Hooptedoodle #469 - Hitler's Motorbikes, and Their Part in My Upbringing

 The title, of course, is a joke. This is just going to be the usual self-indulgent stuff about me, me, me, but let's sustain the pretence for a minute, and start with the motorbikes.

Most of you will recognise this as the iconic Zündapp KS750 sidecar unit, of which the Wehrmacht bought some 18,000 during WW2.  Zündapp were the most successful German maker of motorcycles; it is less well known that they were also the sponsors of the experimental Porsche 12 of 1931, which was one of the forerunners of Hitler's People's Car. The Zündapp effort was very advanced, having a flat-5 watercooled engine, and it may have been dropped on the grounds of cost. Here's a postwar reconstruction of the Porsche 12, which never made it into production; I understand that there were 3 running prototypes, of which the last was destroyed in a bombing raid on Stuttgart in 1945.

After the war, Zündapp moved their operation to Munich, and production was restricted to small, 2-stroke engined motorcycles. They produced a range of what became known as "mo-peds", and also introduced the excellent Bella scooter, which in the 1960s should by rights have been a very serious challenger to the Vespa and the Lambretta - maybe it was too ugly?

 Changes in regulations and international trading agreements meant that Germany's protected motor cycle industry was suddenly thrown open to competition from Japan, and Zündapp eventually went bankrupt.

Right, back to my own history.

My family moved to a more suburban district of Liverpool when I was 10, and my dad got a better job, at English Electric, in Aintree. This was too far to cycle, and he detested public transport, which he always considered to be primarily an uncomfortable way to spread infection. So he bought himself a 50cc moped - a Zündapp, in fact - for his commute. This would do something amazing like 150mpg on 2-stroke fuel. The build quality was exceptional, and the device was very strong (and heavy, of course). Officially it would do 35mph, but my dad fitted his with steel leg guards, and with a mighty perspex windscreen, which had a clear apron hanging down to the leg guards, so it had the aerodynamic properties of a garden shed. He also fitted it with an improvised pillion seat. With me on the back, 25mph was about the limit, and up anything like a significant slope I would often have to get off and jog up the hill behind him. It was not a huge amount of fun, as I recall.

Since I have given the general impression that this was no kind of sophisticated or comfortable means of transport, it makes obvious sense that the first serious run my dad took me on with his noisy, stinking, wheezing moped should be a 3-day jaunt to the Lake District "and beyond" (which I think meant "whatever we can manage"). I spent a lot of this trip jogging up steep hills, as you might imagine, thinking silent, dark thoughts. We went on the old A6 road over Shap Fell; we got as far as the Scottish border (just about); neither of us had been to Scotland before, so never mind the physical torture and the driving rain. Then we came back via the Pennines (he wanted to take a photo of the waterfall, High Force, near Middleton in Teesdale, with his ridiculous little Ensign box camera), cut back into the Lakes for our second night, and dawdled our way home the following day. How we survived, and why no-one ever murdered him, remain topics of wonder to this day.

During that trip, apart from my first sight of Scotland, I recall that we also spent a night's bed and breakfast upstairs in a pub in Stainton, Penrith - I had never been in a pub before!

This all comes to mind now because I recently rescued some of my mother's old family photo albums from her care home, and I now have some evidence. Here am I, with the moped, on the shore at Coniston Water, in the Lake District, on that very trip. Note short trousers, school socks and non-aerodynamic hairstyle.

And here, just to prove we got there, is the ritual photo of Gretna Green. I think that the wretch in the plastic mac in the middle is me.

 

A year or so later the Zündapp was replaced by a Lambretta scooter (by this time we are getting into the age of crash helmets), but serious upgrades to the transport situation waited until I had gone away to university, after which my mum and dad owned motor cars, and started going on nice continental holidays. [I've always wondered about that...].

It was interesting for me (if not for you) to find these old snapshots, which I haven't seen for 60 years at least. I should keep them handy, in case I am ever guilty of thinking that life gets a little tough some days.

 

Tonight I propose to work on touching up my growing collection of gabions. I may also paint some chevaux de frises. I have some excellent CDs of the Danish String Quartet playing folk music to keep me entertained, of which I may say more on another occasion.

Sieges: More recruits for the "Cast of Hundreds"

 For the last two days I've been working on rescuing figures from the Painted Spares boxes to assemble some of the 3-man infantry companies I need for my WSS siege games.

Apart from their much-envied ability to stand on a narrow walkway behind the walls or in a trench, these fellows are needed to carry out trench raids, to perform guard duties for sapper teams and (in the case of the garrison) for policing duties, to control the excesses of a hostile civilian population. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, the emphasis here is on retouching pre-painted figures, mounting them on slimline 50mm x 20mm bases (a new size for me), and trying to make them as versatile as possible.

I have now knocked together 5 "battalions" of 4 companies each thus far - I'm pleased with them - I might need a couple more. They aren't going to win many prizes, but they will only get out to play every now and then, and it beats the bejesus out of leaving them to fester away in the spares boxes.

Here's what I've finished off this afternoon. The figures are all Les Higgins castings of considerable age, and they were all owned and painted by other collectors before they came to me!

 

The 5 battalions of siege companies; from the rear, there are 2 rows of French, 1 of Austrian grenadiers and 2 of British grenadiers

 

 

Some of the British grenadiers; synchronised throwing of grenades always reminds me of Dad's Army, and such an activity might be a bit old-fashioned anyway by the time of the WSS, but in a siege a grenade might be just the thing to chuck over a wall or into a trench. Very shiny fellows indeed

 

 

Some very nicely painted Austrian grenadiers I picked up on eBay when I was still an occasional shopper there. It really doesn't matter, but I challenge anyone to come up with an Imperial infantry unit with green facings in this period. It's OK - sleepless nights reading and searching online have turned up a suitable identity, which I find quite gratifying. In fact there were two such - both from the Fränkische Kreis (Würzburg area) - one of which wasn't raised until 1711, which is a bit late, but one is right on the money; the 3rd Franconian Circle regiment was present at 1st Höchstädt, Donauworth, and the siege of Landau, green facings and everything. It's original commander resigned when he inherited the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach in 1703 (as one would, of course). He was replaced by one Johann Friedrich Mohr von Wald, who sadly only lasted a year before he was mortally wounded at the Schellenberg in 1704, so the colonelcy then passed to Georg Philipp von Boyneburg (you must remember Georg Philipp? - his mother used to wash our stairs...). Anyway, you've been introduced

 

These are from the more faded end of Eric Knowles' French army - I've used most of the good ones already for line regiments, but these guys cleaned up well enough for this siege job. They are especially useful, since they can also stand in very nicely for Dutch, Austrian, Danish, and a whole stack of German principalities, many of which I haven't even heard of

I've still to put the magnetic sheet under all these; oh yes - may I please give an appreciative shout-out to the lads at Warbases, who got the new 50x20 bases to me in 24 hours.

Sieges: Some more progress - after a few months off!

 Yesterday I picked up my brushes for the first time since May; very easy session, enjoyed it.

I completed some more of the siege-bits pile for WSS, right through to varnishing and basing. I also sorted out more of the "cast of hundreds" figures destined to play the part of assorted siege-gunners and engineering types. These figures are all previously painted, some came with the odds and ends from Eric Knowles' WSS hoard (very usefully, Eric specialised in odds and ends), some came as loose change in various eBay hits, and in historic purchases from Soldiers of Rye, some were kindly donated by friends - thanks to Jim Walkley, to Benjamin, to Albannach, to Serious Michael (in Derbyshire), to Old John, to Clive and to Goya (for hunting things down for me at bring'n'buy stalls in various countries). Thanks also to anyone I've forgotten to mention.

 

WSS Siege Bits box - what's been did: thus far we have 3 brass siege cannons (the one with dolphins is Minifigs, the others Hinchliffe), 3 iron 24pdrs (Hinchliffe), 4 heavy "fortress" guns on garrison carriages (also Hinchliffe), mortars in 2 sizes (Lancer Miniatures) and a crowd of crewmen and helpers (Les Higgins). For any keen types who identify that some of the iron ordnance pieces look a bit like Blomefields, and might be happier in a slightly later war, I can only plead that they are near enough for me, and that this little park also is to provide the siege equipment for my Napoleonic Spanish army!

 

These little fellows are from my pool of Eric Knowles conversions which have been called back to service after retirement. The source figure for each is the "fat officer" from the Les Higgins Malburian range - one has been altered to be doffing his hat, appropriate to the Age of Elegance, while the other is struggling with a tin-foil map. The paintwork is Eric's, preserved as far as possible. What the uniforms represent I neither know nor care - I like them, and these guys look senior enough to wear what they want!

The "cast of hundreds" approach is useful; thus far I have gone for the easy stuff - figures which only really needed some chip-repair - if they also looked a bit faded then a quick exposure to Army Painter's "Quickshade" is a big help - then fresh varnish and new bases. If they look a little pre-owned then that is just what they are - they are working antiques, so appropriate respect will be welcome. If there seems to be a lack of direction in the uniforms, that's OK - some of these chaps might well be British, or a bit French, but if they are not then they are probably Dutch, or a garrison battalion, or Walloons, or from assorted German states - they may even be in civilian dress - who knows?

I still have some more figures to add to this army of extras - the next lot will require more touch-up work. At the moment I have run out of 20mm bases, and to be honest I am not yet sure just how many more I will need. I'll come back to this.

On the weapons front, I have another 3 bronze-barrelled siege cannons to finish off, one extra-large mortar and a few little Coehorns. Getting there.

Beyond that, I need to paint up a lot more gabions, get started on some decent chevaux de frises, and sort out some separate (3-man) companies of troops to carry out trench raids, and to stand guard duty for sapper teams. This last exercise offers a chance to use up a small supply of pre-painted British grenadiers who will not get a gig otherwise.

One proposed terrain breakthrough has been a bit of a wrench; for Vauban-period warfare, I do have proper 3D (sloped) glacis pieces to go with the walls and bastions. The nicely-made glacis pieces can also be something of a nuisance, since they limit the fortress designs I can use unless I spend money and/or effort getting extra moulded pieces. I have decided to use flat glacis plates - just hex tiles painted in a special shade of green so they stand out, and use Fat Frank's standard "trench" pieces to represent the covered way at the top edge. I'll try some mock-ups with this idea in the next few weeks. What could possibly go wrong?

Guest Spot: More of Steve Cooney's ECW Troops

 Always delighted to feature samples from Steve's collections.

Steve very kindly sent me this photo; the description is his:

Nothing to do on a wet dismal September day...so spent a few hours digging through the old figure boxes and found these (attached ). They represent the ECW Parliamentarian Command Group , mounted Oliver Cromwell , Thomas Fairfax and the Earl of Essex with Drummer and Commonwealth Standard Bearer on foot .

 

All are smartened up Hinton Hunt or Les Higgins 20mm figures I converted way back. Thought they might be worth an airing!

 

As ever, thanks very much Steve - great work

 

Hooptedoodle #468 - Another Nostalgia Trip - Football Safari

 Last week I visited Liverpool, with one of my sons. Although it is my home town, it had been six years since my previous trip there.

 

Tourist-style photo (not mine)

We had a very loose agenda; my son was keen to have a look around the dock area, and visit the football grounds; there were a few personal memories I wished to see again, I hoped to meet up with my last surviving relative in the area, and also - following my recent wargame based on the ECW siege there - I was keen to have a walk around some of the relevant sites from the 17th Century.

Let's start off with something of a spoiler: the weather was dreadful - torrential rain with very few pauses. We had to modify our plans quite a bit; we enjoyed some excellent (but very wet) walks, had some terrific evening meals (including a jovial dinner with the aforementioned relative!) and quite a few beers [I had a couple of pints of an ale called Titanic, which, as you might expect, went down very well]. Some of the proposed walks were shelved because we didn't fancy another trek through the monsoon, so the ECW sites were left in peace until another occasion (though we did look around the area that used to be the Pool, the inlet which served as a port in 1644 - subsequently replaced by Hanover Street, Paradise Street, Whitechapel). Eventually we ended the trip and returned home earlier than planned, partly because I had run out of dry walking gear!

On our drive home, the rain stopped somewhere near Wigan (maybe 40 miles from Liverpool river front), and it was a lovely sunny day all the way back to Edinburgh. Yes, quite.

One other result of the weather was that I took hardly any photos. Never mind. Where necessary, I shall borrow someone else's.

On the first full day there, we initially abandoned a hefty hike up the hills to see the Liverpool and Everton football grounds, but then - mostly because we couldn't think of anything else to do on such a wet day, and because we knew we could always give up if things got too bad - we did it anyway. We walked from the Pier Head, downstream (North) into a disused area of the old docks, and had a look at where Everton FC are building their new stadium, at Bramley Moore Dock. It should be ready for the start of the 2025/26 season, so it is to be hoped they will still be in the Premier League when this happens. How the economics will stack up if the home games are in the next league down, against teams like Plymouth and Bristol City (no offence), and the TV companies are not interested, remains to be seen. On the other hand, the fans may come pouring in if they actually start winning some games. We wish them well.

 

Bramley Moore Stadium, nearing completion

This part of the walk took us past some historic Port of Liverpool landmarks such as the old Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, which I knew of but had never seen close-up before. The Tobacco Warehouse was (maybe still is?) the biggest brick-built warehouse in the world. The fact that it is still standing, despite the best efforts of time and the Luftwaffe, is entirely due to the fact that it was built to be fireproof - which means bricks, masonry, and vaulted ceilings supported on cast iron pillars, no timber - and when the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board specified "fireproof" they were not messing about. More recently, the continued survival of so many of these old buildings is because no-one fancied the expense of trying to demolish the beggars, and there is now a big demand for them to be converted into riverside apartments, at fancy prices. My dad would have been astounded. 

 

Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, built in 1900 and still unmovable - you can buy a posh flat here if you fancy one

After we had a look at the Bramley Moore development, we cut inland, up Boundary Street and the hills leading up to Everton. Not much tradition left here; Everton was once the site of some of the worst slums in Europe, and there is a lot of modern housing up there now - much of it very attractive.

We got to Anfield (Liverpool's stadium), dripped dry for a while, had some lunch, and on a whim, because we found there were spaces on the afternoon session, paid for the official tour, which was a significant first for me, and a marvellous experience - recommended, even if you are not an LFC fan.

 

Son No.2 on the Anfield tour, enjoying a short break from the downpour

Subsequently, we walked through Stanley Park (which is lovely - a big surprise) to Everton's current ground at Goodison Park, which is looking very shabby these days - hardly surprising, since they will be moving out next Summer. As a schoolboy, I often went to Goodison (Everton were my number 2 team), and it was always an eye-opener. They were the big team locally (this is the 1960s), played in the old First Division (Liverpool were exiled to the Second for years), and benefited greatly from the ownership of the Moores family, who also owned Littlewoods Pools and the retail stores. Thus Everton had expensive players (many of them Scots, in fact), their ground was bigger, safer, better floodlit, more businesslike. I can also remember the ground being smartened up and made to line up with international regulations in preparation for the 1966 World Cup, and they were selected as one of the official venues for that competition. [In 1966 I saw Brazil vs Portugal (Brazil lost, and Pele was kicked off the park after about 20 minutes), and Brazil vs Hungary (Brazil lost again, and Pele was still injured)]

Time has not been kind to Goodison Park. The new stadium looks marvellous, so I hope Everton thrive there.

 

Interesting aerial shot of the old Goodison Park stadium, looking over towards the new site next to the river

We didn't attempt to enter Goodison - we were too tired and wet, so from this point we took the bus back into Liverpool city centre, and started to search out enough dry clothes to go out for dinner.

The Battle of Maria de Huerva, 1809

 On Wednesday night I hosted the Zoom game I mentioned in my previous post. The Jolly Broom Man (he himself) commanded the Spanish troops, in his role of Mariscal de Campo Blake, and I was Général de Division Gabriel Suchet, commanding some part of the III Corps, not far from Zaragoza.

JBM sportingly volunteered to command the Spanish troops, and I believe that he had the advantage of a few extra units to compensate for the unpredictable behaviour of his men. I reproduce the game map below; if you do a quick unit count and find that JBM did not, in fact, get any extra units, then please keep quiet about it. I meant to give him some. You know how it is.

 The scenario is pretty much lifted intact from the Commands & Colors scenario book, with some tweaking of numbers. It is close to the historical situation, though, since my toy armies don't quite match that part of the Peninsular War, in that year, the types of units are correct, but the individual regiment names mostly are not. The French army, however, does include troops from the Vistula (lancers and line infantry) and the famous 13e Cuirassiers, who really were present.

Since JBM does not have a set of the C&CN cards, we used my Ramekin add-on, which has a dice-based activation system. One feature of the scenario was that each army had a reserve of three line battalions, off the table, at the end of the road. These reserve troops would arrive on the field when their commander rolled a double-one on the activation dice for the second time; a double-one is not normally a welcome event, but in this case the French victory was greatly helped by the fact that Suchet's reserve arrived a few turns before Blake's.

"Then tell him to march faster..."

 

The Centre of the Spanish position; Roca has the front line, Lazan the second, and Blake (with the yellow border to his base) is waving his hat somewhere to the rear

7 Victory Points was the requirement for a win.

 

Situation at the start, seen from behind the French right flank

 

From the other end of the table, we can see the French right flank rushing forward in the distance

 

In this game, yellow counters denote light infantry (of which the Spaniards had a lot), red counters are elite units (there was only one, a Spanish grenadier battalion) and white counters are losses. 3 white counters will eliminate an artillery battery; all other units require 4. Here GdB Robert attacks the ridge on the Spanish left, the Lanciers de la Vistule attempting to strike terror into the light infantry on the end of the line

 

This was quite a bloody little passage. Each side lost one unit, the Spaniards withdrew a little, but the French were stopped. Honours about even - the score quickly became 2-2

 

The Cazadores de Barbastro had 3 hits already, and were shifted out of the firing line

 

The Spanish right includes the elite grenadier battalion, and both of the light cavalry units

 

Back on the Spanish left, Bonavente brings forward the two battalions of the Regto de Ordenes Militares

 

...who form square and chase away the lancers, who are also looking a bit wrecked now

 

The square black counter indicates - you guessed! - that the unit on the left is in square

 

A repeated feature of this battle was the effective use of "Combined Arms" attacks, in which cavalry or infantry carry out melee attacks with support from their artillery

 

The French, having rather run out steam on the right, start to develop their left

 

Ordenes Militares push forward from the ridge, though they thought better of this idea shortly afterwards

 

General Wathier advances on the French left. There was some brisk action, the main effect of which was to render the cavalry of both armies useless for the rest of the day (where have I heard this story before...?)

 

GdD Musnier started to move his infantry in the centre to the right (he was hoping very earnestly for his reserve troops to arrive, they say)

 

The Spaniards, on the far side of the valley take a reverse-slope position to protect themselves from the French artillery

 

Tales of glory - suddenly the Spanish grenadiers rush forward, shouting and singing. They were last seen heading along the road toward the monastery - they never came back...

 

Everything rather static in the centre and on the Spanish left

 

 

Featured unit - General Robert with a battalion of (ex Eric Knowles) Hinton Hunts (with SHQ command figures)

 

 

Another featured unit - last time I fought this battle, about 5 years ago, the Vistula Lancers just about won the day by themselves. This time it didn't go so well. C'est la Guerre. (Old Les Higgins figures - I reckon I painted these in about 1973!)

 

Blake is still sending messages of encouragement to his troops

 

And now, for the first time, we see the French reserve troops arriving, next to the monastery

 

From the far end of the field, you can see them surging forward in the distance

 

While, in the centre, the 4e Vistule and a battalion of the 6e Léger advance, with support from the artillery on their left

 

The 4e Vistule go in, uphill, with artillery giving Combined Arms support from across the valley. It was enough; the Spaniards had fought well, Blake manoeuvred his formations with skill, some great work was done to rally exhausted units, and their reserves had now also arrived, but the VP score was 7-3, and Suchet had won the day. It was hard work, though. These Spaniards don't know when they are licked, I can tell you...