Another ‘Churchill’s Spaniards’ Talk

The author, Séan Scullion, is doing another talk on his book. This time at the Royal Engineers Museum on Saturday 14th September.

If you’re within reach of Gillingham, I would recommend it:

https://www.re-museum.co.uk/

Churchill's Spaniards

On Friday I had the double pleasure of a talk at the National Army Museum and a meet up with the Ragged Coated Soldier (aka David in Suffolk) over lunchtime.

The talk was by the author of a new book published by Helion and written by Royal Engineers officer who grew up in Spain, Séan Scullion. The subject was fascinating, even moving in parts, and was delivered with humour and modesty by the author.  There were a number of family members of the Spanish veterans in attendance, who had been key to helping provide information in addition to official archives. The subject concerned about 1200 Spanish exiles who served in the British Army (i.e. excluding RN and RAF). They were mostly (all?) either ex-Republican fighters in the Spanish Civil War, or the older ones of the niños vascos (Basque Children - evacuated from Spain). 

Their routes into the British Army were many and varied, including many trials along the way. Just one example: a Spanish unit that had fought under the French in Norway in 1940, were due to be shipped back to France when France was virtually knocked out of the war. Hundreds of Spaniards refused to embark whereupon their French commanders threatened to decimate them, until the British stepped in and agreed to 'take them on'. The Spaniards wanted to stay with the British in order to continue the fight against fascism.

This is really just the small tip of the large iceberg of Spanish exiles after the SCW. Approximately 400,000 went to France alone (including some of those that ended up in British uniform). They were first regarded as a problem by the French in 1939, (themselves being badly politically split), then found useful when war approached, then back to being problematic when France collapsed in 1940. Many found their way to North Africa and French Middle East, as well as Mexico. 10,000 women and children were later rounded up by the Vichy French and sent to a concentration camp in Germany where most of them died.

Some of the Spanish ended up in 2SAS via Middle East Commando, and service in Crete in 1941. One bore the fabulous name of Francesco Geronimo, though he changed it to 'Frank Williams'. 'Williams!' doesn't have the same ring to it as 'Geronimo' when jumping out of a plane! A number of Spaniards who were captured, and were advised by their British Medical Officer to claim to be Gibraltarians to avoid being singled out for 'special treatment' by their captors.

David and I had a really good chat over lunch in the museum's cafeteria afterwards before I headed off back to work. By the way, if you're ever planning to spend time there, beware that mobile signals are very poor inside!

Here are some links and pictures from the display boards at the museum:

After the War, those who settled in Britain, formed their own ex-servicemen's association (see the pics in the Helion link below). This was active at least into the 1970s. One photo of a parade by the Spanish ex-Servicemen's Association, shown at the talk, included one Luis Gabriel Portillo....father of British ex-Conservative minister and railway enthusiast, Michael Portillo. (See top right of the top picture above)

https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/churchills-spaniards-continuing-the-fight-in-the-british-army-1939-46.php

Introduction to the niños vascos

The Basque Children Association

The Holocaust and the Roma

These days I tend to listen to an awful lot of podcasts. I'd heard this fella (Dr Waitman Beorn) on We Have Ways some time ago and saw that he had his own podcast. The episode below caught my eye. A subject I never knew anything about (beyond the fact the Roma were on the list of groups targeted by the Nazis). I remember a page in a series of magazines about WWII from the early 70s showing the various badges that different groups had to wear - yellow stars, pink triangles etc. Beyond that, I knew next to nothing. Pretty much the same as most people probably.

It won't be any surprise to anyone who has more than a passing interest in History, that the picture is much more complex than might be supposed. A fair amount of time is needed just to discuss who the people under discussion were. There wasn't even agreement at the time. In 1944, the Germans released people that the Dutch authorities had sent to them as Roma, that the Germans considered were not!

The sobering thought for me personally is that, had Britain fallen under a similar or the same regime, my mother's grandparents (if not her mother) could have ended up being 'removed'. They lived in a fairly small town. An ordinary town, full of ordinary, decent people. It couldn't happen here. Could it?

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-holocaust-history-podcast/id1727015690?i=1000653191869

https://www.waitmanwbeorn.com/

Salute haul

I was thinking about posting some pictures of Salute but others have done that much better than I ever could. For a real visual feast head over to Big Lee’s blog/YouTube.

Instead I’ll share my small, but valuable catch. First up was not a purchase at all but the thoughtful gift, or gifts of two books by David-in-Suffolk, of the Ragged Soldier blog fame. I’ve read the first already, and look forward to delving into the second.

David knows you can take the boy out of Grimsby….

Bull Sand and Haile Sand forts, originally built in WWI, are still there at the mouth of the Humber. The latter is close to the low water mark on the Lincolnshire side - but the sands are notorious for shifting.

An armed trawler. This happens to be one my maternal grandad, a deep sea fisherman sailed on, though I don’t know if he was on it during the war. I do know he did convoy escort work on the runs to northern Russia and minesweeping duties. Northern Gem was involved in the infamous convoy PQ17. 120 Grimsby trawlers were lost during the War I think the pre-War GY fishing fleet was c.700.

An anti-personnel device known as a ‘Butterfly Bomb’. I was brought up on warnings of these things. Dropped in 1943 the last casualty was a boy some time after the War. The book shows German POWs sweeping for them in 1947.

The second book is this:

I believe there’s one about the First World War too.

So a big thank you to David!

My only purchase of the day (I had picked up a couple of Ospreys at a stall but they only took cash) was a set of rules from the Society of Ancients. Naturally, if you saw that I’d recently acquired armies for the Punic Wars, you’d assume that I’d bought rules that either specifically covered the period or were those all-purpose ancients rules like WRG. Obviously I didn’t. I got these:

They are specifically for armies of competing Greek city states, made up mainly of hoplites. The intro explicitly states they were not designed for the Persian Wars or the Hellenistic period, but include some suggestions for the former.

There’s a phase of the game called ‘let the gods decide’ where players draw cards which can be positive or negative.

These rules intrigued me at the stall, and still do, having read them through. The essential feature of the rules is that there is very little scope for fancy tactics. The leader’s job is to get the men geed-up for combat, give the order to advance and keep order. They remind me of Hoplomachia hoplite battle rules by the Perfect Captain, though much less complicated. Also, they have some similarities to Loose Files and American Scramble (AWI) with variable movement and disorder points. Which gets an immediate thumbs up from me.

Primarily aimed at large scale figures, with figure removal, they do have an option to use casualty markers and base removal so they can be used with 6mm figures (my chosen ancients scale). I could use some of the spearmen from the Punic Wars, and supplement with ‘Italy-based’ Greeks/Italiate hoplites. What’s Classical Greek for mission creep?

Potpourri

Bit of a mixed bag this post. Not much wargaming activity at the Schloß recently. I have however taken part in two remote games chez Freitag of the Battle of Fornovo, 1495. These were my first forays ever into the Italian Wars. 

The first was as part of the Italian league fighting the French, where my command (the left wing) got badly beaten up by a resurgent Napoleon Dave. For the 4th game in a row, my table top character was killed. The Italians came out ahead in a close fought game. If you haven't already pop over to Jon's blog for AARs and pictures of his wonderful Renaissance figures, here and here.

The second was in sole command of the French versus Ray, Surjit and Lee of Posties Reject renown. This game was decidedly not a close run thing. The Rejects played a canny game and I don't think the overall result would have changed even if I had better luck. And I took my personal record up to 5 games with my character being killed! Here's one of the previous occasions: https://mudbloodandsteel.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-king-is-dead-long-live-err.html Second time in a row my character has been killed in a campaign run by JBM. 

In terms of army and terrain preparation myself, not much has happened. (Notice the use of the passive voice, like a politician apologising, to disguise the fact it's me who hasn't done much). I sprayed one side of my 'battle cloth' to make it a bit lighter. Cans of spray paint don't go very far, especially when you're spraying outside. I bought a second can in Lidl at the weekend to do the other side.

Punic Wars. A couple of weeks ago I placed an order with Heroics & Ros for Romans and Carthaginians. I was beginning to wonder when they would arrive, and today I got confirmation that they have been posted. So they could be here by Saturday. 

I have a bit of 1:1 terrain making to complete first, however. I am helping the Margravina prepare a vegetable plot. She seems to have decided it would be wise to prepare for the collapse of commerce by turning over a large part of the Schloß' grounds to agriculture. The ground has been prepared and we are giving the wooden frames that will surround the veg patches a protective coat of paint, before laying weed control, filling the frames with earth and compost, and finally surrounding them with pathways of gravel.

On Saturday I will be going up to Salute for the first time in several years. I should be meeting up with David-in-Suffolk, the Ragged Soldier himself. That's not casting any nastursiums on his appearance by the way, it's his blog. Hopefully I'll be able to meet other bloggers in person too, particularly Posties Rejects.

A lot of my attention, and some of my time has been occupied with Grimsby Town's plight at the wrong end of the Football League. With 4 games to play, they could still be relegated (for the 3rd time in 14 years!). So if anyone was wondering how I could keep smiling through lots of poor dice rolls, I've had plenty of practice dealing with bad luck! Last month I had attended 3 games in close succession. This month I have tickets for 2 of the 4 games, Colchester on Tuesday night and Crawley on 27th. One of the benefits of reaching a certain age, is that ticket prices start to come down. Not everywhere, but Crawley is one such place where over 60s get in for £10.

Favourites to go down are Forest Green and Sutton. Selfishly, I would rather Colchester go down as the ground is awkward to get to, being out of town, and Sutton is a bus journey away for me.

Last night I managed to watch the 2017 version of Tuntematon Sotilas again. It really is one of the best war films out there. The storyline is believeable (the novel is largely based on the author's own experiences and other real events), the acting is superb, and not too many liberties are taken with the plot. Special effects and cinematography are also excellent. Highly recommended.

People who have seen All the Sins (Kaikki Synnit, a Nordic Noir TV series) might recognise Johannes Holopainen. He played the posh lieutenant Kariluoto in the war film and the detective in All the Sins.

Finally, here are a few pics from a trip with the Margravina to the south coast.

On the cliffs at Southbourne

Avon Beach, near Christchurch (Dorset)

Wonder what these could be? (cliffs above Avon Beach)

One of 3 explanatory panels. Seem to have lost the photos of the other two.

Outside the entrance to the former research establishment above. This fossil is about 1/2 metre across.

Isle of Wight can be just about seen at top left

Sentry post at ADRE

The grounds are now a nature reserve

Looking back down to the beach

Highcliffe Castle, a 19th century stately pile.

Looking back west towards Medford Spit and Hengistbury Head. By the time we got back to the carpark, that part of the beach was rammed - people are lazy. They won't walk far to get a nice spot on the beach. Lots of open water swimmers around - mostly women of a certain age and build. Suggesting that the Margravina would soon be old enough to join them was not the wisest thing I'd ever said.

Entrance to Christchurch Harbour

Aha!

View through the MG port

Vent in the roof of the pillbox

One door closes……

….another opens.

A suitable subtitle for this post might be “the importance of checking the calendar”. Another would be “Serendipity”.

A correspondent of this bloggist asked whether I would be attending SELWG on 15th October. Sunday just gone. “No”, said this bloggist. “I’m taking the oldest of the 17 year olds to a Uni open day.” Despite said open day being on SATURDAY 14th and not Saturday 15th. Other plans were made for Sunday 15th, thinking it was going to be the 16th. Confused? Welcome to my mind.

When I figured out (thanks to various other bloggers) that SELWG was on Sunday it was too late. Getting this wrong was obviously the ‘door closing’. The ‘door opening’ was spending the time in the company of the Margravina. My regular reader will have noted how uxorious I can be. The plan was to park up in or near a place called Petersham (a picturesque’village’ between the Upon-Thameses of Kingston and Richmond) then walk into Richmond to purchase one pair boots, walking, Margravina, for the use of.

Superfluous, gratuitous shot of a boat that almost looks like one of the bateaux of North America.

We walked along the river until we got to Water Lane and headed towards the main shopping street where the aforementioned footwear could be purchased. 100 paces up Water Lane stands a branch of the Curzon cinema chain. For non-UK readers, Curzon is a chain of picture houses that tends to show films on the slightly more ‘art house’ side of the range. The programme for Sunday included The Great Escaper, 45 minutes after we passed the cinema. As this was a film I’d planned to look out for we bought tickets, nipped up the road to complete the planned purchase, drink a coffee and return to watch the film.

And what a cracking film it was. Based on a true story of a 90 year old veteran of Overlord who, in 2014 having missed the chance to go on an organised trip, made his own way to Normandy for the 70th anniversary commemorations. In the course of this he had “15 minutes of fame”. The script, the acting (Michael Caine and the late Glenda Jackson in their last film, and the supporting actors*), the cinematography were all great. Flashbacks sensitively handled. Those of you into WWII, and in particular the work of James Holland, will be pleased by the appearance of the Sherwood Rangers in the D-Day flashbacks. It was at that intersection of the Venn Diagram of this bloggist’s interests and those of his spouse. Perfect. I don’t normally do this, but I will in this case……go to see it. And if you do, take someone whose hand you can hold.

* including John Stride

Despite all that, walking back along the river I couldn’t resist pointing out that ‘the bus to Dover was heading the wrong way along Hove seafront’. Not a single button was counted in that moment of pedantry.

Postscript:

Look it's not just me saying this. James Holland and Al Murray raved about this film in a recent episode of We Have Ways of Making You Talk. They also had an interesting talk with the director and writer, which gives you more of a clue as to what was real and what was imagined in the plot. https://wehavewayspod.com/episodes/

Rationalising

''Rationalising" is one of those euphemisms that emerged in the 80s for 'cuts' and it is in that sense that I am thinking right now. I don't have a massive inventory of toy soldiers, and I have been thinking about expanding it. My first thought is always to look at 'the lead mountain' to see what I can do there before I can justify to myself more spending.

I've worked through my 6mm SYW pile to the point where I don't have enough for any more units. Just a few odds and sods. The ECW 'pile' is similar. I have a few civilians and some petardiers. And some officers, drummers and the odd pikeman, but nothing to make a unit out of. The AWI collection has nothing whatsoever, unpainted. I'll say that again. "The AWI collection has nothing whatsoever unpainted".

Then there's the Napoleonics. Again, nothing to paint. There are various painted figures, donated by Tony 'Max Foy', which could be based up into a unit. It might require some re-painting. But here's the thing, I haven't gamed with them in 3 years. I have an Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish army and a late war Prussian army. But no French, save the aforementioned painted loose figures. I could look at the viability of re-painting the Prussians. Obviously the biggest issue is the shape of the shakos (and all with covers on), and the flat caps amongst the Landwehr. Food for thought. If I decide not to do that I will seriously think about moving the collection on.

	No./base	No. Bases
Napoleonics
Baccus infantry	24-28	63
Baccus cavalry	9	24
Baccus artillery	1 gun	16*
Baccus generals	1	55

* about half with limber teams.

Finally there's the WWII Finns and Soviets. Again, I hardly use these. There are a lot more unpainted models here. I sorted through them, catalogued them and decided what I would definitely keep and paint, and what was genuinely surplus. The surplus will definitely be moved on one way or another. Comment below if you're interested.

Description	# Figures/heavy weapon teams/vehicles	Cat.No. (packs are not necessarily full)	Make
Soviets in winter coats and fur hats	40	?	Magister Militum?
Finnish senior officers in coats and winter hats	4	Fin 2	Pendraken
Soviet officers various hats	10	W258?	Magister Militum
Soviet LMG team (teams of 2	9	W257	Magister Militum
Soviet light mortar teams (bases of 2)	4	W251	Magister Militum
Soviet LMG teams of 2	7	?	Magister Militum?
Soviet heavy mortars (teams of 3)	2	W256	Magister Militum
Soviet Naval infantry	11	SV19?	Pendraken?
Soviet MMG teams of 2	7	W252	Magister Militum
RCW Red Army inf in Budyanovka	23	RCW1	Pendraken
Soviet AT guns (teams of 3)	2	SV17	Pendraken
Soviet early war light tank	3	?	?
Soviet T28	1	?	?
Soviet BT7	1	?	Pendraken?
Soviet KV1	2	?	Pendraken?
Finns in winter coats	37	?	?
Finns in Summer uniforms	35	?	?
Finnish MMG (team of 2)	2	?	?
Finnish heavy mortars (teams of 3)	2	?	?
Finnish AT gun (team of 3)	1	?	?
Finnish AT gun (team of 3)	1	?	?

I was originally thinking of the Winter War, which is why I've got some of the earlier AFVs and RCW infantry, but the thought of creating all those leafless broad leaf trees put me off! Most of the Soviets are in  post-1940 kit.

Oh, I nearly forgot. In the interests of full disclosure, I do have various samples of Punic War, Colonial and late C17th pikemen unpainted. The latter for the 'bateaux project' I mentioned a while back.

Postscript

I 'discovered' that I also have a pack (50) of Pathan infantry and a pack (20) of Tartar cavalry bought from H&R many years ago for an 18th century Ottoman project that never got off the ground. [Now there's a thought]. Also some Prussian grenadiers and  some Austrian grenadiers. Collectively nearly enough for a battalion of grenadiers (based on pennies for use as markers in my home brewed rules). But which nationality? I seem to have enough Prussian, Austrian and Anglo-Hanoverian grenadiers. Options include:

• Rochow Fusileers (Saxon) would involve cutting mitres down, but they have nice green coats. Fought with the French.
• Saxon converged grenadiers - white coats with mitres for a change!
• Reichsarmee combined grenadier battalion (which could be a mixture of bluecoats in mitres and whitecaps in bearskins!). Think they may have only combined grenadiers later in the war.
• Something from the WAS like Piedmontese or Spanish (assuming they had grenadier battalions), but they'd be odd ones out.

I also have c.40 mounted officers, also based on pennies as 'markers'. These could be 'converted' into cavalry of some description. Enough for 2 'brigades'.