Operation TORCH

So, a few blog post ago I talked about my growing Flames of War DAK army and I also said I was going to show off some pictures of it. Well I never got around to doing that, but I will so hold on since I am about to add two more armies to my Flames of War collection!

A few of us here in Phoenix have started building Mid-War Desert War armies (DAK, 8th Army, Americans, Italians) for FoW. I only have my DAK which means I can only play a few of my friends (I do not like to play out of period or fight the same armies against each other.) So I had been thinking of building another army so I can play a few other folks in our little group.

Now I have always loved the Desert War of WWII and it may have to do with all the stories my Grandfather told me since he was in Operation Torch. Well a few years ago I picked up this awesome book by Rick Atkinson called An Army at Dawn, The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. This is an awesome book and I only got through half of the book. Well about 4 weeks ago I grabbed the book of the shelf and started to re-read it again. Now with our little group playing FoW in North Africa, this book fueled the passion to build an American force for FoW.



The only problem was which army do I start to collect and seeing how funds are extremely tight, how do I acquire said army? As some know too, Battlefront has either, or is going to raise their prices on their products. So what is a gamer to do???

Well enter Old Glory Miniatures and their wonderful Army Deals! Some of the guys were about to order a few things for Robs Civil War game for Black Powder. So armed with a 40% off deal I set out to purchase a army. I had decided that I wanted an American Tank Company but with a twist. You see during Operation TORCH, the US sent various armoured vehicles (aka Tanks) to fight the Germans. Most of these were the Sherman's, but other smaller tanks were sent such as the M3 A1 Stuart Tanks. Now as luck would have it, when the Americans went to unload the Sherman Tanks, they found that the access hatch to unload them was 4" too small and the bigger tanks could not fit. So I thought why not use some M3A1's for my tank company!

So there you go, a light tank company is born, below is a shot of all the vehicles that I acquired. (4 packs of 3 M3A1 Stuarts, 2 packs of M3 Lees, 2 packs of T19 mobile artillery and a few M3 75mm guns). This will be the basis for my Tank Company.

But wait, it does not stop there! You see, the 40% off suckered me into buying a Motorised Rifle company for the Americans as well! So below is the total haul form the OG order! Now I did also order a few 105cm Artillery guns for my DAK troops, but for the most part it is all Americans baby!
So there you go, a glimpse into madness that is my FoW addiction. I plan on showing the assembly and painting of this army as well, so stay tuned for that...

TK