Tag archives for History - Page 4
Milmud – Guest Post today about 1689 Highland Battles
Today's blog post is a guest post on Military Muddling, AKA Milmud. Milmud is the blog and club newsletter for Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group (CLWG). CLWG are a group of activist game designers. Most of the Megagame Makers designers belong to CLWG, including Jim Wallman who brought us the Universe roleplaying games and Watch the Skies. I'm a member of CLWG and have been for about 20 years. At the 2015 CLWG conference I ran a session on the Highland Battles of 1689. This is going to form part of a 1689 Megagame planned for late 2017. You can read more about my game design efforts over on Hot Blood and Cold Steel. Link to Milmud Here's the post on milmud Highland Battles 1689 - onside report. I found the session very useful and I learnt a lot from it.…
Command the Raven by M J Logue [Book Review]
Command the Raven by Logue My rating: 5 of 5 stars Command the Raven is the second in the Uncivil Wars series by M J Logue. It follows on from Red Horse starting with the siege of Reading in Spring 1643. Command the Raven Although set during the first English Civil War, the Uncivil Wars books are more social history than military. Like its predecessor Command the Raven has its focus on the people, and horses, in Captain Hollie Babbitt's troop and their associates. Command the Raven opens with the siege of Reading and the troop's ennui with it. Luce Pettitt takes bad news from his widow very hard, and Hollie Babbitt wants away from the siege. A transfer from Essex's army to Fairfax in the north sees Babbitt change his fortunes. After a short period of recovery in Essex Babbitt marries. He then…
Red Horse by M.J. Logue [Book Review]
Red Horse by Logue My rating: 5 of 5 stars Red Horse is set at the beginning of the First English Civil War in 1642. The primary characters are Captain Hollie Babbitt and his young Cornet Luce Pettitt. Babbitt is a grizzled and damaged English mercenary back from the continent to fight for Parliament. Pettitt fights from conviction and conscience, he is a distant relation to the Earl of Essex. This sets us up nicely for a tale from a cavalry viewpoint with the odd glimpse of higher command. There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off naive and relatively innocent. I could identify my…
Forgotten War – Fighting Japan in the Far East WW2
Tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ) Day. On 15th August 1945 the Japanese Emperor Hirohito formally surrendered unconditionally. My maternal grandfather and his brother both served in the Far East. I only met my Great Uncle once when he came back from Australia for a visit when I was about 7. My Grandfather died when I was almost nine, but he spoke to me a few times about what he did in the war. Their stories are all but forgotten. Private David Coats, 2 Argylls Private David Coats, 2nd Bn Argylls I have a picture of my Great Uncle in uniform, I'm not sure where or exactly when it was taken but my suspicion is that it is a post-war photo (he's wearing a 2 year good conduct stripe). The details have been forgotten. On the back…
Book Review – Behind the Lines by Russell Miller
Behind the Lines: The Oral History of Special Operations in World War II by Russell Miller My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very interesting collection of first hand accounts by those involved with the Special Operations Executive or the OSS special operations during WW2. The book is split into chapters covering broad themes or areas of operation. Maquisards (Resistance fighters) in the Haute-Savoie département in August 1944. Third and fourth from the left are two SOE officers. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Almostall of the book is in the direct quotation from the various special operationspersonnel. There is a broad range of people interviewed for the book, most of them only appear to have been used in one section, although a couple may have been used more than once. This shows the attitudes they had to the work and the people that…