Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in 20mm (part 13): The New Zealand brigade

I´m almost 100% sure that Peter Jackson must have played in his younger years with the Airfix US WW1 infantry thinking they could give the New Zealand figures for Chunuk Bair and all the actions of the New Zealanders at Gallipoli in 1915. This is of course before he became very rich and being able to order his own thousands of Perry beauties in 54mm. 

Years ago I amassed a few boxes of Airfix US WW1 infantry thinking to cut off their heads, place some brodie helmets and sending them helping win the war in the Western Front. Then, almost 20 years ago, Hat and Imex made boxes filled with helmeted US infantry and the Airfixes quickly became obsolete. So these boxes were cornered in the stash and their prospects of a grim future were quite real eventually finishing in the hands of kids of about 10 or 12 who only know how to play with cell phones! My goodness, what a way to go!!

When I started this Gallipoli series I quickly found the Airfix US to be useful for the New Zealanders. In fact only the Wellington battalion had the Lemon Squeezer hat but I placed it in all four battalions as this hat became a symbol for Kiwi soldiers all along the 20th century. The hat depicts Mount Taranaki and has a khaki and red puggaree around it. The New Zealanders uniform was in fact a greener tone than this brown khaki (Vallejo English Uniform) but if you decide to use, say, the British figures as more New Zealanders in a skirmish game, you can have a more coherent looking large unit. In fact the same logic applies to the Australians as all these countries had full or partial bits of the British uniform making all Dominion units in the campaign interchangeable if the same khaki remains. 

Lieutenant Colonel George malone is one of the heroes of the campaign and the Co of the Wellington Battalion. He was also the introducer of the Lemon Squeezer hat in the Wellington battalion, which later was adopted in 1916 by the full 1st NZ infantry division. Strangely I could not find any picture of Malone with his hat of adoption at Gallipoli as he always shows in the British peaked cap. The figure used for him is the Airfix British officer with the sword heated and cut until a revolver shape was obtained and scabbard taken out. I didn't take out  the full head but only the hat due to the lovely moustache presented on this figure, ideal for George Malone. Then a Lemon Squeezer was super glued. Malone died at Chunuk Bair on the 8th of August after leading its battalion in an impressive dawn assault that conquered the position. Initially his orders were to attack in broad daylight with the rest of the brigade, which he refused only to prove himself right a few hours later.  

Even so there are a few pictures of him using the Lemon Squeezer as this one taken in Egypt while the Wellington battalion was training. Note the swords quickly discarded by the officers at the front. In my miniature he is leading the Brigade which simply was not true as he was battalion commander, the brigade Co being Brigadier General Francis Earl Johnston, someone of much inferior fame. In the fantastic Peter Jackson/Perry brothers diorama of the attack on Chunuk Bair, Johnston´s figure is seating with his hands on the head not knowing what to do. 

The Airfix box has no MMGs and only a few Chauchats in a strange bipod, useless for the Kiwis. 

I found four Airfix 8th Army Vickers tubes (only one had its tripod ) and quickly some plastic tripods were made in plastic and glued with Hot Glue and Super Glue. The operators are for the No 1 the figure firing the grenade launcher (useless here as the weapon was only introduced in 1916) and the No 2  is the one on hold with the rifle close to his body. No3 is the laying down figure with no changes. At the beginning I was thinking to cut the arms and replace them all with GreenStuff ones but an usual attack of laziness forced me to use the arms as they were just changing slightly its position with some heat. In the end the result is not that bad. 

The riflemen all got plastic bayonets and backpacks. The uniform was the Territorial model 1912 and, with all that red was considered 'extravagant' and replaced after the Gallipoli campaign. 

The US cartridge belt was not disguised and simply painted as part of the NZ/British 1908 webbing set. 

The backpacks were made from Milliput and glued with super glue. All these extra parts, backpacks and bayonets, stay nicely on the soft plastic if first super glued, then painted and finally varnished. 

Next: my own Fort Capuzzo in WW2. 

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - The last two battalions of the British Brigade (no,no, different post from previous one)

 

After the Aussies left the table from their photo shoot the Brits came in, so even if they look alike these are two different posts. These are the two last battalions for the British Brigade for the Desert 1940/43. This Brigade is the only one I have fully with the Brodie helmet, with all other Commonwealth brigades, Hindu, Scottish and Australian using their most known headdress (turban, Balmoral and slouch hats). The New Zealand is at its beginnings and they will be WW2 British bodies with lemon squeezer hats from  Airfix US WW1 infantry. 

As I generally do I mixed figures from brands that are similar in size. Specially the helmets, when of different scales (1/72 or 1/76) make figures very different when placed side by side. Here, Revell, Airfix copies and Hat are all mixed to a good effect. 

The only Matchbox and Airfix 1st version figures came together in the 2 and 3-inch mortar stands. When put together in the same stand they look ok with helmets of the same size. 

The 2- inch mortar was scratch built and its No1 operator was the Matchbox figure firing the Bren gun. The same happened to the Boys AT rifle operator who now has a 3d printed one. 

The command groups mixes all possible brands of the same size. 

A few LMG figures in the rifle companies have scratchbuilt Lewis replacing their Bren. It just gives them a bit of "Beau Geste" looks, maybe still up to 1940, but I think the British Infantry had them already fully replaced by the Bren LMG. Even so there may be chance of them being used by the infantry in the desert as many Bren were lost at France in 1940 and something had to be used instead.

Next: The New Zealand Brigade at Gallipoli 1915

Rapid Fire! Western Desert 1940-43 in 20mm - The last battalion of the Australian Brigade

Being lately around Gallipoli, and looking the figures with bush hats still to be made, I decided to make the last battalion of Australians for North Africa/Crete. 

Once more I wanted some bulky Aussies and so the Airfix Chinese copies and the Revell figures were used together with some 8th army figures of the same origin. Also a few more Hat and Revell Australians were added to the command and support stands. 

Also a Revell figure is manning the 2'' mortar together with Hat British on the Boys A/T rifle, a true Aussie from Airfix on the radio and an Esci Colonial British gave his body to an Australian head. 

The 2'' mortar and ammo container were made as usual from pieces of plastic card. 

The arm of the Hat Bren LMG figure was changed in order to hold a 3d printed Boys A/T rifle. I placed the laying down figures in a blob of glue gun for my mixture of sand and cat litter not to sink the miniatures. 

The other support stands came from a mix of Esci, Revell and Hat. 

The typical infantry companies had a number of head swaps. The Revell figures are bigger than the Airfix but they go well with the Chinese copies. 

Next: The two last battalions of the British WW2 desert infantry or the Gallipoli New Zealanders,  

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in 20mm (part 12): Turkish reinforcements for all arms

In this group photo you see two of the three available boxes from Hat (cavalry and artillery) and a Made In Macau vintage staff car. The artillery box is an amazing offer as it contains artillery (105mm FH 98/09 models with crew), snipers, HMGs (MG08), bomb boys, officers and cavalry. 

The snipers were placed in the usual 4cm poker disks. In order to disguise the sheen of the barrel I painted the rifles sand in order to imitate the cloth in which many sniper rifles are covered with.  

Colonel Mustafa Kemal, CO of the 19th Infantry Division, and later of the whole Turkish army at Gallipoli, came from one of the extras in the cavalry box. In fact the Hat cavalry box gives 15 figures and 12 horses and it's easy to use other horses for the extras. Kemal used both horse and car to move around Gallipoli. Yes, there are two blue dots for the eyes but they are barely visible. 

A Vauxhall Prince Henry 1914 from a lot of eight I bought in our local flea market became the Staff car of the army. 

The figures came from the artillery box and include a German advisor. The driver is converted from the crawling Japanese from Atlantic. As the knife is on the mouth it became a very typical Turkish moustache of those days. 

The diecast used is quite close to the one used by Colonel Mustafa Kamal (later, president of Turkye, more known as Atatürk - father of Turks) at Gallipoli during 1915.  

The Bomb Boys  are an interesting addition inspired probably in a famous Osprey plate. These kids served replacing their fathers and here all have the rank of sergeant. 

The Artillerymen are using the old white uniform that could still be seen at Gallipoli. 

The 08s have a third figure from the rangefinder figure on the artillery box (bottom row) and from the laying down Esci British Colonial figure (top row). 

The cavalry is a straight out the box simple painting with two extra horses from Italeri. 

Next: The New Zealand Brigade at Gallipoli or more Desert WW2. 

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in heerr ... 1/1 scale (part 11): Anzac Cove

The famous Anzac beach should have been a bit to the south closer to Gaba Tepe but with the usual problems of a night landing the landing spot ended 1,6 Km north of the intended place. If in one end the terrain in front to be penetrated was almost impassable and caused the breaking of the assault companies with many casualties, to the south the Anzacs would have faced 15cm and 12cm guns. I got a bit confused about this issue as the Australian documentary Gallipoli from above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXUu0RII4RA ) mentions that the landing beach was the correct one.  In fact any option was bad as the Turkish forces had plenty of time to prepare defences as they knew that a landing was coming at the southern tip of the Gallipoli peninsula between Cape Helles and Suvla bay.  

The tip of Gaba Tepe. 

Dominating the beach you have the famous Sphinx, named after the monument close to Mena Camp, Egypt, were the Anzacs trained. 

It is still today a very imposing site. 

Close by you have plenty of information about the battle, namely this poster No 6, regarding the Lone Pine and The Nek battles, two of the most bloody fights of the campaign. 

The Anzac Beach cemetery has 391 casualties buried there. These places are very well maintained by both the  Commonwealth War Graves Commision and the Turkish state. The French also have an impressive cemetery at Morto Bay on the Asian shore.

I counted 42 Commonwealth cemeteries and 13 Turkish not counting dozens of memorials from both sides. 

Many say that the Gallipoli campaign with all its stories of courage and suffering gave birth to both modern Turkey and Australia and New Zealand. For Great Britain and France the Gallipoli campaign, even if important, became overshadowed by the horrors and the amount of casualties on the Western Front.  

Next: More Turkish forces.

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in 20mm (part 10): Australian infantry

 

The Australian WW1 infantry from Hat that showed up in 2003 was a nice addition to their WW1 range. The figures are beautifully modelled and very elegant. Before this box being produced I was thinking to use some Airfix Australians (with slight changes in the ammunition pouches)  and Airfix WW1 British infantry with Aussie heads instead. A small group of these were included in this brigade. 

The Airfix Australian figures are smaller than the Hat ones but go along with them reasonably. The Airfix officer had its scabbard taken out and the sword melted and cut to the shape of a pistol. 

The three types of figures side by side. As you can see in the rear left figure (Airfix Australian) you need a few cuts in the 1937 ammo pouches in order to turn it into the P08 WW1 model. This figure also got a bayonet stuck into the rifle. 

One Emhar officer also entred the ranks due to its position favouring the company of other marching figures. 

The Vickers MMGs are WW2 British Hat with Aussie heads from Airfix. The Airfix range is in fact a good source of heads as when they were made the idea was mostly diorama building and not wargaming. Thus you have plenty of useless figures (for wargamers at least) that can donate parts of their bodies to science, sorry, to wargaming. 

Before painting. In fact you have the same type of position in the WW1 Hat Anzac support box but these were just hanging around without much prospect of ever being used (and they are cheaper this way). 

The brigade command stand is all Hat but the left figure is in fact a WW2 Polish officer with an Airfix head. 

Next: Anzac beach, Gallipoli 1915

Great War Spearhead II - Gallipoli 1915 in heerr... 1/1 scale (part 9):X beach (Implacable beach) on the 25th of April

X beach was another landing spot that became problematic not only due to the small beach (180m X 20m maximum at its centre) but also due to the shoal water, reefs and winds which did not allowed for an easy traffic. Even so it was the landing point for the 2/ Royal Fusiliers that only faced, initially, 12 turkish soldiers. This beach was also a good spot to unite with other beaches at Cape Helles area. Later this bridgehead was counterattacked by the Turkish several times and those actions make some interesting wargames scenarios. 

The beach was used as logistical area and field hospital with a cemetery close by.  

In this sketch by Cpt Lockyer you can see the reef, the shoal waters and the narrowness of the beach.  

One of the stars of this beach was HMS Implacable which was essential to the landing by carrying the Fusiliers and supporting them with its fire and to fend off several Turkish counterattacks both at X and Y beaches on the next few days. Another reason I'm posting this picture is to see if I gain courage to scratch build the thing... 

The shoal waters are clearly visible from the top of the cliff and this was one of the reasons why X beach was discarded as an evacuation point in january 1916. 

On top of the beach you can read the Turkish side of the story with a natural emphasis on the Turkish feats of arms, which in fact were something in this campaign. 

On top of the cliff there are still some remains of what looks to me as probably British trenches. 

The southern side of the beach is even more complicated with some non boat-friendly reefs. Modelling this beach must be quite challenging 

Next: an  Australian brigade for Gallipoli 1915.