HMS Tartar 4th Commission 1970 8

 We should have been away from Beira Patrol by now but  HMS Charybdis (Cherry B) is late, so we  have been doing extra weeks, Charybdis was a new ship when I was in training and we all wanted a draft to her, I think at least one of our class managed it, maybe a couple but I didn't. I was supposed to start off on HMS Kent, one of the beautiful but probably impractical destroyers. but my draft was cancelled at the last minute, one of my brothers served on her years later. I spent a couple of months making coffee for the petty officers then got the news I was going to the Tartar.

During the last week we did some fishing, I call it fishing the Navy calls it mortar practice, after the anti-submarine charge went off we launched a boat and collected quite literally tons of fish of all shapes and sizes, even a turtle, all had been killed or stunned by the explosion. The sea must have been very busy underneath the waves, either that or it was a lucky shot. We also blew up an old dinghy for explosive practice, more fish.


Recently we have been training our gunnery crews with pilotless drones, not as sophisticated as those flying today, more like big, radio controlled models. Some crew members got to shoot the Bofors who otherwise have other duties, cooks, stokers, greenies etc. One Stores Assistant hit the floating target 500 yards out, not a bad shot with a Bofors, I had a go with one on the Sheraton and didn't get a shot off, by the time the target (a Canberra) flew over us we couldn't get the gun around quick enough before it was gone. It was flying a target of course.

Even the Wasp helped with the stores.

 We have as usual been replenishing at sea with the Dewdale, the sister ship of the sunken Ennerdale, this may be the last time we do this as we will be leaving shortly for Mombasa as we now expect the Charybdis any day now. One of the pumps in the engine room has managed to suck in some metal so the Stokers may be a tad busy in Mombers rather than enjoying the delights ashore.

I think it was around this time that I got put on a charge, we were supposed to rendezvous with another ship on its way east and there was a hullabaloo from the skipper when he found out, as we were too late. It transpired that I had been on watch when the coded signal came in, I did not pull it out from the normal traffic as being for us, so it went into the trash instead of being decrypted. It was during a Middle Watch 0001 - 0400 and I was probably half asleep, I can still see that signal now yet I missed it at the time! I got five days Number 9's, which meant clean up duties like washing dishes at meal times and other menial chores. Number 1 was being shot.

The Magic Well

We were going to do Bolt Action last night but perhaps I am jinxed, I got a shout from Julian who wanted to run a Dead man's Hand game so Simon and I changed plans, a little later we were also invited to a game of Dracula's America but it was too late to change things again. I admit however the weird side of Wild West gaming does not appeal to me, but I know the author, Johnny Haythornthwaite, and he comes to the club now and again so I would have given it a try but it was too late.

Our game was supposed to be a four way shoot out but Alex asked to join in as he had watched the game on several occasions and had always wanted to try it out, so we did some juggling as we never leave a man behind and ended up with five players, not ideal but off we went.

Julian explained that in this particular town bang in the middle of main street was a well, someone started a rumour that gold from a previous time had been stashed in the well and someone had claimed recently to have seen it. The rumour spread like wild fire and shortly five interested gangs decided to check it out, but of course they all turned up at the same time.
 

The gangs muster.

 The Mexicans started the ball rolling by firing at some outlaws while taking over a nearby hotel as a base, the Outlaws did the same and dragged their wounded companion into Rogan's bar to take shelter while sending some riflemen to the roof. Everyone did the same, the Pinkertons settling down in the undertakers and some more Outlaws taking over another Rogan's joint, Rogan's being like Starbucks in this town, one on every corner. Ryan's dodgy bunch were left cowering behind gravestones and the dubious shelter of the nearby gallows. It was going to be a brave man who would run the gauntlet of fire to get to the well.

The Spider heads for Rogan's 2.

Julian gets to the well first with Simon closing in.

It soon became obvious Julian and Ryan had made an agreement and as Ryan took the Pinkerton's under fire Julian moved on into a position to make a run at the well, 'The Spider' (me) decided to assault Julian's Outlaws in Rogan's and cut off his retreat if he did manage to get some gold, my Sniper Bob or Roberto took down the first kill of the game, Julian's gunslinger. Seeing what was happening the Pinkerton's and Simon's Outlaws began some mutual support, I still threw lead at the men leaving Rogan's, I got another two in the course of the game and lost one Vaquero.

Back at the well despite the lethal rain Julian managed to grab some gold, Simon now threw his men at the well and he too managed some loot, Ryan failed to find any. Although men were falling in other parts of the street the well area seemed fairly devoid of dead and wounded considering how much firepower was concentrated there. As the clock struck 10 Simon had four gold and Julian three, although there was no way Julian's Outlaws were getting back to their horses through El Arana and his waiting companeros.

A great game, a lot of banter and laughter and a moving cactus, you would need to have been there. Perhaps an upturned bullion wagon or stage would have been more 'western' than the well but it was a good scenario for a multiplayer game and I would certainly have another go. The camera pans in on the eyes of each gang leader, the tension rises, sweat breaks out on the Mexicans brow, you know it has to be the Mexican, then the frantic scrabble for guns and lead starts flying, that's a rap.

Elsewhere we had a boardgame, Frostgrave and as I said Johnny's Dracula game.

Oh, Julian is off the hook re the tape measure, I found my old friend in the same bag I left it in. The contract has been cancelled.

The Legion Complete.

I finished the last of my Aurelian Romans last night and Auxilia Cohors II joined the army this morning, I am very please the way they turned out, I was a bit dubious about the blue shields but I decided to make blue the primary colour for the unit and after a dusting down it all looks good.

Mate Dave Toone threw the gauntlet down on his WAB page with a photo of his Republican Romans and a 'show me yours' dare, so, as I have a window between map projects I took the time to muster the full Legion and call his bluff.

I like all my armies but I have a special liking for the Thunderbolts, they are a complete historical unit with a history covering several hundred years, from Caesar until their mention in the Notitia Dignitatum on the Euphrates frontier in the 5th century. Not only were they honoured with the Fulminata title they also have Paterna (alluding to lineage?), Victrix (Victory), Antiqua (longevity), Certa Constans (surely constant) and Galliena (honorific from the emperor Galliena). It had a sticky time in 62AD being defeated by the Parthians and again in 66AD when it lost its Eagle during the Zealot Revolt but apart from that was a first class fighting force.

Next on the tray are the plastic archers, again no hurry for these but at the same time not hard to paint so maybe not long until they are done, they are primed and ready to go. By the way, that is not my library in the background but the book exchange in the PO.

View From The Window

 The heatwave is having a hard time here in the Northwest, it is cool, dank and wet, the sky is exclusively stone grey, of course you might fry an egg on the bonnet of your car by noon, but then again probably not. The yellow car with the broken window which has been present across the road for about two months now has gone, the threat of getting towed by the council worked more than the murmurings of disgruntled neighbours. Washington House got a viewing yesterday, but by the impression on the viewers faces as they passed the PO the removals are not getting a call.

Things just get worse and worse, poor Theresa May must be wondering what can I be blamed for next. Did you notice what was different about the terror attack at the Finsbury Mosque, well, we are not being asked to come together, not blame all white people or christians, carry on as usual etc., nope, not this time, heads must roll. Did you realise Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray were all responsible for this latest attack, perhaps they jumped out of the van before it turned the corner. One nut runs a van into a crowd, I wonder where he got that idea, another innocent is dead, something must really be done about extremists, and right wing extremism Reg, the former in the past 23 months have killed 1,263 people, the latter one.

 What did you make of the Day of Rage, the payment must not have reached 'Rent-a-Crowd' Central because not enough turned up to fill a double-decker, despite one left wing journo counting one million and bringing central London to a halt, or was it Speakers Corner. They felt so convinced of their cause and the urge to punish the government, Trump, May, capitalists and that little guy in Yarmouth that instead they lay in the park or threw another shark on the barbie. I rage every day, I don't need a special one.

The defence rests M'Lud.............

 You might have missed in all the recent disasters that the powerful Unite union recently had their own election, and a gentleman and very senior figure called Gerard Coyne bravely put himself up against Len McCluskey. Coyne is now looking for a new job after a 'show trial' which has sacked him after thirty years for the crime of coming very close to toppling Mr. McCluskey. Democracy, you just gotta love it.
 
Did you see the face on Donald Tusk as he introduced the talks for Brexit, milk and sour comes to mind, he also had whined that the UK would be welcome back after it's mistake, the mistake Donald was talking about of course was the free vote on the matter by the British people. If you think we are heading for tough talks the EU have twice as much bother, the top brass want to punish us or get us back while the 27 all want their own agendas pushed for their own selfish reasons, all of them want to make a bit of capital out of City Hall during the process. Did you hear that Luxembourg pipsqueak vent his uncalled for opinion of the UK along with his Polish counterpart, all of a sudden we have to listen to places which have still to experience the '60's.

Aaaaaaaannnnd smile ..................

 The UK owes as I type, in fact I cannot keep up with the counter but I will try, £1,876,653,426,987 trillion pounds, the US figure is $18.9 trillion, in Germany it is 2.1 trillion Euros, you can imagine then the debt of basket cases like Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Latvia etc. What I cannot understand as I was never good at maths (see how I put the s in there) is who loans these amounts of dosh, if our own countries don't have enough money where do they go for the loan? Maybe there is a god.

Serial killer Levi Bellfield is in jail but may have killed another woman and her daughter while almost killing her second girl, Micheal Stone, an unsavoury character is doing time for the murders. Bellfield could be placed at the crime with DNA, but he refuses to give a sample because although he is a serial killer and has destroyed lives he is still entitled to rights, is it just me or is that mad and in prison he should have no rights.

When I read comics my hero's were Batman and Spiderman, I still do and they still are, Superman being invincible was no fun for me, and I never, ever got Wonder Woman, sexist, maybe, it wasn't a word in the old days. Even the movie doesn't interest me and I will watch all sorts of comic based trash. I have one big question, how does this tribe of Amazon women procreate without men and seemingly last for hundreds, nay, possibly thousands of years, and are all beautiful, size 10 supermodels? Once again we are being indoctrinated into how useless we are, although that scenario is becoming frighteningly real.

I don't get the attraction ......

Have you noticed that Royal Ascot is now becoming more famous for its fights and drunks than horse racing, now there's class for you.

I told you, Dragonfly 3 to 1.