Setting Jhamjarhistan Ablaze!

[Mark Plant]

You think this is HISTORY……!

Do you doubt it for one minute? One of the features of the Russian Civil War and associated bits is just how weird reality was.

Ungern-Shternburg is as mental as anything in Jhamjarhistan. The more I read about the outer fringes, the weirder it becomes.

The Whites did actually field some armoured tractors, so the tractor tachanka is well within bounds.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

The Whites did actually field some armoured tractors, so the tractor tachanka is well within bounds.

Well, blow me down with a feather, I didn't know that. Thank you.

You are right, very much a time of the weird and crazy, which is what attracted me here in the first place! Consequently of course, it suits the Gentlemen of Much-Piddling down to the ground. Here is the Mission and Vision Statement of said Gentlemen:

The foibles, pettifogging, quirks, idiosyncranicities, waffling and hyperbole of four charming, sophisticated and erudite gentlemen of distinction, who rise above the hoi-polloi and riff-raff to bring a touch of style and class to wargaming.

[Poiter50]

ROTFPML

Well, blow me down with a feather, I didn't know that. Thank you.

You are right, very much a time of the weird and crazy, which is what attracted me here in the first place! Consequently of course, it suits the Gentlemen of Much-Piddling down to the ground. Here is the Mission and Vision Statement of said Gentlemen:

The foibles, pettifogging, quirks, idiosyncranicities, waffling and hyperbole of four charming, sophisticated and erudite gentlemen of distinction, who rise above the hoi-polloi and riff-raff to bring a touch of style and class to wargaming.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

ROTFPML

 

The Whites did actually field some armoured tractors, so the tractor tachanka is well within bounds.

Thanks, Mark Plant. I've found a photo now, cheers.

[WarlordFish]

Those are Medium Mk A Whippets in the Tzars service my good sir, not armored tractors.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Those are Medium Mk A Whippets in the Tzars service my good sir, not armored tractors.

Many thanks for that, WarlordFish. It was the labelling on the Alamy site that I believed! Thanks for the correction.

A batch of armored tractors part of British aid to the White Army under General Denikin during the Russian Civil War - Image ID: B9403R

[Mark Plant]

I have photos, they are in the book Tanks of the Civil War (танки гражданской войны by армада)

Some of the text, and some pretty rubbish photos are at:  http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/tractor/bronetr0.php

Not all the tractors were as heavily armoured. Some were just tractors with sheets of metal stuck round.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

I have photos, they are in the book Tanks of the Civil War (танки гражданской войны by армада)

Some of the text, and some pretty rubbish photos are at:  http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/WWII/tractor/bronetr0.php

Not all the tractors were as heavily armoured. Some were just tractors with sheets of metal stuck round.

Many thanks for the link, Mark. Very useful information there. I have found a few photos, mainly the captured Bullock-Lombard tractor, I think?













Maybe Trotsky needs another tractor in Jhamjarhistan!   

[Mark Plant]

Yeah, those are the ones.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Snapcase has cobbled together an HQ Section for Snapforce. Various soldiers in transit at Peshawar have been seconded into this section. Part of HQ Section will contain the lead signals element and the rest, the heavy weapons element.

First in are Private Stan Laurel and Private Oliver Hardy under the redoubtable Sergeant Major Finlayson. They form the mortar crew and are seen here learning the ropes under the forbidding gaze of Major Hector McSnapcase (a distant cousin on the distaff side of the Snapcase family). All members of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, known to the rest of the British Army as the Agile and Bolton Wanderers!

[Bravo Six]

Nice work on those Snappy!! 

[2010sunburst]

Now you have my undying respect.  Not only great figures and backstory, you’ve name checked the genius that was Stan and Babe.  The Finlayson figure in particular is utterly correct.  This has really made my day!  Just superb.

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Thanks, Bravo Six.

Now you have my undying respect.  Not only great figures and backstory, you’ve name checked the genius that was Stan and Babe.  The Finlayson figure in particular is utterly correct.  This has really made my day!  Just superb.

Thank you, my friend. I do love that 'Bonnie Scotland' movie. "Sandy" McLaurel and "Angus" McHardy! James Finlayson, superb!   

[syrinx0]

Your threads are always enlightening as well as of course being hilarious. 

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Your threads are always enlightening as well as of course being hilarious. 

Many thanks, my friend!

Snappers left his office with something of a furtive air about him. He was about to indulge himself in his daily selfish pleasure session. During the afternoon heat, a lot of the base-wallahs were kipping on their charpoys and Snapcase felt this the best time of the day for his guilty secret. He was going to have a dekko at Genevieve! He was wont to give Genevieve a good buffing with plenty of elbow grease whenever he could find the time. As he bimbled in the heat of the Indian summer, he imagined himself polishing her silver-plated radiator, bringing a lovely sheen to her glossy black mud guards and running boards and finally, polishing that beautiful plum coloured bodywork to a fine finish. At Genevieve’s wheel, Snappers had won the annual London to Brighton Run in 1910. Genevieve had been delivered to Snapcase Hall, Much-Piddling by none other than Charles Rolls himself, an old family friend. Charles popped in with the new automobile on his way to a flying display in Bournemouth.

Rounding the back of the cook house and heading towards his bungalow, he beheld a rather odd sight, at first thought, a mirage? Maybe one or two many pinks gins in the Mess?

There appeared to be a junkyard on wheels parked outside his bungalow! Not only that, but there appeared to be a performing troupe of grease-monkeys swarming all over said junkyard.

“What the devil…” he spluttered, lost for words. “It can’t be…”, but it was!

The transport-johnny at Peshawar, Aggers had as we have seen, been collecting any available vehicles for the beano to Jhamjarhistan. Snapcase had thought Genevieve a secret but Aggers had seen him sneaking off at odd times of the day and had discovered his secret. Under orders to collect every available vehicle from Kenwood-Chef, Aggers had put three of his Royal Army Service Corps (known to the rest of the Army as Run Away, Someone’s Coming) bods onto preparing the Snapcase Roller for it’s trip to Djelibad.

Accordingly, Driver Jerry Clarkson, who resembled nothing more than a large orangutan was hanging off the running board sighting his SMLE. The diminutive form of Driver Dickie Hammond was squeezed into the back seat, sandwiched between two oil drums clutching a Lewis gun almost as big as himself. Lance Corporal Jimmy May had bagged the front seat and the only attractive thing left about this dismaying spectacle was the driver, Flight Sergeant Fi Bruce of the WRAF.

Never had Snapcase felt that his flabber had been so gasted! Gone was lovingly polished glossy plum bodywork. Even his black running boards had been lavishly covered in sand coloured paint. Genevieve was a mess and there was nothing he could do about it. Back to the Mess for a few stiff ones, he thought with a heavy heart.

To be continued...