15mm BEF

[Leman]

TBH Steve I was a bit unsure about the bamboo. The illustration in Osprey's Mons certainly shows them as bamboo, but a rather old ex-library book I have on British cavalry plumps for ash. Having reasonably successfully done the Belgian lancers as bamboo I thought I would stick with it. At the moment I know that German lances and Russian lances were painted black and that the Austrians didn't carry them any longer. The French, however, I still have to seek out.

[paulr]

 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It's nearly 20 years since I did mine, but I'm pretty sure British lances were bamboo...
French lances by 1916 were plain wood, before that, no clue!

[Leman]

Thanks for that Will. I will go for the plain wood for French. I do know that in the FPW the French lances were painted black and the lance pennons were not carried in combat. Pendraken have got that spot-on, unlike some manufacturers. Since I posted I've checked out the Catton-Woodville painting of the charge of the 9th Lancers at Audregnies and again the lances are bamboo, so looks like I made the right decision.

[FierceKitty]

A vignette showing a dozen lions following a donkey into action would be fun.

[Leman]

And we all know Clarke admitted to making that up. The whole Lions and Donkeys thing is very much a product of post-WWI intellectualism written by the kind of people who previously did not go to war, the 1960s with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight and the fact that the generals of all sides were trying to make decisions about a conflict of which they had no prior experience - just one of the many problems caused by rapid technological progress.

[fsn]

1916: You have a largely conscript army, artillery short of shells, no tanks, and an air force largely ineffective at ground attack, no tactical radio.

You face a line of entrenchments from coast to Switzerland, so no flanks.

What do you do?

[Leman]

But the real reason I came on this thread was to post some photos of my first pieces of artillery. These two 18pdrs represent a battery in the 1914 rules and are intended (as in actual fact) to fire over open sights.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Love those guns!

[paulr]

 

[fred.]

Those guns look good.

[T13A]

Lovely looking guns. Can one of the gunners be my grand father, bombardier William Sherman Clapham RHA, enlisted before the war, was at Mons and went right through to November 1918. (see picture to the left)

Cheers Paul

[Leman]

Not yet, Paul. These are 18pdrs from the field artillery. However I do have 13pdrs for the RHA on order from TSS, so I will be happy to include him in the crew. Their first outing will probably be as L Battery at Nery. Incidentally, that gunner in shirtsleeves is a TSS figure; everything else is Peter Pig.

[paulr]

Their first outing will probably be as L Battery at Nery.

That's not a very nice way to treat any one's Grandfather

[Techno]

Lovely stuff, Andy.

Cheers - Phil