Kaiserschlacht battle report REPORT UP

[thejammedgatling]

Captain Gibbs of the 4th Suffolks looked at his pocket watch. The piece of shrapnel that had torn private Hughes hand off had also smashed the glass, but the hands still worked. He had to admire the German engineering. It was three o'clock. Would Jerry try again today or call it off until the morning? He had now been cut off since mid morning with only the two sections of 'C' company left holding a small section of the town. The old man was dead. Only lieutenant Hutchinson and the chaplain remained among the officers. The Royal Scots on his left had retired in the night. The survivors of the Dorsets on the right had struggled into the town two days ago reporting most of their men had been wiped out in the first massive artillery bombardment or in fleeing. At least they had brought a Lewis gun with them. Between him and his own lines lay the enemy. His men were exhausted and down to only a few rounds each. How many assaults had there been now? Eight? Ten? Each time the Germans were pushed back but managed to hold onto a little more of the town. Fortunately for his men many of the men now attacking didn't seem to show much savvy...bunching up too much and not using cover. Troops sent from the Russian front no doubt. Not so the feared Stormtroopers though. They had arrived sometime that morning, Already they had captured the eastern part of town and driven his men out. They were a different kettle of fish altogether.

He was dimly aware of a change in light on his right side. A man was standing in the doorway and had been talking to him, but his shattered eardrum prevented him from hearing what he was saying. He turned his head and got to have a good look at the man. His clothes were torn and his head bandaged and covered in mud.But he recognised his stripe as one of the divisional runners. Somehow in all the confusion he had got through.

Ten minutes later when the man had left to look for what passed as an aid station, Gibbs raised his field glasses and looked out past the town to the west. He could vaguely hear the short report and thump of light artillery and the pitter patter of machine guns, but a low hill kept him from seeing what was happening. Well, if it was a relief party then they had better jolly well hurry it up was all he could think. He called out to Sergeant O'Leary and the solid frame of the Irishman appeared at the window of the grain store. 'Sar!"
"Sergeant, tell the men to stand to. Fix bayonets and finish scavenging for any ammunition they can find. It seems Division think we're worth saving.."









More soon.

[marianas_gamer]

Very Evocative, ooking forward to the rest.
LB

[cram]

Outstanding   

[aircav]

That looks bloody brilliant 

[Old Goat]

Very very good.

Well done that man.

[swordman]

very nice pictures

[thejammedgatling]

thankyou

I should be getting the rest of the pics off my right hand man Simon next weekend. So in the meantime here's a colour pic to show you how the table looked in the flesh:



It's still a 'work in progress' with the sidewalks and various other bits to be done, and walled sections and gardens. But starting to pull together.

[tim in saskatoon]

Great report and photos! Thanks for sharing!

[Funghy-Fipps]

Superb!

[Traveler Man]

Very atmospheric, nicely done! 

[Mr.J]

Great write up and lovely pictures too.

[Ignatieff]

Love it!

[6milPhil]

Impressed to the point of being embossed!

Top show old thing.

[General]

Looks great!  How did you make the explosions?

[thejammedgatling]

Looks great!  How did you make the explosions?

Well apparently there was a tutorial in one of the mags..WI I think about them. I found this out in retrospect...mine are basically just lengths of heavy wire that have been put into a wooden base. I bought some three inch MDF discs from a craft shop then popped some timber cut offs onto them. Then drilled and glued the wire in place, making sure they were coming out at reasonable angles based on the blast point. Different lengths with the longest tending to be directly above the centre. I 'skewered' and PVA glued on chunks of car cleaning sponge I had..the finer nearer the top. Once that had dried I took some woodland scenics fine foliage and pva'd them in place. Pva does not have huge initial grab, so I had to do this in about three stages. You can get away with the larger chunks of foam at the base showing through.

Then a spray with black aerosol then touch up with a mocha coffee colour nearer the tops of the explosions. Ultimately the explosion will mostly be made up of the earth that it is throwing up, so the lighter colour works well.

I saw these on the Great War site some years back and always wanted to make them. Really cheap materials except the flock, which was about $24 a tub and only made four large markers.

Want to try making water ones next...anyone got a tutorial for those?