A Battlefield Walk at Ciudad Universitaria

Graffitti in the Ciudad Universitaria - The fight continues 80 years later?

I attended on Sunday last week a guided battlefield walk organised by GEFREMA (a non-profit organisation fighting hard to keep the last remaining sites of the Spanish Civil War in Madrid) focused on the Ciudad Universitaria. It would not have been more timely after finishing our recent Chain of Command campaign Bloody November and the incoming publication of a related article in the TooFatLardies Christmas Special in December.

The visit was intrinsically interesting, but also provided a good feel of the battle terrain and a great understanding of the very deep changes operated in the landscape since the mid 30s. As a matter of fact, the site today has almost no resemblance with the topography of the war period as I will explain later.

I will support the narrative and photos included in this post with the attached map, scanned from the book written by Col Martínez Bande in the early 70s (La Marcha sobre Madrid) part of the official military history of the Spanish Civil War published before General Franco passed away in 1975.

(Click to enlarge)

To put you in the historical picture, the Nationalist troops arrived to Madrid in the first week of November. The attacking plan was to enter Madrid through La Casa de Campo park, cross the river Manzanares and penetrate trough the Ciudad Universitaria.

Winter is coming...

Another of my "view from my window" series. The mountains of the Sierra de Guadarrama hidden by thick clouds and already cover by the first blanket of snow this year. Temprature is not expected to break the 10ºC level today. Winter is finally coming...

Villers Bocage Campaign - Game 3

Today we played the third scenario of the Villers Bocage campaign for Chain of Command  (all the campaign details can be found in the first game post).In the past two games the Germans had been defeated and the British were now reaching the outskirts of the town itself; it was a critical moment on the campaign. As in the previous games, I was the German commander.

According to the scenario instructions, this was a Delaying Action scenario (the number 4 in the main rules book) and the victory conditions states that the attacker must take control of an enemy's jump-off point in its deployment area (victory objective).

Chain of Command Tactical Book

Richard Clarke Chain of Command author and TooFatLardies Big Man has been posting over the last week, a set of very interesting articles in the official TFL blog explaining some critical platoon tactical topics for those interested in military matters.

The booklet is presented as typical IIWW infantry training manual and covers the following aspects:

• Patrols & Reconnaissance
• Deployment: attacker notes
• Deployment: defender notes
• Fire and Movement
• Resource placement
• Combat in buildings

These posts have now been compiled and edited in a single pdf document 30 pages long and deliver for free to anyone interested. If you like to download your copy just click here from my own Google docs area.

Note the this booklet is NOT required to play Chain of Command and onthe contrary it can be of interest for players of other altrernative rules in the market

In any case Tactical primer  is a very welcome complementary addition to the series of publications of this II World War platoon-size engaments rules set that currently includes the campaigns handbook (At the Sharp End), the large games rules (Big CoC) and more recently, the 29 Let's Go! Normandy-based campaign book.

Beach Landing ***UPDATED****

Source: Barrage Miniatures website

Following on my previous post, you may be interested to know that Barrage Miniatures is now selling the British Thorneycroft landing craft, completing the II WW series (US, British and Japanese). There's a special offer for limited time, with a €5 discounted on the normal selling price.

Puente de Los Franceses - Bloody November Campaign Game 3

"Overcast... Good!" said sargento García, the young communist who have raised in a just a few months from clerk in a colmado (food store) of Tetuán to tank commander. "No bloody fascist planes". While he was brewing his ersatz coffee daily ration, a sudden rush of activity around indicated that something was going on, down the Parque del Oeste and probably across the Manzanares. The voice of the capitán shouting left no doubt: "¡A los tanques! ... ¡Arrancar los motores!" (to the tanks, turn on the engines)    

This is the battle report of the third game of our Bloody November-Madrid 1936 campaign for Chain of Command, set in the context of the Spanish Civil War. You can find all the necessary details to play in  a previous post of the blog.

Puente de los Franceses
This third game is based on the Scenario 3-Attack & Defend of the Chain of Command main rules book. To win this scenario, one side must force the other to leave the table, either voluntarily or due to a reduction in its force moral.

In the past two games, the Nationalists had fought their way across the Casa de Campo and arrived to the wall separating this major natural space west of Madrid from the city. The only obstacle now is the Manzanares a so-called "river", much despised by the madrileños due to its short width and hardly more dangerous than a children's swimming pool.

Beach Landing

A few weeks back my friend Alf, owner of Barrage Miniatures, brought the prototypes of the new series of landing crafts in 28mm to the club. After seeing these beauties, I could not resist ordering a couple of American landing craft (LCVP Higgins) for my US Army units of Chain of Command.

Mid this week, I was called by Alf to collect my order, and I have to say that the final product is awsome. As you can see in the photos below, each model comes with two HMGs, and several parts to make yoiur own configuration (drivers hatch, open or close ramp, etc)