The Lion of the North

 A long train trip to Everton on Saturday for the football required some light reading. Not just because watching Fulham away at the moment is pretty grim! My choice was the third and latest in Griff Hosker's English Mercenary series. I enjoyed the first two, so this purchase was a no-brainer.

As the title implies, we have now reached the main 1632 campaign of the Swedish King, Gustavus Adolphus. In the last book, his victory at Breitenfeld in September 1631 gave Gustavus control over much of northern and central Germany. The 1632 campaign began well, with the trapping and defeat of Tilly at Rain in April. However, Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein established himself at Fürth, threatening to cut his lines of communication to the north. On 3 September, an assault on the Imperial camp outside the town was bloodily repulsed, and the Protestant army withdrew. Wallenstein moved north to Leipzig with the intention of spending the winter there. 

The Swedes learned that Pappenheim's corps of 5,800 men had been sent to Halle, which gave Gustavus a numerical superiority. He decided to attack, and the armies met at Lutzen. In a confused battle, the Swedish forces suffered heavier casualties, but Wallenstein was forced to withdraw. However, the Lion of the North was killed when he was separated from his battle line. 

Our hero is Colonel James Bretherton, who commands a regiment and later a brigade of light horse. A good choice by the author, as this means he is involved in all the main actions, but many more minor skirmishes as well. The book begins with our hero on leave back home in Teeside, embarking on a few adventures that I suspect may serve as a warm-up for his involvement in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in later books. I had the pleasure of meeting the author at the Battleground wargames show in Teeside a couple of years ago, so I assume his hero's home base is no coincidence.

There are plenty of subplots involving dastardly treachery, but I won't spoil the story. All you really need to know is that this is a quick and pacy read from a very good storyteller. Recommended reading. 

In one of the skirmishes, they clash with Imperial Croats. You just knew I would find a Balkan connection!

My Croats of the period in 28mm.

The Siege of Vienna 1529 - The Drawing of the Dark

 This book is a twist on the traditional historical novel, focusing on the Siege of Vienna in 1529. Tim Powers gives a fantasy spin on the story and creates a very readable one. A friend pointed me to his work when I did my usual Balkan anniversary post on social media.

After the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Suleiman the Lawgiver was consolidating the conquest of Hungary. In September 1529, relatively too late in the campaign season, he arrived at Vienna. The sources are divided on his real intentions, but he arrived with over 100,000 tired men who had trudged through the autumn rain and mud to get there. Roughly 15,000–20,000 Austrian, German, and Spanish soldiers under Count Niklas von Salm defended the city. Despite repeated assaults, the defenders held firm. Poor weather, disease, and supply shortages weakened the Ottoman army, and Suleiman ordered a retreat on 14 October.

In this book, the author's main character is an Irish mercenary who is recruited in Venice to look after a pub attached to a famous brewery. They brew a legendary ale, which is nearly ready to drink. The employer owns the pub, but is also a sorcerer supporting the King of the West, against the King of the East, whose sorcerer is Ibrahim, the Ottoman Grand Vizier. There is a complex fantasy world that I won't spoil if you haven't read the book, but our hero is drawn into both this magical battle and the real one.

The 1529 siege is less well known than the more famous 1683 one, probably because the Ottomans were not as serious about it. The defenders were an interesting mix of troops, including Landsknechts, and there was no relieving army. However, Sulieman's artillery was bogged down in the mud and therefore had to rely on lighter guns and infantry assaults. 

If you're not a fan of fantasy, the book may irritate you. However, I enjoyed it as a clever blend of both genres.

Sieges are challenging to do on the tabletop, but Fire and Stone (Capstone Games), based on the 1683 siege, does an excellent job. The various sorties and skirmishes are very suitable for games of Pikeman's Lament.

Romanian Campaign 1916-18

This booklet is a reprint by the Naval and Military Press of Major-General Kirke's 1924 article in the Journal of the Royal United Service Institution. They are discounting WW1 books by 25% this weekend. You would rarely get away with writing such a long article in a journal today! Somewhat embarrassingly, when I started to read it, it seemed familiar. No, I wasn't around in 1924, but I do have a 1997 reprint by Pallas Armata. This imprint was a labour of love by Gareth Simon who brought many of these fascinating articles back into circulation.

This booklet is valuable because very little has been written about these campaigns. Michael Barrett wrote a decent book on the 1916 campaign, and even Kirke's article ends before the final battles of the war, including the Romanian defensive victory at Mărăști.

Romania remained neutral until 1916, when it joined the war on the side of the Entente. They launched an offensive into Transylvania which was initially successful until Germany counterattacked under Field Marshal August von Mackensen and General Erich von Falkenhayn, halting the Romanian advance. Mackensen then led a joint German-Bulgarian-Ottoman army from the south in September 1916, invading Dobruja (southeastern Romania). Meanwhile, Falkenhayn’s forces attacked from Transylvania into Wallachia. The Romanian army, poorly equipped and lacking coordination, suffered heavy defeats. Bucharest fell on December 6, 1916.

This is where the article ends, but it includes a detailed description of the tough fighting the Carpathian Mountains, with decent maps. He also gives a balanced analysis of both sides and the challenges they faced. The Romanians had not learned the lessons from the early stages of the war and were short of modern equipment and crucially ammunition. Attacking Transylvania made sense politically, but strategically it stretched the Romanian army too far. The Russians continually advised them to shorten their lines.

In 1917, with Russian help, Romania rebuilt its army and fought heroically in the battles of Mărăști (July & August 1917) and Oituz (August 1917). These victories stopped the Central Powers’ advance and restored morale. The Russian revolution left Romania without Russian support and they were forced to sign an armistice. They rejoined the war in November 1918.

I visited the fine memorial and museum at Mărăști earlier this year.

I have German, Austrian and Russian figures for these campaigns. However, I don't know anyone who does Romanians, with their distinctive cap. You could probably get away with French troops in smaller scales as they also used the Adrian helmet. There are Romanian WW2 figures with a cap, which are not far out. This needs a bit more research.

Russian 28mm figures from my collection.

Targe 25

 Targe is a club open day run by the Kirriemuir club. Around a dozen participation games from clubs around Scotland are squeezed into the club rooms with Dave Thomas as the sole trader. There is also a large bring-and-buy stall that stretches around one end of the room. There were plenty of players, and several members of the public popped in to see what was happening. Hopefully, the club gets some new members. I certainly spoke to a couple of guys who were thinking of returning to the hobby.

I took the latest iteration of GDWS Russo-Ottoman Wars games, specifically The Battle of Kinburn (1787). Games are limited to 6' x 4' tables, so this smaller battle was appropriate, rather than the big battle games we ran at Carronade and Claymore. We are playtesting Simon Miller's Lust for Glory rules, and they have received a good response from players, who like the speed and simplicity. Two young lads played out the battle in the afternoon and picked it up quickly, having only played a couple of games of To The Strongest. In fact, they were quickly reminding me of the rules! The game went pretty historically, with the Ottomans holding off Russian attacks until the cavalry reinforcements arrived.

Running a game meant I didn't have time to play any others, but there were some excellent ones. The advantage of this format is that they were all games that you could play at home. While I love a big show game, it can put off newcomers who think you have to collect hundreds of figures to wargame.

The Storming of the Heights of Dargai, Afghanistan, 1897, was voted the best game. 

Border Wars is an excellent participation game, especially when you have a lovely tower house.

SPIT did a North Africa WW2 game with a variant of Bolt Action

Another Border Wars game. The scenery here gives a challenging fight.

SESWC have some nerve doing a Balkan Wars game😂😂. Using BBB. 

Cunning Caledonians trying to sneak by Roman watchtowers.

A fun game of Halfling Jousting

What a Tanker is a good, quick participation game at a show like this

As always, thanks to Dale and the club for all the work they put in. It is a trek for me, but always worth the effort.

Highness in Hiding

 The latest instalment in my Nigel Tranter project is 'Highness in Hiding,' the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's escape to France after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. This book is best described as a travelogue of his movements over several months in the West Highlands and the islands as he evaded his pursuers.

This is topical as archaeologists have discovered musket balls on the battlefield that they believe were fired by Irish Jacobite troops who enabled clansmen to escape the battlefield by stopping a mounted charge.

It also has a personal interest, as Ancestry has recently narrowed the Scottish side of my DNA to the West Highlands and the Hebrides. The Watsons are usually associated with the area north of Glasgow, and that is undoubtedly where my family lived. It is fascinating to discover that they originated much further north.

After Culloden, Charles became a hunted man with a £30,000 bounty on his head, the equivalent of £7.6m in today's money. I hadn't appreciated just how long he managed to evade capture, and how much effort the Government forces put in. At least 14 warships and thousands of troops, most of them coming from clans that supported the Hanoverians. He spent months hiding in the Outer Hebrides, moving between islands like Eriskay, South Uist, and Benbecula. Tranter is at his best when describing these remote places.

What most people know about this period (thanks to the Skye Boat Song) is that he escaped to the Isle of Skye with Flora MacDonald on June 28, 1746. She helped him disguise himself as a maid named "Betty Burke". After parting ways with Flora on Skye, he continued to evade capture, returning to the mainland before eventually securing a ship that took him to the continent and safety in France. 

Sadly, there was no happy ending. Charles never returned to Scotland and spent the rest of his life in exile, moving between France and Rome. He died in Rome on January 31, 1788, at the age of 67, having become an alcoholic in his later years. 

Wonderful though Tranter's description of the terrain is, it isn't the most riveting read. The bravery of the loyal clans who protected him is an integral part of the story, given the murder, rape and destruction visited on the Highlands by Butcher Cumberland. 

There are no real battles or even skirmishes for the wargamer. However, this is a popular period on the tabletop with some fine figure ranges. I would particularly plug the range by my pal Ian at Flags of War.

Some of my 28mm figures of the period

Serbia and the End of the Great War

 This book, published by the Historical Museum of Serbia, covers the latter part of Serbia's role in the First World War, after the retreat through Albania and the recovery on Corfu. It appears to have been a limited print run and not widely available. I picked up a copy in a shop attached to the Serbian war museum in Corfu Town.

There are not many books in English dedicated to Serbia in WW1, with Dusan Babac's Serbian Army in the Great War being my usual starting point. This book is in English and Serbian. The text is not that gripping, being largely limited to reproductions of official texts, timelines and pen portraits of the leading personalities. However, it does have a wide range of photographs, many of which I haven't seen before. It also touches on some aspects of war that are rarely mentioned.

One of those is Serbia under occupation. All the occupying powers adopted a denationalisation programme, although the Bulgarians applied it more radically. The Austro-Hungarians applied the Latin alphabet, but the Bulgarians detained and even executed Serbs who used their language, names, books and even folk costumes. Both powers ruthlessly exploited the country economically, bringing the population to the brink of starvation. With the fighting-age population much reduced by the war and the Serbian armies in Macedonia, uprisings were more challenging than in WW2. The most famous is the Toplica Uprising in February 1917, which resulted in around 20,000 victims of the counter-insurgency operation. 

The book also covers Serbian units that served outside the Balkans. These included the Serbian Volunteer Corps, recruited from Austro-Hungarian PoWs. This was eventually transported to the Macedonian Front. Some Serbs ended up in the Czechoslovak Legion during the Russian Civil War, and others fought for the Bolsheviks in the First Serbian Revolutionary Battalion and the Serbian-Soviet Battalion. Several other detachments fought with the Red Army. Sadly, no pictures of these units, which would make an interesting addition to the Red Army on the tabletop.

Serbian refugees found shelter across Europe. Britain received 400 students, who settled in cities across the country, including Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. France took in 17,000 refugees, and many ended up in French colonies.

There are better books on the Serbian contribution to the Macedonian Campaign, which was crucial to the Entente victory. However, there are some good pictures, if a little too heavy on the commanders rather than the army in the field. The post-war diplomacy that resulted in the creation of what would become Yugoslavia is covered in some detail, with a predictable Serbian slant! Objective history is rare in the Balkans!

Some of my 28mm Serbs

The Bosnian Serb Army at War

 This is Bojan Dimitrijevic's account of the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992-95 conflict. Many books have been written on the conflict, but few focus on the fighting units. While the author attempts to write an objective military history, his objectivity slips several times. It is best described as a sympathetic view of an army that fought well under challenging circumstances but was also responsible for atrocities, not least the massacre at Srebrenica.

The author starts with a brief background and description of the army's (VRS) establishment. It mainly constituted the Yugoslav Army (JNA) units in the Serb areas of Bosnia and quickly incorporated paramilitary and militia units. It followed JNA ranks and organisation and was commanded by General Ratko Mladic, who was later convicted at The Hague for war crimes. The author describes a 'complicated relationship' with the civilian leadership, led by Radovan Karadzic, another convicted war criminal. While this was a predominantly ethic Serb army, there were a few Croat and Muslim officers.

The book is profusely illustrated with pictures and colour plates of the army's wide variety of equipment. In May 1994, this included 358 tanks (T-34, T-55, and M-84s) and 197 APCs. They also had a huge range of artillery, AA and tactical missile systems. Modellers will enjoy the variety of camouflage and additional armour used. 

The bulk of the book covers the main campaigns of the conflict. They had notable successes in 1992 and 1993, including Operation Corridor, Operation Vrbas, and Operation Lukavac. However, by 1994, their Croat and Muslim opponents were beginning to cooperate, and the army was increasingly forced back onto the defensive. NATO intervention meant they no longer had control of the skies, and their positions around Sarajevo came under ground attack. The US Congress also lifted the embargo on weapons deliveries to the Muslim forces. Pressure on the political front was a key feature of the final two years of the conflict. When the Contact Group's peace plan was rejected, NATO military intervention became more frequent. 

There were particular tensions around the capture of UN peacekeepers and their use as human shields against air attack. This was heightened when Serb forces captured the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. I'm afraid the author lost the plot here, with the implication that the worst atrocity in Europe since WW2 was somehow the responsibility of a captain. The idea that 8,372 men and boys could be executed without the knowledge of the commanders is absurd. 

The VRS heavily outgunned its opponents in the early stages of the conflict and had the organisational advantage of building on already established armed forces. However, they had a lot of territory to defend, and the terrain was challenging. I have driven around Bosnia several times, and the defensive advantages are apparent. Putting objectivity aside, this book has all the factual information the wargamer and modeller needs on the VRS. 

Some of my 15mm JNA infantry of the period.