Operation Parsnip : attack the supply compound

continued from the previous post...

A small group of resistance move along the edge of the woods near the railway station at Sainte Marie le Polet....

Meanwhile a few more resistance and a couple of British commandos cross the river on the outskirts of Ronancourt and move into a vineyard ....

The resistance approach the railway line, as a German patrol passes by the supply compound..

The German patrol spots the resistance ..

the firing starts and men go down ....

The commandos with more resistance move closer to the supply compound ...

The German patrol by the railway line is still engaged in a fire-fight with the resistance; sentries in the compound move up to provide supporting fire ...

Another German patrol hurries up the road to the compound in response the to the gun-fire ....

The resistance fighters and the commando with the bren gun open fire, downing most of the patrol

On the side of the compound by the railway line the German patrol are all down, a couple of sentries have fallen back from fence line to seek some cover; the resistance have started falling back but keeping up sporadic fire as they go ...

Commandos and resistance fighters pour fire into the area by the main gate forcing back the remaining sentries ...

A lone commando has circled round the compound and cut through the fence, he lays a charge in one of the supply caches.

The moves on to do the same in the next one ...

Having laid the charges he makes a move towards the building, but is spotted by the sentry ...

After a brief exchange of fire the commando goes down; the attackers near the gate start to fall back ...

As they fall back the charges go off ... kerboom ! The explosion damages the building as well, which then catches fire....

A successful operation.. the remaining commandos and resistance slink away....

On the road to Sainte Marie le Polet.....

To the north of Sainte Marie le Polet, halfway to Ronancourt, a german equipment dump (ammo and fuel) had been setup. It is used by the local garrison and also contains a building holding special equipment - possibly spare parts and specialist lubricants for the big rail gun near Nouvion.

---oXo---

An officer has completed an inspection ...

and heads off down the road towards Sainte Marie le Polet...

Michelle LeBlanc wheels her bicycle past the supply dump, on her way past she counts the number of sentries...

The local train has arrived at the station...

Two of the people who got off chat with the local policeman and Michelle ...

A while later a Storch flew in low over the area and circled around, before moving off.  It was checking cross country movements after parachutists had been reported a few miles away...

Late in the afternoon, the local garrison commander decided to put a couple of foot patrols down in the area just in case of trouble...

to be continued

German supply dump....

 Near the German HQ ammo and fuel dumps have been setup in a wood....

[ New items: Camouflage netting pieces from AnyScale Models 1/56 range]

The Guns of Nouvion Part 2.

The next morning Robert Odd-Fellowes found something else on his desk.

The previous day, a photo recce had been sent across the channel.

Objective; a site South East of Nouvion.

What was found confirmed the information sent by the British agent in the area. The gun that had been harassing shipping along the coast between the harbours that were his responsibility had been located.

Again he wondered on the fate of the agent .

Along with the photos was confirmation that an attack was to be launched by the RAF to silence the guns, details no doubt would follow.

Blow that line ....

 While Monique had gone to meet the SOE agent,  a group of resistance fighters had gone out to sabotage the branch line the German's were using to move ammunition up to their big railway guns.

---0X0---

They reached the road near the railway line ....

no German's in sight ...so they crossed the road...

waiting in cover for the German patrol to move down the line ...

The German patrol passed by down the line; another moved down the road behind them without incident..

Patrols having passed by, they started to lay the charge on the track ... 

The moved back and set off the charge - there was a harumph and a flash of the explosion ...

As the dust settled they moved away - a hole in track would stop shipments for a while ...

The explosion brought the German patrols in their direction; as they ran across the heathland the Germans closed in ...

The Germans caught a glimpse of movement as the resistance ran to safety...

One of the Germans ran forward, blundering into one of the resistance - the german fired and wounded the other (not badly), the resistance fighter fired killing the german....

The resistance fighter moved quickly to catch up with his comrades, as the Germans fired at them (not hitting them ..)

The resistance make for the safety of the woods...

Nouvion bound ....

 Monique and Jean, hurried through the vineyard to the rendezvous... in the distance they could here the sound of a plane ....

The lysander came in low over the wood... 

and landed in the open area of heathland ... Out hopped the pilot and Harry Rampstead (aka Jacque Poulet SOE Agent)...

Monique and Jean escorted Jacque to the safety of the woodland, after that they would go to the safe house in Nouvion...

Making a vineyard ....

Can't be somewhere in France without a vineyard, so decided to make one. The plan was to use only stuff I had to hand (and buy nothing new !) I'd looked at some examples online of others who made vineyard bases for inspiration.

I decided on 12 bases, each about 8.5 inches long.

First up was the base, thin card with a top part made from coffee stirrers. The holes for the posts and vines were marked out and drilled. Then first job was to put in the posts.

After that I added two training wires using some thin scale ship rigging rope (cotton thread would have done)

Next step add the woody parts of the vines. For this I cut up some old plastic trees into suitable pieces ...

I had just enough to do all 12 bases... 

All the pieces got a wash of brown on the posts and the vine wood painted brown too..

Adding the foliage, I decided on using the pieces off old plastic trees ...

Having added all the plastic tree pieces, one problem a gap along the top ...

the gaps were filled in with loads of little bits of left over foliage clump

to blend together the plastic pieces and foliage clumps, painted over with leaf green

Finally an earth mix for the central part of the bases of the vineyard sections and some static grass round the outside... all done...