Somme

[martin goddard]

It ls the big push at the Somme tomorrow.  Lots of media on it.
gen Rawlinson.

[pigsticker]

Hi Martin,

I listen to the radio a lot due to the quality of the programmes and because I can do this while painting minis. Seeing your comment on the forum I thought that you may be interested in links that I prepare for my local U3A History Group. Note that these are not necessarily recommendations but merely links of some history-related TV & Radio programmes for the coming week.
If you want to pick up items on iPlayer back issues are also listed on the BAD wargames site:

http://badwargamers.com/bad/?forum=rays-tv-and-radio-picks

Happy listening & viewing!

Ray

[pigsticker]

Last week I went to an talk at the Uni of Wolverhampton by Gary Sheffield. He made the point that, in almost exclusively emphasising the cultural aspects, the media & government have missed the opportunity to help understand this battle. The implication has been of futility. Apparently until some historians pointed it out the government had organised commemorations for 1914 & the Somme but nothing for the victory in 1918! See Sheffield's article here for an explanation of the Somme:

http://www.historytoday.com/gary-sheffield/somme-exercise-futility?mc_cid=391028db38&mc_eid=726a2dd26f

[Leman (Andy)]

Yes, what I saw on BBC yesterday seemed to focus exclusively on loss and futility. In actual fact, despite the horrific casualties, there were successes in the southern sector of the battlefield, and ultimately the battle broke the back of the German army and eased the pressure on our allies, the French, as had been intended. I was also rather surprised at the number of members of the public who felt that the soldiers of 1916 had protected our current freedoms - now I can understand those sentiments in relation to WWII, but not to a conflict which was essentially about empires competing with one another at the highest level. Funny how the death of 28,000 men on the single day of the battle of Towton is never nationally commemorated. [Incidentally I do have a family member who was killed in the attack on Mametz on July1st.]

[Sean Clark]

Sorry for resurrecting this but I was looking for something else and stumbled across Lemans  point about Towton.

A few years ago I put on the Towton scenarios for Bloody Barons at Alumwell. During my own research around the battle it too struck me that a battle  which was supposedly the largest ever to take place on British soil with so many casualties is barely known about. There was a fantastic article discussing this very subject which if I can find I'll post up here.

On another note, I had a couple of blokes stop by at my game appearing to show interest.  When I engaged them in conversation they said they didn't think it worked in 15mm and that they  don't like Bloody Barons. They went on to sylay they would be producing a 28mm spectacular with several thousand 28mm figures the following year.

I thanked them for their interest and got back to rolling dice. Some people eh? 😂

[Leman (Andy)]

On the plus side you did enable them to deal with their social inadequacy and feel good about themselves. Unlike your evidently good self, I would have told them that.

[Sean Clark]

Life is too short Leman  😀

Martin and I had a good chuckle about it. They were indeed there the following year with one of those massive tables with 1000's of figures on it. From what I could see there were a lot of serious blokes standing around not engaging with the public. The table looked great but I'm not sure I saw a dice rolled or figures moved all day 😂

[Leman (Andy)]

Static display - one wonders if they were even wargamers at all, or actually military modellers. This does seem to happen at virtually every show I go to - the wonderful display that no one is willing to talk about.

[Sean Clark]

I agree. I wrote a post about it on my blog a few years ago. Similar thing happened at Warfare with the largest Battle of Blenhiem you could imagine, in 28mm using Front Rank. Two blokes did all the work and reckoned there was £20,000 worth of kit on the table.

If I was a newcomer to the hobby walking in and seeing that  I think I'd have two thoughts about whether  I could afford this hobby.

[Leman (Andy)]

I had a discussion on the Pendraken website about this very subject. Someone mentioned all the wonderful displays at Salute. I had a look at the mass of photos and my thought was, well that would put me off if I was interested in finding out about wargaming. One of the reasons I like the PP displays at shows is that they look good, but they also look achievable.Plus the chaps are always keen to get people involved. My first ever game of Square Bashing was at the PP stand about four years ago.

[Sean Clark]

Agreed. It is the demo games that  Martin et all put on over the years that made me think this is what I could play on my kitchen table.  Years ago I was guilty of following the trends in Wargames Illustrated and painted a large ACW collection to fight the battle of New Market with bespoke scenery and 5 highlights per figure. Madness.

I've had far more fun with RFCM, painting my figures using Army Painter dip brushed on and attending gaming days in Weymouth (200+ miles away!) than I ever did trying to achieve perfection and finding the perfect Vallejo  paint for Union trousers.

[Stewart 46A]

Thanks Sean , it's nice to have you visit