Tuesday, 20 September 2011

The attack on abbyssinia


The crisis in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936 brought international tension nearer to Europe - it also drove Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy together for the first time. The affair once again highlighted the weakness of the League of Nations.
Like Britain and France, Italy had joined in the so-called "Scramble for Africa" in the C19. However, the prize territories had been conquered by others and Italy was left with unimportant areas such as Eritrea and Somaliland. The Italians had attempted to expand in eastern Africa by joining Abyssinia to her conquests, but in 1896, the Italians were heavily defeated by the Abyssinians at the Battle of Adowa.
 This defeat had an enormous impact on Italian pride. The loss of 6000 men against a backward army from Abyssinia was difficult for the Italian people to comprehend. However, this defeat did not stop politicians in Italy planning for a new attempt to take over Abyssinia.
The desire to show the world how powerful Italy was became the prime motivation of Mussolini. He saw himself as a modern day Julius Caesar who would one day be in charge of a vast Italian empire as had existed in the days of Caesar. In 1928, Italy signed a treaty of friendship with Haile Selassie, the leader of Abyssinia but an invasion of the country was already being planned.
In December 1934, Mussolini accused the Abyssinians of aggression at an oasis called Wal Wal. He ordered Italian troops stationed in Somaliland and Eritrea to attack Abyssinia. Large quantities of ammunition and supplies had been stockpiled there. 
In October 1935, the Italian army invaded Abyssinia. The Abyssinians could not hope to stand up to a modern army - they were equipped with pre-World War One rifles and little else. The Italians used armoured vehicles and even mustard gas in their attack. The capital, Addis Ababa, fell in May 1936 and Haile Selassie was removed from the throne and replaced by the king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel. Somaliland, Eritrea and Abyssinia were all united under the name Italian East Africa.
When the Italians had invaded in October 1935, the Abyssinians had appealed to the League of  Nations for help. The League did two things :
it condemned the attack all League members were ordered to impose economic sanctions on Italy.
It took six weeks for the sanctions to be organised and they did not include vital materials such as oil.
 Three League members did not carry out the sanctions. Italy could cover the sanctions imposed on gold and textiles but a ban on oil could have had a major impact on Italy’s war machine. The argument put forward for not banning oil, was that Italy would simply get her oil from America - a non-League country. Britain and France were also concerned about provoking Mussolini in the Mediterranean Sea where Britain had two large naval bases - Gibraltar and Malta. In fact, the Italian navy was vastly overestimated by both the British and French but it was this fear which also lead Britain to keeping open the Suez Canal. If this route had been cut, then Italy would have had extreme difficulties supplying her armed forces in the region during the conflict.
It is also possible that both Britain and France considered the war too far away to be of any importance to them. They were not prepared to risk their naval power in the Mediterranean for the sake of a country barely anybody had heard of in either France or Britain.
Britain and France also had another input into this affair. 
In an effort to end the war, the British Foreign Secretary - Samuel Hoare - and the French Prime Minister - Pierre Laval - met in December 1935. They came up with the Hoare-Laval Plan. This gave two large areas of Abyssinia to Italy and a gap in the middle of the country - the "corridor of camels" - to the Abyssinians. The south of the country would be reserved for Italian businesses. In return for this land, the Italians would have to stop the war.
Mussolini accepted the plan but in Britain there was a huge national outcry. It was believed that a British government minister had betrayed the people of Abyssinia. The protests caused Hoare to resign and the plan was dropped. Mussolini continued with the invasion. However, what this plan had indicated was that the two major European League members were prepared to negotiate with a nation that had used aggression to enforce its will on a weaker nation. Coupled with this, the sanctions also failed.
The League's involvement in this event was a disaster. It showed nations that its sanctions were half-hearted even when they were enforced and that member states were prepared to negotiate with aggressor nations to the extent of effectively giving in to them. Also, actions by the League - even if they were a failure - lead to Italy looking away from the League - an organisation it did belong to. 
Mussolini turned to the man he had considered a "silly little monkey" when they had first met. Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Thursday, 15 September 2011

gas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Battle of the Somme lasted officially from 1st July 1916 to 16th November 1916. The British lost 420,000 casualties, the French 200,000 and the Germans 450,000. On the first day alone nearly eight times as many British troops were killed or wounded as in the battle of Waterloo. Of the 20,000 dead on the first day, most had been slaughtered by perhaps a hundred German Machine-gun teams. From the British perspective this was a tragic waste of men, almost exclusively volunteers and tremendously committed. Over the TopThe Reverend Stanhope Walker said "It was a time one can never forget. At a Casualty Clearing Station one realised the meaning of war more than anywhere else. One could go and see all the country round Trones Wood and Delville Wood spitting fire from our huge guns and see the great crumps from the German artillery bursting amid indescribable wreckage and desolation, but here were gathered together the results of it all in broken humanity. I don't think there is any part of the human body I have not seen wounded,frequently blown to pieces." (People at War, 1914-1918. A David & Charles Military Book. 1973. ISBN-0-7153-9244-1)
Mustard Gas

Mustard Gas (Yperite) was first used by the Jerries in September 1917. It was one of the most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war. It was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks

Sunday, 11 September 2011

hill the masses

john hill knights by knights of avalon

In 1951 John Hill reissued their Roman chariot and marching Roman soldier as a presentation box set to coincide with the release of the Quo Vadis film, staring Robert Taylor. Who was to go on too play Sir Lancelot in the MGM film film of the Knights of the Round Table.

Monday, 15 August 2011

Friday, 5 August 2011

hill commanche

Hill Commanche
from the blog KNIGHTS OF AVALON check it out

Friday, 15 July 2011

HILL TROOPS IN TOWN

These are a couple of hill figures that I coonverted slightly. The back drop is card.

Sunday, 27 February 2011

farming

coronation figures

blues and royals

The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons) (RHG/D) is a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. The Colonel-in-Chief is Her Majesty The Queen and the Colonel is HRH The Princess Royal. Both HRH Prince William of Wales and HRH Prince Harry of Wales joined the regiment as cornets in 2006.




Since then, the new regiment has served in Northern Ireland, Germany and Cyprus. During the Falklands War of 1982, the regiment provided the two armoured reconnaissance troops. The regiment also had a squadron on operational duty with the United Nations in Bosnia in 1994/1995.



 Operational unionAs a result of the Options for Change Review in 1991, the Blues and Royals formed a union for operational purposes with the Life Guards as the Household Cavalry Regiment. However they each maintain their regimental identity, with distinct uniforms and traditions, and their own colonel. The Blues and Royals currently has two reconnaissance squadrons in Windsor, which are part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, and a mounted squadron in London as part of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
Newly commissioned officers in the Blues and Royals are named Cornets rather than second lieutenants.



 UniformThe Blues and Royals wear the Home Service helmet. They are the only British Army Regiment entitled to salute without head dress.


] Battle honoursTangier 1662-1680, Dettingen, Warburg, Beaumont, Willems, Fuentes d'Onor, Peninsula, Waterloo, Balaclava, Sevastopol, Tel el Kebir, Egypt 1882, Relief of Ladysmith, South Africa 1899-1902

The Great War: Mons, Le Cateau, Retreat from Mons, Marne 1914, Aisne 1914, Messines 1914, Armentieres 1914, Ypres 1914, Langemarck 1914, Gheluvelt, Nonne Bosschen, St Julien, Ypres 1915, Frezenberg, Loos, Arras 1917, Scarpe 1917, Ypres 1917, Broodseinde, Poelcappelle, Passchendaele, Somme 1918, St Quentin, Avre, Amiens, Hindenburg Line, Beaurevoir, Cambrai 1918, Sambre, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1914-1918

The Second World War: Mont Pincon, Souleuvre, Noireau Crossing, Amiens 1944, Brussels, Neerpelt, Nederrijn, Lingen, Veghel, Nijmegen, Rhine, Bentheim, North West Europe 1944-1945, Baghdad 1941, Iraq 1941, Palmyra, Syria 1941, Msus, Gazala, Knightbridge, Defence of Alamein Line, El Alamein, El Agheila, Advance on Tripoli, North Africa 1941-1943, Sicily 1943, Arezzo, Advance to Florence, Gothic Line, Italy 1943-1944

Falkland Islands 1982:

Iraq 2003*:

the troubles

The Troubles (Irish: Na Trioblóidí) was a period of ethno-political  conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over into England at various times, the Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe. The duration of The Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast ' Good Friday ' Agreement of 1998.Violence nonetheless continues on a sporadic/non-genetic basis.
irish army helmet

The principal issues at stake in the Troubles were the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and the relationship between the fairly-Protestant unionists such and changeable-Catholic nationalist communities in Northern Ireland. The Troubles had both political and military dimensions (or paramilitary). Its participants included republican and loyalist paramilitaries, the security forces of the United Kingdom and of the Republic of Ireland, and politicians and political activists on both sides.

hill sport
































pre.first world war

Friday, 25 February 2011

hill indians

a young "soldier blue" of the  u.s. Army participates in a cruel expedition against a small group of Indians from the reservation  . The Indians are exterminated, except one girl.
The soldier calls her "Apache" by the name of her people, and takesher with him hoping to reach Fort Cobb. But the road is long, difficult and sown of enemies. Tommy protects "Apache" with all his might, but in the end, when they are close to salvation, both are killed


 Marty protests the deliberate killings to deny food to the Indians but Ethan doesn't listen: "At least they won't feed any Comanches this winter." [His tactic suggests the same paradoxical approach toward Debbie - kill his own kin to cleanse her. Ethan's rampage against the buffalo parallels Scar's killing of cattle to lure the white men away from the ranch.]




Bugle sounds of a cavalry troop in the distance are heard merging with Ethan's gunshots, as they sight the renowned Seventh Cavalry, photographed majestically. As a jaunty Irish jig Garry Owen plays on the soundtrack, the cavalry is viewed in a mythically glorious sequence - they ride beautiful horses in lines, gallop through an icy river, and carry colorful flags against the white of the snow. Ethan and Marty ride up into an Indian camp/village, a scene of more slaughter - bloody corpses lie everywhere on the snowy ground, the result of a cavalry massacre, and a return to the cycle of retributive slaughter of one race by another. [The aftermath of the ride of the clean-cut cavalrymen is the bloody massacre of Indian women and children.]



Sunday, 13 February 2011

hill 60

this figure by Hill was part of some set called the predictor set but i think he looks brilliant as a stand alone piece. to be honest he somehow seems more yankee than limey.
The Battle of Hill 60 was a British assault that was subsidiary to the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Hill 60 was a low rise on the southern flank of the Ypres salient at 50°49′17″N 2°55′54″E / 50.82139, 2.93167 (Hill 60)Coordinates: 50°49′17″N 2°55′54″E / 50.82139, 2.93167 (Hill 60) and was named for the 60 metre contour which marked its bounds. The hill had been captured by the Germans on December 10, 1914 from the French forces. After the race for the sea, it was obvious the Hill had to be retaken. A great deal of the fighting around Hill 60 was underground. The British immediately began tunnelling a number of mines beneath the hill. By April 1915 twenty one mines had been completed. At 19:00 on April 17, 1915 the mines were detonated, demolishing a large part of the hill and killing many German soldiers occupying the trenches. The British battalions suffered only 7 casualties in capturing the hill.




A German counter-attack succeeded in recapturing the hill but the British regained possession on April 18. Fighting continued until April 22.



Hill 60 was eventually taken by the Germans following a gas attack on 5th May, 1915. The results were devastating. The front trenches were overrun when the forward companies were almost wiped out. Only 2 officers and 70 men from one battalion remained.



It was due to a stout defence by a platoon of the Devon and Dorsets and the Battalion Headquarter Staff of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment that a major breakthrough was prevented


officer with binocs


this is a Crescent piece(below) and you can see the better sculpturing here. perfect anatomy

the same figure alongside a hill figure

catalogue

if you have the possibility of photocopying mwe a hill catalogue i'll refund your expenses