Allies Versus Allies

Allies Versus Allies
Played Summer, 1977
Scenario Designers - All of us
Chief Aircraft Rules Rigger - Peter
Marshall-Harts (a pun, get it?) - Peter, Tim Marshall
Trickett-Burtonians - Chris, Dave, with help from Andrew C and Dave B
Judges (not biased towards Marshall-Harts) - Fred S, Ronk
Note - All pictures shown below can be clicked to show a larger size.

For many months, anticipation of this game ran high. Pete was in charge of writing the Air rules. Of course, they were rigged so that the mighty Mig 25 reigned supreme. This Mach 3 aircraft had, in the past year, been made available to the West, thanks to the defection of a Soviet pilot in Japan. Myself, Pete and Fred, who were members of the newly established IPMS chapter in St. John's had been able to order three kits through the club of the very recently released Mig 25 model kit by some company whose name I've forgotten. In addition, our forces were primed and ready, with my troops having been spray painted gold for identification purposes (yeh, I know, yuck - but you have to start somewhere in this hobby!).

This is a basic map of the portion of Pete's backyard where the game took place. The Marshall-Harts lines were beneath a large tree behind the garage (in the same location where the famed tunneling incident took place and also where Pete and Tim played several Arab-Foreign Legion games). The Lone Hill was a pile of rocks covered with topsoil.

The first phase of the battle, taking just about a whole day and a bit more, IIRC was the air battle.

A very very nasty surprise to the Marshall-Harts was the revelation that somehow, the Trickett-Burtonians had gained access to two Mig 25s as well!!! In a more silly bid for air supremacy, they produced a model of an Angel space interceptor, from, IIRC a sci-fi show called UFO (?) and claimed it was an F-18 or some sub-model of a Mig 25. After arguing heatedly over this for quite some time, the game began. After a tense fighter battle, the Marshall-Harts forces prevailed and the way was cleared for their bomber command to pummel the Trickett-burtonian lines as seen in this photo.

Here we see some of the bomber command aircraft (some are very ragged, but, hey, some of these date from our grade 1 and 2 model building days!). From left to right: PBY Catalina; a late war German bomber, an He- something-or-other; Short Sunderland; Halifax; and a Flying Fortress. The first four are Airfix but I don't know the maker of the Fort.

While the skies were erupting overhead, a small aggressive Marshall-Harts reconnaissance force advanced to take the lone hill. The force consisted of a Matchbox M-16 AA half-track and some troops. Trickett-Burtonian forces also sortied out to try and take the hill and were hidden therein when the Marshall-Harts recce force arrived. There was some shooting, but for the most part, the Marshall-Harts forces scurried about trying to avoid Trickett-Burtonian aircraft. There was some scattered ground fighting here of a minor nature. A Marshall-Harts Wellington has been shot down and lands on top of Lone Hill, trapping the M-16.

While the bombers were pounding enemy lines, the great Marshall-Harts ground forces moved out. Lead by their recce force (see left) and also a massive mobile artillery force the great column advanced toward Trickett-Burtonian lines. This picture is a small component of the Marshall-Harts force and includes, in the front, left to right Jagdpanther (Matchbox - lost this one years ago), Ho-Ni, Hetzer, Jagdtiger and Elefant (last four are from (Fujimi) and have all been refurbished and used in recent games. I think this was some kind of tank destroyer unit we put together...but it may have been part of the vanguard which followed the Recce force and preceded the main column, but am not sure...The troops in the back are mounted on a combination of kids metal cars and Matador trucks.

A view of the armour column rounding the corner of the hedge from the Marshall-Harts lines and moving toward their enemy. Leading are Airfix Chieftains and Leopards.

The artillery force moved into range of Trickett-Burtonian lines, deployed and began a great barrage. The Trickett-Burtonians surrendered soon after, just as the column shown here reached the Lone Hill.

The Bottomless Depths of Despair and the Utter Hopelessness of defeat are reflected in the eyes of this bedraggled, bewildered and shellshocked Trickett-Burtonian general, captured after three days of intense aerial and artillery bombardment.