The Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Camp

 Tuesday last saw a visit to the Signals Museum at Blandford. I have been meaning to go for a long while but as with all things on ones doorstep as one can always go one never quite gets round to it.  

My cousin was eager to come along. His father had served in the Signals - 12th Air Detachment.  Their job was air liaison and they had need of GPO telephone engineers to manage the necessary land lines.  

The museum is interesting, especially for me the early part of the history of signalling in the British Army. One summer when I was about 12 my Great Uncle Son who had been an Engineer signaller in the 1st world war taught me semaphore and morse by flag.  We used to send across the valley from his home in East Haddon to my Grandparents' house in Ravensthorpe.  So the early telegraph systems and the admiralty version.  The wiring carts were interesting that were used to lay cables between telephone systems. Laid at the gallop with an out rider spooling the wire off the drum using a modified lance - well the video alone was worth the price of admission.

It was interesting too to see the development of the radio car, from a 1935 Austin 7 through to the vehicle radios and integrated command networks of today.  The set up of a Dorchester ACV in desert bivouac put things in place, as did the more modern Austin Truck. However after a while radios become black poxes with nobs on, or today sophisticated computers nestled into black rubber boxes to allow rough handling. 

Enough, some pictures

An admiralty pattern shutter telegraph from the Napoleonic wars

A wiring trolley from WW1 used to lay land lines.  These needed to be laid six feet deep so there was much digging.

Trench art; a chess set made from bullets and shell cases.

A 19thC heliograph

An early 20th C harness for a horse or Mule back "portable" radio.

A mock up of a telephone exchange in the trenches.

One of the Centre pieces of the WW2 exhibit, a Dorchester ACV

n Austin 7 Radio car from the 1930s. The first vehicle born radio system in the British Service

Portable Radios for the SOE - and Michelle of the resistance of course. 

Mule or Horse born set from the early 20thC  complete with its harness

 

And parked next to a Jeep a hand pulled radio cart which I think were used at the batttalion net level. One just stabilised using the drop doan stands at either end, and then put up the antennae. 

Slightly dark but this is a WW1 Horse drawn wiring cart that was probly pretty constant from the 1880s. Effectively a limber with the cart behind it  See the comments above. 

And finally round off your visit with a nice cup of NAAFI tea. The cafe was good if with a limited choice of food. And situated about halfway around the Museum at a convenient point, as it were. 

A Grand Day Out

Finally. I went to the first War Games Show since I retired in 2019.  Legionary, run by Exmouth Imperials club. It was held in the livestock centre in Exeter.

|A small show with about a dozen or so games, and about the same number of traders. 

There were a couple of Wars of the Roses fights, Blore Heath and I think Hexham.  The first to some home made rules that had been massaged to take account of the peculiar circumstances of the battle, and the other to Never MInd the Billhooks.  Both look to have been good games and were moving at a fine pace with obvious enjoymnet by the participants.  Noth Devon had put on a Napoleonic Naval game at fleet scale. They were using the TooFatLardies Kiss Me Hardy! rules. The models were from Warlord Black Seas series, but mounted on clear plastic bases. The painting was super.  At the other end of the scale was a group who had set up a game of Epic Waterloo.  The figures were unpainted and the scenery was basic to say the least. But that was the point of the game.  To show that you can have a great game and huge enjoyment without all of the painting and preparation many of us go in for. It was certainly engaging the familes who had come to the show, and reminded me of the games with unpainted Airfix figures that were so much part of my growing up. 

Anyway - a few pictures;

 I rather liked the two small participation skirmish games. Small tables and the scenery were card buildings. Simple and effective. 

A lot of work had gone into the WW1 Game which depicted 2 French Battalions attacking a German trench. 2 Battalions versus 1.  The game's creator was most enthusiastic and was thinking to publish the rules.  His scale was 1 figure to 3 men, and Battalion or Brigade level games.  I could not help but think that such games would be quite stale after a few games.  WW1 is one of those genres where less is more in terms of decision making. At platoon or company level, or at the highest level where one is effectively dealing with logistical matters and artillery.

I did like the 1940 game with the crashed Dornier.  The Walmington on Sea platoon was very much in evidence.

G