The Little World

Or to be more particular – for the Royal Canadian Artillery. My research into airfield defence finally paid off when I discovered that there was a standard way on the prairies to provide cover for training bases – or rather there were two standard ways: Either do nothing at all or call in a semi-autonomous gun unit from the RCA.

The guns provided seem to have been leftover 3 inch or more modern Bofors 40mm. In the case of the latter the RCA provided a tractor to tow the gun and a couple of Bren gun carriers to move the gunners and to scoot around airfield perimeters fighting off the Germans. As there were few panzer attacks on Drumheller or Medicine Hat, the Bren was probably all the firepower needed.

There is also a niggle in the back of my mind about the Bofors. How often were they exercised? How did they give them shooting practice? Did any of them ever fire a shot in anger, and at whom? Who was the overall commander of the unit – the station commander or the officer sent out with the gun? Did they have their own mess or did they just sit in with the fliers?

And in practical terms…how long did the BCATP people persist with the fear that they were to be attacked? When did they realise that the Japanese and Germans were not going to conduct bombing raids on Red Deer or Airdrie? Or were they secretly afraid of  the USAAF? We’ll never know.

The kit was a pleasant surprise at the central city shop that deals with toys soldiers and gaming supplies – Tactics. it is remarkably large place, suggesting that the wargaming hobbies flourish far better than some of the other Little World divisions. They certainly have enough in the way of games, parts, figures, models, tools, materials, and rule books for sale. And a bewildering array of additional scales to navigate through. Thank goodness the Plastic Soldier Company does good old 1:72  – I had nearly given up hopes of finding Bren carriers after the older Airfix lines were discontinued.

Thank goodness as well that they are  injection moulded of hard plastic and declare it proudly. I remember some of the Airfix figures were unpaintable soft plastic and occasioned no end of frustration in the 60’s and 70’s.

I got three carriers in the box and gave one to my friend Warren for his collection – the RCA only mandated two for the standard airfield protection so I’m going to be all set. I strongly suspect that they were maintained well, as they would never have seen any fighting and probably not a lot of exercise work as well. I’m also betting that they would have been Mk 1 versions. This suits me – I like to paint my models in clean condition, though I suppose they can be lightly weathered later if I run out of things to do.