Shortly before Operation Market Garden, the Guards Armoured Division reorganised to form four Regimental Groups, each of an armoured battalion and an infantry battalion from the same Guards Regiment.  They were flexible in how they operated, but normally 5 Guards Brigade commanded the Grenadier Guards Group (1 Motor Battalion Grenadier Guards and 2 Armoured Battalion Grenadier Guards) plus the Irish Guards Group (2 Armoured Battalion Irish Guards and 3 Infantry Battalion Irish Guards).  32 Guards Brigade similarly commanded the Coldstream and Welsh Guards Groups. The XXX Corps advanc ..read more

In my last post I showed a picture of my first Paperboys tanks, modelled as No 1 Squadron 2 Irish Guards, who along with the Infantry of 3 Irish Guards were the leading element of XXX Corps during the initial Market Garden breakout.  I have now completed the rest of 2 Irish Guards and here is No 2 Squadron.  Most Armoured Regiments and Infantry Battalions lettered their squadrons and companies as A, B, C etc, however the Guards used the nomenclature No 1 Squadron, No 2 Squadron etc for their armoured battalions and No 1 Company, No 2 Company etc for their infantry battalions.  ..read more

At the beginning of lockdown, I watched the film a Bridge too Far a couple of times and that inspired me to want to build a World War II set-up, based on Operation Market Garden. I decided to use the new Rapid Fire Reloaded rules, which I really liked. Rapid Fire has been around for over 20 years but the new simplified A5 booklet Rapid Fire Reloaded rules were published in 2020. There is a really excellent Rapid Fire supplement on Operation Market Garden which was also published that same year. That replaced a previous Market Garden supplement which I have as a PDF and was also very good ..read more

I have modelled a pontoon train, suitable for my expansion into the War of Austrian Succession.   The French built three pontoon bridges over the River Main just before the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 as part of their plan to trap the Pragmatic Army.  I thought it was unlikely that two armies would be building pontoon bridges during the same wargame, so decided to just model one train, but with alternative walking drivers and pontoon companies, so it could be used with different Armies. I already had some suitable pontoon bridges and carriages, which I had scratch built over 1 ..read more

I have not posted anything for a few weeks because I have been working on my new project of writing a set of wargame rules suitable for the Jacobite Rebellion. They are still a “work in progress” but when they are finished, and playtested, I intend making PDF copies available to purchase through this website. There will also be free downloads to supplement the rules. By way of a taster, the Preface and Index is below. Blue Bonnets & Tricornes Preface I wanted some wargame rules to use with my Jacobite Rebellion set-up, but could not find any which I liked.  I therefore decided to ..read more

There were a number of additional units and commanders at the Second Siege of Carlisle, which I have now modelled. The first of these is the Liverpool Blues.  My main source regarding them is “The Town of Liverpool in the ‘45” by R C Jarvis, which I found online.  They were a Volunteer Regiment raised by the town of Liverpool,  were raised much more quickly and were much more effective than the Lancashire Militia.  As the Jacobite Rebellion gained momentum the town petitioned the Government to be allowed to raise a volunteer force.  The Secretary of State wrote to the ..read more

The Jacobite Rebellion created a need for a rapid expansion in the size of the British Army.  This was facilitated by members of the aristocracy volunteering to raise regiments.  A total of 13 Noblemen’s Regiments of infantry were raised, plus two Regiments of Light Horse. Four of the infantry Regiments are recorded as being in red uniforms, with yellow, green and red facings (the fourth facing colour being unknown).  Most, if not all, of the remaining Noblemen’s Regiments seem to have worn blue uniforms with red facings, as illustrated in this print of the Marquess of Granby ..read more

I have been running this website for over six years. I have now decided to upgrade it to an ad-free version, so that readers do nor get annoying unrelated adverts inserted in my posts. It helped that WordPress were offering a 30% reduction in the first year’s subscription ..read more

My next project is to model all of the troops which took part in the Second Siege of Carlisle, conducted by the Duke of Cumberland from 21st to 30th December 1745. I already had modelled all of the Jacobite defenders and now needed to complete Cumberland’s troops. The core of his besieging force were the troops which had taken part in the Battle of Clifton on 18th December 1745, as described in my earlier post here. Those troops are shown on this plan of the battle. I had already modelled all of the cavalry units as shown here: The Duke of Cumberland is in the front, on a Command Sabot acco ..read more

Having beaten Cope at Prestonpans and taken Edinburgh City, but not the Castle, Prince Charles recruited more Regiments into the Jacobite Army then decided to march south into England to claim the throne on behalf of his father. His Army commenced its march on 1st November 1745. The Jacobite Army marched as two Divisions. The Lowland Division, commanded by the Duke of Perth, took a direct route to Carlisle via Moffat. The Highland Division, commanded by Lord George Murray and with Prince Charles accompanying it, initially headed South East towards Newcastle, before swinging South West across ..read more