I asked Skynet a couple of important questions just to make sure we were on the right track with things and this was their response... (for your mid-week amusement read the response in the second image below)
I actually think that was a a very nice and complimentary response Skynet, thank you.
Dan literally gets out of his foxhole and in less than 24 hours back in the real world he is bulking up on steak, and well... good to see you have your priorities right...
Friday photo - Drying paint on a Sherman: Most of us have, at one time, used a hairdrier to dry paint when we were in a hurry but this photo apparently shows heat lamps drying the paint on the real thing. Apparently it took 4 minutes*! (*according to some guy on the internet)
Historical background:* Despite the losses it suffered in the defensive phase of the battle of Kursk, the Red Army managed to go over to a very successful offensive within two weeks, pushing the Germans back to the Dnieper and towards western Ukraine, overall Kursk campaign was a disaster for the Germans.
The Kursk campaign was a decisive Soviet success. For the first time, a major German offensive had been stopped prior to achieving a breakthrough.
In the morning of 3 Nov 1943, German 4th Panzer Army stationed in Kiev, Ukraine was surprised by a massive artillery and aerial bombardment, followed by advancing Soviet troops. After two days of action, Soviet troops entered a city not yet recovered from the battle in the previous year, and now further damaged by both the intense Soviet invasion and the scorched-earth German retreat. Kiev suffered 7,000 buildings, which included about 1,000 factories, plundered or destroyed at the hands of the Germans. 200,000 civilians were killed during the course of the war. 100,000 civilians were sent to concentration camps during the occupation. What resulted was a city with only 80,000 survivors, a mere 20% of its pre-war size.
Erich von Manstein of German 4th Panzer Army was able to convince Adolf Hitler to release German 48th Panzer Corps to conduct a counter attack, though his request for the inclusion of German 40th Panzer Corps was rejected. German troops drove forward, but they were halted by Soviet 7th Guards Tank Corps near Fastov. Similar scenarios played out all around Kiev with German troops fighting fiercely but unable to halt the Soviet juggernaut. The Germans caught their break with the arrival of German 48th Panzer Corps containing the elite 1st SS Panzer Division, retaking Brusilov and Zhitomir, two towns that the Soviets had recently captured. Large scale tank engagements ensued with heavy casualties on both sides over the course of the following month.
Outcome: Although the Soviets emerged victorious, they failed to achieve the important objective of enveloping German Army Group South. Nevertheless, they were able to deal heavy damage to German 4th Panzer Army, and the morale boost for gaining Ukraine was substantial.
*According to some guys on the internet...
You didn't really think I was going to give away the army composition did you? ;-)
German Arado AR196 Floatplane prepares for a sortie somewhere in the med. theatre. The ground crew have checked all is secure on the trolley and its towcable system, and the aircrew prep for takeoff.
The Arado was used by German, Italian, Vichy French and Japanese forces during WW2 and proved valuable for reconnaisance around coastlines and naval actions in particular...some were even used to Fly into Berlin and land on waterways in parks, rivers etc to bring in whatever was possible at the fall of the Reich.
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Terrain making 1945, not much different to my garage this weekend. Perhaps less pipe smoke and more polystyrene. (...also I can't convince my wife to help)
I found these images hiding away and wanted to share them so you could compare the corgi SDKFZ 7 with the warlord games resin.
I think youll agree that at eye level and side- by -side theres a pretty obvious difference...
As is the difference from the top if they are immediately next to each other, again....
...BUT; How great do they look here..approx 7-8 inches apart?!!
I think youll agree those look more than comfortable sitting next to each other on the table top..but how about when we add the infantry next to them? Perry? Warlord? Artizan? Offensive? Hmmmm......
So ; heres my point for us. And a challenge to Rex for the next WIP podcast;
Scale. In particular the challenges of 28mm 'scale' wargaming.
Why cant we have nice things? why do we fight like cats in a bag over the size of models -especially vehicles and armour - to use?
I have a lot to say on the subject, and hopefully some of it might not even bore you!
We have the next episode 'In the Can' and almost ready to go, but this ones 'stood in the door' as our topic for the following podcast.
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The face of war? Or is it? This popular photo depicts a young solider overcome with fear in the trenches but is it for real or not? Its black & white so it must be real...
I understand that this is a scene from a movie called "The Bridge" (a 1959 film made in West Germany), its been used a few times to demonstrate the horror of war but only once have I seen reference to it being from a movie and not a real historical photo.
During World War II, an orphaned brown bear went from being a cuddly pet to an officially enlisted soldier in the Polish army, and reportedly saw fierce combat in Italy. Decades after the war and his death, "Wojtek" continues to be honored.
Just so you know, I often post these images without any description or with just some teaser text. The idea is if you don't know what its all about go and check it out do a web search read a book, a lot of times, fact really is stranger than fiction.
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If you are a wargamer that games WWI, II or later and you live in Australia you *need* to go to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra at least once, I went for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was blown away here is part 1 of my photos Air-power.
Click on the image for the supersized version.
Because Dan will complain if I don't add the detail of what each of these are so he can count the rivets Ill come back and do that when I have time. In the meantime enjoy and let me know if you want more (or less).
The latetst podcast episode is live now. This should appear in your podcast app if you have subscribed (Search for valhallagames podcast in your app) or you can listen on web player (link below).
Podcast EP24: A chat with Jon Russell.
In this bumper episode, we are joined by Jon Russell of Warlord Games fame. In addition to his dedicated work for Warlord, Jon is a multifaceted wargamer and also veteran of many years service.
In this episode we spend time learning about Jon's wargaming pedigree, before learning more about his role at Warlord, the writing of 'Bolt Action: Korea', and Jon shares with us what he can about what Bolt Action V3 might look like, and the 'Raiders Attack!' Supplement that still has much life left in it.
All this plus Warlord event support, balance in tournaments and other definitely non-controversial(!), highly entertaining and informative topics. Sit back and enjoy a chat with Jon, and us, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
