I have got about 50% of my Dark Age forces reflocked, I am doing this in between other projects, mainly at night in front of the PC watching TV Shows, due to the wonders of technology I am now able to catch up on all those shows which I was suffering withdrawal symptoms from, The Veep, Daredevil, Silicon Valley etc. I have started with the Peaky Blinders now after hearing good things about it.
I should have finished my BA British but my order was mucked up and I still need a Bren Team which has not arrived yet, my flocking might also take a back seat as I got the wrong grass sent to me as well. Perhaps I might get those new buildings and my transports built this weekend, so much to do so little time. The good news is that the Germans are complete, or as complete as I want for now.
I also have to find a couple of hours this weekend to get my head around a small WWII campaign and convert something from Chain of Command for Bolt Action, I have the main idea but I now have to get it all to work.
I have managed to track down The Last Valley, the excellent but elusive terrain maker, according to the blurb he will be at Phalanx (St. Helens) next week, a more than half decent show so I am going to pop down and hopefully get the rest of the hedges I need and maybe a few other odds and sods.
Now, who needs shooting, Kim Philby needs shooting that's who, mind you he is already dead, I have just completed 'A Spy Among Friends' by Ben McIntyre. I bought it after watching a documentary on the subject and I have to say the book is even more of a revelation on how gut-wrenchingly easy it was for an upper class toff to steal Britain's secrets for over thirty years than the programme. Philby was responsible for hundreds of people being tortured and killed by the Soviets, and he never showed one iota of remorse. Despite everything pointing to the man as a spy MI6 first defended him, sacked him and then took him back on as an agent because he was of the 'right class' and obviously as such would never betray his country, not the type you see old boy. No one comes out of this affair well, his friends, MI6, MI5 the politicians, no one. I highly recommend this book.
Philby was a complete (insert some suitably obscene noun here) as was Maclean, Brugess, Blunt and the other bloke nobody remembers. They only survived as long as they did because of hte incompetence of the establishment of which they were part.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Valley kit is pretty damn' good and excellent value. Mr Last Valley is a pleasant chap too and I'm glad he's doing the shows after the brouhaha following his brief holiday at Her Majesty's pleasure. Now, if he'd been a Philby . . . . .
Blunt actually gave up spying after a time, but he, like that old lady whose name I forget who was discovered years later in her eighties should have been locked up. The book points to Philby being allowed to defect as it was less embarassing for the establishment, that alone was/is a scandal.
Delete