Bernard Lyall on Battleground Normandy

Bernard Lyall (son of Gavin, co-author of WW2 wargaming classic 'Operation Warboard', and participant - vs his father - in the Normandy episode of Battleground) has been in touch:  

After the book was published ['Operation Warboard' A&C Black 1976] , there was a certain amount of media interest, probably including much I'd have missed. My dad's career was going well and his minor fame would have provided an obvious hook for print, radio and TV producers. We did one other TV event, a slot on (I think) Pebble Mill at One, after Battleground, where we played a game in the background of the studio (using our own kit) and at some point the presenter wandered over for a five-minute interview. I remember being surprised at the hours of effort on our part - travelling there, setting up, playing at least some of a game - which went into such a small amount of airtime. After 30 years in TV, I'm much less surprised now. 

 The book has recently been republished, by a chap called John Curry, who's reprinting a whole series of classic books on the subject - see link below. I re-shot the cover, based on the original hardback design, and wrote a foreword for it. 

 http://www.wargaming.co/recreation/details/glwarboard.htm 

Of the Battleground episode, I recall that the figures, vehicles and board had all been prepared for us [by Peter Gilder of course], to a much higher standard than our own stuff. Our equipment (which is in the photos inside the book, and some of which still survives) was much simpler - two green-painted chipboard 4'x3' sheets, green painted polystyrene hills, and trees of green foam on cocktail-sticks. But then ours had to be widely adaptable for each new scenario. The rules were ours, of course (that would been much of the point of doing it, and besides I'd have been baffled by any others) as were the tools (graphs, dividers etc.) that we used. I turned up in a stripy shirt which I had to change, as the lines on it produced that curious 'moire' effect on the studio cameras. And it was all very hot and bright in our little pool of light, surrounded by mysterious figures and cameras moving around in the dark. 

 I don't remember much about the game. We played a lot of generic, post D-Day, northern France scenarios. I think we were both more interested in grasping tactics than recreating specific events - and in any case, since our forces were only really at battalion level, we'd only have managed a small portion of a significant engagement. 

We weren't given any recording of the show, and wouldn't have been able to play it if we had.

Battleground on YouTube

Ssssshhhhhhh....let's just keep this to ourselves, OK? More episodes to follow in due course.

Battleground in the TV Times

An article from the TV Times previewing Battleground. Thanks to Roy Lowson for sending it in.

Battleground: Gettysburg

A few random images from the Gettysburg episode of Battleground (admittedly these are of poor quality but as there's so little out there on Battleground i thought they were worth posting, and they do give a sense of how visually impressive the game was).

Apparently Peter Gilder managed to sell the Gettysburg terrain featured three times - first of all the original commission for the Callan movie, then, after it's return by the film company, to Edward Woodward (the owner when Battleground was filmed), and finally (again, after its return gratis by Woodward) to a wargamer in the USA.

Griffith At Gettysburg

The late Dr Paddy Griffith is one of the key individuals behind my enduring (but largely unfulfilled) interest in the ACW. His books are fascinating but, long before i had read any of them, he took part in the first ACW game i witnessed (albeit via the TV screen) - the game played during the Gettysburg episode of Battleground. I remember the game looked spectacular and it was the terrain in particular that really struck me as something to aspire to. And wargaming was now on TV, presented by a famous actor, so it was clearly a serious adult pastime worthy of the many hours i was destined to devote to it in the coming decades....oh yes....

Despite playing with 'his toys, his terrain, and with his rules' Peter Gilder was given a sound thrashing by the other PG as they played out a highly condensed Gettysburg scenario. After winning a largely irrelevant cavalry melee on his left flank Gilder made his main thrust in the centre - Griffith's front line was brushed aside as Gilder's Rebs won the heights but his elation was to be short lived as he was then confronted by Griffith's reserve ('the Iron Brigade armed with breechloaders') and hit by enfilading artillery. A couple of moves later Gilder's centre was in tatters with his infantry brigades either dead or fleeing and the game was up.

Incidentally, the terrain was the same board used in the Callan movie, although by the time Battleground was recorded Edward Woodward had purchased it from Gilder.

The 'high point of the Confederacy' - Gilder's Rebs crest Cemetery Ridge but are shot to pieces by Griffith's reserve infantry and supporting artillery.

Not only did Griffith take part in one episode but he was also a Historical Consultant (along with Dr David Chandler and Charles Wesencraft) to the series. At this point in his career Griffith was Senior Lecturer at Sandhurst, where he also ran the wargame group.

Thanks to some very generous individuals i am slowly pulling together more information and images, so i hope to post more on Battleground in due course.

Clash of the Titans

Two of the big cheeses of the '70s scene lock horns - John Braithwaite (of Garrison Miniatures fame) takes on Peter Gilder during the filming of the Waterloo episode of Battleground.

This image was taken from the Battle for wargamers 'Wargames Manual' of 1983.

Foremost ECW

The Foremost range was originally advertised as a separate venture by Peter Gilder, though it was always exclusively available from Hinchliffe Models. When Frank Hinchliffe sold out to Skytrex the Foremost range went too, so whatever the commercial arrangement was with Peter Gilder it must have ended there.

PG did some of his best work for the Foremost range - the British Napoleonics come immediately to mind, as do the horses. That said, i prefer the earlier Hinchliffe ECW to their Foremost peers - the 'Prince Rupert's Charge' cavalry were a late addition to the Foremost range and are a tad chunky for my liking. Nevertheless they retain all the elan of classic Gilder cavalry.

These particular examples were painted as Ireton's Horse by John Tilson, and a splendid job he did too. If you've been paying attention then you'll remember that John took part in the Edgehill episode of Battleground. Something that was not noted in the Battle article i posted earlier was that John used his own Parliamentarian army during the game - sadly this army was stolen a short time later.

Win absolutely nothing if you can identify the classic tome that Ireton's are deployed upon.

PG on TV

With Callan, Model World, and Battleground on TV, and shops in many large towns and cities, wargaming seemed to be almost socially acceptable in the late 70s. ....perish the thought!

Here we have the article on Battleground penned by Terry Wise (surely one of the hobby's original grumpy old men) and published in Battle magazine in June 1978. The article tells you pretty much all i know about the series. It's interesting that one episode saw a Gilder/Braithwaite rematch at Waterloo - Gilder as Napoleon took on Braithwaite's Wellington during a large multi-player Waterloo refight in 1975 that was written up for Mil Mod. That game was an overwhelming win for the Frogs - i wonder who won the televised version? As Gilder supplied most of the figures for the series i guess that my ex-Gilder ECW figures are also ex-TV stars.

I have a very vague memory of catching one episode on TV at the time, and obtaining a copy of the series remains an unfulfilled hobby Holy Grail (can you have multiple Holy Grails...?). If anyone has a spare Holy Handgrenade i'd like one of those too please.

I have very definite memories of the episode of Model World that covered wargaming (after all it featured an AWI game) - win my eternal gratitude if you can find me a copy of that.

More Gilder stuff to come over the next week or so....