My 20mm interwar armored might...

[Vintage Wargaming]

At the same time as my current interest in interwar research I've made significant further progress on my interwar wargames force. This has included raiding my Blitzkrieg British for usable pieces, buying odds and ends of new stuff, a fair bit of painting and repainting, and also some marking uop of vehicles with decals. I have also thought  a little bit more about some of the components. I would like to be able to field it in either 1920s Mechanised Force/early and late 1930s versions, by swapping out a few vehicles.

First of all - I have boosted the mediums that form the basis of the tank force. This involved finding a couple of Medium Mk II**s I had forgotten about (unknown manufacturer) and ordering three more mediums from Frontline. These last were a small disappointment as they came without the alternative cupola with command figure - apparently they had changed these a while ago without changing the picture on the web site. I will just have to continue to aspire to Milicast without a chance of (a) affording them or (b) competently assembling them.

Anyway, i now can boast three companiea each of three medium tanks, led by the Giesbers Medium Mk III and thetwo Mk II**s, with assorted Frontline making up the numbers




Next up two companies of Light Tanks - each of a Wespe/Retrokit Vickers Command tank (poetic licence) plus two Raventhorpe Mk IIs
There is a third company (front of picture) of two Frontline Vickers Command and a Matadoe MK I AA tank



Heavy tanks are the Giesbers Independent and an SHQ Infantry Tank MK I



A later option are these four Airfix/JB Models MK VI bs



Armoured car section - two Ready to Roll Rolls Royce 1920 pattern plus a Frontline Crossley



SP artillery - Giesbers Birch Guns



Heavy AA artillery - Raventhorpe 3" gun, Skybirds heavy gun, repainted Oxford Diecast Scammell Pioneer




Towed artillery - SHQ 18 pdrs and Light Dragon Mk !!s, Cirtroen Kegreese battery staff cars From EWM and possibly  S and S Morris Battery Staff Car



Truck mounted 18 pdr and tender (KeiKCraft Thorneycroft Parcel Van and coversion with Reviresco naval gun)



Lorried Transport
R to L KeilKraft parcel van as ambulance, Matador Morris Commercial D, Peco/Merit Thorneycoft Lorry



Cars
big selection here of resin, metal and diecast, including Trux, Oxford, Scalelink



Radio and Specialist Trucks - all Skytrex I think




Platoon trucks - SHQ and resin



MG carriers Den Bels Autocar, scratchbuilt Burford Kegresses (still awaiting their rivets)



Carden Loyds - EWM at front, including a Belgian 47mm armed one, on second row SHQ at back, lovely Moonlite Modelworks at front with trailers



Bren Carriers (which can also stand in as MG Carriers MK 1) - unknown resin manufacturer



Vickers Utility Tractors (two EWM abd two resin - possibly FAA)



MG Battalion (Skybirds Vickers and crews in gasmasks)



LDV/Militia from RH Models Irish Civil War Range, with a coupe of characters from Dark Dream Studio's plastic set Pilots of WW1




Scots and English battalions, from RH Models with Britannia and IT Figures officers




EWM 1908 pattern webbing infantry



The bren carriers, Vickers utility tractors, and platoon trucks will equip the later version of the MG battalion, the Carden Loyds and Burford Kegresses the earlier. I have some Zvezda 2 pdrs for a/t dutues but also am hoping to put together some tracked 20mm Oerlikon a/t guns with tracks from David Reasoner and gun barrels from Bandera. The 1934-36 MG Battalion will be based on the 1st Battalion DLI at that period.

Things still to do: I am waiting for the 20mm Oerlikons from Rolf Hedges, plus a large order for vehicle drivers and crews from SHQ. i have a Vickers Utility artillery tractor (Dutch) to serve in the a/t company of the MG battalion. Some of the Mk VI bs need markings. I'm also waiting for a Matador Crossley BGV - when this arrives it will get converted with EWM tracks to a Crossley Kegresse, its back wheels will replace those donated by a Matador Morris Commercial D type to the scratch built Burford Kegresses.

so waiting for some stuff, some of which may take a while, but feeling I am on the last leg now and looking to get them into action soon.

[Arlequín]

What an interesting collection. 

Who are you planning on as opponents?

[Vintage Wargaming]

What an interesting collection. 

Who are you planning on as opponents?

Could be: themselves - VBCW or interwar exercises
France, Nationalist Spain, France, Russia, Italy etc etc

[Bindonblood]

Love it.

It is something I had planned to do on a slightly smaller scale. 

Tim

[Vintage Wargaming]

Love it.

It is something I had planned to do on a slightly smaller scale. 

Tim

I've been up in the loft today to retrieve two FAA battalions of BEF, some SDD Home Guard, FAA LDV, Auxiliary Units, and of course nuns, so I think that covers the infantry now

[Arlequín]

Could be: themselves - VBCW or interwar exercises
France, Nationalist Spain, France, Russia, Italy etc etc

I'm biased as I tend to favour the French as the logical Interwar enemy. Not that I don't like the French, far from it in fact, but it just seems right somehow. Plus they are somewhat the model for most European armies after the Great War. As opposed to those whose tank development stemmed from Vickers designs, they are also suitably different.

'Last and First Men' by Olaf Stapledon (in the same vein as H.G. Wells's 'Shape of things) briefly covers an Anglo-French War after the Great War in chapter 2: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101h.html

It's worth a read if you like getting inside 1930s minds.

As an aside, I recall reading somewhere that there had been an initiative to make the Hotchkiss H-35 the 'standard tank' of the UK and France. Combined with Churchill's expressed desire for political union with France (yes I spat my coffee out when I read about that too) in the '30s, my interest is piqued... can anyone expand on this?

[Vintage Wargaming]

Well the French had lots of interesting interwar kit

[Bindonblood]

I'd thought of setting mine in the late twenties and using the experimental mechanised brigade in Canada defending her against the American hordes...

[Arlequín]

I'm not sure four men and a rifle counts as a horde. 

Joking apart 'War Plan Red' (I think it was called that anyway) is indeed an interesting scenario. The train of thought was that throughout history a rising empire always clashes with a declining one... which when you think about it is pretty much on the mark. In American eyes then, a clash with Britain was very much on the cards back then.

[tradgardmastre]

Wonderful collection you have there. What rules are you planning to use?

[Vintage Wargaming]

Wonderful collection you have there. What rules are you planning to use?

People keep asking awkward quaestioms.

For smaller scale mostly infantry stuff I am currently thinking of Chain of Command Espana.

With more armour possibly Rapid Fire or maybe even Operation Warboard.

I think armour actually might be quite easy to deal with as there are no uberpanzerrs so little need for tables with all sort of differnet armour values.W
I also have A world Aflame which I have never used and of which I have had mixed reports.

Ideally I'd like to get a lot of kit on a table soon, then try out different rule sets with the same action to try and get a preferred set. Something simpe though.

[tradgardmastre]

I look forward to seeing a game on the tabletop and reading about it.
Will you be raising mounted/dismounted cavalry as well?
Alan

[carlos marighela]

Lovely stuff. Now to battle the perfidious Yanks in Canada.

[Vintage Wargaming]

To get in the mood:

[Arlequín]

Cheers for that!  

There's a lot packed into such a small video... 18pdrs without pneumatic tires, brand new 18/25pdrs with split trails. Light Dragons... excellent!

I also liked the comment that 'manpower wasn't an issue any more' - at a time when there was a scandal about the army's declining manpower. When an army struggles to recruit in the midst of a depression, you know there's something wrong.

 

As a comparison, compare it with this one from 1935:

It blanks partway through, but keep watching... it gets even better.  

here's the 'edited' version:

... there's also this one all about artillery and mortars:
and 'Dorset invaded':