Refurbishing railway scenic pieces ...

 I've been refurbishing my railway scenic pieces; I recovered the track from the old scenic pieces and re-used them on strips of cardboard with surface of ballast effect paper.  

Well met by moonlight

A dark, almost moonless night.
      In a  small field near Beaulieu on Southampton Water, a small aircraft  waits to take off.
         Onboard are Squadron leader Charles Cudddlesworth and a brave young woman, codename Clara Rose.
         Her mission is to travel to Nouvion, make contact with the resistance under the leadership of someone called "Nighthawk" and use her radio to report on German activity in the area, she will also act as go between for an agent already in the area known as "Crabapple".
         His is merely to get her there safely. Anti aircraft, nightfighters and SS notwithstanding.




      Her cover is as a waitress in a small cafe, in a pleasant little square, near the harbour.

Her control, known as "The Contessa" watches as the aircraft takes off and disappears into the night.


Bon Chance Clara Rose.

Thank God we've got an Airforce.

fast spitfire recce plane snaps photos of german barges ....

Leaving the shipyards en route to the embarkation harbour at Nouvion.

It soon becomes obvious that there is a dire shortage of skilled crews.

Resistance agents reported that the german commander Von Tiddenheim was present and witnessed several near misses.

With forces like this at his disposal. The British stand a good chance of winning.

Night and Day

   information from the resistance & SOE agents in France .... german activities in the channel ports..

  Day and night, the shipyards of the Cherbourg peninsula echo to the flash of welding torches and rivet guns as the invasion fleet readies to sail.

A couple of additions to the Home Guard....

Slowly in the process of adding some more figures to the collection, this time a couple for the home guard (from Colonel Bills home guard cart crew set)..

Where sparrows fly ....

continued from previous post.. 

---oXo---

They had been waiting for 10 minutes now,  glancing nervously down the road.  Just after 6.30am they heard the whine of an aircraft engine, Mrs Robinson looked out of the window and could see an ME109 coming in low over the fields heading towards Sarum airfield...

Thats what we're waiting for said Smith, who revved up the bus engine up and headed off down the road......

---oXo---

At Sarum airfield they were just getting ready for the day, bringing out and preparing a couple of fighters for pilot training ... 

The AA defence spots a ME109 in the distance and opens fire ....

The ME109 starts its strafing run .... 

firing across the concrete apron and targeting the line up planes and fuel trucks 

meanwhile Smith drove the bus up towards the airfield ...... 

The ME109 had turned and started another strafing run, as it came in a Lysander started to land .....

Smith accelerated and turned the bus, crashing through the permitter fencing ....... 

Smith headed towards where the Lysander was pulling up .... 

The jumped out of the bus and made for the waiting Lysander, Smith stopped by the front of the bus exchanging fire with an armed RAF sentry.... 

Smith made his way to the plane, emptying his last clip at the sentry 

....the sentry stumbled and went down... Smith jumped into the plane and it started to take off.....

in no time they were in the air ..... 

Soon they were joined by the ME109 as they flew low over the country-side southwards towards the coast .......

On their way ....

continued from previous post.. the spies head towards their extraction rendezvous...

---oXo---

Smith drove the bus out of the warehouse and onto the back road.....

they skirted round the edge of Wilton and then over the railway bridge and up the hill, in front of them was some sort of improvised road block ,,,, 

Smith accelerated and the soldiers jumped out of the way of the bus, as they passed they received a spray of bullets - mostly way off target, a couple hit the back of the bus (but caused no damage) .. the Robinsons returned fire from the back window ... 

They drove on up and over the hill and down into the valley, as they drove along a motorbike & sidecar approached, the passenger firing his SMG at them .....

the Robinsons were busy again firing at their pursuers, as they crossed a bridge the motorbike & sidecar skewed to the left and ran into the hedge .....

they drove on, there was no-one else following them,  they carried on up the hill on the other side of the valley skirting round the edge of Old Sarum - Smith pulled the bus over to the side of the road in by a field gateway ...

They were in sight of Sarum airfield, it was about 6.20am - they would have to wait here till 6.30am before they could move on again - Smith told the Robinsons to keep a lookout - they could only move on when the extraction support air attack came in ...

 to be continued ...

Last actions ....

Smith and Robinson leave the warehouse ...

 They worked their way out of town along South street, till they reach the lane outside Wilton House ground that leads to Home Farm....

 Before getting to the farm, they crossed the hedge and moved up and across the hill to the Hare Warren wooded area. They headed to where they knew there was a bunker hidden near a ruined building. A bit of searching revealed the air vent...

Smith took the grill off the vent and lowered the satchel charge down it carefully, they ran quickly down the hill, as they got clear the charge went off - blowing up the bunker .....

The hurried down the hill and crossed the road and then over the estate wall into the grounds ....

they moved cautiously towards their next target, halting behind a pile of supplies nearby. The sound of the explosion had brought more soldiers out on patrol ...

as the soldiers fanned out, one remained to guard the small building and Nissan hut...

Robinson took out the sentry while Smith kicked in the door firing his SMG and chucked in a couple grenades for good measure ...

Robinson went in the building and left a small charge on the generator inside, they moved away quickly as the charge went off ... some soldiers were on their way back towards the Nissan hut ...

They headed down towards the river to work their way along and then cross the bridge to get to the house.. when they reached the river they found a wire fence and could see patrols on the other bank ...

Deciding the risk was too great they headed back towards the edge of the estate and crossed the road into some adjoining woodland...evading some soldiers patrolling the perimeter...

They skirted round behind some houses and then across the river by a small footbridge ...

after passing through the church grounds they slipped across west street and then down the back streets..

finally getting back to the safety of the warehouse.....

Inside they grabbed a bite to eat and took it in turns to catch a nap before it would be time to make their next move early in the morning.....

Final preparations ...

Late in the evening, Smith and the Robinsons met up in the warehouse, to get ready. They got the stash of weapons out ready to be loaded into the bus.

After that that got changed. Smith and Robinson were going to carry out their last mission before their extraction the next day; Mrs Robinson was going to stay behind to mind the bus ....