Phil Dunn's Fire and Fury, new naval wargaming book

Phil and I were talking about how to create some relatively simple naval wargames, so I set him the challenge of writing a new book. The result was a 107 page book with has various rules and scenarios that Phil has been playing for the last decade or so.

The new book was also the opportunity to include more of Paddy Griffith's previously unpublished material. The Paddy Griffith chapter includes the RMAS wargaming clubs naval wargaming rules for the Napoleonic era and includes a scenario as written by Paddy.

The Funeral of Sgt Donald Featherstone 51st Royal Tank Regiment

The service began with the theme music from the Battle of Britain film (Don liked it), then went onto an outline of Don's life.

Poverty, to soldier, physiotherapist, medical author, wargaming author, military historian, father, loss of his son, 200 battlefield tours, Rotarian, friend to many.

I spoke about Sgt Featherstone's military career, then Chris Scott gave a moving account of his wargaming and battlefield tours.

The celebrant included some quotes from the many eloquent reflections about Don made across the Internet.

Music included 'My Boy Willie' by the Royal Tank Regiment Band and 'We'll meet again' by Dame Vera Lynn.

It concluded with the Last Post and 'Taps' music.

A dignified occasion attended by his 2 daughters, 4 grand children and many of his friends.

Don, may you rest in peace, we will miss you.

Don Featherstone, passed away.

Don was one of the founding fathers of modern hobby and professional gaming. His contribution was vast.

Last year a young person came to my trade stand and explained to me that Don Featherstone did not exist. He was brand name. When I valiantly tried to explain that one man had really written all those wargaming, physiotherapy and military history books, he simply dismissed me by saying 'They did not even have word processors then'.

There is more to say, but not today. I worked with him closely over the last ten years editing new editions of his books and helping him getting new Featherstone books to print.

Tales from the Cold War

As result of the History of Wargaming Project, I sometimes hear some oral history. I thought I would share this one. If people like it, I have another couple to share. 

Teignmouth is a small tourist seaside resort in south Devon with an active commercial harbour. It has a long association with piracy, for example that led to the French burning down part of the town in 1690. The smuggling tradition was equally strong and continued, apparently, in Cold War. 

In 1974, the Russian submarine surfaced just off Teignmouth beach of and armed short parties started to disembark into small boats. Despite being early in the season, a few hardy tourists saw this' invasion' and called the local police (in those days dialling 999 reached the local police station). The police gave the cryptic response, 'The're not Russians, the're Poles' , as if that changed the fact boats with armed foreign sailors were heading towards the shore. 

One of the boats went to the docks and unloaded a large number of crates... of Polish vodka. In exchange they received foreign currency and various bottles of spirits. (In those days, ships captains often gave gifts to the Dockers. These were not bribes, but a way of saying thank you for getting their ship unloaded or rapidly loaded. They went into the Dockers Christmas party stock...) Other boat crews ran around the town buying up fresh supplies, 2nd hand camera equipment, pasties and fresh cream cakes (it was someone's birthday). It must have been a surprising sight for tourists to see Polish naval ratings pushing to the front of shopping queues in their haste. The locals were used to it.

While this was going on, one army officer, with more inspiration than common sense, decided to take a boat load of army cadets from St Brendan's College CCF out to the Warsaw Pact (enemy) submarine off shore. One imagines a boat load of British soldiers heading towards the partially manned submarine in British waters could have caused a major Cold War incident. However, the crew were Poles, not Russians, and they recognised the soldiers were just children and did they obvious; they invited them on board. The cadets has a short look around the submarine control room. Then the cadets returned to shore as the submarine crew came back from their smuggling operation. The submarine then submerged and sailed back into international waters.

If the Polish navy wanted to shop and to drink a pub dry on the occasional evening, no-one in Teignmouth minded. Many of the older people had served with Poles in WWII or knew someone who had. In the days before Twitter, YouTube and Facebook even a small town could keep secrets.

Some of the Cold War was grim, but some of it was just funny.

Letter to the Editor

As editor of the History of Wargaming Project, I am privileged to receive collections of wargaming books, rules, magazines, unpublished wargaming material and recollections from early wargamers on a regular basis. Recently, I received a particularly interesting letter centred around Lionel Tarr from an early wargamer (David T. Bradley).  It is reproduced with permission.

I apologise for getting in contact "out of the blue" but have just finished reading the latest volume in your History of Wargaming series - More Wargame Pioneers and I wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. I was particularly interested in the section covering Lionel Tarr's contribution to wargaming in general and the "modern" period in particular.

Certainly it was Lionel Tarr, of all the wargaming pioneers from the 1960s, that had the greatest influence on the development of my wargaming interests. I corresponded with him on-and-off over the years, he was always ready with help and advice and I actually had the pleasure of meeting him.

I had played "Little Wars" with H.G. Well's rules and my Britains toy soldiers, growing up in the late 1950s, but my wargaming epiphany came in early 1960, after my father, who had seen an article in one of the national newspapers about Jack Scruby, wrote a few letters and as a result I received a copy of the first Don Featherstone edited issue of Wargamers Digest. I read it to almost the point of destruction and I remember that one of the (many) articles that caught my attention was a battle report by Lionel "Into Odessa". In it he described the capture of the port by his German forces from its Soviet defenders. The reference to tank duels, street fighting, aerial bombardment quite seized my imagination. However in those days none of the (very limited number) of wargame soldier manufacturers seemed to make World War II figures. So I turned to my other military history interest (like many others) the American Civil War.

As you are probably aware, assembling a wargame army in those days was an exercise in patience and logistics, as the only suppliers were either in South Africa or Visalia, California (Jack Scruby). Therefore  delivery in those pre-air freight days was by ship (and very slow ones at that)! Later that year Wargamers Digest carried further articles by Lionel on his wargame, his forces and methods, so I was able to explore this area while waiting for my Civil War Armies to complete their voyage to South Yorkshire!

As it happened, there was in nearby Sheffield a model railway shop that specialised in Continental manufacturers - Marklin, Fleishman etc., and to complement these, they also sold scenic items, again from continental firms. One of these was Roskopf who, alongside models of various railway related vehicles, also produced a small range of 1/100 military vehicles, mainly post war, but some WWII models. I started buying these so I managed to acquire two small "modern" armies, supplemented by some Matchbox vehicles - a M3 half-track, a Saladin armoured car, a Ferret scout car and a Saracen APC. Britains did a "OO" scale Centurion, a Sexton SPG and some lorries.

Then Airfix brought out their first 1/72 figure sets. The first was pretty useless (from a wargaming point-of-view) - the Brigade of Guards band! However another early set was of (British) modern infantry combat troops with officers, radio operators and riflemen, sub-machine gunners and stretcher parties plus some "wounded" figures.  

They all appeared to be scaled down versions of a similar set of 54mm figures produced by Herald. Paint could transform them into British (khaki), German (grey) or Waffen-SS (unhistorical black). I had already written to Lionel who had kindly provided me with a set (hand-written) of his rules. For the actual games, I followed the example of the British war films of the period - Ice Cold in Alex, The Red Beret Carve Her Name with Pride etc. by just using British vehicles decorated with a black cross to indicate the enemy - if it was good enough for J. Arthur Rank, it was good enough for me!

The next significant event was Don Featherstone's first Wargame “Conference” at his house in Southampton in 1961. The event coincided with the Bay of Pigs Crisis, but we were too busy to concern ourselves with that!

 Lionel gave one of the talks, on how he operated his solo wargames and I was able to talk to him and, like everyone in the wargaming fraternity at the time, he was only too happy to give of his time and advice. I asked him about his vehicles and he offered to send me some from his collection.

The models he sent me were incredibly crude by today's standards but at the time I thought they were absolutely fantastic. Lionel sent me six in all. For the Germans, a Tiger, a Panther (some of these can be seen in the photographs for the World War II game in Don Featherstone's War Games illustrating The Tank-Infantry Action on the St James Road) and a StuG III. For the Soviets a T-34, a KV-1 and a Su-122. They were mainly made of Plaster-of-Paris for the hulls, carved wooded turrets and doweling gun barrels. The T-34 and Su-122 had doweling fuel tanks on their rear decks and the latter even had a commander in the turret. The Soviet vehicles were camouflaged in green. The German vehicles were similar except that the StuG was all wood. The German vehicles were all painted black. At last I could set some of my battles on the OSTFRONT.

I was intrigued by the point you make in your book that the early wargame pioneers had not only done military service, they had fought in a World War. Don Featherstone in tanks through Tunisia and Italy and Lionel at Arnhem and then in German captivity. Real-life experience that informed their wargaming and how they developed rule systems to portray it, in a totally different way from today's wargaming generation. You might have thought such experiences would put one off things military for life!

The other point that needs to be acknowledged is the amount of original research Lionel had to do on weapons, vehicles, tactics and organisation, let alone the details of the Eastern Front campaign. Now we can look at a host of reference material providing the answers to all those questions. When Lionel was assembling his wargame forces there was a minuscule portion of such material and what there was, not particularly accessible.

I next became involved with Lionel in the 1963, the year I went to University. In one of the first issues of Don's Wargamers Newsletter there was an article by Lionel (which you reproduce in your book) on RETASOL. That didn't last long and was succeeded by a more informal set-up called COSOL. I wrote to Lionel asking if I could join in, and was assigned a section of the southern portion of the Eastern Front. Unfortunately by the time I got the necessary War Office General Staff maps, COSOL itself had also broken up. However Lionel offered to act as my German directing opponent while I managed the Soviet forces. So in the weeks before I went up to University, Lionel acted as commander of my German forces on the approaches to the Crimea.

By that time things were better regarding on the availability of models. Airfix had started producing their range of kits and I had some of these for "Normandy" type battles inspired by Don Featherstone’s World War II section in War Games. However there was still very little Eastern Front, especially Soviet, equipment.

So, for the campaign for the Crimea, I was using 1/100 scale Rosfkopf German and Soviet armour, supplemented by Denzil Skinner metal models at the same scale, Airfix German infantry, and for the Soviets the British combat group supplemented by Matchbox half-tracks and other armoured vehicles which again can also be seen in some of the photos in War Games.

After university and post-graduate work in London, I joined the MoD as a civil servant and attended meetings run by the London Wargaming Group. For a variety of reasons wargaming was on the back burner for a while, but I did have the pleasure of meeting "Bish " Iwasko - the doyen of modern wargaming in the London Group and later John Sandars, through our joint membership of MAFVA (Model Armoured Fighting Vehicles Association) and us both working in the MoD, at the time John was a serving RN Lieut.-Cdr with a staff appointment in Whitehall.

In the early 70's I again got in contact with Lionel. By then his campaign had reached the banks of the Volga but he had no interest in making the return trip to Berlin. He mentioned that he had offered his armies for sale to Ed Saunders who had turned down the offer. I offered to buy them and he accepted. Some weeks later some very large boxes were delivered.

In all it totalled some 90 armoured vehicles, 36 artillery pieces, 100 armoured and soft skin transport vehicles, 4 assault boats and 2 Fiesler Storch aircraft. Also some 1400 German and Soviet infantry supported by 17 anti-tank guns, 20 machine gun-teams and 4 mortars (I had to go out and buy some steel shelving units to house it all)!

All of the Plaster- of-Paris models had long gone and the majority of the armour were from ROCO Minitanks who were, by then, widely available in the UK, although Lionel had sourced his from Germany and Austria some years earlier. Most of the vehicles were unpainted but en masse they were certainly an impressive sight!

Over the years I played with them, replaced some and disposed of others. I passed on the balance of the collection some time ago as the pressures of family, household moves intruded. I wish I had hung on to more, as I am now retired and have the time and space.

Along with the troops and tanks, Lionel also provided his rules and organisation charts for his forces, these I have retained.

The rules in particular make very interesting reading. They reflect Lionel’s latest thoughts and are more comprehensive than those you and Don Featherstone printed. It is interesting to see how Lionel modified various aspects over the years.

The strike and defence values for tank combat he had abandoned and replaced with a system based on details of armour protection for individual vehicles and data for the penetrative power of various weapons on armour. The element of chance was greatly removed. I think this was the influence of Carl Reavley. In 1961 or 1962 Jack Scruby published Carl's set of modern wargame rules in one of his edition of Wargamers Digest. They were very comprehensive and even included helicopters, quite a novelty at the time. No dice were used at all. Effects were based on tables and were unmodified by any element of chance. Destruction and casualties were inflicted by referring to tables of weapon effects on various targets at various ranges - no exceptions.

I was also intrigued by other features in your book. I have some a copy of Michael Korns Wargame rules. The data he collected is fascinating but as a game unplayable!

 The picture of Tony Bath on page 52 (I think that is David Chandler sitting on Tony's right) I am fairly certain was taken at the Duke of York's Chelsea barracks for a massive refight, in 25mm, of Waterloo - I think one of the earliest, if not the earliest, "mega-game"!

The photo of Tony Bath, with Charles Grant on page 41 taken in Don Featherstone's wargame room during the Southampton get-together in 1962, brought back many happy memories. I think I may even be the headless figure standing on the stairs! The dress code for wargame gatherings in the early sixties was sport-jacket and tie - a bit different from the hobby's sartorial standards today.

I apologise for going on at such length. "Wargame nostalgia" is a dangerous sentiment! Thank you again for your fascinating book and allowing Lionel Tarr's contribution to the development to wargaming, and in particular the inspiration he provided to many others, finally to be given the recognition it deserves.

Guns Against the Reich Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front by Petr Mikhin (2010)

Books to read by John Curry

"On the offensive, a private on average lasted for a couple of assaults; a platoon leader for a day; a company commander for a week, a battalion commander for a month. If you keep a person constantly in the front lines for a year or two, he'll go insane. That is why the Germans offered leave of absences for their soldiers at the front. We didn't have leaves. In fact it wasn't really necessary- who would survive to see his leave day?" 

This quote sums up why so few accounts of low level combat from the Russian perspective have made it into print in English. Few in the Russian front lines survived long enough to gain the perspective necessary to make valid observations. This officer survived as he was the forward observer for the artillery and so he saw combat first hand, but was often set back from it, running the indirect fire part of the battle. 

Although there is some Russian jingoism embedded in the writing, it comes across as honest and straightforward. The tactical snippets are many. The German 82mm mortar was their best weapon for killing infantry. The front lines were often confused, just lines on a map, with units too spread out to keep a continuous front. Camouflage was an obsession of Mikhin, perhaps was related to his survival.

Russia was able to win as the American lend lease sent 400,000 trucks and jeeps. Without this, they could not have resupplied their armies. German lost as they did not have enough trucks to support their divisions on the Eastern front. However, after that broad generalisation, this book helps give a good idea of how the Russians won in the company and battalion level battles that all major wars are decided by. The books is a worthwhile addition to Eastern Front literature.

The History of Wargaming Project and naval wargaming

I played the Fletcher Pratt naval wargaming rules over the years and did some work on the rules. For example, I created a program to create the ship cards needed to play the game. Sometimes, when I mentioned the Pratt rules (and the fact I had modified them), I was asked for a copy. John B. and Tony Hawkins advised me to try and sell some copies of the rules. So I produced a fairly amateur version, which to my surprise sold.

Over a year or so I started to proof read the rules, improve the layout and got the rules printed and bound cheaply by a local printer. Thus started the history of wargaming library project. Rather than just reproduce the originals, I decided to try to make the rules usable for a modern audience. The Fred Jane Naval Rules had an excellent fast play version in them (which allows a novice to quickly get into a game). The book was produced casually and really needed further work, but as I thought 10 copies would sell, and I would know 6 of the purchasers, I thought it was not worth the effort. I was a little surprised to find that when the Fred Jane Naval Wargame (1906) including the Royal Navy Wargaming Rules sold 11 copies, I knew none of the buyers. It has continued to sell.

My next naval wargaming was the classic Donald Featherstone's Naval Wargame. This was the book that did more to launch modern naval wargaming than any other. Its key feature was re-introducing the Fred Jane and Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame, as well as simple naval rules by Tony Bath for ancient ship battles.

 

I realised that the version of the Fletcher Pratt game we all used was incomplete. It lacked a campaign system, examples of scenarios and rules updates that I knew existed. So over a year I set about tracing the owner of the Pratt game and she did have several boxes of previously unpublished stuff. The Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame was a new book, full of additional material. I was also surprised to find that Pratt’s loyal fan base were eager to buy the book, not to play the game, but to learn more about Pratt.

 

When I did Phil Dunn’s Sea Battles revised edition he offered me new material for a couple of chapters and then Paddy Griffith (a big fan of Dunn’s book) offered a ‘Hunt the Bismarck Game’ as an appendix. The additional material added to the book and I was amazed that the book apparently launched several hundred solo naval wargaming campaigns.

Several other books have included naval wargaming material. Innovations in wargaming included a naval kriegspiel by Paddy Griffith; Bruce Quarries Napoleonic Campaigns in Miniature had a chapter on sea battles.

One advantage of being editor is the ability to commission more naval wargaming books. The next to go to print is Phil Dunn’s Fury at Sea, which is full of ideas for large scale simple naval wargames. Also included will be the Napoleonic naval rules of the Sandhurst Wargaming Club, written by Paddy Griffith and David Chandler at this semi-legendary club.

The project will include more naval wargaming material, with at least two more books on the subject (in addition to Phil Dunn’s) over the next 12 months.