier. Inside we found the bodies of about 20 Asian males in their 20's. All had their hands tied behind their backs. They had been beaten to death judging by broken bones, skull fractures and missing teeth. No bullet holes were found, so unarmed civilians were most likely the assailants. We pulled a few dried up corpses out to take pictures. I was surprised that what was left, skeletons with a little dried up skin, only weighed about 10 pounds.

                                                                        Broken jaw

                                                                Hands tied

     The locals must have known about the cave, and the fact that the bodies had not been removed for burial indicated to us that they were the enemy, either Japanese occupation leaders or North Korean infiltrators acting as guerillas.

     We never saw a deer, but there were plenty of pheasants. Some country boys in our group could hit them even with the riot guns. At least we had a good meal to show for the day.

                                           RETURN TO THE WAR
     By March my company had received two new platoon leaders, one for the 81 MM Mortar Platoon and the other for the 30. Cal Heavy Machine Gun platoon.

 

     On March 24, 1953, after three months off from front line duty we again boarded the LST. This time we headed out only off shore where we transferred to an Army troop ship. There we found white table cloths, the best food and clean sheets. Officers were bunked nine to a large stateroom with two showers. Our trucks and equipment were moved to the hold by large deck cranes. The trip back, this time to Incheon (AKA Inchon) was made with destroyer escort. We then returned to Camp Casey where we were joined by out second and third battalions.

 

     On April 16 the regiment was back on line but I was getting close to returning home. My reserve commitment of two years active duty was nearly over and in May I would have the 36 points needed for rotation . That turned out to be a 42 day all expenses paid ocean cruise half way around the worlds, Inchon, Korea to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, aboard the 522 foot Army troop ship General Sturgis. But that is another story from the Korean war.

 

 

Lt. Marshall Tharp, Korea Sept 1952-June 1953
Platoon Leader, 75 MM Recoilless Rifle Platoon
D Company. 1^st Bat., 23 Infantry Reg, 2nd Division

 

Please feel free to post comments below. I know he appreciates them.

The Asiento and the War of Jenkin’s Ear

All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

I went to an exhibition at the New York Public Library on 42^nd Street. Titled Fortune and Folly 1720, it is about the bubble based on land speculation in the New World. Portrayed as the land of milk, honey and gold, no mention was made about swamps, mosquitoes or hostile inhabitants. It burst, as bubbles are wont to do. The economies of France, England and the Netherlands would all crash due to this. It is a moderate sized display, well worth the visit if you have any interest in the topic. All this before bit coin or NFTs. And it is free, a rarity in NYC.

Edit: Here's a link to the exhibition.

What got my attention was the display of the Asiento. For those who don’t know, it was a treaty signed between England and Bourbon Spain in 1713 when England exited the War of the Spanish Succession, leaving their Habsburg allies in the lurch. I had always heard that the Asiento allowed English merchants to bring one ship of enslaved Africans every year to sell in Spanish America. Below is a photo of a printed copy of the Asiento from that period and the accompanying text in the exhibition. 

It turns out the Asiento allowed the English to sell 4,800 Africans every year for 30 years.

 

English merchants who didn’t get in on the Asiento wanted to make money trading with the Spanish colonies too. So, they smuggled. A number of the “English” smugglers were American colonists. The treaty was due to expire in 1743 or so.

 

In 1731 one Robert Jenkins’ smuggling brig was boarded by Spanish coast guards. One of them cut off part of Jenkin’s ear. There was some fuss in England that blew over. In 1738 he was paraded in Parliament as cause for a war to force Spanish America to open their markets to English trade. This led to the so-called War of Jenkin’s Ear, a war restricted to the colonies and not fought in Europe. The Spanish call it the War of the Asiento. In 1744 it merged into the War of the Austrian Succession, a general European conflict which raged until 1748.

 

The major English amphibious attack on Cartagena failed. As in all Caribbean warfare of this period, any attack that didn’t succeed quickly would see the imported Europeans start dying of yellow fever, the dreaded yellow jack. The locals were comparatively immune, the vulnerable having already died or recovered earlier.  The local Spanish garrison put up a stout resistance. Soon infection ran riot through the English forces, killing many and sickening the rest. 

This puts me in mind of writing a piece about Napoleon’s attempt to recapture Haiti. It has similarities and kept the infant United States from having one of Napoleon’s armies on its southern border. Another time…

Twilight of the Romans IV

Another game of the in-progress rules Twilight of the Britons. An ornery cuss, I persist in using these rules on the continent and call it the Twilight of the Romans. The last three games have seen hairy Germanic types take on the Late Western Romans. This game sees Ostrogoths vs. the Huns, not a Roman in sight. My only house rule is light cavalry horse archers can shoot directly to the rear, the old Parthian shot.

 

The red arrows show charges and impetuous advances, the yellow arrows recoils. These markers are helpful, since a recoil counts as a move and unit may not make any other move that turn. Charges give negative morale modifiers to the target in the next player turn, and impetuous units must charge straight forward unless they pass an action test to hold. I started using casualty markers mid-game to show where a unit routed, but not in a consistent manner. Next time. Most of the tale can be seen in the following photos. The digital camera decides the mat is sometimes brown, sometimes green.

 

We broke for dinner here. Steve Thomas has suggested that my Huns should have charged the monks in the woods, who thoroughly disrupted my flanking move around the woods. As a result of a previous discussion, the range of the monks is going to be reduced to 2 BW. But I should have winkled them out with cold steel.  

Somewhere in here an armored Ostrogoth cavalry units was routed. The last Ostrogothic turn follows.

A warrior unit recoiled, taking their support with them. The warriors bumped into Huns behind them and could not recoil full distance. The recoiling unit took another hit, routed and put a hit on their supports. Several of my Huns evaded attack. The one that was bumped into did not. Then they checked morale for being in melee with the folks who had backed into them. A low roll failed the morale test. They already had a hit and light troops rout on the second hit. Their tout put a hit on another light unit, it routed and took another with it. This put me at 9 units routed and my army broke. The Ostrogoths had 4 units and a hero off the table, two away from their breakpoint. They had three units that were a hit away from routing, so the game was closer than the 5-9 score would indicate. We both made errors. I hope to run this matchup again.

 

I must find some 15mm shaman/Druid/any kind of pagan figures.

  

Twilight of the Romans III, did someone say Adrianople?

We played another game of Twilight of the Britons. When played on the continent, I call it Twilight of the Romans. Bill took the Gothic warriors while I had the Romans and their Germanic and Hun foederates. We opted for 2 dimensional hills, since the troops don’t slide off the slopes.  Dice determined Bill started deploying first and then moved first. I deployed two of my heroes with light skirmishing units and will not do that again if they have heavy units in their warbands. Both sides deployed with gaps in their battle lines, something I suspect is another mistake. But on with the game.

We played a little over an hour, then broke for dinner and conversation. The armies were intertwined. After dinner, another 20 minutes sufficed to see the sky fall on the Romans. Even if they hadn’t reached breakpoint, they were in trouble. The Gothic cavalry that chased the Monks and their attached hero off the table pulled up before they rode off after them. Another turn or two would see them turn about and fall on the rear of my right shield wall. We played 7 turns in about an hour and 35 minutes.

 

Another lesson: heavy cavalry making frontal attacks on heavy infantry shield walls is not an optimal tactic.

 

The rules need some further polishing. Some might think missiles are too powerful. I need to see some more games before deciding. Hey, most of those armies spent a lot of time throwing things at each other. Next week I will see about getting a Hun army against a Gothic army, no Romans to be seen.

August 8, 1918 and the Stab in the Back

I’ve been reading about the Eastern front in WWII recently. Some of Hitler’s decisions can only be explained by looking back at the end of the First World War, the Great War.

 All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

In 1918 the increasingly desperate Germans launched a series of offensives aimed at knocking the British out of the war before the Americans brought their full strength to bear. The offensives failed but pushed the British to the wall. An attempt to knock the French out caused serious damage but the first US troops helped blunt the German advance. German Army morale eroded, both from the lack of success, and also the amount of food found in overrun Allied positions. Germany and their allies were slowly starving due to the British naval blockade. The troops were told that the British and French were in just as desperate straits because of the U-boat blockade.  The cans of bully beef so disdained by Tommys were prized by the hungry German storm troopers, and evidence they’d been lied to. 

War weariness among troops (and civilians) was in the air, no surprise since industrial-scale slaughter had been the order of the day from the beginning of the war. In 1917 the morale of the Russian army had collapsed after hideous losses, leading to revolution and the Russians suing for peace. The Italian army’s morale collapsed at Caporetto, almost taking Italy out of the war until shored up by French and British troops. The French army suffered a mutiny that they managed to keep secret from the Germans. The mutiny was put down, in part by meeting some demands of the troops, execution of the ringleaders, and a cessation of many frontal attacks. The British had a mutiny by 50,000 troops in a rear area rest camp that they managed to keep secret until the late 1960s. All of this happened in 1917. The Germans, fed on a diet of bloody victories, had not yet had major morale issues. Signs of fatigue were evident.

The western Allies (the Entente) recovered from the March-April mauling while two million fresh US troops flooded into France. A series of offensives began, knocking the exhausted Germans back. On August 8, the British Empire launched an attack. Preceded by a short intense barrage, Canadian and Australian troops advanced in a heavy fog behind hundreds of tanks.  Some Germans fought hard, but many either surrendered to small enemy forces or took to their heels in panic. Thousands headed to the rear, berating reserves coming up, calling them strike-breakers and saying they were prolonging the war. It was the worst breakdown in morale the Germans had seen in the war, and on a large scale. Five or six divisions dissolved that morning.

Word of this got to the Quartermaster General (and functional commander of German armed forces), General Erich Ludendorff. His nerve broke. His previous attacks of nerves had come and gone without too much ill effect. This time, he spoke to the Kaiser, saying August 8 was the Black Day (der Schwarze Tag) of the German Army. He insisted that peace had to be negotiated before the army melted away. This was the first time that the Kaiser had been told by his generals that the war wasn’t going to be won but in fact was headed to defeat. He very calmly (for once) said he would do so and informed his politicians to start seeking peace. He had also just been informed that his Austro-Hungarian allies were prepared to sue for peace; their starving empire was coming apart at the seams. Meanwhile, spurred on by the whiff of victory in the air, US and Entente forces stepped up attacks.

The German government was authoritarian, with a few ornamental trappings of democracy. Once doubt was implanted at the top, it grew, seeping down, fed by the two million military dead and the ongoing starvation of most of the population. Ludendorff’s attack of nerves started the rot. In time it led to the collapse of the government, revolution and the Kaiser fleeing to exile in Holland. Meanwhile, Ludendorff recovered his nerve and began looking to place the blame on anyone else. The Social Democrats (socialists!) were in power when the time came to pay the victorious pipers. The ultra-rich Jewish banker Max Warburg was sent to negotiate with the vengeful Entente powers, minus any conservative politicians or military figures. The German army had begun unraveling, with many deciding to head home immediately. Dealt a lousy hand, Warburg had little choice but to sign a punitive treaty that even some Entente officials thought went too far.

 

The German army had not yet been forced back onto German territory and claimed to have “won” most battles through the first 3 years of war. How had defeat come to pass? The extreme right blamed the defeat on the Stab in the Back by Jews (Warburg) and Communists (or Social Democrats, lefty types). Ludendorff jumped on this; it absolved him of any blame. Two million dead troops, many more mutilated, and widespread starvation were ignored in this version of history. A gassed corporal laying in a hospital bed adopted this myth readily. He was named Adolf Hitler. Ludendorff would end up in bed with the Nazis. In time they parted ways with him as his conspiracy theories grew too loony even for them.

Edit: I have been re-reading John Toland's "No Man's Land", about the last year of the Great War, 1918. Although Ludendorff recovered his nerve after August 8, once the coordinated Allied offensives started in late September from Flanders to Verdun, both Ludendorff and Hindenburg demanded that the politicians seek an immediate armistice; they were out of reserves and feared the German army was about to implode. The generals studiously avoided sending any high ranking officers to seek the armistice, allowing them to claim they were blameless. The liberal politicians who were suddenly allowed into the government had no wiggle room, knowing that an immediate armistice was tantamount to surrender. This makes the adoption of the stab in the back tale even more sinister. They were fully aware they'd been defeated but refused to take the blame, setting up others. End edit.

 

What does this have to do with WWII, you ask? Hitler feared the German people might rebel again. His solution was to go for guns and butter. Civilian autos were produced into 1942, three years into the war. The economy didn’t begin full mobilization until then. The Soviet Union went to full mobilization shortly after being attacked in mid-1941. The US stopped producing civilian cars two months after Pearl Harbor. Lipstick manufacturers made cartridges instead, etc. There was precious little butter, but quite a few guns.

 

Among the many reasons that Germany lost the war, a glaring one was waiting until fairly late in the war to shift to a full war production footing, just as RAF Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force began hammering German factories. Meanwhile both the US and the USSR cranked out war material in ever growing mountains. Each out-produced the Reich by large margins.

 

Ultra-nationalists still swear by the Stab in the Back. For them, it beats facing the truth.

Blucher and the Prussians at Waterloo

All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

 A number of events conspired to keep us from playing a game last week. We shall see if another can be arranged next week. In the meantime, here’s a historical tidbit.

 

Lots of us have played at least one version of the Battle of Waterloo. Unless the game allows the decision to be reached before Blucher’s lads reach the field, the Prussians show up and begin making Napoleon’s task harder.

 

We often think of Wellington’s tactical finesse, giving not much thought to Blucher aside from him cheering on his troops marching through the mud. Many of our miniature rules count the tactical acumen of the leaders, Wellington getting a big bonus, Blucher not so much. Have you considered the risks that Blucher was taking in marching to Wellington’s aid?

 

Wellington was facing Napoleon in person for the first time. He had noted Bonaparte frequently threatened enemy supply lines, forcing them to retreat and then hitting them when they were on the back foot. He worried about his supply lines to the coast during the short campaign, leaving some 17,000 troops guarding his supply lines at Hal on the day of the battle, troops that would have given him quite a cushion at the desperate battle. Some of his Continental Allies, with experience fighting against (and some for) Napoleon were aware that he also had a penchant for getting between enemy forces and beating them in detail. Blucher had been the victim of just such an attack in 1814. Rebounding, a month later he defeated the Corsican at Laon.

 

Wellington had told Blucher he would fight at Waterloo if Blucher promised to come to his aid with one corps of his army. Blucher marched with 3 of the 4 corps in his army. While he did so, he left the fourth corps covering his line of supply (and escape) fighting against a much larger French force under Marshal Grouchy. When that Corps commander cried for help, Blucher said the decision was at Waterloo; the fellow must look to his own forces for help.

 

I cannot imagine Wellington, brilliant tactician that he was, ignoring a serious attack on his lines of supply/retreat.

 

Blucher had a track record of ignoring threats to his rear. The battle of Leipzig, which ended Napoleon’s 1813 campaign in disaster, kicking the French out of Germany, resulted from Blucher’s gutsiness. Napoleon was frustrated by the Trachenberg plan, where an Allied army facing him in person would give ground, but those facing his subordinates would attack. It was like the school yard game where the victim’s hat is grabbed and tossed back and forth to other kids as the victim tries to reclaim it. Napoleon might win a victory at Dresden, for example, only to find that his subordinates had been defeated at the Katzbach, Gross Beeren and Kulm.

 

Unable to force Blucher to fight him in person, Napoleon lunged around Blucher’s southern flank. Instead of falling back to the east into the trap, the wily 70 year old Prussian headed northwest, forcing Bernadotte to share supplies with him. He also goaded the nervous Bernadotte into advancing in support of him. This led to the final showdown at Leipzig, where the French were outnumbered better than 3 to 2 and nearly totally encircled. Blucher was aggressive, but otherwise an indifferent tactician. His operational moxie and guts set the stage for one of Napoleon’s greatest defeats.

 

Blucher also set the stage for the decisive final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. Defeated (and nearly captured) at the Battle of Ligny on June 16, 1815, he and his army fell back to the north, keeping within supporting distance of Wellington, who also retired in step. Some 10,000 young recruits, shaken loose during the twilight retreat, fell back east towards home. Enough of them, in fact, to fool the pursuing French under Grouchy into believing that the main army had retreated that way. The pursuing French lost much of the next day following the wrong group.

 

As an aside, I’m nearly the age Blucher was at this battle. If thrown from a dying horse and having enemy cavalry pass over my position twice at speed, I’m not sure how much fight I’d have left in me.

 

Assured of support, Wellington made his stand on the slopes of Mont St. Jean. Blucher then ignored the immediate threat to his rear as Thielemann’s III Corps fought against nearly two-to-one odds at Wavre. Focused on the defeat of Napoleon’s main army, he ignored the sound of the struggle in his rear, arriving at the main battle in time for the combined Allied armies to hand the French a crushing blow.

 

I’ve read accounts online from some gamers who apparently got their knowledge of the battle from movies. They believe that Wellington’s army defeated the French single-handed and the Prussians showed up in time to pursue the French. This version doesn’t explain the 7,500 Prussian casualties at the battle. Perhaps they tripped over their own shoelaces during the pursuit? It does mean the filmmakers got to save money by not having to produce many Prussian uniforms, while simplifying the script.  

      

The Prussians showed up in strength from 4:30 on in growing numbers. The village of Plancenoit in the French right rear changed hands 5 times during the battle. At the critical moment Ney captured the key to Wellington’s center and asked for more troops. Napoleon turned down the request; he was busy organizing the second (and last) French counter-attack on the village in the French rear. Later, he found some Imperial Guards to send in. By this time Wellington had managed some repairs to his sagging center. The attack failed, the Guards were routed.

 

Wellington’s army did not fight all of Napoleon’s 72,000. The Prussians put about 49,000 troops in combat before the battle ended. The French sent at least 15,000 to hold them off. Wellington’s 68,000 were pressed to the limit by some 57,000 French. Wellington called it a close run thing.

 

It was a good thing for the Allies that the French made the mistakes they did. First among them was Napoleon assuming that Blucher was down for the count. He had defeated him before. He should have recalled that Blucher was not in the habit of staying defeated for long.

 

In our games we consider the tactical acumen of generals. Not surprising, since our table-top battles are tactical exercises. But the operational skill of our leaders is not considered. I guess we need to have playable operational games for that. Some of you say we do. The ones I’ve seen are too complex and too time-consuming. At this point in my life, I prefer a simpler game that doesn’t take as many hours.

 

And that’s it for now. Hopefully in a week or two there will be another report of Late Romans vs. the hairy barbarians.

Twilight of the Romans II

OK, the rules are actually Twilight of the Britons. I figure the Dark Ages were similar on both sides of the Channel.  Plus my armies are all based on battles during the decline of the western empire. Saturday afternoon and evening we had another outdoor game in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

 

Jay showed up. He missed the first game a couple weeks ago. Andrew showed with his 8-year-old daughter Emily. He saw the second half of our last game but did not play. I was happy to umpire. Dice determined that Jay would take the Romans while Emily and Andrew would have the Gothic/Frankish confederation. He deployed the first warband, Emily/Andrew next and they moved first.

 

Jay deployed his infantry in long thin lines, with many having no rear support despite my pre-game suggestions. It looked more like an 18^th Century deployment than the 5^th century. Emily deployed in supported shield walls (good) though the cavalry was deployed in the center, rather than a flank.

 

The first game showed we needed markers to denote charges/impetuous advances and recoils. I made yellow arrows for recoils and pink ones (that was the color paper I had) for charges, etc. The digital camera renders them both the same so I added red stripes to the charge arrows with Microsoft Paint.  I’ll have to run a red highlighter over the arrows before the next game so the camera notices.

 

We played three turns rather slowly since a lot had to be explained as we went. Three turns in a tad over an hour and we broke for dinner. We had a fine time at dinner, joined by my wife. Some beer, tales of Brooklyn and such went down nicely.

I think we broke for dinner about here. A convivial event it was.

Emily wasn’t pleased when she failed her first couple morale checks but Andrew convinced her to continue. She was talking about going home after dinner. When we started again, Emily said she wanted to see what happened on the next turn. In the event she wanted to see the next three turns and was definitely rooting for a Roman defeat. She finally said it was time to go. The Romans had 4 units off the table to only one barbarian unit. I took over the barbarians. And here my troubles began. The photos will show what happened on the next two turns. The guys liked the rules. Even Emily warmed up to them as the game progressed. Hmm, the newest Fencible? The average age will plunge.

That's one win for each side. Hopefully we'll see the tie-breaker in a couple weeks. 

I compare the Roman army, with its varied types of units, to a Swiss Army knife.

The barbarian army is more like baseball bat. Or a cricket bat, for you Commonwealth types.

 

One mistake I made was forgetting that missile fire causes undisciplined units to make impetuous advances. I also fumbled an overlap situation later in the game, looking for a modifier (that didn't exist) when it should have been another attack. My single house rule (that wasn’t used) is horse archers can fire directly to the rear, the old Parthian shot.

 

Tactical lessons: always use rear support, with units doubled up on behind the other. There is firm history behind this, since this is a game about morale. Humans like to be in a large group when danger beckons. Something that might not have as firm a basis: move Javelin-armed units into range first and then charge the next turn. That way, if you fail the action test to charge, you can still throw javelins/darts/etc. And get around enemy flanks, blocking recoil if possible. This pays dividends and is firmly based on actual events.

 

In games like Memoir 44, it is good practice to take badly hurt units and hide them behind the line. It is not as effective in these rules. When a unit routs, the most beat up unit in their warband takes a hit. So beat up units behind the line can join the routers, perhaps putting your army over their breakpoint. I do like this rule.

 

I think we need at least one more game of Roman vs. Goths and Franks. Then maybe we can put Attila’s boys up against a force of Germans, perhaps with a wing of Romans a la Châlons. I am waiting for a shipment of some figures from Old Glory 15s, some monks, Gothic javelin skirmishers, some more warriors, some cavalry to make period-correct heroes/leaders, and some more 4^th/5^th Century legionaries. Now to find a fairly simple shield design from the Notitia Dignatum, something easy to paint on a 15mm shield.