Soviet Naval What If

In reading in one of my Cold War histories I found an interesting tidbit, although I cannot find the source now, oh bother. That  is Stalin was concerned that he was to need a ocean going fleet to fight a war with the United States between 1955 and 1960. This was not to happen as Stalin was to die in 1953.

It is relatively easy to keep him alive until the early 1960s. In doing further further reading (see below) it is possible with a few points of departure (POD) to come up with a plausible naval time line with a war occurring in the late 1950s. 

My personal library is rather extensive, consider it a profession liability, when dealing with the Cold War and the Soviet Navy. Here are a few.

• Russian Submarines in the Artic by I Kolyshkin
• Stalin's Ocean-Going Fleet by Jurgen Rohwer and Mikhail S. Monakov
• Submarines of the Russian and Soviet Navies, 1718-1990 by Norman Polmar and Jurrien Noot
• Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines, 1945-2001 by Norman Polmar
• Assorted Jane's Fighting Ships and Conways 
• Polmar's Guides to the Soviet Navy 

So I may have a new project, new a few miniatures and a suitable rule set and I should be off. 

Evening on the USS Olympia

On June 30th I had a great time doing a Games Day on the USS Olympia and a sleep over. I am grateful that my wife gave the green light on this as it was both our anniversary and her birthday. She is a wonderful wife and a great friend.

Now this Games Day is important as it is done one the weekend closest to the anniversary of the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1st 1898. For those unaware this was the first battle in a war that propelled America to the world stage. Sort of important.

On this Games Day we were given a tour of the engineering spaces and that was a treat. I got a chance to climb into the coal bunkers and into the bilges. Not for the faint of heart. So these are the pictures of the USS Olympia and USS Becuna here in Philadelphia.

USS Becuna SS319

A TDU outside of Control

And back to the Olympia

Bow torpedo tube

And a few pictures of the Games Day

The Engineering Tour

Original Sound Powered Phones

Inside a coal bunker

Wardroom

And plaques for those "Still on Patrol"

Tigger Gets New Stripes

It has been a very busy couple of weeks as I cleared off the items on my paint table. Part of this was finishing up my 1944 Germans and a few odds and ends. The other was to get ready for the new Brigade Models AeroNef line. This was part of Imperial Skies a KickStarter I took part in.

So this is what I have completed.

• 16 dead early war Germans from Peter Pig
• 8 German Police/Gestapo from M.Y. Miniatures
• 8 German Panzergrenadiers (12th HG) from Peter Pig
• 5 German early war crew and engineers for early war from PSC
• Panzer IVF for the battle near Caen 1944 from Game Models
• Tiger I from the SS. Pz.Abt. 102 from FOW
• British Mark VI for my new 1940 British from Game Models
• Panzer VIG for Normandy from Game Models
• Sd Kfz 222 painted for for early war from Game Models
• Sd Kfz 13 for early war and police duties from Game Models
• Sd Kfz 251 for Normandy from Game Models
• and 4 trees :-)
  

Here is the Tiger I was uncertain how I wanted to paint it for Caen.

The Sd Kfz222 and Sd Kfz13 are from Game Models.
The Police/Gestapo are from M.Y. Miniatures

Painting Table - A Lone Tigger

This Tiger is the last thing on my "active" paint table. Only thing holding me up is the fact I do not have any Normandy patterns to paint it. Any ideas?

B-52 Stratofortress Still Flying

When I was born, the last of the newly built B52 bombers were being accepted by the Air Force. And today these massive bombers are still flying. The link below is a radio story on this weapon system that is over 60 years old. While I do not think I have any B52s in my gaming collection I wanted to share this.

From the NPR website 
The B-52 Stratofortress bomber was first developed by Boeing in 1952. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Wired's Eric Adams about how an aircraft that old has such staying power.

XB-52 Prototype on flight line 

NPR - Over 60 Years In, The B-52 Bomber Is Still Kicking 
B52 Article on Wikipedia

First of May

...But the greatest fight in history was fought on the first of May, By Commodore George Dewey, the hero of Manila Bay.
THE HERO OF MANILA BAY. Copyright, 1898. by Tom J. Quigley.

Latter this month my club will meet for our monthly get together. We often play games as diverse as WWI air combat, battles near Caen during Normandy and last time fighting in and around Peking during the Boxer Rebellion. But this next meet-up will be onboard the USS Olympia, flagship of Commodore Dewey and the Battle of Manila Bay. The event is being held on April 30^th to the morning of May 1^st, the anniversary of the battle.

Now as venues go this is awesome, we not only have a protected cruiser but a diesel submarine that fought in WWII and than in the Cold War as a GUPPY Ia class of boats and across the river the battleship New Jersey.  I promise to write more about the event after this overnighter.

What has me most excited about this weekend event is the ability to play games from the Spanish American War on this pre-dreadnought period vessel.

I have in my collection at least three games that cover this period. Remember the Maine is the name of two games dealing with the Spanish American War, a conflict that was to move America from being a regional power to an international player. A third is a land based supplement called Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain.  It appears there is not a lot of originality in naming games.

While all are great games and designs for their periods, what has me coming back to them again and again is the technology of the conflict, or specifically the wacky ship designs. We have the Spanish battleship Pelayo (a real ironclad), the American monitor Amphitrite (not a great deal of freeboard here) and a favorite of many the USS Vesuvius a dynamite cruiser. All push designs based on new (or old) techniques and materials. We have different propulsion systems, armor placement covering important areas heavily and in other cases covering the entire ship in light armour.  Gun designs go from being in armoured turrets to barbettes.

Tactics were also influx.  In The Great War and again in World War Two warships were put into squadrons based on warships being of the same class or having similar characteristics, often have a group of four to six battleships in the same squadron. In the pre-dreadnought period warships were often designed as one offs trying to determine if they were going to be useful for fleet actions. This made for squadrons and fleets with interesting characteristics once ships went to sea to do battle.

Do I look forward to commanding the Vesuvius, Texas or Carlos V at our games day, absolutely. I also hope I am given a warship that I am unfamiliar with and that I will have fun learning more about it. Wish me luck.