Monday, September 22, 2008

Chapter 2: Battle of Japura Singh



#14 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. The next morning, the foe begins to appear.
----------




#15 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. Desultory fire at the 10th Hussars. The range is too far to score hits.
----------




#16 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. The enemy pours onto the narrow pass and begins to advance on the 10th Hussars.
----------




#17 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. They come closer and fire again.
----------




#18 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. The foe comes even closer whilst Captain Bartlett's 1st Squadron and some men from 2nd. Squadron, 10th Hussars coolly hold fire. So far there are no casualties among the cavalrymen. Private Jones remarks intemperately to his mate, "Wots EEEeee wait'n for?" Sergeant Bourne within close earshot says, "QUIET, Private Jones. There’s a good fellow. Mind yer front."
----------




#19 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. And now, Captain Bartlett orders, "Steady there men. A moment more. Aim to your front, pick your target........and.......FIRE!"
----------




#20 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. After several rounds of fire, the enemy retired to the rear. That's them in the far background. However, an even larger body of swordsmen is uncovered and they are rather angry. Bartlett, "Sergeant Bourne, independent fire, if you please." Bourne, "SAH!"
----------




#21 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. They CHARGE! Bartlett orders, "Rapid volley fire Sergeant Bourne!" The 10th gives fire at close range.
----------




#22 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. Many fall, but others charge onward to the retrenchment. They are at the wall! Bartlett bellows, "HOLD THEM!"
----------




#23 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. Somehow the foe climbs the wall. Hand to hand combat ensues. Will Captain Bartlett's men hold them?
----------




#24 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. A second retrenchment. Here half of 2nd. Squadron is posted, led by Captain Sachs. He turns to his colonel saying. "Sir, Bartlett's game is on." Preece, "Yes, I see the smoke rising. He knows his business.” Meanwhile, Private Corey remarks, "Now then, Private Ham. Wot's this about my vedette leaving The Pass too fast an' you say'n all I saw from atop the mountain, under fire mind you an' double our numbers of mounted tribesmen charging us was a herd of sheep, eh?"
----------




#25 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. The foe has penetrated the retrenchment! The Hussars grimly hold the line in desperate hand-to-hand combat; swords slashing, bayonets jabbing and carbines smashing. Then, in a moment, like a sudden wind shift changing all things at sea, the foe fled. Exhausted troopers looked at each other in relieved disbelief. The wall held, tribesmen beaten and retiring back out of sight unable to continue. Victory! Then the men burst forth with, "HUZZAH, HUZZAH, HUZZAH!"
----------




#26 Battle of Japura Singh
8 Sept.1898/2008. Later Cpt. Sachs (left), relieves Cpt. Bartlett saying, “Hail Gaius Suetonius Paulinus!” Bartlett, “Oh?” Sachs, “Surely you remember your antiquities? We came here up Watling Street, the path from Tranjapour, held a defile, like the XIVth Legion. This negated the foe’s vast numerical advantage. You threw pila, bullets, had a shield wall, our logs and your short swords, bayonets, finished ‘em. Paulinus’ 10,000 beat Boadicea’s 200,000 like you, here!" Bartlett, "My good men too."
----------




#27 Battle of Japura Singh
8 Sept.1898/2008. Lt. Col. Preece (background left) greets Maj. Trevelyan (background right). Preece, “Well Trevelyan, it was Thermopylae again and this time Xerxes lost." Trevelyan, “Aye and no Ephialtes to let the Persians behind us.” Preece, “Quite so. Losses?” Trevelyan, “Five, Sir. Enemy losses estimated at 28 and we’ve identified ‘em. They’re Tugs.” Preece stiffens saying, “Back from the dead? Impossible!” Suddenly Sgt. Davies shouts from the wall, “They’re back. Hundreds of ‘em. LOOK!”
----------




#28 Battle of Japura Singh
8 September 1898/2008. As the sun falls behind the mountain to the westward, it casts a darkening gloom on The Pass. Binoculars reveal at least a four to one advantage for the foe. They ARE back and in greater numbers than before! What words express your emotions and thoughts at this time, Sirs, and what will the morning bring? What indeed?
----------

8 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

A very good show, sir!

I really like this . . . great photos, developing characters . . . unexpected enemy action . . . and it is the Northwest Frontier . . . what more could we want?


-- Jeff

Gallia said...

Thank you indeed Jeff!,
I think you may have entered your comments before I posted the entire Chapter 2 photo selection, the first 4-5 you may have missed.
Cheers,
Bill

Bluebear Jeff said...

Bill,

You were correct. Looking back now the first photo I saw was #18. Thank you for the 'heads up'.


-- Jeff

ColCampbell50 said...

Bill,

Excellent report. And welcome to the wonderful world of wargames blogging.

Jim
http://colcampbellbarracks.blogspot.com/

tradgardmastare said...

Bill
great to see you having your own Blog- and such an inspiring one at that! Are you going to tell us a little more about the rules you use for colonials and also how the pictures were taken?
Keep up the fantastic work!
best wishes
Alan

Gallia said...

Thank you Jeff, Bill and Alan.
It's nice to see you here as well as those who only view. I appreciate your interest and your kind remarks very much.
----------
Some information:
----------
Chapter 3 is underway off-blog. As with Chapters 1 and 2, Chapter 3 needs to be 100% completed before being posted here. This means table-top actions (solo for the moment) need to be fought, photos need to be taken along the way, captions require composing and quiet time to do all the upload and computer things needs to be found. At the moment I anticipate posting Chapter 3 circa 29 September.
----------
If you go to the upper left side of the first screen you will see the chapters listed. It also shows the pending date for appearance of Chapter 3. Hopefully this will give an idea when someone should come back to see new items; future unpublished chapters and so on.
-----------
I think of this effort as a serialized pictorial novelette.
----------
I am blessed with a long basement in my home. The table you see is along one wall. On that wall is dusky blue poster board upon which I spray painted clouds and glued on mountain forest scenes from Scenic Express.
----------
The tabletop is 2.5'x28'. It is a back-table roughly 4' back from our main battle table. Where you've seen all the battle action so far is a narrow terrained piece of wood connecting the back to the main table adjacent to another wall. The Khyber Pass with the high walls is on the main table just beyond the boards just mentioned. Khyber Pass walls are made of stacked insulation board spackled with Durham's Water Putty stained brown. Great stuff!
----------
Trees came mostly from Scenic Express in a big bag of tree type of sale some years ago. I like pine trees a lot.
----------
Positions of miniatures is almost always where they wind up as the game is played. At times some need shifting a little bit to make photographs better.
----------
Lighting is almost always fluorescent. Sometimes I accentuate with the whopper 200 watt bulb used to paint miniatures. However, at times it washes out the photos so I need to diffuse some of its intensity.
----------
Years ago I took a photography class at university. Afterwards when doing photo shoots for The Courier and Wargamer's Digest, the professional photographers added extra dynamics of how to compose better shots. I don't claim any super expertise here at all. Far from it. However, lessons learned about framing a shot is a plus.
----------
Kind Regards,
Bill

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

I'll echo the other comments - welcome to the blogging world, indeed... eagerly awaiting chapter 3, if only for confirmation that Rose the baggage camel is unharmed... :o))

Capt Bill said...

What an enjoyable site. Thanks for sharing. I'll be back often...Bill