I played another game in what is becoming an ongoing saga set in East Anglia, in the early part of WWll and feel impelled to write about it….sorry.
The German army has pushed into northern France, the British retreating as fast as possible from Dunkirk have arrived back in Britain in a state of confusion. During the rush through Belgium, elements of the German advance guard found sufficient shipping to send a substantial force into East Anglia. The Royal Navy was focused on the evacuation and so this allowed the German army to create a second front for the British High Command to worry about.
The landings were totally unopposed apart from one or two local land owners who had quickly mobilised some of their tenants and armed with shotguns, pitchforks and sundry small arms of unknown provenance tried to stem the Teutonic tide.
So far unsuccessfully.
Two of the local yokels as the German’s referred to them, are a Mad Lord Snapcase a distant relation of the Devonshire Snapcases and the other is Sir Douglas D’Emfour a gentleman farmer well known throughout East Anglia for his prize bullocks. They win prizes at many of the local fairs, sometimes even abroad, in places as foreign as Cambridgeshire and Rutland.
Little Piddling just before the German troops closed in.Both these gentlemen were captured in Little Piddling fairly quickly, in a mission code named Hello Hello. This is Nighthawk Calling.
Greater Snoring a quiet East Anglian town prior to the dramatic rescue.These two old duffers were held captive in Greater Snoring but a daring rescue was undertaken by Johnny Vagabond, First World War scout pilot, and his accomplice Bunty Hampster-Crust together with the aid of various elements of the local W.I. and Girl Guides. In spite of some difficult moments, the rescue attempt succeeded in a spectacular fashion and all the participants escaped the might of the local German garrison.
Indeed mostly in one piece.
Then in a most ill advised undertaking the Mad Lord Snapcase insisted on freeing the local citizens who had been rounded up following his rescue. This went very badly when Vaggers was unable to charm his way into the camp and in frustration shot the gate guard.
Crashing through the gate in a 15 ton truck didn’t go as well as had been hoped and it rolled over shortly after impact, killing one of the Nuns held in the camp and injuring another.
Hilde Spankwurst in disguise as Eva Strum.Everyone in the rescue mission was captured and Vaggers was himself shot in the leg, fortunately not his goal scoring leg which was something of a relief. Well everyone was captured except for Hilde Spankwurst, twin sister of Elise Spankwurst but that’s a very long story and fortunately for you hasn’t been written yet.
Anyway Hilde or Spankers as she was more familiarly known, escaped and made it back to Edna May Whites house in Greater Snoring.
What do you mean! Who’s Edna May White?
This is Edna May White an enigmatic character named after a fishing boat, you will need to read the previous tales of daring don’t that make up this saga to get a greater understanding of the events that happened in East Anglia at this time.
Although be prepared, and I will say this only once, you will need a constant supply of hot coffee and strong spirits before attempting this strenuous task. Careful research of my blog archives and indeed some references on LAF should reveal most of the details although some things will still be obscure, especially for those with the attention span of a goldfish, however this is generally known as the fog of war, or sometimes, poor continuity by the narrator.
The story begins early in the morning, just as day is breaking and the camp guard’s alertness is at its lowest ebb.
And continues over on my blog because it’s a long story, containing some interesting discussion such as “can a convoy of 2 vehicles be called a convoy”, “why is the Halt sign on the entry barrier the wrong way round”, “can they repair the bullet holes in Mrs Whites Roadster without her noticing them” “is impersonating a German soldier a bit like Vaudeville only more dangerous” and innumerable other esoteric subjects.
The Rescuers
On the left is Hilde Spankwurst, alias Eva Strum, alias Kamilla Alltmhann, and generally known as Spankers.
The three Gals on the right might look a little like members of the Mabel Street Mob and if you thought so, then you’d be correct. You may have seen them recently in Venice looking for the Missing Millions back in the late 1920’s, this is a more recent photo, although they don’t appear to have aged much. (
That report is a few posts down)
America became a little hot for them in the 30’s and as you will have realised most of them have European sounding names. So they decided Europe needed a little help running the war effort and being good hearted souls they came back to help out a little. They were quite keen on working in something called the Black Market which sounded quite interesting work and apparently paid better than the NAAFI.
The figure in red is Miss Scarlet a recent member of the Cluedo Club, a secretive organisation run by the famous Industrialist and Financier Mrs Peacock. She has what they call “a hidden addenda” one that very few people are aware of. Fortunately I’m one of those people but sworn to secrecy – sorry.
Anyway the crux of this post is that years ago I read an AAR by an American chap, Afrik and he played out a couple of games using the Pulp Alley Rules. His premise was that agents would infiltrate a secret research establishment and steal some plans for something or other. I copied his game report and saved it for 10 years apparently, before stealing his ideas and using them here.
Instead of a shooting and killing game, the agents would use guile and cunning in opposed rolls against the guards to convince them that they were kosher and let them further into the complex and eventually steal the plans.
In my case, it was an attempt to rescue the prisoners without killing anyone. Yes I know!
If you’re wondering how it went, this is the link.
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-rescue-of-rescuers.htmlAnd if you’re interested in ongoing research into the events in East Anglia I’ve created a label named East Anglia on the blog to make it easier if you’re awake at 04 hundred hours with nothing better to do.
Cheers
