The Last Roar: 1956

Cdr. Lionel Bartlett, Air Warfare Officer on HMS Viceroy, stood at the island’s rail, squinting against the sun. Despite his tropical whites and the breeze flowing over the carrier he was hot; damnably hot. He ignored the sweat trickling into his eyes, intent on watching the last Sea Venom approaching the deck. As the de Hav touched down he released his grip on the rail.

“That’s the last of them, Sir. 807 Squadron all aboard”

“Indeed”

The Venom had come to a stop just beneath him, the pilot gave a friendly wave. “That’s Lt.Cdr. Howell’s plane, Sir”. Bartlett nodded, “Yes, I know. They’ve not got invasion stripes”.

“No, Sir. The order came after they’d already left England”.

“Well”, said Bartlett, “You’d better get painting, then”.

* * *

Just a quick update on The Last Roar; I was off work today courtesy of Her Majesty as it’s her Official Birthday coming up and most civil servants get a day off. What better way to celebrate than painting up some Royal Navy planes?

Actually, most of what I’ve started today are EAF jets; Vampires, Meteors and MiGs. After a morning of cleaning and washing the castings, I primed them and painted the canopies. No sooner had I done this than a package from Tumbling Dice dropped through the letterbox with the rest of the forces for the upcoming Last Roar: Suez 1956 campaign.

So, just as an idea of what the project will have, here are the British Forces:

The Valiant won’t actually make it to the table, but I wanted one for show. I’ve also got 4 more Sea Hawks for 817 NAS which I just forgot to put on the table. None of the squadron numbers for either the RN or the RAF were, as far as I know, allocated in 1956

And here are the Egyptians:

No. 1 Sqn is not part of the Egyptian player’s core force, but some aircraft may be available for missions occasionally

I’ve also been working on the mechanics, which are very different to Merry Christmas, Mr Sankara. The British player will have a number of targets to destroy along the canal between Port Said and Ismailia, mostly elements of the 1st Motorised Infantry Division. They will have to create a timetable and then try and keep to it; if they fall behind then they will have to decide whether to risk shorter turn-around times to fly more sorties – this will, of course, lead to pilot fatigue and potential losses.

The Egyptian dilemma is the support from the MiGs; these may become available but not necessarily for long, so they will have to decide whether to deploy them when they get them or save them for when they are really needed, running the risk that by then they may have been diverted to the Sinai front…

I’ll post again when I’ve done some more; as Cdr. Bartlett said; I’d better get painting then!