The Special Air Service for Bolt Action

    My Special Air Service force consists of an HQs unit (the Lt Colonel David Stirling and two men) and two infantry squads of eight men each. Nineteen men in total. Not bad if you take under consideration that the first SAS unit consisted of only 65 men, five officers and sixty other ranks. 

  Of those above nineteen men of my SAS force, six are Artizan Designs metallic miniatures and the rest are metallic and plastic of Warlord Games. 

Lt Colonel in the middle and his two men.

The first SAS infantry section

The squad officer in the middle and two men. The left one carries a Bren LMG.

All three wear a shemagh, the traditional fabric head wrap worn by the SAS men

Two men wear beige berets with the SAS insignia

The left is the team medic. The middle one is a historical inaccuracy.

   While tens of thousands of Black African served in the British Army, they were not integrated into special forces units like the SAS. This miniature was an attempt to start a King's African Rifles unit.  

The second SAS infantry section

The left is the team medic. The middle one is the officer.

Three men wear cap comforters

Two men with beige berets. The right one carries a Bren LMG.

   The SAS unit originally called "L" Detachment, SAS Brigade. In September 1942, it was renamed 1st SAS, consisting of four British squadrons, one Free French, one Greek, and the Folboat section. The Greek squadron was part of the "Sacred Squadron", which was composed mostly of Greek officers and officer cadets under the command of Colonel Christodoulos Tsigantes.

Colonel Tsigantes in the middle

Colonel Tsigantes in a Sacred Squadron jeep

   Photographs of a well-maintained Sacred Squadron jeep you can see here.

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!

8th Army Heavy Weapons for Bolt Action and the Military Museum of Belgrade (part 1)

    My 8th Army heavy weapons platoon consists of two Vickers medium machine gun teams, two medium mortar teams and an Artillery Officer. I used 60mm bases only for one of each kind of the weapon teams. For the soldiers of the other two teams I used 25mm bases. It is easier this way to remove the casualties during the game.

Medium machine gun teams

   I cut the heads of two gun members and replaced them with Australian heads of British Commonwealth Infantry box to differentiate the two MMG teams.

The Australian MMG

The British MMG

   It was very difficult to cut the heads of the mortar crew because of their poses, so no swap for them.

The first mortar team

The second mortar team and the artillery officer

   A very good friend of mine recently visited the Military Museum of Belgrade and sent me some photographs of the museum's items. The museum was founded in 1878 and is located within the walls of Belgrade Fortress. It is an extensive museum which has more than 3.000 ancient and modern items, such as uniforms, weapons, maps, etc. Below you can see some tanks and guns of WW2.

   At this point I would like to mention that the previous week, on Tuesday 25th of August, my blog became fifteen years old!

   The first post of my blog was just a humble hello!

   Finally, I would like to welcome Jonathan Harker! Jonathan, welcome onboard!

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!

8th Army Bren Carriers for Bolt Action

    The ubiquitous Universal Carrier could carry machine guns, anti-tank rifles, mortars, infantrymen, supplies, artillery and observation equiment in every theater during the WW2. By 1945 approximately 57.000 Carriers were produced in UK. 

   Carriers were also produced in allied countries. So, since 1934 to 1960 around 113.000 models were prodused in total. It was the most produced armoured fighting vehicle in history! 

The Bren Carriers

   There are two Bren Carriers in the 8th Army starter army box of Warlord Games. These two Bren Carriers together with my two SAS jeeps are my SAS desert raiders. I added various gear, backpacks, helmets and weapons on the vehicles.

   I added a third passenger to both Carriers in order each vehicle to have a driver and four more infantrymen. The first crew has heads from British Commonwealth Infantry box and the second Scottish heads with Tam O'Shanter hats from 8th Army starter army box.

The Desert Raiders

   Recently we had dinner in the Kebab & Curry Indian restaurant in Pireaus. We ordered vegetable soup, chicken Makhni, chicken Korma, beef curry extra spicy, mushroom rice, prawn Biryani, bread Naan and my favorite chicken Tandoori. Everything was delicious!

Prawn Biryani

Mushroom rice

Chicken Korma

Chicken Makhni and beef curry

Vegetable soup

Naan

Chicken Tandoori

   That's it for today! Stay tuned for more!