Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Interwar => Topic started by: FramFramson on July 23, 2015, 09:43:15 PM
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So the League article on Wikipedia and other locations concentrates mostly on League activities, history, and failures. What I am actually trying to find out is a bit more on the nitty-gritty side of things:
- Were meeting ever held outside of the League palace in Geneva? If so, where? Was this common or exceptional?
- Who provided security for dignitaries attending League meetings. Were nations exclusively expected to provide their own staff, or were the Swiss police, the Swiss military, or another national force responsible for some or all security?
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An interesting set of questions there and I can't say I have definite answers.
The palace itself is in a public park, so I guess fell under the municipality in the first instance. Geneva's cantonal, or 'state police' are more likely to have had the resources. I'm fairly confident some military presence would be evident too, if only for ceremonial purposes.
I imagine inside the palace there would be some form of security, funded by the League as an entity.
Almost certainly diplomats would have small security detachments with them and meetings 'off campus' and under the radar would have taken place... even if they took the form of a dinner engagement at a restaurant.
I know of nothing that might provide definite answers, but it's not like it's something I've looked into before.
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Mainly I was wondering in case we wanted to run a scenario where some ~nefarious agents~ were trying to kidnap or kill a League dignitary or someone scheduled to speak at the League.
Of course, I don't have a scale model of the palace ( ;D ), so obviously it wouldn't take place right on the grounds. Really, since the answer seems so obscure, I suspect I could use whatever I like - Gendarmes, uniformed soldiers, even men in suits.
Although that brings up a new question about Swiss forces, so I think I will repurpose this thread:
I can't actually seem to find any detailed information on Swiss civil OR military forces any time in the first half of the 20th century, let alone in the interwar period. What would Swiss military uniforms or civil Gendarmerie uniforms have looked like in the '30's?
If I painted a French Gendarme, is it close enough that he might pass for Swiss? As I recall, the French uniforms are black (very dark navy?) with red trim, or is that only postwar? EDIT: Wait, I think the red trim was Belgian Gendarmes and the French ones had a white/cream trim? Still no idea what Swiss ones would have had.
EDIT: Hm, the Paris police have a nice page showing their uniform history at least. http://amicale-police-patrimoine.fr/catalogue%20uniformes.html
I guess the large Kepi trim band was actually only for higher ranks (inspector, etc). Also interesting that there's a mix of riding pants and regular pants, which is good because that gives me more options to convert or use other figures (since the only actual proper Gendarme figure is the Artizan one, which I do have).
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Swiss army uniforms in 1930s:
http://i65.servimg.com/u/f65/12/75/00/21/800px-10.jpg
edit:
Swiss army military K9 trainers:
http://cache4.asset-cache.net/gc/3427030-december-1937-training-army-police-dogs-for-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=NWe76v8CAmJftqNNIA8KZu8ZgRss3YV9o3qtsemelGZcVv36YSajKs%2BpcOP8aQGO
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Very nice! Perfect!
Those helmets are interesting. They look almost like the Czech or Russian ones.
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Found some more pictures of French interwar Gendarmes.
(http://images.delcampe.com/img_large/auction/000/242/043/564_001.jpg)
(http://p0.storage.canalblog.com/01/72/406444/39769554.jpg)
(http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/79668071-29th-september-1930-french-gendarmes-admire-a-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=Z0zsWpN2ukUDXYqF4boPJTxWtblIN5vgykHrRvwMEbvk6FtMTuQflDi9n3YNBDXGLKSlHcIzrYJVdGTjJtueQg%3D%3D)
Seems there's enough variety that I'd have a lot of leeway in converting figures. Some have riding pants and boots, some don't, some have a sam browne belt, some don't, some have the cap trim, some don't.
SO... if there's a Swiss one that's close to any of those, you could probably use the same figure for more games. Just need to find that actual Swiss uniforms, haha.
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Was finally able to find a picture of some Swiss interwar Gendarmes
(http://www.meyrin.ch/jahia/webdav/site/meyrin/shared/images/archives/accident%20%C3%A0%20l%27angle%20rte%20de%20Meyrin-av.%20Vaudagne,%20ann%C3%A9es%2030_Mus%C3%A9e%20de%20la%20Police%20(GE).jpg)
It's black and white, but they're quite obviously a pale colour. My guess is that they're same colour scheme as postwar Swiss police, a medium to light grey (probably similar if not flat-out identical grey to the military uniforms pocoloco posted above), with bright blue trim. So no chance of using French Gendarmes as stand-ins.