ftp://Bigsworth-Bombard Preamble there’s quite a lot of this background. It’s meant to set the game in context but I know it’ll be TLDR for lots of people🙁
The Armoured Vehicles Development and Proving Directorate (AVDPD) at Penny Hasset in Borsetshire is a little known British Army base, tucked into a fold in the land where the vast expanse of Haset Plain meets the forbidding splendour of the Borsetshire Wild Moors. The base specialises in the assessment of secret prototypes of armoured vehicles. It’s staffed by a mixture of military personnel, research scientists (boffins) and civil service administrators.
Boffins, being boffins, sometimes go off-piste and decide to pursue their own projects. Dr Peggatty Lytemuff and her grammar school lab assistant Arnold Hovis for example, have developed a horizontal bomb thrower. After studying the work of Munroe, Neumann and Mohaupt they have produced a projectile with enormous potential as an anti-armour weapon. They have also designed a weapon to project this weapon horizontally.
(http://velodoug.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/img_2951.jpeg)
What they have is a Projector for Infantry to use Against (or Anti) Tanks. They were musing over what to call this device when The Top Brass got involved. The Top Brass were anxious about the possibility of a Socialist or Fascist invasion of Borsetshire which may result in the work of the Directorate falling into the hands of these extremists. Desperately looking for protection, they decided that their best, reasonably local, ally was Chief Superintendent Ronald Bigsworth-Hill and his Wiltshire Police Flying Column https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=144351.0 (https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=144351.0). Therefore, they have decided to impose the name the Bigsworth-Bombard on Dr Lytemuff’s invention. They hope that they’ll be protected from the worst of the war by flattering the dynamic young copper.
However, Peggatty and Arnold, like many young people, are an idealistic pair. They are sympathetic to the Socialist Alliance and are disturbed by the idea that their invention - one that may have a huge rôle to play in upcoming battles - may be given to their likely opponents. This is where Harold Lovebush enters the story.
Harold is the gardener at The Armoured Vehicles Development and Proving Directorate. The facility occupies a huge site, most of which is horribly scarred by the vehicle testing so the top administrators, boffins and military brass-hats like to have the main admin and senior residential area surrounded by shrubs, flowers and lawns. It’s Harold’s job to keep all this greenery in perfect order. He enjoys this but also seethes with bitterness because of the way he was treated as a wounded veteran of the Great War. After being discharged from the army, he returned to his native city of Liverpool and there joined the Independent Labour Party. He became interested in his father’s allotment and this lead to a job with the Parks and Gardens department of the City Council. After a few years as a council gardener and attending night school lessons organised by the Workers Educational Association, he landed his current job at the AVDPD. He has recently taken an interest in Lytemuff and Hovis’ anti-tank invention and now works, in his spare time, as a tester of the weapon, aided by his young assistant Jimmy Dingleberry. He quickly realised that the inventors were not happy at the idea of the weapon being used by the enemies of the revolution so he offered to use his socialist contacts in Liverpool to work out a plan to get possession of the Bombard before it was given to the Wiltshire police.
(https://velodoug.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_6254.jpeg)
Harold and Jimmy take time off from gardening to test The Bombard
At about the same time that Harold made his offer, the Socialist Alliance was concentrating a platoon just to the north of Borsetshire with the intention of invading the county. The HQ cadre of the platoon was formed by members of the Liverpool Socialist Enclave Brigade. Harold’s message about the Bombard reached them a few days before the platoon’s concentration was expected. The platoon commander, Comrade Major Bessie Braddock, a firebrand Trotskyist, decided that a bold covert operation could secure the Bombard before it went elsewhere. It was housed at an outstation of the main Directorate complex. It was guarded by a detachment of the Borsetshire Constabulary who, whilst being very competent county coppers, were ill-equipped to act as armed guards. Dr Lytemuff made arrangements for herself and Arnold Hovis to be away from the station on a suitable moonless night and Comrade Major Braddock put together a team to make a raid to steal the Bombard.
The outstation where the Bombard project is based is known, unsurprisingly, as Outstation Bombard.
The team consisted of the HQ cadre made up of:
Leader: Comrade Major Bessie Braddock, the charismatic, firebrand Trotskyist, seconded from the Liverpool Socialist Enclave Brigade.
Second in command and Lewis gunner: Comrade Captain "Scouse’ Shelagh.
Commissar and Lewis gun second: Mildred "The Prof" van Dyke
They are joined by:
Flora Fawner, ostensibly the librarian at Penny Hasset Public Library but actually a Socialist Alliance agent tasked with monitoring The Directorate.
Gracie Meadows a popular singer well known in Borsetshire as a regular in local theatres, halls and clubs. She is also a Socialist Alliance agent.
(https://velodoug.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/img_6137.jpeg)
At a quiet country churchyard, Comrade Major Braddock assembles her team.
From the left: Flora Fawner; Comrade Captain Scouse Shelagh; Comrade Major Braddock; Commisssar van Dyke; Gracie Meadows
Next - The Raid
Doug
.