Scott: good choice and moving subject. I`ll be looking out for that one
I`ll start this campaign off with a small battlefield tour to explain a bit of what happened in and around my town in 1944.
On September 4th the British 11th Armoured Division started its assault on the city of Antwerp and with it ignited the prospect of drastically shortened supply lines. However, Montgomery was more busy with organising operation Market Garden to allocate sufficient resources for the clearing of Antwerp`s port and the river Scheldt for traffic. It was only after the failure of Market Garden and sustained pressure from the Eisenhower (who realised quite late what importance lay in free use of Antwerp`s port) that Montgomery turned his full attention to the Scheldt estuary.
Two large obstacles prevented free use of the river: Heavy naval guns dug in on the Walcheren peninsula and sea mines sown all across the sea-lanes in the estuary. The business of opening the Scheldt was divided up into two operations: Operation Infatuate would silence the guns and evict the Germans from Walcheren, after which Operation Calendar was aimed at clearing the sea-lanes of mines. Operation Infatuate was preceded by a bombing of the dykes around Walcheren in order to inundate the land. The bombing and consequent flooding killed several dozens of civilians, but also tied down the Germans, denying them the mobile warfare in which they had such great experience.
Vlissingen was both the focus of Infatuate I and the jump-off point for a coup de grace on Middelburg involving LVT-4s from 11RTR, 79Th Armd.Div. and troops from 7/9 Royal Scots, 155th Lowland Brig. It saw some of the hardest fighting on the Island and was the command centre for the coastal batteries. In fact the actual command centre itself, Hotel Britannia, was stormed by the 7/9 Royal Scots. So let`s start off with a plan of Infatuate I. This one is from Osprey`s campaign series ˝Walcheren 1944˝ by Richard Brooks:



So let`s start off at Uncle beach. The area has been filled in to provide better protection against the sea. That group of people standing near the 17th century guns are Dutch marines, probably out on excursion as well.




This is one of the first bunkers captured by the jocks. It had a commanding view of the shipping lanes. The bunker lies directly next to Uncle and now very well restored. Note the zeltbahn hanging in the hallway.




Just some shots of the areas that had to be secured as a bridgehead. Troon and Fallmouth:






The last image shows the view from Fallmouth towards the trainstation at Piccadilly. This was one of the last objectives in Vlissingen to be secured by 4th and 5th King`s Own Scottish Borderers. Fist up however, was quickly exploiting the bridgehead. Troops from 4 Commando moved into the town. One of their objectives was the Arsenal building, known to the jocks as Winchester. The photo below shows it on the left. Further on is the statue of Michiel de Ruyter, the most famous privateer in Dutch history. That was Brighton and the location of the german garrison barracks.


One of the more dangerous points was Braemar, or the Bellamypark. Basically it was a Golden Age merchantsharbour that was filled in to make a square. Here`s what it looks like now:


and here is what it looked like back then (image courtesy of Beeldbank Zeeuwe Bibliotheek):
.

Another legendary point was Bexhill, but it soon became known as ˝Hellfire Corner˝ to the Brits.


These exposed crossroads were swept by a well-placed 2cm Flakvierling at point Dover, on the top of Boulevard Banckert. This effectively blocked forward movement and it had to be dealt with. Troops of 4 Commando (French taken from 10 Inter-allied Commando) mouse-holed through houses on both sides and the silenced the Flakvierling by pounding it with PIATs from the upper floors. The photo was taken at Dover, looking down onto Bexhill


Close to that area, troops from 452 Batt. 1st Mountain Regt. delivered an interesting feat of strength by carrying a 3.7in mountain gun up to the first floor of a house in order to engage a well dug-in pillbox in the Spuikom. The following photo was taken from the bunker`s approximate location. Vegetation would have been much less back then. The howitzer would have been in one of the houses visible on the left.


Now a special bit all about 7/9 Royal Scots. They were given the task of securing the Hotel Britannia. They were told that it would be a relatively easy target with little opposition on the way there. Nothing more than a few rifle companies` work. Yet, after careful study of the plans and photographs, Colonel Melvill decided to take everything except A coy. It would prove to be a sound decision. Most of the area between their starting point at Bexhill and their objective was flooded, which made progress slow and would leave them dangerously exposed. The first test was at the end of the Badhuisstraat, when a German MG team in the commanding Water tower opened up on them. The photo was taken in the direction of the Badhuisstraat, where 7/9 would be coming from.


Beyond that, they had to wade through villa park, the flooding was so deep in places that the carriers couldn`t follow and most of the heavy equipment had to be carried, whilst the jocks were wading with the water almost literally at their lips.


Then the objective itself, Hotel Britannia, was almost completely destroyed by mortars, grenades and small arms fire. It raged for hours and was some of the most savage in all of the campaign. After the battle was done, this was all that was left of the hotel (image again courtesy of Beelbank Zeeuwse Bibliotheek):


Today, nothing is left of the hotel. Even the replacement built in the 50s has been almost completely demolished.


The men of 7/9 would go on to capture Middelburg. LVTs of 11 RTR assembled at the abandoned airfield. Nowadays the location of a large supermarket and DIY store

On a personal note, this is how close the remains of the war have been all my life. The bunker below is less than 500m from where I live. I`ve played there as a kid and I still pass it by every time I walk to the train station.


No pics of the LVT so far, but I think you`ve seen enough from me for now

Wow, fantastic stuff Benjamin.

The "then and now" shots are brilliant ! Really good work.

+1 Benjamin ! thanks for that very well composed walk through history.

Thanks for the replies folks. I actually enjoyed the whole experience of walking through my own hometown and seeing all these places that I have known all my life in an entirely different light. All the credit for the story goes to Richard Brooks: the Osprey book he wrote is a little gem on a subject that even the locals know hardly anything about.

Whiskey_1, I'm with them. That narrative and pictures were awesome to follow. I can't wait to see the project that comes of that!

As for me, Sean from the Windy City, I'm still waivering. I did a little web research on military actions in Chicago, but it appears that the most recent was the Fort Dearborn Massacre during the War of 1812. I'm certain that no armor was involved , and I'm not much for figure-modeling.
It also occured to me that my dad's always been proud of the fact that my grandfather in 1954 had helped engineer getting the captured U-505 across a major highway to the museum where it resides now. I even discovered a website with an excellent collection of nautical photos of the effort. That would make a nifty little diorama of the sub in floating drydock against the beach, say in 1/700th scale.
But yesterday afternoon, playing in the front yard with my kids, the University of Wisconsin Med-Flight helicopter passed over the house again, and they got a kick out of that. So I'll stick with that. (Plus, I already bought my kit!)
thanks for reading more of my ramblings!
-Sean H.

I for one await with great anticipation the windy chopper from the windy city by the windysean !

A windy story from windysean...

I have broken ground on my Bucholz Army airfield diorama.
This is the scene I want to create. this picture from the Kwaj calendar of 1988 shows some Shorts C-23s and an Air Mike 727.

I have started building the terminal building.

due the constraint of the 20"x30" base, I'm truncating the building just behind the control tower. Perhaps in another lifetime, Ill build a matching module of the 9th st. side of the building.
the control tower is from a Sankai kit.

Thats all for now.

some progress on Bucholz field.


and for reference this well known calendar shot taken c.1970

The base is a first experiment with a small foam core board I got at Michael's. couple of lessons learned, the paper covered foam core did not like the wet acrylic paint washes and warped. I guess Ill either have to look for better foam core material of seal the stuff with spray enamel primer first, anyway another experiment is in order before I start on a 20x30 board, for which two will be required. I like the effect of the scribed lines, and the several color washes, warm white followed by prima gray, but need to rethink how to apply it to look more like runway.

The terminal building is coming along nicely. the whitewashed gravel roof is 150 grit sandpaper. the windows are just a first draft, printed on paper and lightly tacked on, Im not going to cut window opennings, I have no problem with printed windows. the will look fine with a surface of gloss laminate.

If anyone reading this is curious about the Grumman Greyhound there is a thread about it here.

Now that this project is starting to become a reality, I'll have to write a bit of narrative.

Inching forward, and probobly the last time Ill be able to play for a while. the window designs are nearly done, and I've built the one story wing on the left side.

somewhat shortened for the sake of space, this part of the building contained the grounds crew's offices and the building emergency generator.

Amazingly good work Jonathan, well done and thanks for sharing.

Thanks Scott, Im pretty happy with it so far.
The most important part comes next, the fenced in observation area with the bleacher seats!

Those were different times. Any kid could ride his bike up to the terminal, run through the lobby out into that area and climb up on those benches and watch the world pass by. So that's the point of view of this entire exercise.

Jonathan: Nice work on the terminal building. Regarding the foam core, test the spray enamel first. The aersols in the can might eat the foam. I've had small success with a few thin coats of Future on the paper faces (and foam edges too) although it can still warp. I haven't yet done a full wash over the Future coat, so that might do me in, but I'm hoping the Future will seal it up.

Happy Modeling, -zon

Ive moved up to the 20x30 board. Ive been slowly building up gray primer on both sides of the board to neutralize warping tendencies. so far so good.
today I built building 949, so construction is complete on this module, but plenty of detailing ahead. I have some plastic palm trees coming from Hong Kong which will dress up the scene, and some vehicles, tow motors, fuel trucks and an air stair.

Now I need to build some planes, Ive been neglecting several other campaign subjects!

Coming along nicely there mate, I see you have the Sky sorted as well !

yup, you use the resources you find.

Haha, my wife got this fleece robe for Christmas. she decided she wouldnt wear it, left it on a chair. well the cats LOVE it. There has been at least one cat on that chair since December.
First time it was taken up and washed, I got the sleeves, cut open along the seams each one is about two foot square, and the cats got the rest.

I found some perforated plastic to make the walls out of, though it isn't a great match, it'll do for now.


found this great photo on GoogleEarth, there are the benches, there is the sign post, and there are the "Roi planes" , the C-47s that ran daily commuter flights up to Roi-Namur where my father worked.

looking at this picture I see I oriented the gates in the wall wrong. Well I knew it was a first draft, also the ground floor windows need adjusting.

The fuel truck needs to be painted yellow.

So, Im moving at a snail's pace, yet I have this campaign all to myself, when are the other entries going to appear?

After seeing all the great work by the other modelers, I'm humbled in my little effort.
My model will be both on the ground and out of this world.
Most people remember the day when man first landed on the moon. However, most people don't remember or realize that the first word spoken from the moon was "Houston, the Eagle has landed"
So I'm making a lunar lander in honor of my hometown Houston.

Here are the Start up photos





Regards,
Tom Moon

I have assembled a variety of vehicles for the airfield.

the tow-motors are supposed to be 1:144, but all the others are US N scale, which is 1:160. I cant be bothered by the difference in scale.
The tanker and flatbed are 1956 Ford models, which are too old really to still be in service in 1970. The pacific salt air eats steel things like trucks and bicycles rapidly. There were no vehicles running more than about 10 years old, and there was a junk yard of dead vehicles on the island, which was another favorite playground among my set of friends .
The yellow pickup is a 61 Ford, and the white vans are 68 Fords, those look like trucks I remember.
Stuff that ran on the tarmac were painted safety yellow, everything else on Kwajalein is painted white.

One of the key elements of my project is the bleacher seats at the terminal. This is the essence of the hometown feeling Im trying to construct.

Ive taken a first cut at building one now.

it's a bit over-scaled, for the N scale seated figures I have, and its a bit lopsided, I need to make up a proper jig, since I have to build four of them.

Awesome progress, Jonathan. The buildings look great. Nice work finding the right vehicles too. You're setting the bar high for the rest of us slow-starters.
Tom, the lunar lander screams Houston. An excellent choice, in my opinion. (That or the Astrodome )
I still haven't printed up decals for myself, but with just about two months to go, I'd better get moving!
cheers!
-Sean.

oh yeah...

Also, a second pass at the bleacher seats.

scaled down and much neater. still a bit too tall for the seated figures.

lots of work to do yet, hand rails, antennae, windows, decals on the vehicles, palm tree plantings, and the passenger stair, but I'm playing now.

Two planes from recent campaigns, Air Marshall Islands flew from 1982 to 2007, might still be in business, hard to tell currently, but in any case long after my time. A remarkable little operation with a very interesting fleet.

With less than two weeks remaining in this campaign, I'm applying the last details to building 901. All the windows and doors are done, and the signs. I still need to do the hand rails around the roof and tower, the antennae on top of the tower, and some foundation plantings.