indians against the japs by atlantic

circus maximus by marx

commando ww2

I have a lot of airfix ones to paint so what i do is download as many images as i can  to paint better . I prefer king and  country style 
British Commando operations during the Second World War were very dangerous , the British Commandos  were a force formed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War, following an order from the British Prime minister Winston Churchill in June 1940 for a force that could carry out raids against German occupied Europe.
Commandos were all volunteers for special service and originally came from the British Army but volunteers would eventually come from all branches of the United Kingdoms armed forces and foreign volunteers from countries occupied by the Germans.These volunteers formed over 30 individual units and four assault brigades.

1941
The first Commando raid was Operation Collar 23 June 1940. The raid was not carried out by a Commando unit, but by one of their predecessors No.11 Independent Company. Under the command of Major Ronnie Tod it was an offensive reconnaissance on the French coast south of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Le Touquet.
The operation was a limited success and the only British injury was a bullet graze to Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke (Clarke was there as an observer), while at least two German soldiers were killed.
 A second and similarly inconsequential attack, Operation Ambassador, was launched on the German occupied island of Guernsey on the night of 14 July 1940, by men drawn from H Troop of No. 3 Commando under command of John Durnford-Slater and No. 11 Independent Company. One unit landed on the wrong island, another disembarked from its launch into water that came over their heads.
Intelligence had indicated that there was a large German barracks on the island but the Commandos only discovered empty buildings. On their return to the beach they discovered that heavy seas had forced their launch off shore and they then had to swim out to sea to get picked up.

 a force of Commandos under Colonel Robert Laycock were sent to the Middle East to carry out raids in the eastern Mediterranean. This force became known as 'Layforce' after their commander and initially they were drawn from 'A' Troop from No. 3 Commando, No. 7 Commando, No. 8 (Guards) Commando, and No. 11 (Scottish) Commando.

The next raid of any consequence from the United Kingdom was Operation Claymore in March 1941, by No. 3 and No. 4 Commandos. This was the first large scale raid from the United Kingdom during the war. Their objective was the undefended Norwegian Lofoten Islands. They successfully destroyed the fish-oil factories, petrol dumps, and 11 ships, capturing 216 Germans, encryption equipment and codebooks.

In April Layforce received orders to begin carrying out a raids on the Afrika Korps lines of communication along the North African coast.
 On 12 April they carried out a preliminary move to Alexandria and three days later they received orders to carry out a raid on Bardia and another on Bomba.The attacks had to be abandoned, however, due to high seas which would have made disembarking and re-embarking too dangerous.[The appearance of the Commandos behind their lines forced the Germans to divert the main part of an armoured brigade from where they had previously been undertaking offensive action around Sollum, in order to defend against further raids.

Layforce less No. 11 (Scottish) Commando was next involved in the Battle of Crete in May. They were deployed to the island to carry out raids on the German lines of communications with a view to either turning back the invasion or enabling an evacuation to take place.
 By 31 May the evacuation from Crete was drawing to a close and the Commandos, running low on ammunition, rations and water, fell back towards Sphakia. Laycock and some of his headquarters, including his intelligence officer Evelyn Waugh managed to get out on the last ship to depart, however the vast majority of the Commandos were left behind. Of the 800 Commandos that had been sent to Crete, by the end of the operation about 600 were listed as killed, missing or wounded and only 23 officers and 156 others managed to get off the island.

In June the Allies invaded Vichy French controlled Syria and Lebanon, Operation Exporter. As a part of this operation, No. 11 (Scottish) Commando were tasked with seizing a crossing over the Litani River. The action cost the Commando over 120 casualties, which equated to nearly a quarter of their strength.

By July the operations that Layforce had undertaken had severely reduced their strength and in the circumstances reinforcements were unlikely.
 The operational difficulties that had been exposed during the Bardia raid, combined with the strategic imperatives that had developed as the situation in the Middle East had evolved, and the overarching inability of the high command to fully embrace the commando concept had largely served to make the force ineffective and as a result the decision was made to disband Layforce.On the airfix pieces try and get the finish below Many of the men went back to their previous regiments following the decision, while others chose to remain in the Middle East and subsequently joined the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Squadron.

The Commandos would serve in all the theatres of war from the Arctic circle, to Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific. Their operations ranged from small groups of men landing from the sea or by parachute to a brigade of assault troops spearheading the Allied invasions of Europe and Asia.

After the Second World War most of the Commands were disbanded leaving just the Royal Marine 3 Commando Brigade but their legacy is the present day Royal Marine Commandos, the Parachute Regiment, Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service who can all trace their origins to the Commandos. Their legacy also extends to mainland Europe, the French Naval commandos, the Dutch Korps Commandotroepen and the Belgian Paracommando Brigade can all trace their origins to men who volunteered to serve with the British Commandos.

Railroad

Railroads have played a large role in the development of the United States of America, especially  the colonization of the West.
The American railway mania began with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad‎ in 1828 and flourished until the Panic of 1873 bankrupted many companies and temporarily ended all growth.
Although the South started early to build railways, it concentrated on short lines linking cotton regions to oceanic or river ports, and the absence of an interconnected network was a major handicap during the Civil War.
The North and Midwest constructed networks that linked every city by 1860. In the heavily-settled Corn Belt (from Ohio to Iowa), over 80 percent of farms were within 5 miles of a railway, facilitating the shipment of grain, hogs and cattle to national and international markets.
A large number of short lines were built, but thanks to a fast developing financial system based on Wall Street and oriented to railway securities, the majority were consolidated into 20 trunk lines by 1890. State and local governments often subsidized lines, but rarely owned them.
Rail was strategic during the American Civil War, and the Union used its much larger system much more effectively. Practically all the mills and factories supplying rails and equipment were in the North, and the Union blockade kept the South from getting new equipment or spare parts. The war was fought in the South, and Union raiders (and sometimes Confederates too) systematically destroyed bridges and rolling stock—and sometimes bent rails—to hinder the logistics of the enemy.
In the South most railroads in 1860 were local affairs connecting cotton regions with the nearest waterway. Most transport was by boat, not rail, and after the Union blockaded the ports in 1861 and seized the key rivers in 1862, long-distance travel was difficult. The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the railroad companies, for the hoarding of the cotton crop in an attempt to force European intervention left railroads bereft of their main source of income.Many had to lay off employees, and in particular, let go skilled technicians and engineers. For the early years of the war, the Confederate government had a hands-off approach to the railroads. Only in mid-1863 did the Confederate government initiate an overall policy, and it was confined solely to aiding the war effort.
With the legislation of impressment the same year, railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the Confederate military.
Conditions deteriorated rapidly in the Confederacy, as there was no new equipment and raids on both sides systematically destroyed key bridges, as well as locomotives and freight cars. Spare parts were cannibalized; feeder lines were torn up to get replacement rails for trunk lines, and the heavy use of rolling stock wore them out. In 1864-65 the Confederate railroad network collapsed; little traffic moved in 1865.
During the Reconstruction era, Northern money financed the rebuilding and dramatic expansion of railroads throughout the South; they were modernized in terms of rail gauge, equipment and standards of service. the Southern network expanded from 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 1870 to 29,000 miles (46,700 km) in 1890. The lines were owned and directed overwhelmingly by Northerners. Railroads helped create a mechanically skilled group of craftsmen and broke the isolation of much of the region. Passengers were few, however, and apart from hauling the cotton crop when it was harvested, there was little freight traffic.
The Panic of 1873 ended the expansion everywhere in the United States, leaving many lines bankrupt or barely able to pay the interest on their bonds.
The Southern states had blocked westward rail expansion before 1860, but after secession the Pacific Railway Acts were passed in 1862, allowing the first transcontinental railroad to be completed in 1869, making possible a six-day trip from New York to San Francisco.^[
 Other transcontinentals were built in the South (Southern Pacific, Sante Fe) and along the Canadian border (Northern Pacific, Great Northern), accelerating the settlement of the West by offering inexpensive farms and ranches on credit, carrying pioneers and supplies westward, and cattle, wheat and minerals eastward.
The federal government operated a land grant system between 1855 and 1871, through which new railway companies in the uninhabited West were given millions of acres they could sell or pledge to bondholders. A total of 129 million acres (520,000 km²) were granted to the railroads before the program ended, supplemented by a further 51 million acres (210,000 km²) granted by the states, and by various government subsidies. This program enabled the opening of numerous western lines, especially the Union Pacific-Central Pacific with fast service from San Francisco to Omaha and east to Chicago.
 West of Chicago, many cities grew up as rail centers, with repair shops and a base of technically literate workers. Although the transcontinentals dominated the media, with the completion of the first in 1869 dramatically symbolizing the nation’s unification after the divisiveness of the Civil War, most construction actually took place in the industrial Northeast and agricultural Midwest, and was designed to minimize shipping

cafe storme

tomy french friends .what was the difference between cafe storme and mokarex?

Ferrous Lands: Alpha Miniatures 1/32 Romans

Ferrous Lands: Alpha Miniatures 1/32 Romans

forts and other stuff

BaTTLE OF BRITAIN

french cavalry by mokarex

7th cav by atlantic in 54mm

Ol Fascist thang by Atlantic

7th cav by atlantic in 54mm

ALL THE WAY TO ARMENTIERS 1918

Used extensively by the Commonwealth for stationing troops prior to the Battles of Ypres, the Flanders town of Armentières was a British stronghold for much of the Great War. It was also the inspiration for a famous war song which, according to legend, was written in honour of one Marie Lecocq who ran the Café de la Paix,describing her as the Mademoiselle from Armentières who 'hasn't been kissed for forty years'.

On 10 April 1918, during the Battle of the Lys, Armentières was evacuated by the British in the face of the advancing German Army. The town was subsequently bombarded by the Allies to render its roads, railways and buildings useless to the invading army. One casualty of the shelling was the 17th century town hall which was totally destroyed.

Mademoiselle from Armentières and Flemish Renaissance

After the war, architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier seized the opportunity afforded to him by the reconstruction effort to redesign the town centre according to the ideals of the Flemish Renaissance. He was responsible for an iconic feature of the town in the shape of the 67-metre high bell tower, decorated with bartizans and machicolation, which today dominates the central square.

 The town hall is another fine illustration of his Flanders style with its ornate facade, grand staircase and a great hall worthy of any burgomaster.

Cordonnier also designed the pyramid-shaped war monument in the town square, sculpted by Edgar Boutry, and the market hall which is today a venue for live entertainment. Another edifice of note is Saint-Vaast Church whose neo-Gothic grandeur dominates the town hall with its 83-metre-high bell tower.The architects of the Reconstruction also turned their attention to restoring industrial buildings and an example of this is the old Motte-Cordonnier Brewery built on the banks of the Lys River.

Interesting civilian architecture on the street named after President Kennedy is the result of some friendly rivalry between the town's prominent citizens as they rebuilt their homes.

comic by atlantic

Perhaps not everyone knows that in addition to soldiers and military vehicles , Atlantic ' did a comic mini album. I managed to get a copy, the number 2 dedicated to Custer at Little Big Horn: the album, 13x8, 5 cm, is composed of 15 pages in black and white cover and an insert in the middle  in color.

The story is interspersed with several advertising pages that advertise the company's best-known products.