On The Day, Went The Eagle's Landing Well?

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

That's posh, that is.

I like how this is has developed.

Cheers, chaps, thank you.

Arlequin, you chaps are rather posh in Cheshire, down here in Devon it's plain old Chulmleigh. Snapcase Hall is a couple of miles from Chulmleigh which is how the bulldog got his name. Cholmondeley-Warner would have been funnier though! 

[voltan]

At the Much-Piddling Cricket Club, Lord Snapcase is enjoying a cigar and surveying the wicket at lunchtime with his faithful bulldog, Chulmleigh. 'Old' Scrotum (the aged and wrinkled family retainer) is about to serve a liquid lunch for His Lordship. The visitors (Market-Snodsbury CC) don't look very likely to make the required runs for a win! Especially after they've been fed Dame Edith FitzPilchard's famous Plum Duff at lunch.

I can't help wonder how bad Market-Snodsbury's eleven are to let Much-Piddling score 730 runs. I just hope no-one's given them any weapons, it could be down right dangerous.

[Arlequín]

Arlequin, you chaps are rather posh in Cheshire, down here in Devon it's plain old Chulmleigh.

I failed on all levels there, Cholmondeley is (just about) in Shropshire, where I used to live. I pass through it so often I forget there's a county border. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I can't help wonder how bad Market-Snodsbury's eleven are to let Much-Piddling score 730 runs.

voltan, I made this sign by searching Google and only after it was finished did I think how unlikely the score was!     However, once the Market Snodsbury eleven have consumed the sumptuous lunch provided at Much-Piddling they are very unlikely to go for any runs, only trying to hit boundaries! A devious trick by the Much-Piddling team but one that has reaped rich rewards in the past in the Mid-Devon Cricket league.

Cholmondeley is (just about) in Shropshire

Arlequin, that's odd, I had a look on the map and Cholmondeley has a place to the east of it called Chorley.

In Devon, Chulmleigh has a village to the east called Chawleigh (where I live)! How weird.   

[Lord Raglan]

What a fantastic project, simply lovely!!!

[Arlequín]

Arlequin, that's odd, I had a look on the map and Cholmondeley has a place to the east of it called Chorley.

In Devon, Chulmleigh has a village to the east called Chawleigh (where I live)! How weird.   

Regional variation perhaps? You lot do talk funny down there after all.   

Chorley/Chawleigh = Ceorls' ley/leah/leagh = Clearing of the Freemen, as opposed to that of the Thane, who the town is reputed to be named after. Oddly exactly the same name (Ceolmund) is given as the root for Cholmondeley, which never developed into a town, lying so close to Whitchurch and Nantwich as it does.

Edit: I was right, it is in Cheshire. 

[Hammers]

Regional variation perhaps? You lot do talk funny down there after all.   

Chorley/Chawleigh = Ceorls' ley/leah/leagh = Clearing of the Freemen, as opposed to that of the Thane, who the town is reputed to be named after. Oddly exactly the same name (Ceolmund) is given as the root for Cholmondeley, which never developed into a town, lying so close to Whitchurch and Nantwich as it does.

Edit: I was right, it is in Cheshire. 

This is all very fascinating.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

What a fantastic project, simply lovely!!!

Thank you, sir!

You lot do talk funny down there after all

Ged on? In Deb'm? Ark at ‘ee, alrite my boody!

Chorley/Chawleigh = Ceorls' ley/leah/leagh = Clearing of the Freemen, as opposed to that of the Thane, who the town is reputed to be named after. Oddly exactly the same name (Ceolmund) is given as the root for Cholmondeley, which never developed into a town, lying so close to Whitchurch and Nantwich as it does.

Thanks, that is very interesting. I'm fascinated by old place names and surnames. As you can see from the Domesday extract below, Chawleigh was originally called Calvelie which I think meant 'place of the calves. It's also been spelt Calverleigh and Caluelie.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Meanwhile, back at Much-Piddling the local garage and filling-station is now open for business. The garage is run by Montgomery Futtock but everyone calls him 'Old' Futtock. 'Young' Futtock (his son) is the chauffeur up at the Snapcase Hall. The first photo shows 'Old' Futtock tinkering away outside his garage.

[Arlequín]

As you can see from the Domesday extract below, Chawleigh was originally called Calvelie which I think meant 'place of the calves. It's also been spelt Calverleigh and Caluelie.

"Zo my little Saxon ami, how are we the spelling of zat? No idea? Ca va, I weel rite it zo, in a hundred years, who will care?". 

... and yes, back to the '30s. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

"Zo my little Saxon ami, how are we the spelling of zat? No idea? Ca va, I weel rite it zo, in a hundred years, who will care?".

So true!            


Snapcase of Devenescire!

[Doug ex-em4]

I'm still looking for a dead body to hang on the water wheel as per The Eagle Has Landed!

May I respectfully suggest that Staffelkapitän Peter Wilhelm Stahl would be a perfect candidate?

These additions (mill, cricket ground, garage) are making me leak with excitement.

Doug

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Try not to leak on the carpet!   

May I respectfully suggest that Staffelkapitän Peter Wilhelm Stahl would be a perfect candidate?

Ah, the inter-service rivalries are coming into play. I love it! Last time it was Scotland Yard and MI5, this time it's the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine.   

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

............ and now the back story, or at least, Chapter 1. This will be the over-arching story with detailed mission sheets, special character rules and victory objectives being issued to the players nearer the time.

On The Day, Went The Eagle’s Landing Well?

Chapter 1: Stahl Takes It Rough

     “Achtung, prepare for a very rough landing!” Staffelkapitän Stahl’s voice came over the intercom. “Assume crash positions, we are too low to bail out!”. Those who hadn’t already, strapped themselves in as best as they could as the Tante Ju (Junkers Ju 52) bucketed around in the storm. Stahl was frantically looking for a field big enough to put the heavy Junkers down. The storm was completely unexpected, coming as it did after two weeks of unseasonably good weather in September 1940. The meteorological officer from the Grossraum Wettererkundungsstaffel back at Juvincourt airfield had predicted strong winds but nothing like this. In the flashes of lightning outside the cockpit the words Immelmann II could be read below the cockpit perspex. This had been Hitler’s personal Ju 52 until the outbreak of war and was now in the possession of Kampfgeschwader 200. It was being flown by Staffelkapitän Peter Wilhelm Stahl, Iron Cross First and Second Class and German Cross in Gold. Stahl was head of a detachment within KG 200 responsible for flying large aircraft (including captured allied planes) on special long-range flights under difficult navigational conditions.

   It was this unseasonably good weather which had allowed the German 9th and 16th Armies (Army Group A) under Field Marshal von Rundstedt to cross the channel and establish a bridgehead on the English coast between Portsmouth in the west and Ramsgate in the east. Initial signs were that Unternehmen Seelöwe (Operation Sealion) was proceeding to plan. Army Group C under Field Marshal von Leeb was ready for embarkation at Cherbourg for the second landing at Lyme Regis. It was intended that the 6th Army would advance northwards from Lyme Regis through Taunton aiming for the vital docks at Bristol. The overall strategic aim was for the German forces to advance north and establish a line from Gloucester to Maldon. The Germans, having taken London assumed that the British would negotiate for peace. Churchill had repeatedly stated that the British forces would not surrender, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”. The countryside west of the Taunton-Lyme Regis stop-line would be left until the surrender and then elements of the German 6th Army would be used to subjugate Devon and Cornwall.

   As Stahl battled with the controls of his Tante Ju, his mind skipped back to his meeting with Reichsmarschall Göring earlier that week. “I want you to go to Devon ahead of the army and set up a provincial governor who will be responsible to the Luftwaffe and not those damn fools in the Oberkommando des Heeres!” the Reichsmarschall had expostulated. The rivalry between Göring’s beloved Luftwaffe and his rivals in the Heer was legendary. “Our glorious pilots have smashed the RAF. Oberst Leiste here will give you the details. I want you to land at RAF Winkleigh and meet Roderick Spode who is to become Reichsprotektor Spode of the Protektorate of Devon and Cornwall. Flugkapitän Hanna Reitsch will accompany you to show Spode how highly we value him. Oberleutnant Manfred Schimmel has been given a top-secret code-book to deliver which will enable Spode to take control in advance of the half-witted Heer!”. With that, Stahl was dismissed from the august presence and driven away from Carinhall to re-join his squadron in occupied France. Now here he was, five miles short of Winkleigh airfield, all instruments dead, trying to find a landing site in an electrical storm. In a flash of lightning, Stahl saw his chance and took it. A big field apparently clear of obstructions. Shouting to his navigator Leutnant Ernst Sabartovski to obtain their position, Stahl readied himself for a crash-landing and brought the Ju 52 down onto the field. Too late, he saw the old abandoned cars in a line across the field which the British used to inhibit German glider landings for the invasion. With a grinding crash and a roar of the three powerful BMW engines, Immelmann II turned on its starboard wing as the port wing tore away from the fuselage.

To be continued........

[Ballardian]

 A great way of establishing a series of linked games, I look forward to the AAR's