Desired scans : Rank and File supplements Harpoon 3 & 4 supplements Force on Force supplements Hind Commander At Close Quarters War and Conquest Modern Spearhead The Face Of Battle General d'Armee (TFL version)
Brody Ross
November the 28th in military history
936 – Shi Jingtang is enthroned as the first emperor of the Later Jin by Emperor Taizong of Liao, following a revolt against Emperor Fei of Later Tang. 1443 – Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in central Albania and raise the Albanian flag. 1470 – Champa–Đại Việt War: Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Đại Việt formally launches his attack against Champa. 1627 – The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Navy has its greatest and last victory in the Battle of Oliwa. 1666 – At least 3,000 men of the Royal Scots Army led by Tam Dalyell of the Binns defeat about 900 Covenanter rebels in the Battle of Rullion Green. 1862 – American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General James G. Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke's Confederates. 1885 – Bulgarian victory in the Serbo-Bulgarian War preserves the Unification of Bulgaria. 1899 – The Second Boer War: a British column is engaged by Boer forces at the Battle of Modder River; although the Boers withdraw, the British suffer heavy casualties. 1920 – Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush: The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen. 1943 – World War II: Tehran Conference: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, to discuss war strategy. 1965 – Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam. 1971 – Wasfi al-Tal, Prime Minister of Jordan, is assassinated by the Black September unit of the PLO. 1980 – Iran–Iraq War: Operation Morvarid: The bulk of the Iraqi Navy is destroyed by the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. (Commemorated in Iran as Navy Day.)
Dominic Rogers
It is 118 years since the Battle of Modder River (known in Afrikaans as Slag van die Twee Riviere), an engagement in the Second Boer War of 1899-1902. A British column under Lord Methuen, which was attempting to relieve the besieged town of Kimberley, forced Boers under General Piet Cronje to retreat to Magersfontein; but suffered heavy casualties themselves. It was a rough introduction for British forces to the new style of warfare on the veldt.
When the war broke out the previous month, one of the Boers' early targets was the diamond-mining centre of Kimberley, which stood not far from where the borders of the Boer Republics and the British-controlled Cape Colony met. Although their forces surrounded the town, they did not press home any immediate assault, nor did they attempt to invade Cape Colony.
Meanwhile, British reinforcements were on their way to South Africa. Their commander, General Sir Redvers Buller detached the 1st Division under Lieutenant General Lord Methuen to relieve the Siege of Kimberley. This decision was made partly for reasons of prestige, as the capture of Kimberley would be a major propaganda victory for the British. Methuen's force advanced north along the Western Cape Railway.
The Boers had been reinforced by a contingent from the Transvaal under General Koos de la Rey, who proposed a radical new plan of defence. He pointed out that the Boers had previously been easily driven from the kopjes (hills) which they had occupied. The kopjes had been obvious aiming marks for the numerically superior British artillery. Also, the trajectory of rifle fire from Boers on the top of the kopjes was steeply plunging. It therefore had a chance of hitting its target only in the last six feet or so of its flight. Once British infantry had reached the foot of the kopje, they were concealed by boulders and scrub, and could then easily drive the Boers off the summit with the bayonet.
Isaiah Walker
De la Rey proposed to make use of the flat trajectory of the Mauser rifle with which the Boers were armed, together with the flat veld. He called on his men to dig trenches in the banks of the Modder River, from which their rifles could sweep the veld for a great distance, and won them over. General Piet Cronje, who arrived later with the main Boer force, acquiesced in this novel plan.
The area contained two prominent hotels and the village of Rosmead, which was used as a resort by prominent businessmen from Kimberley. The Boer trenches were on the south side of the Modder and the smaller Riet River which joined it at Modder River Station. The Boers had six field guns and one Maxim "pom-pom" (small rapid-firing gun) from the Orange Free State's Staatsartillerie. They deployed these not as a concentrated battery, but as widely separated individual gun detachments north of the Modder and to the east. They had dug several emplacements for each gun, allowing their guns to switch position to avoid counter-battery fire.
Methuen's force consisted of two infantry brigades (the Guards Brigade under Major-General Sir Henry Edward Colville and the 9th Brigade under Major-General Reginald Pole-Carew), two mounted regiments, three batteries of field artillery and four guns of the Naval Brigade. Further reinforcements were arriving up the railway.
The British cavalry (the 9th Lancers and a unit recruited in Cape Town, Rimington's Guides), made some attempts to scout the ground ahead of the army, but failed entirely to detect De la Rey's trenches and other preparations. (For example, the Boers had whitewashed stones on the veld or had placed biscuit tins as range markers). At 4:30 am on 28 November, Methuen's force roused itself, deployed into line and began advancing towards the Modder, with no plans other than to cross the river before having breakfast on the far side.
James Cruz
As the British troops came within 1,200 yards (1,100 m) of the river, Methuen remarked to Colville, "They're not here." Colville replied, "They're sitting uncommonly tight if they are". At this point the Boers opened fire. Most of the British troops were forced to throw themselves flat. Some tried to advance in short rushes, but could find no cover on the veld. Few British troops got closer than 1,000 yards (910 m) to the Boers. The Guards tried to outflank the Boer left, but were unable to ford the Riet River. The British guns pounded the buildings near Modder River Station and the line of poplar trees which marked the north bank of the Modder, and entirely missed the enemy trenches on the south bank. Meanwhile, the Boer guns maintained a galling fire, and kept in action by repeatedly moving their positions.
The battle became a day-long stalemate. Most of the British infantry lay prone on the veld, tortured by heat and thirst, but safe from enemy fire unless they moved. Many stoically smoked pipes or even slept. Methuen galloped about the field trying to renew the advance, and was himself wounded. At midday, some of Pole-Carew's 9th Brigade found the open Boer right flank at Rosmead Ford downstream. British infantry infiltrated across the ford and about 1:00 pm drove the Boers out. The attack was disjointed, and suffered casualties when a British field artillery battery which had just arrived on the field shelled them by mistake. By nightfall, De la Rey had driven them back into a small insecure bridgehead. Nevertheless, the Boers feared that they were now vulnerable to being outflanked, and withdrew during the night.
The British lost between 450 and 480 and were forced to pause for ten days. On the Boer side, there were about 80 casualties, including Adriaan, the eldest son of de la Rey, mortally wounded by a shell.
Isaac Long
The Second Boer War has a lot of potential for wargaming, with high mobility and dramatic changes in general strategy. A Boer player has few troops but intense lethality, while the British player has the numbers but lacks the co-ordination to use them fully. Featherstone (ever the Victorian wars buff) wrote a chapter on the subject - pdf related - which contains a specific scenario of Modder River.
It is 37 years since Operation Morvarid (Persian for "Pearl"), an operation launched by the Iranian Navy and Air Force against the Iraqi Air Defence sites on 28 November 1980 in response to Iraq positioning radar and monitoring equipment on the Al-Bakr and Khor-al-Amaya oil rigs to counter Iranian air operations. The operation resulted in a victory for Iran, which managed to destroy both oil rigs as well as much of the Iraqi Navy and inflicted significant damage to Iraqi ports and airfields.
On 28 November 1980, Iranian F-4 Phantoms and F-5 Tiger IIs attacked Iraqi airfields around Basra. They managed to destroy one Iraqi MiG-21 Fishbed on the ground. During the night of the 29th, six ships of the Iranian Navy's Task Force 421 deployed marines on the Iraqi oil terminals at Mina al Bakr and Khor-al-Amaya. The marines, supported by Army Aviation's AH-1J Cobras, Bell 214s and CH-47C Chinooks, gunned down most Iraqi defenders during a short firefight, then deployed a large number of bombs and mines. They were then evacuated by helicopter and left the Iraqi oil installations and early warning bases in flames.
At the same time, two Iranian Kaman class missile boats (Paykan and Joshan) blocked the ports of Al Faw and Umm Qasr, blocking 60 foreign ships and shelling both facilities. In response the Iraqi Navy deployed P-6 torpedo boats and Osa II class fast-attack craft for a counter-attack. The boats engaged the two Iranian missile boats which managed to sink two Osas with Harpoon missiles. The remaining three Osa class missile boats continued to attack the missile boat Paykan. The crew of the "Paykan" called IRIAF for help which sent two F-4s (each armed with six AGM-65 Maverick missiles). By the time they arrived, however, the Paykan had been sunk after being hit by two Iraqi P-15 Termit missiles. In response, the F-4s targeted the remaining Iraqi ships and sunk three Osa IIs and four P-6s.
Sebastian King
Soon another four Iranian F-4s arrived from Shiraz Air Base, bombed the port of Al Faw, and, together with F-5s, destroyed the surrounding Iraqi SAM sites. One Iranian F-4 was hit by an Iraqi SA-7 surface-to-air missile but managed to return to base.
Now Iranian F-14 Tomcat formations joined the battle and, together with several F-4s, covered the withdrawal of Task Force 421 and bombed the Iraqi oil rigs, destroying an Iraqi Aérospatiale Super Frelon helicopter. After this, they attacked the Mina al Bakr terminal. The Iraqis scrambled seven MiG-23 Floggers to defend the terminal. Iranian F-4s then engaged the Iraqi MiG-23MSs and downed three. One Iranian F-4 was downed during the battle. Four Iraqi MiG-23BNs attacked the Joshan, which managed to shoot two down with SA-7 missiles. Shortly after, an Iranian F-14 downed one of the two surviving MiGs, forcing the last one to flee.
The destruction of Iraqi SAM sites and radar and monitoring equipment made it possible for the IRIAF to attack via southern Iraq again. The Iranian missile boat Joshan which took part in this operation was later sunk during Operation Praying Mantis by U.S. Navy warships.
Luis Ross
As a guy who isn't really all that interested in the desert campaign in World War Two can someone kindly enlighten me as to what the draw is? I mean I love the LRDG but outside of that I lose interest.
