The Atlantic Wall and a public Model Railway in Ålesund - and OHSW

I've been considering on how much 1:1-stuff I shall post on this blog, but during a recent visit to the city of Ålesund where my oldest son studies (soon finished as a Chief Mate) they opened up a German WW2 HQ bunker which are very rarely open to the public. So I thought it would be nice to share my impressions with you as people er seldom permitted there.

The Norwegian coast was a part of the Atlantic Wall during WW2, and the Germans constructed over 300 different coastal fortresses along the coast, each of them with tens of different bunkers or emplacements. Some of the larger ones even hundreds. 2 of these old coastal fortresses are located very close to where my son lives. Less than 10 minutes walking. 

Tueneset Fortress 

Tueneset Fortress is open to the public 24/7 is very much intact.

Living quarters

a larger AA position...

...with shelter...

Open gun emplacement 

German 88mm

Bofors 40mm in Norwegian service after WW2 

A "Firling", quad mounted .50 cal

Command bunker

An old mine

Living quarters 

Hessa Fortress 

Hessa Fotress is located just another 10 minutes walk away from Tueneset Fortress, but are not very intact any more. A lot of the positions and installations are demolished  and they constructed a sportsfield over part of it. Whats left of it is still open for the public though:

Open gun emplacement 

Command bunker 

Aksla HQ and Command bunker

Aksla is 'the town mountain' of Ålesund, rising over the city. 

In this mountain the German forces constructed a HQ and Command bunker. The lower parts are very seldom open to the public, but opened a couple of days last weekend in the occasion of it's 80 years since the liberation, and that's why I decided to make this post:

They had made a temporarily display:

Did the last troops have a "taco friday" before withdrawing?

Outside there is a stairs with 418 steps to take you to the top of Aksla:

Finally almost there 

On the top of mountain Aksla there are even more bunkers belonging to the HQ and Command bunker below:

This Tobruk position has a great overview of the coast of Ålesund 

At the top of Aksla I spotted the ferry going to Langevåg and a public Model Railway display at the Devold Factory located there. Let's see if I can catch it and give this blogpost a modelling alibi.

Devoldbanen Model Railway 

I did catch it (!). Danger close though.

At the Devold Factory there is a large Model Railway display open to the public every Saturday.

It's kinda unusual that a town without a (real) railway or close to one have a model railway club and a public display model railway layout. But it looks like there existed plans to extend the Rauma railway to Ålesund:

I was here last November too and then they were about to open a Gingerbread town display with G-scale trains. Then Alan asked if I would revisit the Gingerbread town. Well I didn't before now, but the Christmas Layout and Gingerbread houes was still there. I won't recommend any to have a taste of them now some 6 months later.

Another part of which was not finished when I visited in November was the Rauma railway line. It was opened to 100th year anniversary just right after my visit last year and it is quite not finished but they have trains running:

Class 63, ex-German Br52 at Åndalsnes station. NSB, the Norwegian State Railway had 74 such locomotives in service after WW2,initially brought here by the Germans. This was the most numerous Class steam locomotive in service by NSB.

Nohab Class Di.3

This is Trollveggen railway station, which I visited during a motorcycle tour in 2023.

I recognized the railway car beside the station as there was a small WW2 exhibition in it with models and artifacts portraying the fighting in Åndalsnes and the evacuation of the Norwegian gold reserves. These 5 photos are from my motorcycle tour back in 2023:

Even if they claim to be the biggest model railway in Norway,  they are still expanding. Bergen station is coming and was only a mock up now, the Devold Factory area it self was ongoing:

A harbour area was also in progress:

They're a bunch of really friendly modellers and I was given 'the grand tour' behind the scenes too.

The Devold Factory complex also have an excellent café not serving Gingerbread from last year. I recommend you to order "Skolebolle":

As I was in Ålesund At the same time as the "VE-Day" I visited the statue of Joachim Rønneberg, one of the locals who escaped to UK to recive SOE training and returning to Norway to lead and execute sabotage actions preventing the Germans to develop nuclear weapons:

In Ålesund downtown there was even a representative from our very early navy:

Blog PostScript 

If you are visiting Ålesund at some time, and going at the top of Aksla (town mountain) to see bunkers, you also see another great peak slightly higher:

It's Sukkertoppen at only 314 metres. 

It's a nice tour and will give you an excellent view of the town:

Remember to buy 'Kvikk Lunsj' as it's a 'Norwegian tradition' and tastes really good on hiking tours. 

Blog PostScript 2

When returning home again after my trip to Ålesund I was met by another surprise as a late birthday present from my wife and kids had finally arrived by mail.

I did a wargame review on playing the One-Hour Skirmish Wargames on a budget earlier this year, and concluded that the rulebook would be necessary to fully enjoy these rules and game. Now I finally can. Still on a budget though since it was a gift from my belloweds. Thank you Titti, Jørgen and Nikolai. 

Thank you for reading! 

An enjoyable Sunday out

Last Sunday a friend and fellow member of our Model Railway Club invited to a running session on his Garden Railway. The weather was really nice and sunny and it was a great day out. 

People are getting their trains ready to run in the fiddleyard:

A friend brought a new live steam locomotive and rake for the operating session. A most impressive engine:

Another American steam locomotive (which is battery operated):

Rätische Bahn from Switzerland:

Another train from Rätische bahn:

This narrow gauge train actually had Rollbocks to transport standard gauge wagons on narrow gauge railways (which are impressive models when modeled to true II / 1:22,5 scale):

A German Mallet locomotive:

With a 'Banana-wagon' which is kind of a signature or symbol to our club, as we used 'Banana wagons' to identify our self when first meeting each other 24 years ago. It looks like the monkeys are having a good time:

Heine trades with racing parts and has also modeled his father's old race car to 1:24 scale:

And another car he's not trading parts for yet. I'm curious to see if he makes this one to run on rails in the future:

There were kids visiting the Garden Railway this day so another 'famous' train made an appearance:

Heine has even hidden a speaker in the goods wagon (play it with sound on your own risk):

I brought my military trains, one British and one German:

Both are British steam, One narrow gauge and one standard gauge:

All in all, this was a really great day out and everyone seemed to enjoy them self:

This is in the very social end of the hobby; coming together and enjoying not only common interest in trains but also enjoying a bbq lunch togheter:

Thank you very much for the invitation and your hospitality Heine!

"Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" Dueling Game

When trying the "Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" dueling game for the very first time, this is how I eventually envisioned  the game. The image was generated by ChatGPT 

"Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" Dueling game by Gerard Du Gre must be one of the easiest and most fast playing wargames ever made. -Or is perhaps more like a dueling game. And you don't need more than a couple of miniatures to play it either. Actually you need so little and the rules are so short, that this was actually a game I considered for the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge'. Finally I didn't, but my own entry to the challenge just ended up as a kind of dueling game as well.

This game was brought to my knowledge thorough some excellent blogger posts by Mark at The Man of Tin Blog. By following his links to his earlier blogger posts I ended up at Alan's blog The Duchy of Tredgardland, where Kaptain Kobold suggested how to play "Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" with dice (D6) instead of cards in the comment section. All these blogger posts really aroused my interests to try this game myself.

I had no intention to use a lot of time or effort to make a lot of different attack- and defense-cards to just to try out such a a small and simple game, but Kaptain Kobold's suggestion to play it with a D6 was so simple that it could be summarized and captured in a single photo by Mark at his blog. -So finally trying out this new (to me) game became a no-brainer to me! I used the rules as provided in Mark's photo:

Photo by Mark at The Man of Tin, which actually sums up the whole game. Actually it was this photo that gave me the final push to try this game my self.

Preparing the game

Even if Mark suggests a lot of different suitable miniatures and scenarios for such a small game on his blog, I didn't find any usable miniatures at home for playing this as mine are too modern and none of them are armed with swords or sabres. I was at my local toy shop considering to buy some Playmobil Romans or Pirates for this, but the selection was poor and I thought they were a bit pricey as well. So I decided to simply try to 3D-print a couple of miniatures in 54mm for this test game instead:

I also 3D-printed some suitable broken columns as 'periodic terrain' just to set the scene:

Since I printed these in white plastic, I didn't care to paint them, so I just gave them a 'Black Wash' instead.

The scenario

I've arranged this duel as a Roman Gladiator Fight. 

Similar opponents with same weapons, skills and armour getting similar Combat Points to make it easy and balanced. I settled for 5 Combat Points each as suggested by Mark. 

Forces: 

• Attacker: Magnumius the Roman Legionnaire:

• Defender: Polulus the Murmillo Gladiator:

Mission:

• For both combatants; To win the Gladiator Match by killing their opponent.

The Game

Time:    6 minutes (when taking photos etc.) An average game takes 2-3 minutes.

Turns:   8

Result:  Victory to Polulus the Murmillo Gladiator 

The Gladiator match is about to begin:

Turn 1: The Gladiator starts off really offensive:

Turn 2: And the Gladiator keeps on his offensive fighting:

Turn 3: The Legionnaire makes a successful counter attack: 

Turn 4: It looks like the fighters are about getting exhausted and tired now and none of them scores a hit:

Turn 5: The Legionnaire makes a successful hit again: 

Turn 6: The Gladiator regain the initiative:

Turn 7: And keeps aggressively pushing:

Turn 8: Until he finally gives the Legionnaire 'The Coup De Grace'. The audience is cheering:

Pros

• This is a very easy and fast playing wargame
• You won't need more than 2 miniatures for a game, but you could add some few more if you like a more intensive and very small skirmish game.
• This game works well for SOLO-playing.
• This can be a very interesting way or mechanics to resolve close combat in other wargames too. -And you can vary different number of Combat Points for your opponents regarding how well protected with different type of armour. 

Cons

• There is not much decision making regarding tactics in such a simple wargame. 

Conclusion

I would like to thanks Mark and Alan for bringing this game to attention on their  blogs and Kaptain Kobold for finding a way to play an easy game even easier. It made me certainly want to try a game I else wouldn't have tried. This was also my first ancient wargame.

I made some optional rules so the rules also can be used for fighters with different armour (and the ability to take more damage), and allowing for some movement as well.

-And if you haven't tried this game yet, I highly recommend you to do so for a an easy, free, fast playing fun game!

You don't need much to play this game, and is an ideal game to play if you're in a hurry and don't have time for any complicated setups or long games.

Blog PostScript

At the time of posting this 'imaginary action playsets' created by ChatGPT are trending on Facebook. This is how ChatGPT would envisage a playset of an instant wargame reviewed in this blogpost:

Another suggestion by ChatGPT:

It would be cool to see this thing in production and I think such playsets would be salable. What do you think?