Tag archives for France - Page 2
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What you missed at CLWG in September 2011
Three interesting games and a load of cake! We started with Peter Merritt's 1814 political game which looked at how Napoleon's Marshals dealt with the oncoming defeat of France and the transfer of power. Following that Andrew Hadley brought out his game about the Athenian invasion of Sicily. We then finished with Rob Cooper's game about the seizure of the Mecca Grand Mosque in 1979, complete with head-dress. 1814 and all that Peter put on this game to try out some ideas about how you could run a game about the decline of the French First Empire. The players were mostly Napoleon's Marshals (although Jim Wallman was Napoleon). There was an interesting mechanic of collecting cards to show which of the likely candidates for ruler of France you could evidence support for (five in total, including Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Bernadotte, Napoleon's…
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Company Training by Gen. Haking
When in Southport last week I found an antiquarian bookshop in a very small gap between two other shops. It was very much like the fabled 'magic' shops that when you go back to it isn't there. (Although I hope it is if I get a chance to go back, it had a fantastic collection of books, archaeological artefacts and sea shells!) I bought three books from there, but the one that intrigued me most was 'Company Training' by Brig-Gen R. C. B. Haking, , which looked like it had spent some considerable time in the pocket of someone engaged in using it (complete with underlined passages in pencil in places). I'm a sucker for infantry training manuals and this one was pretty cheap because of the battered nature of the cover (although internally it was fine, personally I view the…
The Battle for France didn’t end at Dunkirk
The title of Saul David's "Churchill's Sacrifice of the Highland Division" is possibly erroneous, the book doesn't come out for what happened to the 51st Highland Division in June 1940 as being a political gesture of allied solidarity on the part of Churchill. It is certainly the fullest account of the 1940 campaign of the 51st Highland Division, expanding hugely on Eric Linklater's HMSO publication in 1942 (which perforce had to be limited for security reasons). The Highland Division was in the Maginot Line attached to the French Army when the German assault started on 10th May 1940 and so wasn't with the rest of the BEF. By the time the ferocity and direction of the German plan was understood by the French & British High Commands most of the German Army was between the 51st Highland Division and the BEF; so there was…