"Firing into the Brown" #46 - mystery buildings and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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(ex) Factories of renown...  virtual prize to the first person who correctly identifies it - if ever a building deserved a blue plaque this one does... building centre right with the two open windows..

I remember going there a few times when I was a much younger Steve the Wargamer..

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #45 - Burma, tables and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..  just a short one this week (for which I apologise), but there is just so much going on in the other hobby at the moment that there's little time for wargaming'y activity..

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Holland is one of my favourite military historians, one because he has a very easy reading style, but second, and most, because his histories focus on the individual - like Richard Holmes (RIP) he is one of those historians who tells the story from the bottom up, rather than the grand sweeping view downwards.. in my view (and theirs), it is the man and woman in the field who make the strategies, and the tactics work, and I am endlessly fascinated by their memories and recollections of what it was actually like to be there at the time..  

Quite possibly the best of his books, was the one I read on the siege of Malta late last year - a real 10 plus'er - so I was looking forward to reading this one immensely, as not only is it by Holland, but I'll be quite honest and say I am not particularly au fait with the Far Eastern theatre of operation in WW2 so was looking to learn a little more.

Holland argues that the Battle of the Admin Box in Burma in '44 was quite possibly the turning point of the war in Far East as far as the British/Indian troops were concerned - up until that point in time, much as Rommel had been the bogey man in the desert, the Japanese had been the bogey man for the soldiers of the Allies in the Far East. They were seen as fierce, unbeatable, and closely allied with the jungle, and between the two of them Allied soldiers at the time were at a considerable morale deficit - they were seen as unbeatable.

When Mountbatten was put in charge of the theatre however (and that in itself was an interesting decision) he proved to be a dynamic leader (also interesting as it's definitely at odds with the picture of Mountbatten you get in the book on Operation Jubilee by Patrick Bishop for example) and one of his first (have to say, inspired) decisions was to put Slim in charge of the 14th 'Forgotten' Army, who together with a talented and inspired staff started training the army to the point where they felt that they might have a chance - one of the hero's for me was Messervy, who after an ignominious career in the Western Desert had been sacked and sent to the Far East (which seemed to be the dumping ground for all the failures in West and Middle East!) but where he argued strenuously that heavy and medium tanks could be used in the jungle - in my mind an absolute game changer and one of the main reasons that the British won the battle..

So what of the Battle of the Admin Box [clicky]?

• at the start of '44, and after the winter of training mentioned, Slim launched his offensive into the Arakan (the costal province of Burma), 
• at the same time the Japanese launched their offensive aimed at sucking in Allied resources so as to make a second Japanese offensive on the central front easier
• the Japanese infiltrated the British and Indian front lines and besieged what was known as the Admin Box - an administration centre for the coordination of operations for the 14th Army
• as a result of the intensive training, although the box comprised mostly HQ staff, admin, radio operators, engineers, hospital and medical staff - they were all now trained in weapons and tactics, but before they were sealed off, were reinforced by a couple of squadron of tanks (Lee's - which were obsolescent everywhere except the Far East!), and also men of the West Yorkshire Regiment, Gurkha's, and also artillery
• despite continued attacks the siege was unsuccessful and the British/Indian/Gurkha's held out for a little over two weeks, before the Japanese broke off and retreated
• other main reasons they won apart from those tanks? 
• that training - they troops on the ground knew what to do and had been trained in small unit tactics and weapons - their morale was good at the beginning, and only grew as they saw the successes of beating off attacks
• air superiority through a combination of Spitfire Mk VIII's and the introduction of Battle of Britain style air coordination
• air supply - the box was getting two or three air drops a day courtesy RAF Dakota's
• the Japanese tactics of living off the land - which failed when their primary source of supply (the army) refused to give it up - basically the Japanese army starved to death

Excellent book then, and an inspiring read, but only an eight out of ten for me - primarily because of a lack of other first had accounts to bolster the narrative - basically nothing major from any of the Indian, Gurkha or Japanese combatants, as Holland himself admits, they just don't exist..

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Wondered if a step by step on how to use a table generator I found online might be of interest???  I use tables all the time in my blog posts for orbats and the like but I appreciate there'll be those this doesn't apply to.. so, if generating tables in your blog posts is of no interest, I'll return you to your normal programming..  "next blog, please" 😏

If you are interested though...

1/. Got to website (HTML Tables generator – TablesGenerator.com) and select the HTMLTables option

2/. Set the size of your table.. it doesn't matter if you want to add or delete extra rows or columns later.. default seems to be 4 (rows) by 5 (columns) select the 'table' drop down and then 'set size' to open a little box on which you can select with your mouse to set size of table (just move the mouse over the area you want and click).. it tells you the size at the bottom as a check..  (NB. If at a later point you want to add or delete rows or columns select the relevant drop down for column or row)

3/. Not essential but this is a 'tarting up' point - either do it now or after you've entered your content...  this is how you space the lines and columns - narrow or wide..  just slide the bar with your mouse..

4/. Time to put your data/content in - just click on the cell and start typing - you can either do it here, or copy the blank table into the Blogger post and do it there.. this example assumes you're doing it in the web page..

5/. Set the alignment, font, font characters (bold underlined etc)..  for Blogger I wouldn't bother with these, as you can do the latter in Blogger..  but you can do it here if you want..

6/. Click the "Do Not Generate CSS" check box - CSS is an HTML language but the code is more complex, and isn't necessary in Blogger, as Blogger has it's own CSS code running in the background..  then click the "Generate" button

7/. Click the copy to clipboard option

8/. Go to blogger, open a new post, select "HTML" option at top left (under the pencil icon), and paste the code - the only change I made was to add "Border=1" to the "Table" command right at the beginning so that I could see the lines between the cells...

Click "Compose" top left (under the < > icon)and voila, un table ...  job done....

tutorial	fgfgf			fgfgf
fgffgf	fgffg	fgffg	fgffg	fgfgfg
fffgg	fgfgfg	fgfgffg	fgfffgf	fgffgfgg
fgffg	fgf	fgfg	fgfg	fgfgf

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...

I have been to... Bruges, Tyne Cot and Ypres

Just back from a whistle-stop tour of Belgium - well, a bit of it anyway - with the current Mrs Steve the wargamer, and most enjoyable it was as well..  I was very impressed with Belgium, and it's people, I don't doubt there are bad eggs like there are in most countries, but all the Belgians we met were delightful..  friendly, and more than willing to provide information when requested...  they seem to me anyway to be quite a contented bunch, no doubt due to the national delight in good chocolate (the Belgians invented the filled chocolate by the way), waffles, fries served with mayonnaise, and all washed down with strong beer.. 😀

Bruges (or Brugge as it is known locally), where we were were based for our 4 days/3 nights, is simply lovely - very much recommended..

For one of the days however, we were able to make a days tour to Ypres (or Ieper as it is known locally), which was the scene of some of the worst fighting in WW1 for the British and Commonwealth armies - there were three main battles, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ypres - but 3rd Ypres (1917) is better known as Passchendaele...  on the way to Ypres we had the opportunity to stop off at Tyne Cot..

There's lots of information on the Wiki page [clicky] but in essence, Tyne Cot is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, and for any war. The name allegedly comes from the Northumberland Fusiliers seeing a resemblance between the German concrete pill boxes and a typical Tyneside workers cottage (known as a Tyne cot). What I found fascinating was that the site of the cemetery is built in and around those pillboxes. it was a fortified position captured by the Australians and New Zealanders during the Battle of Passchendaele.

Note the bunker/pillbox remains under the trees centre right - note also the height of the cemetery compared to surrounding country side..  the country is so flat that every slight rise became a strong point as indeed this was..

Like a lot of the Commonwealth War Grave Commission cemetery's, the site is immaculate, but also features a central plinth with a Cross of Sacrifice [clicky] but which for this site was built on top of one of those German pill boxes - you can still see the concrete in the aperture following..

Inscription reads: "THIS WAS THE TYNE COT BLOCKHOUSE CAPTURED BY THE 3RD AUSTRALIAN DIVISION - 4 October 1917"

Very, very sobering...  almost 12,000 graves (including four German one's), three quarters of which have no name. Around the edges of the cemetery though, are the inscribed wall plaques to those who simply went missing - another almost 35,000 British and New Zealand members of the armed forces...  inscribed there because the Menin Gate, which is the main monument to commemorate the missing,  was not big enough to inscribe all the names on, there were so many missing...  "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", indeed.. 'Ave'.. 😔

I think most of us were fairly happy to move on to Ypres where the the first of two museums visited that days was the 'In Flanders Fields Museum' located in the Cloth Hall on the market square in the city centre...   first comment - most of what you see as you enter Ypres was (re)built after WW1, as Ypres was surrounded on three sides by the Germans during WWI (the well known 'salient') who unleashed all they had on the city - the Cloth Hall where the museum is located was a casualty itself..  it may ne apocryphal, but it is said a man on horseback could see right across Ypres by the end of the war it had been levelled so much..

Anyway - the Museum is excellent - it focusses primarily on the war in the local area, and on the day we went was absolutely stuffed with young Belgian kids clearly doing course work and projects - really good to see...  the displays don't glorify the war, but seek to set the events in terms of the mores and feelings of the day, so we have the following examples of children's toys of the day...

...and I was particularly taken with this magnificent child's sized Cuirassier outfit.. 

...and the spud wearing it..

Safe to say that certainly on the German and French sides, memories of the Franco-Prussian War were still strong.. the Western European countries, fuelled by the resources of their overseas territories, were stronger than they had ever been, and significant amounts were spent on armaments..  the war was almost inevitable...

The Museum is huge is so the following are just a selection, but the following uniform "walls" particularly took my interest as a wargamer, and uniform nerd.. pictures are captioned..

Despite the kilt, this is actually Canadian kit - Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada - note the rifle grenade..

German..

French - note the grenade emblem on the front of the Adrian steel helmet..  the Belgians used the same helmet but there's has a lions head on the front

Very much recommended - if you go I also recommend you pay the extra couple of euro's for a trip up the belfry for a view of the surrounding countryside and geography.. 

Onwards and upwards though, and on our way back to Bruges we stopped off at the second museum of the day, the "Museum Passchendaele 1917", the theme of which is the third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele.

Situated in a chateau grounds of Zonnebeke, which itself lay in the middle of the former battlefield this is a slightly airier and airier museum than the previous one - the lighting in this one was particularly good...  this one was also stuffed with students, but we loitered at the back until they had all gone through and basically had the place to ourselves..

Highlight for me was the 'Passchendaele experience' a new display they only opened this year..  a big circular table showing the map of the area and the battle day by day, and all around the circular walls of the room a view of how the landscape changed..  amazing... but you can never take your eye off the counter at the bottom of the table showing the numbers of dead increasing by the day for the metres gained.. 😕

They also have a recreated bunker, and in the grounds recreated German and British style trench's - these in particular were very effective, the bunker is interesting but way too clean and smell free to give a real idea of what it must have been like to live week after week underground (and again this may be apocryphal, but they reckon that in WWI more people were living underground in bunkers in Belgium, than live above ground now!)..

Again - just a few pictures of things that took my eye.. captioned..

"C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre" ..  French cavalry 1914..  how soon it changed.. 

A variety of uniforms, and I was particularly taken with the Uhlan, but especially the one on the right..  large numbers of French Colonial troops fought in this area and they suffered extraordinarily through that first winter of 1914 in those uniforms..

French infantry 1914..  so much optimism..   😕

Quick firing 6 pounder from the side sponson of one of the British WWI tanks (male variant)

Found this really useful to understand the topography of the battle(s)

 1916, German M13 15cm Krupp howitzer and limber

Both very much recommended, if you really can only get the time to do one though, go to the Passchendaele Museum as Tyne Cot is also very close.. it's good to be reminded that although our little metal men live on to fight again, in the battles they simulate a lot of young men (and women) didn't.. suffice to say, I very much needed a beer after all that - I slept well as well that night, though... 😀

Further reading:

• In Flanders Fields Museum:  Home | In Flanders Fields Museum
• Ypres in WW1 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres#First_World_War
• Passchendaele Museum: Home (English) - Passchendaele museum

Laters, as the young people are want to say...

"Firing into the Brown" #44 - Casemates, scrotes, dinghies and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

44..  droopy drawers... enough bingo calls,  time for another update..  😏

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The "Hilsea Lines project" is coming to a close with a visit I made this week, to both the far east and far west bastions...   I've numbered where I went on the following which you may wish to embigen..

First stop (1.) was a closer look at the dam I mentioned in one of my previous posts - the creek is tidal so this dam (and here was one at the other end as well) was to allow them to trap sufficient water in the creek to continue to be able to use gun boats as part of the defence plan.. 

...what I wondered was whether any signs still existed of what I'd guessed must have been a fairly significant structure... and the answer was no - I walked the length of it but nothing to see other than a normal earthen bank - the only thing I did wonder about was the following line of wooden stakes  remains of a breakwater perhaps?

That itch scratched it was time to go and check the east bastion (2/. on the map) - following the line of the creek, with the moat between me and it, I circled back so as to get an idea of the sheer size of this thing.. the following gives an idea - they would have been 30 feet high when built...  the gun openings, and other brickwork are all covered in earth now, but they're still there underneath that covering..

...then turning the end of the lines (they would originally have gone a further, but a number of housing and other developments (including an airfield and an aircraft factory) over the years have grubbed out the end of it) and you get to see the entrance to the "casemate" which the local degenerates bless'ums have kicked the door in on one entrance allowing a quick look inside.. 

Seen those kind of vents before.. at the Explosion! Museum in the gunpowder magazine, designed to allow a free flow of air so as to maintain a dry atmosphere..

...and this is what I found inside... from the door looking in...  note the vaulted ceiling, note also the shelf support at the end...  still there after all these years...

..a doorway to the left lead to another room..  

...and another doorway lead to a short passageway.. 

..to a much bigger room.. complete with seating..  😏

..closer view of the shelf supports and above them a hook - for a lantern perhaps??

...thinking on it I don't think that could properly be described as a casemate - it's more likely that the rooms may have been used as kitchen/washroom? The plans show that there are a row of barracks rooms (each holding 5 men) and that the cooking and washing facilities would have been at one end or the other - it's possible that this is what these are? My further understanding is that they should be connected to to the gun gallery above - and I saw no connections/passages - these were self contained rooms..  more investigation required...

Onwards and upwards though, and this is Bastion #6, currently in use as  WW1 Remembrance Centre..

I love the fact that a huge number of original fittings are still there - a WD stamped drainpipe - must be getting on for 150 years old unless some bugger has swapped it for a plastic copy..   😁

Expense magazine (I think) entrance on the other side of the yard ..

I would like to know what that is on top of the bank though.. 

A cycle to the west then allowed me to check out the west bastion - 4. on the map - this has an actual path/walk across the top, but most of the actual structure is owned by the local Grammar school so is closed off to the public - but they are at least using the spaces for storage!

So what's left?

1. I want to explore the east Bastion a little more - perhaps visit the Remembrance Centre as well both for the WW1 connection, and also for the view of a more preserved internal of a casemate
2. I also want to explore the west bastion a little more - I'm lead to believe there's an exposed gun opening that I didn't see on my visit
3. In 1875 the Lines were modified to accept the new (then) Moncrief style gun emplacements - they are still extant so I need to go and find them..  

..next time I'll go on foot as there may be a bit of scrambling about involved..

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... only a short one this week as this has been taking a lot of my attention - summer is coming, and boats are stirring and indeed being painted, epoxied, and titivated..  and Heaven only knows, this one (following) needs/needed it.. 😂  This is my new (to me) tender - "Fledgling Too" - used to get to the slightly bigger one - "Sparrow" - I sail on...  

 Laters, as the young people are want to say...  

"Firing into the Brown" #43 - Explosion! Museum and stuff..

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..

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Managed to get over to Gosport the other day to visit the "Explosion! Museum", the next on my world tour of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.. 😁

Another brilliant day out - just a few (interest driven) photo's for your enjoyment, but I have to say that this yet another "must see" from me..  in fact two, "must see's" as unknown to me they have also opened another/separate museum on the site, dedicated to the Royal Navy Coastal Forces and covering the period from inception in 1919 to the present day..  the "Night Hunters" [clicky]

I had no idea this museum (they call it a gallery but it's a bit more than that) was even there, but as the volunteer said, it had only opened the previous year so they are just getting up to speed... not a huge museum (it's based in one of the old storage sheds at Priddy's Hard* that I think at one time may have stored mines) but bang for buck it is absolutely fantastic, containing as it does two complete/original MTB's and a host of supporting artefacts from the time..  uniforms, log books, medals, weapons, you name it..

This (following) is MTB 71 [clicky] which was until fairly recently a houseboat on the Chichester Canal (called "Wild Chorus" would you believe..) bought by the owner after the Navy sold her off at the end of the war following her war time service. She was then acquired by the County Council and a Charitable Trust on the death of said owner in 1992..  fully refurbished at the Dockyard and by the British Military Powerboat Trust at Marchwood in Southampton, she looked absolutely stunning - basically a 60 foot engine (and torpedo) carrier - with a full crew she could still do almost 40 knots...!

...and because I'm a wargamer and love the detail (😏) here's a model and the technical details..

..it is very much worth following the link above (and below) to see what her WW2 service career involved - she was largely based in Kent (Dover and Felixstowe) and was regularly in actions against enemy E Boats..

More details her here:

• British Military Powerboat Trust, Coastal Forces, Gunboats, Target Boats, High Speed Launches, Motor Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Patrol Boats, Seaplane Tenders (bmpt.org.uk) - Part 1
• British Military Powerboat Trust, Coastal Forces, Gunboats, Target Boats, High Speed Launches, Motor Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Patrol Boats, Seaplane Tenders (bmpt.org.uk) - Part 2

..and this is CMB 331 [clicky] - to my eyes she looked much older than MTB 71 (and I have yet to find rhyme or reason in either the numbering assigned by the Navy, or indeed the sheer number of designs and types of MTB and MGB, built by over a half dozen different yards!) but she is actually the last surviving Thornycroft 55-foot Coastal Motor Boat, a design that was originally developed for service in WW1, but was still current when WW2 broke out - in fact she dates to within a year of MTB 71. 

A bigger version of a 40 foot earlier design she could carry two torpedo's and still do over 40 knots..

Note the engine over on the left - that's an Italian made Isotta Fraschini petrol engine rated at 1,150 bhp at 1,800 rpm; MTB 71 had two of them. Once Italy entered the war, the supply naturally dried up and the Navy had to find other power plants..

Note the two slots/troughs in the picture above - that was where the torpedo's were carried - now the completely terrifying bit...  restrictions on weight meant the torpedo could not be fired from a torpedo tube, but instead was carried in that trough - nose of the torpedo to the front of the boat. On firing the torpedo was pushed backwards by a cordite firing pistol (!) and a long steel ram(!!), entering the water tail-first. A trip-wire between the torpedo and the ram head would start the torpedo motors once pulled taut during release. The CMB would then turn hard over and get out of its path. There is no record of a CMB ever being hit by its own torpedo apparently, but the sheer unutterable courage and bravery of doing that, while conducting an attack on an enemy who would very definitely not have been encouraging you to success, beggars belief... a skipper [clicky] on one of these boats not surprisingly won a VC for successfully managing to do that, and sink a cruiser, in WW1.

Originally ordered by the Philippines Navy CMB 331 was requisitioned by the Royal Navy at the start of the war, but ended up only doing a few months in commission spending most of the war in reserve at Gosport..

Just looks like speed personified..  not surprising they were/are known as the Spitfires of the sea..

...and because I'm a wargamer and love the detail (😏) here's a model and the technical details..

Note the torpedoes in the troughs..

Further references:

• British Military Powerboat Trust, Coastal Forces, Gunboats, Target Boats, High Speed Launches, Motor Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Patrol Boats, Seaplane Tenders (bmpt.org.uk) - Part 1
• British Military Powerboat Trust, Coastal Forces, Gunboats, Target Boats, High Speed Launches, Motor Gun Boats, Torpedo Boats, Patrol Boats, Seaplane Tenders (bmpt.org.uk) - Part 2

I was hours in there, but as I was conscious that I'd actually come over to see Explosion! I then wended my way over to the main museum.. 😁

Billed as the Museum of Naval Firepower, Explosion! is much more than just that - to be honest, despite the plethora of stunning exhibits - more anon - I found the most interesting stuff to be about the location where the museum is situated (* Priddy's Hard - you knew I'd eventually get to it.. 😏), about the people who worked there, what they did, and how damn long the location was in service... in summary though, 

• originally bought in 1750 to allow for an extension to existing land defences for the harbour - a fort and defending walls was built
• in 1764 though it was selected as a location to store/test/distribute/receive gunpowder from the fleet following concerns raised by the citizens of Portsmouth about the quantity of powder stored in close proximity to the city (!) - it was able to store up to 6000 barrels, and one of the storage rooms, complete with 6 foot thick walls, can still be seen in the museum 
• late 1840's and small arms ammunition manufacturing was moved to the Hard
• late 1860's and they were also filling shells and preparing fuses 
• late 1880's filling new design Quick Firing (QF) shells
• 1890's and new types of explosive were coming into use, including guncotton and cordite.
• an explosion in 1904 lead to a decision to move storage of shells away to a site further from the dockyard, from that point on Priddy's was solely concerned with filling of shells and cartridges rather than storing them
• 1923 and the staff/mission of the former Gunwharf base in Portsmouth were transferred and Priddy's then also became responsible for gun and weaponry refurbishment - they looked after everything from machine guns to depth charge throwers including the large guns battleships would have carried
• during WW2 they would also have been working on, refurbishing, repairing and manufacturing (in addition to everything else), mines, and torpedo's
• The site was last used for significant activity during the Falklands Conflict in 1982, and eventually decommissioned in 1988

Lots and lots of photo's and exhibits of what it was like to work at the site during the war and after - they employed thousands of women during the war as most of the men would have been called up - it had it's own light railway to move shells and ammunition around between Priddy's and the various satellite sites. Absolutely fascinating..

Just a few photo's then of some of the exhibits that caught my eye (mostly because of a connection with my wargame projects!)

Naval Gatling

...a plethora of small arms, captured and otherwise - in this one, the German assault rifle at the top caught my eye...

...and in this one it was the humungous musket in the middle - wall gun, perhaps? Also the boarding pikes and tomahawks...

An honest to goodness Nordenfelt, used (among many other places) as armament on the Nile gunboats

The naval version of the Hotchkiss 1 pdr quick firer.. five 37 mm barrels capable of firing 68 rounds per minute with an accuracy range of 2,000 yards (1,800 m) - a magazine held ten rounds. When people say PomPom gun as per the Boer War  this is what I imagine it would have looked like (though in reality it was the 37 mm Nordenfelt-Maxim)..

...and finally - if the bravery of launching an armed and running torpedo off the back of your boat wasn't enough, this (following) is a "Neger" manned torpedo used by the Germans in WW2, and to be blunt, beggars belief..

...imagine if you will sitting in that thing (itself a repurposed torpedo) but with a live torpedo hanging underneath, fired by pointing yourself at the target and then pulling a lever to release and fire the torpedo...

...there are multiple reports of the torpedo having started running and failing to release (with the obvious consequence!), and despite some successes, the German crews suffered almost 80% losses...

At this time I then decided I was all exploded out.. 😁 A quick trip to the Queens Hotel ensued, and three pints of Gooden's Gold before returning home restored the internal equilibrium - brilliant day out and unequivocally recommended for anyone considering a visit..  next stop, HMS Warrior I think..

Further references..

• Priddys Hard Gosport (pnbpropertytrust.org)
• Neger (torpedo) - Wikipedia

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 ...and per last weeks snippet - well done the Marines!! Barrel of port (speedily) delivered..

Hopefully this following will play for most...  it's worth it..  the Royal Marines bang out a cracking tune, and for me it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck..  😊

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Laters, as the young people are want to say...