Tuareg (film review)

Tuareg

Based on a book by Spanish author Alberto Valquez Figueroa (who also wrote the sceen play), directed by Italian Enzo G. Csatellari, filmed in Spain, Italy and Isreal, released in 1984.

Starring Mark (NCIS) Harmon also featuring that stalwart of Spanish cinema Aldo Samdrell

The film opens with a story-teller telling the tale of the lost great caravan, this is where we are introduced to Tuareg leader Gacel (played by a young, handsome and very browned-up. Harmon), a man highly experienced and toughened to the ways of the desert.

Later two men stumble into his camp, hospitality being a primary law among the Tuareg, he welcomes them and gives them shelter and aid. Unfortunately the men are being hunted by the military of the new Arab government (which country - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya is never explained?) as one is the former president Abdul el-Kabir now hunted by the new government. 

The soldiers have automatic weapons and threaten his family, one of the men is executed the former president taken away and Cacel is forced by his tribal honour to go and rescue him.

What follows is a bit of boys own nonsense where Carcel follows the soldiers to the fortress where they are holding the former president and rescues him against all odds (Rambo has nothing on this guy) 😂. 

 He then leads him across the desert to the frontier where the French are waiting (could be Algeria or Chad maybe??)

Cacel and the President reach the border

With the president now safe, Cacel hears his family have been taken hostage so heads back to rescue them. I won`t spoil the end, but it was quite well done.

 All-in-all, total rubbish, but with some interesting bits.

Equipment

The equipment used is an interesting mix: 1950s Jeeps, GMC 6x6 & Dodge 4x4 trucks and M3 half-tracks (all used by the Italians, Isrealis and Spanish), I also saw a WW2 era Jeep and Landrover and they used a Piper Cub spotter plane. 

Weapons are also very mixed: M16s, Colt (or similar) 45 pistols, ZB medium machine guns, FM 24/29 LMGs, the Tuareg uses a 303 Enfield rifle! 

The soldiers wear a light khaki/sand coloured uniform with gaiters and jump boots with a feldmutz type cap and rank insignia on the shoulder straps; they all have a cross strap canvas webing rig and belt with ammo pouches left/right to the front, water bottle (US style) at the back. Para-militaries/police wear a grey uniform, a peaked cap with red band, they have a black belt and holster.

I have lots of Goumier/Tuareg/Bedouin, French and Spanish soldiers and equipment for the 1950s period (Infi war and Algeria) some of this film plot could well be developed into a tabletop game.

 

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan (film review)

Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan

This 2019 film is about a battle in Vietnam fought between Australian infantry and Vietnamese (both regulars and Viet Cong) in August 1966.

The film begins with a mortar attack on the Australian base at Nui Dat, we see different reactions from various men – highly experienced Major Smith (played by Travis Fimmel hardly recognizable without his long Viking hair) and reacts with cold calm indifference, giving clear orders to his men. Meanwhile over in the command bunker, they need coordinates for counter battery fire, but other companies don`t respond, until an experienced Sergeant slaps his young Lieutenant into action and sends the coordinates, after which the artillery wipes out the mortar!

The morning after the attack Bravo Company is detailed to checkout the area; they find blood and body parts along with the smashed mortar!

The next day Smith`s own company “Delta” relieves Bravo and continues the search. 11 platoon in the lead encounter a VC section and engage them. This draws them further into the rubber plantation and away from 10 platoon and the company CP. 11 Plt. are soon engaged by more and more VC, they call for support and the CP calls down artillery and Major Smith orders 10 Plt. forward to support 11 Plt. and calls 12 Plt. up to the CP.

11 Plt. is soon in trouble, casualties mounting (including their officer) with ammunition running low, even close artillery support doesn`t seem enough. 10 Plt. also runs into a large force of the enemy and is prevented from reinforcing 11. On top of this the CP now joined by 12 Plt. also comes under attack, Smith calls for support, but the base commander Brigadier Oliver David Jackson is worried about a direct attack on the base and refuses to release any reinforcements! Smith then calls for resupply, but again Jackson refuses, but two Australian Huey pilots volunteer and fly their birds low over the trees and carry out a direct drop over a smoke designated drop-zone (one of the craziest things I`ve ever witnessed in a movie).

The battle continues and things get pretty tight and desperate until “A” Company is ferried in by APC and finally the VC are driven off.

The battle scenes are intense, the uniforms and equipment look spot on to my eyes (I`m not an expert on Vietnam). The Aussies are armed with SLRs, M16s, M60s and Owen sub-machine guns (a nice touch I thought). The VC have mostly the usual AKs and SKS carbines, but you also see a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle, an RPG and a wheel mounted HMG with a shield. During some of the human wave charges some VC al;so seem to have M16s, SLRs (maybe a shortage of AKs on the set?) and I`m sure I saw an STG44 to!! The effects of the artillery was very well done, the M113s looked superb charging across the paddyfields.

If you are interested in Vietnam and want a change from US operations, this film may give you some ideas. If you just want a good war movie, I highly recommend this one.

The Last Train to Katanga (Film Review)

 Last Train to Katanga

Also know as Dark of the Sun and The Mercenaries is a 1968 film directed by Jack Cardiff based on a Novel by Wilbur Smith. The story follows a group of mercenaries sent on a dangerous mission during the Congo Crisis (early 1960s). The film was highly criticised upon release for its portrayal of graphic violence, I was lucky to catch a Euopean cut on Spanish Freeview TV (13/06/25), far better (certainly more graphic) than the English cut I`ve seen in the past.

Curry (Taylor) & Ruffo (Jim Brown)

Its 1964, an American mercenary officer Bruce Curry (played by Rod Taylor) is ordered to travel north by train to a town cut off by the advancing rebels and rescue civilians, but in truth the President wants the 50 million Dollars worth of diamonds held in the town. Curry`s sergeant and right hand man is a US educated  Congolese “Ruffo” played with impressive depth and feeling by former American football player Jim Brown. Curry and Ruffo organise their relief train with the best Congolese troops they can get, unfortunately the men are led by a former Nazi – “Henlein” played by that regular bad guy of 1960s/70s cinema Peter Carsten. They also recruit drunken medic Doc. Wreid played by that stalwart British actor Kenneth Moore.

Henlein 

What follows is a wild ride, the train is attacked by a UN plane

And they rescue a civilian “Claire” – French beauty Yvette Mimieux (who co-starred with Rod in The Time Machine back in 1960).

Curry with Claire and Doc Wreid (Kenneth Moore)

 

A nicer shot of  Yvette Mimieux 😁

Finally they get to the town only to find the diamonds are in a time locked vault and they have to wait for three hours!! Of course the Simbas arrive just as the vault unlocks and a desperate battle takes place – the Simbas are just wonderful: war paint, a wild mix of feathers and furs and partial uniforms; they have spears, machetes, bows & arrows, shotguns, plus a mix of more modern weapons, including mortars. Just as it looks as if the train will escape a mortar hit separates the last car, carrying most of the civilians and more importantly the diamonds!

This leads to a desperate rescue attempt (not for the civilians but for the loot), Ruffo pretends to be a Simba and carries Curry (who pretends to by unconscious) into the middle of town. All around are scenes of slaughter and violence, the Simbas are running amok killing and raping any towns person (male or female) they can catch especially white people! Curry and Ruffo snatch back the diamonds and the unit with as many civilians as they can carry, makes their escape in trucks.

Just when everything seems to going well, Henlein murders Ruffo for the diamonds and driven mad by the loss of his friend, Curry hunts him down and brutally kills the German, horrifying even the hardened black corporal!

At the end with safety in sight, Curry remembering his friends nobility, hands himself over for courts-martial. 

An interesting movie about a fictional incident during a brutal and often overlooked 20th Century conflict. The uniforms, weapons and kit seem fine to my eye, loved the train and the crazy Simbas.

The cast try their best to bring a personal interest to the story, Yvette whilst eye catching adds little to the story.

Bootfair find

 Bootfair find

I`m sure like many of you I can`t help myself browsing for military stuff at bootfairs and market stalls. I have on occation found modeling bits or interesting military photos and of course books.

Today at the local market at Santa Faz I came across this photo

Now I`m not a naval guy, but I knew this was a transport landing ship of some type, you can make out the LCMs alongside and the gun mounted on the bow. 

So at the cost of 1.5 Euro I bought it - why not 

Once home a brief  internet search I was able to find out about her history:

Launched on October 18, 1944 as USS Noble APA218 by Permanente Metals and Kaiser Shipyards, Richmond, California.

The USS Noble saw service at the Battle of Okinawa in January 1945, she also transported troops and equipment to Incheon, Korea in August 1950 and carried marines to the Caribbean during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s.

In July 1964 she was decommisioned and handed over to the Spanish Navy as part of  the mutual assistance programme. She was registered as Transportes de Ataque (TA)11 on 16 December 1964 (11 days after I was born). At the end of 1965 the name Aragón was added.

TA-11 served with the Spanish Navy until 1982 when she was finally decommisioned and broken up. But during her active service she took part in the evacuation of Spanish military and civilian personnel from Equatorial Guinea in 1969 and final withdrawal of spanish troops from Western Sahara in November 1975.

Specifications

Displacement ( tm ):  6,873 standard, 14,837 fully loaded.

Dimensions (meters):  138 x 18 x 7

Propulsion:  2 x Babcock-Wilcox boilers, 1 x Westinghouse turbine (8,500 hp).

Speed ​​(knots):  19.

Range (miles):  10,000 at 15 knots, 11,700 at 11 knots.

Crew:  357.

Guns:  12 x Boffors 40mm/56 (4 x twin mounts, 1 x quad mount).

Transport capacity:  1,561 marines; 2 x LCMs; 12 x LCVPs; 3 x LCPs.

Radar:  Air: 1 x Westinghouse AN/SPS-6.

 

Modeling Madness

 Modeling Madness

Every now and again, my nature to justify everything I do hobbywise just slips and the crazy escapes.

Years back Richard Crawley ran a participation game under the SOTCW banner at the Gauntlet show in Broughton, North Wales. The game was set in a fictional eastern European country which had  fallen in chaos following the break-up of the Soviet Union called Andrevia (similar to one of the Balkan states). Now I didn`t own any Cold War era kit, but wanting to support the society I decided to build a NATO peace keeping contingent. 

Because of my usual anarchistic need to "not walking the path well travelled" in our hobby, I decided on a Spanish force. 

They had M60A3 tanks and M113 carriers, this is the one and only time they ever saw a tabletop.

Ever since, every now and again I find a model which would fit into my orgnisation - an M113 mortar carrier, an M113 with Milan, a recce unit with AML60s and VAMTAC (Spanish Hummer copies) and so the force grows a little bigger. After our visit to Museo de Militar Cartagena back in May the seed of a vague idea has been growing to build and add an M113 with Roland-2 surface-to-air missile system.

My somewhat blurry photos from Cartagena

Spanish vehicles during the National Day parade 

These photos are of Roland-2s on AMX30s in French service

Roland-2 Air-to-air missile system

All-weather self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system Roland-2 with a radar tracking system for target and missile tracking was developed by the company "Messerchmitt-Bolkow-Blohm" (Germany) together with "Aerospatiale-Matra" (France) and is capable of destroying targets flying at speeds up to Mac 1.2 at altitudes from 15m to 5.5 km and ranges from 500m to 6.3 km.

The layout of the Roland-2 SAM system is a rotating tower onto which are mounted: two beams to accommodate missiles, radar antenna detection, radar antenna to escort the target and missiles, optical and infrared tracking systems and antenna command transmitter. Inside the casing of the launcher mounted transmitters and receivers of the target detection radar and target and missile tracking radar, counting and resolution device, remote control, two revolver magazines with eight missiles in transport and launch containers, a radio station, instrumentation and power supply. Beam holders with containers in the angular plane are automatically guided through the target tracking line, in the azimuth plane - by turning the tower. The unit can be fitted to any suitable vehicle chassis – Marder (Germany), AMX 30 (France), M109 (USA) plus several truck mounted variants.   

Roland-2 SAM system fires the same missiles as Roland-1 which it was designed to replace. The solid-propellant missile has an empty weight of 62.5 kg and weighs 6.5 kg, including 3.3 kg of explosives. In addition to the contact fuse, the BC also has a radio detonator, which provides firing at a distance of up to 4 m from the target. The radius of flight of 65 fragments is about 6m.

Combat history

Roland-2 was used by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, in 1982 Iraq claimed a F-4E Phantom and a F-5E Tiger

During the Falklands War on June 1st 1982 an Argentine Roland operated by 601st AA Artillery group destroyed Sea Harrier XZ456

During Desert Storm in 1991, Iraqi Rolands claimed an A-6E TRAM Intruder,  a RAF Tornado GR-1 and an A-10 Thunderbolt

 Full disclosure  

I errored the Spanish bought Roland-2 mounted on AMX30 NOT M113s D`oh! I totally miss-identified the vehicle in Cartagena. But I`ve decided I`m just going to fudge it as this is just a fun project and live with it.  

 Base kit - a venerable JB Models M113 Fire Support 

After I mentioned my idea of building one of these over on the SOTCW FB page, Shaun Matthews from S&S Models pointed out they made a Roland-2 turret, which even though I was still tempted to kitbash one, it made far more sense to buy their kit.

The finished model

For anyone interested the rest of my Spanish force can be found here:

https://baberonwargames.blogspot.com/2021/04/cold-war-spanish-inventory.html

Zona Hostil (film review)

Zona Hostil

English title: Rescue Under Fire

Christmas present off my Debbie

This is the 2017 debut feature by multi award winning writer Adolfo Martínez who has a number of movie credits, but this is his first time in charge; Filmed mostly in Almeria, Spain.

Based on a true story set in Afghanistan in 2012, the movie opens with a MEDIVAC call to an Afghan village where a mother and two young children have been injured in an explosion. Despite her desperate efforts Medical Captain Varela played by the excellent Ariadna Gil (Pan`s Labyrinth) cannot save the worst injured child! This event piled on other tramatic incidents, causes Varela to reevaluate her carreer and she tells her direct superior Capt. Torres of her decision to leave the army after this tour. Torres advises her to think about it and then introduces her to a new nurse joining the unit - Rachel Sanchez.

Captain Varela 

Meanwhile a convoy led by an interesting armoured engineer vehicle with ECM system moves slowly down a rough track. The convoy is a US supply unit, but the escort are from the Spanish Foreign Legion (La Legion). Suddenly one of the US Hummers is hit by an IED and the two soldiers injured, rather than risk the entire column, the Spanish commander decides to leave a unit of 25 men under the inexperienced Lieutenant Conte to secure the ambush site and wait for medivac. Conte is the son of the highly regarded General and feels the pressure of his father`s legacy and reputation.

Lieutenant Conte

The Super Puma helo arrives, but the ground proves too soft and the helicopter tips over, luckily everyone aboard is OK and the medical team can treat the American wounded, but now of course they have no helo!  

Back at HQ the Spanish command want to blow-up and destroy the downed copter and evacuate everyone via the Legion transport, but Chinook pilot and FAMET (Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra) Comandante Ledesma comes up with a alternative plan. Use his Chinook to lift and rescue to downed Super Puma, the plan sounds crazy, but Ledesma convinces the senior officers.

Back at the crash site, Conte gets the good news he and his men have to stay over night (deep in Taliban territory). He organises his command, setting thier VAMTAC tactical vehicles out in a perimeter (they are equipped with ring mounted MG3); he then positions his legionnaires around the rest of the perimeter with a sniper team on the high ground. We see Conte at odds with his veteran Sergeant as to his dispositions, but the young officer stands his ground, even when faced with obvious sarcasm off the older man. When the sniper team asks for someone to cover their exposed flank, Conte sends the Puma`s door gunner - a female soldier Cabo Sobrino much to the amusement of the Legionnaires!

Cabo Sobrino

During the night the Taliban make a probing attack, the Legionnaires hold their ground but take a couple of casualties, causing more work for Capt. Varela and her medical team! Up on the hill the sniper team are pinned down by several Taliban until Sobrino lets rip with her MG3 and saves the day! The sniper team no2 has been hit (just a flesh wound in the backside) but upon getting him back to the medics, the sniper is quick to tell everyone how Sobrino saved their butts and the other legionnaires offer her a transfer to their unit, all thoughts of sexism and interservice rivelry forgotten.

The next morning two Chinooks set off on their rescue/recovery mission, one carries extra ammunition and fuel for the legionnaires, the other stripped down for its heavy lift mission.

On arriving they find the position under heavy attack but over a hundred insurgents, the veteran sergeant suggests to Conte his men need some encouragement to bolster their morale, Conte makes an empassioned speech reciting the creed of La Legion. Luckily a couple of Tiger attack helos have been diverted to give a bit of top cover and the legionnaires hold thier perimeter whilst the Chinook with Ledesma at the controls struggles to hook-up and lift the heavy medical bird; RPGs and ground fire make the whole process more difficult as the Taliban make a last ditch assault on the stretched Spanish perimeter. An RPG team on a motorbike breaks through, but Conte intercepts them alone fighting desperately hand-to-hand to prevent them firing on the Chinook! Just as the Taliban gunner was targeting the Chinook, Varela kills him with her pistol saving the day!

The uniforms, equipment and gear is excellent, the action well directed and well paced, the cast good and their performance very solid. The film was nominated for two Goya Awards (the Spanish BAFTA) and was a box office hit in Spain. The English DVD release "Rescue Under Fire" is in Spanish but has subtitles.

The fact that the movie is based on a real incident in August 2012 north of Bala Murghab is pretty cool and interesting. During the credits the director and producers give thanks for all the assistance given by the Spanish armed forces during the making of the film and remember the one hundred Spaniards who gave their lives as part of the international efforts in Afghanistan 😔

Helicopter fly-overs

 Helicopters over Spain

The Army Airmobile Force (Spanish: Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra, FAMET), the army aviation branch of the Spanish Army. have been buzzing about all day today.

Probably training flights from Alférez Rojas Navarrete barracks (formally Rabassa Barracks) which is situated about 15mins drive from us down towards Alicante. The barracks is the base for The Special Operations Command (Mando de Operaciones Especiales) or MOE and is the command charged with overseeing the various Special OperationsGroups (Grupos de Operaciones Especiales or GOE) of the Spanish Army.

Today`s visitors (25/10/2024)