Pegasus WOTW

War of the Worlds, the 1953 George Pal version, is one of my favorite movies ever. The Martian War Machine moving down the street in Los Angeles is one of the best scenes in the movie.

This 1/48th scale model by Pegasus model only includes a few parts and is easy to assemble. It is mounted on a base that looks like the Earth.

Pegasus Hobbies has been licensed by Paramount Pictures to make several War of the Worlds items from the George Pal movie.

The model version is molded in a slightly off white plastic with green parts for the weapons bits.

The clear parts are in this little bag. They go on the front and ends as well as some of the undersides. This is a great model and at 1/48th scale they will work for 1/72nd scale, 60mm and even 28mm figures. The model is accurately scaled from the movies models and very precise.

Night Attack

In a night attack maintaining control of your troops can be difficult. It is hard to know where they are, and hard for them to know where they are located. Using very distinctive markers, like roads, streams or other lateral objects can be helpful as phase lines to control movement.

Units at the front can also fire flares into the air. Some types of flares can burst like fireworks so that they don't illuminate the ground. This can tell the commander the progress of the attack as he watches the progress of the different colored flares.

Artillery can be difficult to control too at night. The field telephone cables can be played out as the troops advance so that communication can be maintained with the fire direction center. The biggest problem is that the infantry will advance into the artillery fire.

The momentum of an attack is difficult to maintain at night. Troops become frightened when they think they are alone. Stopping to fire, it can be difficult to regain the urge to move forward again. Non-commissioned officers are critical to keep the troops moving. In the Soviet Army the Commissar and his NKVD henchmen often helped to urge the troops forward.

Night attacks can be very difficult to coordinate and often fail due to a lack of planning, coordination and training. In my wargame rules we simulate night by preventing observation and firing at far distances to simulate some of the problems.

Pegasus Soviets

Pegasus recently released their new Soviet WWII Winter Infantry and Soviet WWII Summer Infantry. Now they have released the same figures together in PE, soft plastic. The individual sets have two identical sprues per set. This new set has two different sprues, one of summer and one of winter. These are great 1/72nd scale soft plastic figures, no flash, and all single part figures. 40 figures in the box, lots of poses.

I took these troops out into the yard for a night attack. The Soviets often attacked in the open, in waves. They had limited training and so one of the easiest things to do is line everyone up and run forward towards the enemy.

Soldiers often get lost in the dark. Coordinating an attack at night can be difficult. Often attacks were readied at night and then the troops would launch their attack just as the dawn began to glow red on the horizon.

Anchor the flank with a machine gun and a couple rifles. That gives a base of fire to help keep the heads of the enemy down. It is difficult to fire a bolt action rifle on the run, so having someone who can maintain fire is important.

Noise discipline is important at night because sound travels a long way in the still air. Troops move slowly to the front to get into position before the big attack. Then when the flare bursts, the machine gun opens up and everyone yells Hurrah and charges forward.

Push Button Warfare

We are entering the age of PUSH BUTTON WARFARE. You only need to push a button and an army or enemy city will be destroyed.

The individual soldier with his rifle is an anachronism that has no real place in modern warfare. Why soldiers won't have to do any real fighting any longer.

A single plane flies over a city and WHAM! the enemy capital is destroyed. The only work for the Army will be to move in and keep order among the survivors.

This new ATOMIC AGE is actually an amazing thing really. Wars will last only hours or at most days. A resolution will come quickly as the enemy cities are vaporized under an atomic cloud.

Mark my words, the days of infantrymen slogging through enemy infested jungles, hot deserts, and mountains are over. The Atomic Bomb has ended that type of warfare forever!