Sunday, June 9, 2019

D-Day Celebration...


Over this last weekend, the Christchurch War Games Society - a section of the Woolston Club in Christchurch - staged a war games event to commemorate the D-Day landings in Normandy, 6 June, 1944.  There were two large games, one of the beach landings (SWORD Beach, using 15mm scale figures), the other more 'generic' bocage fighting (28mm figures), though one end of the very long table featured Pegasus Bridge.  There were several displays of uniforms, weapons and models as well.


I didn't participate, myself, not having the appropriate kit (mine being entirely 1:76/1:72).  Here are some pictures I took of the event.
More on Sword Beach


.....

The following pictures are from the Bolt Action game, which featured I think 7 players a side, each commanding elements of separate Divisions. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the whole length of the table. The action was not intended to be historical, with 6th (British) Airborne Division up one end of the table, and 82nd (US) Airborne at the other. The British Airborne faced off against 716 Infantry Division, the US 82nd against 352 Infantry or 17SS Panzergrenadiers (I'm not sure which).


Pegasus Bridge - more of a display piece, with the action
taking place on the opposite (west) bank.

Some really amazing terrain pieces that featured in - well
both games, really.







I think the aircraft were there for display.  The list against the
wall shows at least the German Divisions featured.  PLD
is, of course,  the Panzer Lehr Division.



Here's a link to Craig's Wargaming blog, with a good deal more about the event.


8 comments:

  1. Thanks Ion, was a mighty impressive wargaming event!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was and all! Tony allowed he was surprised I hadn't taken to 'Bolt action'. I have to admit it is tempting, especially in the light of what I was looking at, but I simply have to draw the line somewhere!

      Delete
  2. Some good photos of the event. It is always impressive seeing not just all the figures and models, but also all the terrain required for such large tabletops.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A heck of a lot of people pitched in with their kit for this event!

      Delete
  3. A nice celebration and obviously a fantastic event!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great display and a fine way to commemorate the event.

    ReplyDelete