Vichy Air Force at War

Today I finished this short work on the Vichy French Air Force and I have mixed emotions on it. The topic it should cover is the pilots, aircraft (possibly bases) and actions they fought. Instead we receive only a 30,000-foot version of the history of the Armée de l'air de Vichy. Decent material on the pilots but little on the actions.

Nothing is written on the organization or the nomenclature of the squadrons. A subject that I found confusing. What aircraft that are covered is done so in a scattered fashion. It was surprising to find the Curtis H75 missing as well as all of the bombers.

It appears that this book was written quickly with no primary sources. The bibliography
has books that are dated and not really sources for the book’s subject. There are also no notes in the text telling were the source material came from.

The one saying grace is for those in the wargaming community. There are dozens of possible aviation battles waiting to be used with the Fighting Wings Series or Bag the Hun. None of the write ups are long but they are useful for creating a campaign. Maybe of use in a Lardy special.

It has me wanting something better. I am thinking of look at TRADITIONAL ENEMIES: Britain's War With Vichy France 1940-42.

Overall I go with 2★ unless you are a gamer and than it is a 3★ book (maybe).

Paint Table VIIII

Here are my weekly additions.

I think the F2Bs have been on my painting table for almost a year. I left off the insignia as I was not sure what air force they may be joining.

The Poles are to file out a company of the 10th.

Germans for Market Garden

Mark and I have started out on a Market Garden Campaign from TOOFATLardies call Highway to Hell.

It is a rough set of scenarios for the Germans as 30th Corp can just work there way down the road using their over whelming  firepower.

These troops were painted up for the campaign and I hope they are able to offer good service. More on the campaign latter.

Paint Table Tet

Something must be wrong, why is there so little on Jon's painting table? Could he be up to something?

I have been busy getting ready for a game of IABSM for Operation Market Garden. No pictures as I do not want to give too much intelligence to the opposition (Mark and son).

Finished up a small fleet worth of warships for the US, German and Spanish navies. Not sure how to use the flying deck cruiser but is it way to cool to ignore.

So what is going on?

End of the Q1

In the business world we look to quarter to quarter results. This is often short sighted but here is my first quarterly report.

Here is a review of the status of my three main blogs. My gaming, painting and blog have been going well. I have only missed three days of painting for the quarter.

Green Fields Beyond
A blog on the history of The Great War. I often use pictures of my miniatures within the posts but I try to make this about history and not gaming.
Slow month and quarter with 3 and 13 posts at my end.
The blog has 32 followers from 47,633 visits.

Yonatan
This is a blog for my religious journey. Posts have been sparse with only 6 posts for the quarter. There are 9 followers for 108 visits. This blog needs the most work but I also believe it holds the most promise.

Basement Games
This is my gaming blog. I have blogged 13 times this month for a total of 42 posts for the quarter.
Friends are at 67 with 62,648 visits.
I am happy with how well this blog is being received.

Painted and Completion Counts

1/6000 and 1/2400
86 Ships

15mm
9 - AFV
2 - Arty
72 - Infantry
9 - Terrain
6 Snowmen

Games Day on the USS Olympia

Coming up on May 1st, one of our local clubs is sponsoring a games day on the USS Olympia. For $50 you can play all day as well as visit two wonderful warships, one from the days of pre-dreadnoughts and the other USS Becuna that fought in both World War II and the Cold War. There is even a sleep over on the Olympia, alas in sleeping bags and not hammocks.

They will be doing at least one Battle of Manila Bay in miniature. For those that are not familiar with it, the Battle of Manila Bay was the initial victory over Spain in the Spanish American War were in the after effects the United States acquired colonies in the Pacific. With the acquisition of the Philippines, Guam and Wake the United States was set on a collision course with Imperial Japan. And the USS Olympia was there as Commodore Dewey’s flagship.

It can easily be argued that without the Battle of Manila the 20th Century and World War II would have been very different.