I've been planning to build some Flame Fougasses (or is that Fougassi?) for some time, and finally got around to doing so recently.
They were very easy to do - plastic tubes to represent barrels of various sizes cut at an angle and glued to a base before being covered with putty. A quick paintjob around the orifices and a liberal coating of basing greenery and they're ready to roll (well, be plonked into the ground, rather than roll).
I've left the barrel ends open, so that flame/smoke markers and the like can be added if required.
For the uninitiated, the Flame Fougasse was used extensively by the Home Guard during the invasion scare of WW2. They were basically barrels of incendiary liquid (including tar, lime and petrol) which were buried near roadsides, waiting to be ignited at a point some distance from the business end of the barrel.
In theory any invading Nazi would be treated to a dose of the flaming concoction should they be unwise enough to advance down said road.
Remains of such weapons can still be found today, and are catalogued by the excellent Pillbox Study Group.
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| Photo from the Pillbox Study Group |
Would these weapons be considered gentlemanly enough to be used in the VBCW? If so, I wonder how to represent them in the rules..?
You introduced me to the concept of Fougasses in a previous post - nasty stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the Pillbox Study Group - I knew of their existence, but now I'm off to look at their website. There's also a Cold War Bunker group somewhere...
You might be interested in a book I bought recently (but haven't read). Philip MacDougall _If War Should Come: Defence Preparations on the South Coast 1935-1939_ Spellmount Press (2011). It's been remandered and I got my copy for £4.99.
Cheers mate, and thanks for the tip about the book - will have to find a copy!
Deletenice bit of terrain there chap. If you were to include them I would suggest perhaps a random factor in regards to the direction of the flame? maybe they just explode in situ or gout in a random direction.
ReplyDeleteCheers mate - good ideas re the rules!
DeleteNasty! Just goes to show IEDs are not a modern invention. I wouldn't consider their use at all gentlemanly, but few things in a civil war ever are. Perhaps there should be a morale roll for any unit hit by such a weapon? On one result the unit retreats, on another they become more determined to flush out the buggers who planted the device and make 'em pay.
ReplyDeleteGood idea!
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