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News from a wargamer with a special interest in the military history of the Balkans. It mainly covers my current reading and wargaming projects. For more detail you can visit the web sites I edit - Balkan Military History and Glasgow & District Wargaming Society. Or follow me on Twitter @Balkan_Dave
or on Mastodon @balkandave@mastodon.scot, or Threads @davewatson1683

Sunday 17 March 2024

Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates

 My library pick this month was David Stevenson's book Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates, first published in 1981 (still in print) and relevant to my current project. David has written several books on this period, and another is on my reading pile. There are countless books on the English Civil War and more than a few on Montrose in Scotland, but relatively few on the Irish element of the War of the Three Kingdoms.


Scottish interest was focused on Ulster due to the plantation of Scots in the first couple of decades of the 17th century. In 1625, around 8,000 Scots in Ulster were capable of bearing arms. By 1638, this had increased to around 10,000, probably due to poor harvests in Scotland encouraging migration. These settlers maintained close links with Scotland, as did the earlier Irish Scots like the MacDonnells, whose links were with the islands and the western Highlands. 


When King Charles I sought support against the Scots who resisted his religious reforms, he looked to Ireland for military support. This was political folly, one of many that unfortunate monarch made. It damaged his position in Ireland and Scotland, pushing the powerful Campbell clan into the Covenanter cause. The attacks on Scotland first brought Alasdair MacColla into the story, who would play an important role later in the wars with Montrose.


Later Irish rebellions (1641) saw a Scottish army being sent to Ulster at the King's urging and paid for (sporadically) by the English parliament. Eight regiments (10,000 men), including 2,500 Highlanders, were initially prepared. MacColla fought for the rebels in this campaign, and the Battle of the Laney was the first occasion he used the tactic later known as the Highland charge - one volley, then a charge. There are special rules for this in the FK&P supplement The Celtic Fringe. MacColla raided Scotland well before joining Montrose, often in pursuit of this feud with the Campbells.


The book covers the campaigns in considerable detail, focusing on the New Scots army led by Major General Munro. His force consisted of Scots regiments, and troops raised locally, sometimes supplemented by English soldiers. A further complication was that the English commander, Ormond, was a king's man and was distrusted by the English Parliament. The story has many other interesting personalities, along with shifting allegiances. 


The Montrose campaigns are touched on, although not in any detail, other than the involvement of the Irish Brigade. While his campaigns were unsuccessful, they led to regiments being removed from England and some troops from Ulster. Munro's army was very weak at the conclusion of this period when Cromwell invaded Ireland. They also lost against the Irish under Owen Roe at the Battle of Benburb, in June 1646. However, even with just a few thousand troops, the Ulster-Scots hung on, forming the basis of today's community.


This is a complex story and a challenging read. However, it thoroughly examines the period for those who want more detail than the FK&P supplements offer.

I have been re-fighting scenarios from the Bishops' Wars with my new Covenanter army. They even won on their first table top outing. A very rare occurrence. Even though Razzy, who is Scottish, turned traitor and sat on the Scottish horse!





Thursday 14 March 2024

Scottish civil wars 1638-52

 My current (well, one of many!) project is to expand my 15mm English Civil War, or more accurately, the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, armies to Scotland and Ireland. I have started with the Covenanter army and plan to move on to the Royalist forces led by Montrose. Finally, Irish armies will cover the less well-known actions mainly fought in Ulster.

The core army mostly comes from the Essex range, latterly supplemented by Peter Pig. It includes three units of pike & shot, one commanded shot, two horse units and two units of lancers. I have also completed four units of Highlanders, which will work for Montrose as well.


The foot units are the typical 2:1 ratio between shot and pike, although as the uniforms are the same, I can have more commanded shot or pike-heavy units as required. 

The Essex lancers are a bit too well equipped for my liking, although the units that fought in England did come home with looted kit and better horses. I have bought a few packs of Peter Pig lancers, which I think will look more like the part.

I will use the artillery and dragoons from my ECW armies as well.

With excellent timing, To the Strongest has brought out two supplements for the period for use in the For King & Parliament rules. The first provides nine scenarios for Montrose's battles. The other is a guide to wargaming the battles in Scotland and Ireland, The Celtic Fringe. This includes optional rules for the different troop types.

I also have the option to play these battles using the Warlord Pike and Shotte rules and Pikeman's Lament

A rare treat this evening is a midweek game. We are starting with a Bishops' War game - Covenanter v English using FK&P. 77 points a side.



Thursday 7 March 2024

The Falklands Naval Campaign 1982

 Last week, I spent the final day of my visit to the National Archives looking at the HMS Ambuscade ship's logs for the Falklands campaign of 1982 and related files. The ship's logs only provide the most limited information, even less than the equivalent war diary for a land unit. Therefore, it helps to have a good overview of the campaign before going through them. I used Edward Hampshire's The Falklands Naval Campaign 1982 in the Osprey campaign series for that.


Lots of books were published quickly after the conflict. I also have the three-part Osprey MAA series published in 1982. However, this was published in 2021 and benefits from subsequent research and access to archives. 

While my interest is in the naval campaign, the book gives an overview of the campaign's origins. This was the first war in my adult lifetime, yet I had forgotten some of the background. The author follows the usual Osprey format in this series by covering the commanders and the opposing forces. The Argentinians had a small and relatively obsolete navy. At the same time, the Royal Navy had reduced in size and faced many challenges just getting an adequate fleet so far from home bases. In particular, civilian ships, cargo, and passenger liners had to be converted to provide the necessary logistics. The fleet included seven Type 21 frigates, including HMS Ambuscade. Frigates and destroyers primarily acted as radar pickets and AA cover for the fleet, which would be exposed to superior numbers of Argentinian aircraft.

The description of the various naval actions includes excellent maps and plenty of illustrations. The Argentinian Navy split into two main groups coming at the islands from north and south. The sinking of the cruiser General Belgrano just outside the Total Exclusion Zone was controversial but effectively kept the Navy in their bases for the rest of the campaign. This left the job to the Air Force with a mix of Skyhawks, Super Etendards and IAI Daggers to attack the Task Force. Argentina only had a handful of airborne Exocet missiles, so they had to rely mainly on conventional bombs, attacking at low levels. Many of these did hit their targets but failed to explode. Royal Navy losses started to mount as the Task Force landed troops on the island and, consequently, were easier to find.

Frigates like HMS Ambuscade provided fire support to the landings and a subsequent assault on Stanley. The ship's log outlines how they operated in a gun line off the coast, an essential role as the army had only modest artillery support. Those who argued that ships didn't need guns in the missile age were proved wrong. 

How HMS Ambuscade reported the capture of Port Stanley in the ship's log.

The conflict also highlighted the vulnerability of warships without air cover and better airborne early warning systems. Many Argentinian attacks were made under the radar. In defence policy terms, it highlights what is known as the 'Quinlan Paradox' - the unexpected is more likely to occur.

I am still considering how to do this on the tabletop. I bought a lovely 1/700 3D print of a Type 21 frigate from the Dorset Print Man. However, if I want to cover more ships and aircraft, this becomes an expensive project. I suspect I will return to Navwar.





Saturday 2 March 2024

A Nasty Little War

This is Anna Reid's new book, looking at the West's fight to reverse the Russian revolution. The Allied interventions in support of a mixed bag of White warlords were undoubtedly nasty, but it wasn't that little. Some 180,000 allied troops from 16 countries participated, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The conflicts ranged from the far north to Siberia, the Black Sea and Poland. 

The nastiest element, which clearly shocked the author, was the consistent antisemitism. The White armies often spent more time carrying out pogroms than they did fighting the Bolsheviks. But what surprised the author was the frequent antisemitic jibes in the diaries of British officers. British officials and government ministers, including Churchill, at best, turned a blind eye to the atrocities that probably killed up to 200,000 Jews. General Holman, commanding the British military mission, was 'obsessed by the idea of wiping out the Jews everywhere, and can talk of little else'.

Churchill's hatred of the Bolsheviks drove British policy until Lloyd George and the rest of the cabinet eventually had enough. When the PM was considering recognising the new regime, Churchill burst into his hotel room saying, 'One might as well legalise sodomy'. There was also resistance at home, with dockers refusing to load aid convoys to the Whites. What aid that did arrive was often stolen by corrupt officers. Admiral Kolchak fled Omsk in seven trains, six for his mistress and staff and another for £65m of gold bullion.

The early focus was on securing ports to bring in supplies. Murmansk in the north and Vladivostock in the east. PoWs were used to construct a rail link to Murmansk, killing 25,000 of them in the process. All were supervised by the British commander. The British army guide was a gem of colonial attitudes, advising troops to treat the Russians as children. The Americans brought somewhat more enlightened views, but also the Spanish flu, which killed countless more civilians.

The author takes us through each theatre of operations. The Whites had some success in the South, but it didn't last. The Bolsheviks had the advantage of interior lines, which allowed Trotsky to shift troops from one theatre to another. The Whites had no common ideology other than antisemitism and failed to coordinate their operations.

When the allies eventually pulled the plug, the permanent secretary to the Foreign Office added a note to the file, 'So ends a not very creditable enterprise, to which Lord Curzon crossed out 'not very' and substituted 'highly dis'. Unsurprisingly, no official histories of the conflict, campaign medals or monuments exist. It was all quickly forgotten. Anna Reid has done a great job reminding us of this great folly.

Friday 1 March 2024

Roman Legion Exhibition

 I am in London this week working in the Greenwich and Kew archives on the Ambuscade book. While here, I didn't want to miss the British Museum's special exhibition, Legion, which brings together exhibits on the Roman army worldwide. They tell the story through one recruit into the auxiliaries, although I could have done it without the commentary boards of rats dressed up as Romans. I assume this was to keep the kids interested, but it was pretty silly.

The first exhibit that caught my eye was a scary bust of Augustus.

The equipment exhibits were excellent, including the only surviving legionary shield. Lots of helmets and swords and cataphract armour.




The display captions were informative and well-organised, with various stone friezes illustrating different ranks and roles.


Our recruit reached the end of his 25-year term; only 50% did, and he got his bonus and citizenship. 


There is a lovely book to go with the exhibition, if too detailed and pricey. They always overdo the exhibition publication when an Osprey-size booklet would be more sensible. I passed on the book but was very tempted by the centurion's helmet. My daughter was more impressed by the ducks!



If you are in London, it is well worth a visit. And, of course, the British Museum has a wealth of treasures, even if some of them would be better placed elsewhere! 

Saturday 24 February 2024

Maverick Spy

 My library pick this month was a spy story with a difference. It is Hamish MacGibbon's take on his father James' spying activities in WW2. He was a British intelligence officer who confessed on his deathbed that he leaked details of Allied intelligence to the Soviets.


James MacGibbon was born in Glasgow, the youngest son of Rev James MacGibbon, minister of Glasgow Cathedral. He was educated at Fettes College, a traditional English public school, even if based in Edinburgh. He doesn't appear to have been politically active in his youth, and his middle-class background was not typical of Glasgow communists of the period. However, like many of his era, he was horrified by the Spanish Civil War and his contact with Nazi Germany working in the publishing industry.

He joined the Communist Party with his wife, Jean, in 1937. At the outbreak of war, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was posted to the Intelligence Corps due to his fluency in German. In the spring of 1941, he was posted to the War Office in MO3 (Military Operations, Section 3). In June 1944, he was posted to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In these roles, he had access to many Allied plans and intelligence of German plans. The Allies did not always share the details of their knowledge with the Soviets, partly because liaison officers were politically hostile to the Soviets and partly because they wanted to protect the existence of ULTRA. 

James was particularly outraged at not sharing the German order of battle, which would be of critical value to the Soviets when they were incurring massive losses. He, therefore, made contact with the Soviet Embassy and began sharing this intelligence. His codename was 'Dolly' and later 'Milord', and he was run by the GRU, while another British spy, John Caincross (Cambridge Five), was handled by the NVKD. It is clear from Soviet intelligence archives that his reports were seen by Stalin and his close circle and were highly valued. His leaking of the Overlord plans had the positive effect of convincing Stalin that the Allies were serious at the Tehran conference. Bizarrely, the closest these plans came to being leaked to the Germans was due to the lax security in the British embassy in Ankara (Cicero). 

James MacGibbon rejoined the Communist Party after the war when he returned to publishing. His house was bugged, and he was interrogated by MI5. However, he didn't spy for the Soviets despite approaches and wouldn't have had anything worthwhile to send anyway. He kept the secret until his deathbed.

While technically treasonous, James believed his espionage was the act of a British patriot. A view his son shares. I may have done the same (perhaps not Overlord plans but probably the ORBATS), but others will disagree. The book has a lot about his personal life and the whole back story, which pads the story from what could be told in an article. However, you can skip through that to get to the meat of the story.

Thursday 22 February 2024

Zeebrugge 1918: The Greatest Raid of All

 I came across the Zeebrugge raid in my research for the Ambuscade book and the role of the Dover Patrol in WW1. While HMS Ambuscade didn't participate, I made a mental note to look further. At the York show, I picked up this book by Christopher Sandford on the subject from Dave Lanchester.

When we think of raids on occupied Europe, we gravitate to WW2 and the commandos. However, the Zeebrugge raid of April 1918 had many elements we would see in the later conflict and some of the same personalities.

The raid was a British-led naval operation aimed at blocking the German-held port of Bruges-Zeebrugge in Belgium. The port was a significant base for German U-boats that were wreaking havoc on Allied shipping, sinking two Allied ships a day on average. The raid involved a daring attempt to sink old ships at the harbour's entrance, blocking access to German submarines. The plan involved three old cruisers, HMS Thetis, HMS Intrepid, and HMS Iphigenia, packed with explosives and scuttled into the harbour entrance. Simultaneously, a diversionary attack was launched on the nearby port of Ostend to draw German forces away from Zeebrugge.

Sandford starts with the strategic background in the last year of the war. Zeebrugge was home to a force of 36 U-boats, which were causing heavy casualties to allied merchant shipping, despite the best efforts of the Dover Patrol to contain them, sinking six U-boats a month in the early months of 1918. Bombing the port wasn't an option because aircraft couldn't carry a heavy enough payload, and attempts to advance on land up the coast had failed. 

The defences of Zeebrugge were considerable. 232 guns protected the harbour, plus 128 machine gun nests, searchlights, and a garrison of around 700 men. Sea access was heavily mined, and heavy silt created natural defences. Sandford takes us through the options that the commander, Roger Keyes, considered and eventually got approval for. Back in the government, Churchill was also an enthusiastic supporter of the raid. He would recall Keyes to be the first Director of Combined Operations in June 1940.

Most of the book focuses on the raid itself in graphic detail, with many descriptions of outstanding bravery. Six VCs were awarded, some by unit ballot. This wasn't a clean commando raid, silent and violent. The cruiser, HMS Vindictive, carried most of the landing force of seamen and marines onto the mole. They suffered staggering casualties, yet amazingly, the ship managed to sail away. The mole itself probably saved the ship from a critical lower hit, but the superstructure was wrecked. 

Despite heavy casualties and the partial failure of some elements of the operation, the raid was ultimately considered a strategic success by the Royal Navy. While the harbour wasn't permanently sealed, it was sufficiently obstructed to disrupt U-boat operations temporarily and force the Germans to deploy additional resources to clear the blockage. Others regarded the achievements as modest for such casualties. Admiral Fisher was one critic, quoted as saying, 'No such folly was ever devised by fools as that at Zeebrugge.' If it was a failure, it was a classic British 'honourable' failure, which certainly raised morale at an important period in the war.

Although I am not beyond a bit of harbour building on the wargame table, Zeebrugge is beyond me. However, I have started a modest WW1 naval force and plan to refight some Dover Patrol actions. 

Next week, I am off to London for naval archival research at Greenwich and Kew. That may provide some further inspiration!