ANZAC Day 2013

25th April 2013

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

 "Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well."

I finished painting these WW1 Foundry Brit's last week and based them over the weekend. Quick to paint and look much better for an ANZAC day post than all the ACW troops I have been working on for most of this year.

 

 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Adding to the ranks.

Finished off some more Rebel Infantry the other week. These guys will be formed up as Semmes' Georgian brigade, consisting of the 10th, 50th, 51st and 53rd Georgia regiments.
Despite only being engaged on the second day at Gettysburg they still suffered just over 32% losses.

General Semmes was mortally wounded during the battle and died a week latter.

Figures are from Renegade and the flags are again homemade.

WW1 German HMGs

Although I finished the painting on the last one of these stands a wee while ago the basing was only finished of the other weekend.

These are all Foundry WW1 HMGs. Two from the early war period and one from later in the war.

These early war HMGs have been painted for a number of years but have only just had the tufts and flowers added.

I see this post has gone out to the world in the way it is meant to. Unlike my last post about Major General Lafayette McLaws!

Major General Lafayette McLaws

McLaws was born in Augusta, Georgia on January 15, 1821. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842, placing 48^th out of 56 cadets. While at Jefferson Barracks. Missouri, he married Emily Allison Taylor, niece of Zachary Taylor, making him a cousin-in-law of future Confederates Richard Taylor and Jefferson Davis.

Resigning as a U.S. Army captain at the start of the Civil War, McLaws was commissioned a major in the Confederate States Army. He was quickly promoted to colonel of the 10^th Georgia Infantry regiment, then quickly again to brigadier general in brigade and division command in the Seven Days Battles. Then, on May 23 1862, to major general. He joined his childhood friend in Augusta and fellow West Point of '42 classmate, Maj. Gen James Longstreet’s First Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia as 1^st Division commander and stayed with Longstreet for most of the war.


On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, McLaws commanded the second division to step off in Longstreet's massive assault on the Union left flank. He achieved great success (at a high cost in lives) in the areas known as the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard, but the army as a whole was unable to dislodge the Union forces from their positions on Cemetery Ridge. His division did not participate in Pickett’s Charge the next day, despite Longstreet's command of that assault.

After the war, McLaws worked in the insurance business, was a tax collector for the IRS, served as Savannah's postmaster in 1875-76, and was active in Confederate veterans' organizations. Despite his wartime differences with Longstreet, McLaws initially defended Longstreet in the post-war attempts by Jubal Early and others to smear his reputation. Just before his death, however, his opinion changed about the lost cause movement, and he began speaking out about Longstreet's failures at Gettysburg.

Lafayette McLaws died in Savannah on July 24, 1897 (aged 76) and is buried there in Laurel Grove Cemetery. He is the posthumous author of A Soldier's General:  The Civil War Letters of Major General Lafayette McLaws (2002).

 

The figure is from Redoubt, with a minor change regarding facial hair using Green Stuff.

This guy will be me on the table at the Gettysburg game in July!