British Airborne Pt.12- Characters & Objectives

Characters

I've got a couple of HQ additions to share today. Now that the majority of my British Paras are complete, I can focus on some little additions that I've got lying around.

The first is what was originally going to be my force's First Lieutenant. One of the Perry sculpts from Foundry, he looked the part with his pose and bearing. He is equipped with the unpopular plate armour that was issued to airborne troops on occasion with chest and 'gooly' protection, as it was called. Not many troops wore them, apparently, they were cumbersome, especially if you were jumping out of an aeroplane, I expect. It tended to be worn under the Denison smock, but I like that the Perrys included it over the top. Clearly this is an officer who values his personal safety, so with that in mind, I will promote him to a more senior rank, making him either a Captain or Major when I use him in Bolt Action.

Speaking of Majors...

This Artizan Designs model depicts none other than Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter DSO, famous for his bravery and eccentricity during the Battle of Arnhem. Commander of A Company, of the 2^nd Parachute Battalion, part of the 1^st Parachute Brigade of the 1^st Airborne Division, Digby’s company was one of the first to reach Arnhem and secure the famous bridge.

27 years old at the time, Digby was known as an aggressive commander- what would be labelled in 1940s officer parlance as ‘having dash’! He did not trust the reliability of the radio sets issued to his company for Operation Market Garden, so drilled them in communicating using calls from hunting bugles- a visionary move as the radios failure became an increasing problem as the battle went on.

Major Tatham-Warter was seen moving through his men’s positions, checking on their needs, wearing a bowler hat procured from somewhere and carrying an umbrella. The story goes, that Digby jumped with the brolly to use as an identifier, as he was useless at remembering daily passwords, his reasoning being, no British sentry would shoot an officer brandishing an umbrella thinking they were a German in disguise!

There are many stories about how Digby led a bayonet charge brandishing said brolly, ran to save his company chaplainand even disabled an enemy armoured car with it! All of these anecdotes, and more, can be found readily online. He was also the inspiration for the fictional brolly-weilding character 'Arry' in the film, 'A Bridge Too Far'.

I thought I'd try an urban base for Digby, which would suit a character fighting within the smashed buildings of Arnhem. It means he stands out from the rest of my other paras more rural basing, but I wanted to try bricks and rubble, and I think it works well enough.

Objective- Combat Nurse

I like this model from Empress. The character in the face is great. I also liked that proceeds for this model went to the NHS when it was released to celebrate their hard work during Lockdown 1. Go to the Empress website to learn the interesting story attached to the photograph sculpter Paul Hicks used as reference for this model. Lovely...

I have an allied war photographer model rattling around, which I envision working as a nice little vignette with this nurse. She looks like she's relaxed, so could be posing for a pic for the folks back home. I'll use them both as an objective marker in a game sometime, I'm sure...