Tim Mee and BMC in the Snow

They sent the medical unit ahead to get back to base first.

Sadly, the poor road conditions caused the first truck transporting causalities got stuck in the snow.

The medical staff quickly started moving the wounded out of the first truck and into the second.

Others grabbed weapons and got ready to repel the enemy.

Rifles, grenades, anything they could find.

The old charge nurse just grabbed her lantern and watched it all, she had seen it before, many times.  Not her first campaign.

Nor was it the first war for the enemy.
 

Billy Hill Table Expansion Project

One of my on like toy solider hobby friends, Billy Hill, has a wire table just like mine.  So I refer to this as my "Billy Hill" table.  It is a wire table that I got at Walmart sometime in the last century.

I wanted it to be a little larger, so I have added to 4x4 pieces of crappy chipboard.  You can see here where I used to large screws to attach a 2x4 to the bottom.

Close up of the 2x4.  This is all scrap lumber that has been laying around the house since it was constructed 7 years ago, including the screws.

Board just sits end on, on top of the gravel.  

So far it has withstood winds of up to 40 mph, so despite the wonky appearance it seems to be doing okay.

Table Upgrade

 

GI Joe Collection

 The basis of my GI Joe collection is a World War Two US Army infantry platoon.  I have had GI Joe since Christmas on 1964, my brother and I both got one, but over time, his became mine.  I later got a third one, and finally a couple Adventure Team guys, one with fuzzy hair and another with fuzzy hair and beard.

Over time I picked up one here and one there, and with various other 12" figures I now have over 100.  I got my last one about a year ago.

The infantry platoon consists of a platoon leader, an excellent Lieutenant Hanley figure from the TV show combat.  My platoon sergeant is a GI Joe SGT Rock figure.  The guide and two messengers are also SGT Rock figures, namely Little Sure Shot, Bulldozer, and Wildman.  They were special edition GI Joe figures based on the comic book.  My first squad, 12 men, is mostly GI Joe, and I am trying to give them each a full uniform, shirt, pants, brown boots, cap, helmet, pistol belt, two ammo pouches, canteen, canteen cover, first aid pouch, backpack, entrenching tool, entrenching tool cover, two grenades, mess kit, knife, fork, and spoon.  There are 11 M1 rifles, and one BAR.  I have also given each squad a bazooka, Thompson SMG, .30 caliber machine gun, Springfield with sniper rifle, and tactical shotgun.  One M1 rifle has a grenade launcher.

My second squad has the same equipment, and weapons but I have added Field Jackets, and they have a scruffy look to them.  They have some mis-matched color shirt and pants.  The third squad is based on the Combat! TV show, with a SGT Sanders figure, from the same Japanese company that make the LT.  I got a large-ish figure based on the movie Small Soldiers, Chip Hazard figure.  I use him as Little John.  Several of the other figures are given head wear, beret for Caje, or other unique identifiers for other characters.

My plan for support is to have most of the weapons that could be under the command of the infantry platoon commander, such as 60mm mortar, and .50 caliber machine guns, and light tanks.  I have a few extra figures for crews, a pair of light tanks, and a small Company Commander and other command staff figures, including a few general officers, Patton and Eisenhower.

I have extra M1917 style helmets, and Springfield rifles to equip at least one squad, maybe a few others, for 1941/ 1942 or even the Interwar period.

More photos later in the year on my GI Joe collection when more of it is out of storage.

Japanese Paratroopers

The Japanese had both Army and Navy Paratroopers in World War Two.  The ones above are Japanese Army Paratroopers.

These are Japanese Navy Paratropers.

The Japanese did use paratroopers in combat in the Pacific during World War Two.

Japanese Navy Paratroopers took part in the battles on the Dutch East Indies in 1942 with two operations one with over 800 men and the other one was just over 600 men.

The Army Paratroopers also participated in operations in the Dutch East Indies and later in December 1944 in the Philippines.  Like many paratroopers they suffered from high casualties and lack of numbers and transport.  They staying operational in the Philippines until the end of the war in small numbers.
 

Riflemen, Machine Gunners

M14 rifleman walking.  Note the smoke grenades on the back.

M14 rifleman running.

M14 rifleman shooting.  Good action poses in these sets.

Loader for the bazooka man.  Note the backpack rack for bazooka shells.

Machine gun ammo bearer.

M60 machine gun.  I like the nice variety of weapons that this set has, so you can field a well equipped platoon of troops without having to get metal figures to fill in spots.
 

Orion Vietnam War Marines

40mm Grenade Launcher M79 with a shotgun as a back up weapon.  Great figure.  Shotgun is great for in close work in the jungle, in cities, and in trenchworks.

M14 rifle, used by the Americans for about 20 years from the late 1950s.

The M14 was never fully replaced by the M16 series as a few were used for automatic rifles, snipers, and other long range weapons.

The Marines used a two part 3.5 inch Super Bazooka.  The advantage over the LAW rocket is the larger projectile, the ability to reload, and it could penetrate up to 11 inches of armor.

Radioman.  Antennas were made of a sort of wire tape, like a metal tape measure so were thin and wide.

Note the heavy gear on all these troops.  M14 rifle.
 

Marines

USMC in Vietnam Early War.

Orion 1/72nd scale plastic figures, 44 figures in 14 poses.

You get a command group and three troop groups.

Like the Army troops these are excellent, flash free, and highly detailed.

The two major differences between these and the Orion US Army figures is that these have body armo and M14 rifles rather than M16 rifles.

The body armor for Marines was a command interest item and so everyone in combat had to wear body armor, despite the heat and humidity of Southeast Asia.
 

Contact on Patrol

Vietnam, US Army, 1967.

First Platoon is down a few men, but they still conduct patrols.

They are 4 clicks out from Firbase Pattie.

They have just taken a few rounds and first and second squads are moving forward to suppress that fire.

Machine gun provides a base of fire as the other troops move along the right flank.

One solider tosses a grenade into a suspects NVA position.

The LT radios in the contact report to company.
 

US Army Vietnam War Orion Figures

Crouching and reloading.  Shoot, move to cover, reload, shoot, advance.

Running forward, always forward.  M16 armed soldier.

Loading the blooper.  A 40mm grenade launcher.  My favorite weapon to shoot of all time.  Only fired it a couple times on the range.  Load, close the breech, aim, fire, wooooop, boom!  It flies so slowly that you can see the grenade in the air before it hits.  Two direct hits center of mass.

Grenade thrower.  What I like about this set is the figures are well sculpted, highly accurate and give a great variety of weapons for an Army platoon.

LAW rocket, the grandson of the Panzerfaust.  Fire one time, throw it away.  Disposable anti-tank rocket.  Used in Vietnam against bunkers mostly.  Easy to use and pretty accurate.  I fired one in training on a range, the training version fired a tiny rocket at a full size M48 tank withe extra armor.  It was very cool.

Kneeling and firing.  Aim high into the trees, or maybe because the enemy is far away to compensate for bullet drop over distance.

M60 machine gun, can be carried and fired by one man but having a loader is helpful since the ammo is heavy and gets used up quickly.

Here is the loader.