Afrika

Setting up The Gamers 1st Edition Afrika for tonight with Dan K.  Rommel or Monty?

Immaculate Conception Church World War One Memorial

Location: Salem, Massachusetts

Features: Monument

History: Immaculate Conception Church was the first Catholic Church in Salem, est. 1826.  The monument was built in 1920.

Traveler's Notes:  Photographed October 2013

Resources: Immaculate_Conception_Church, siris-artinventories.si.edu

Memorial Circle World War I Monument

Location: Augusta, Maine

Features: Monument

History: Unknown

Traveler's Notes: Photographed October 2013

Resources: None

It Never Snows Wrap Up

This week we finished up our "It Never Snows" campaign game.  The Allied effort ended a bit abruptly when they failed to dislodge a German effort to cut the supply line at the Veghel bridge.  My initial impression of the game centers on the game specific road march rule.  Both sides have the ability to make sweeping "strategic" moves along the extensive road net at the beginning of every turn.  This requires both sides to maintain a rigorous vigilance on unit placement at every possible crossroads where an axis of advance is possible.  One small misstep will see a large enemy force behind your lines cutting off supply or sweeping behind a defensive river line.  In the context of the design it makes sense, given the large number of security details available to cover all avenues and the effect the rule brings by allowing for a "surprise" counter-attack without difficult fog of war rules.  However, during actual play I found that this covering every crossroads element to the game dominated my thinking more than the actual operations.  Perhaps it was inevitable given that we were playing this with just two people manning all the various fronts.  The demands of maintaining security for all those sectors might have taken me out of the game a bit.  I should like to try this with multiple players next time to see how much it changes the experience.

Germans hold on by a thread at Veghel Bridge

Kiwanis Veterans Memorial Garden

Location: Laishley Park, Punta Gorda, Florida

Features: Marker plaques and memorial bricks dedicated to local veterans arrayed about a beautiful garden, fountain and gazebo

History: History of memorial unknown.  Punta Gorda was leveled by Hurricane Charley in 2004; the garden and memorials would have been dedicated since that time.  There is also a monument dedicated to the Hurricane and the moment it's winds stopped the downtown clock.

Traveler's Notes:  Laishley Park sits just outside our friend's home along Charlotte Harbor in Punta Gorda.  I came across the Memorial while taking a stroll along the waterfront in August 2010.

Resources:   Hurricane_Charley, www.ci.punta-gorda.fl.us/leis/park_locations.html

Bunker Hill Monument

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Features:  Monument on battleground remnant park, climbing tour access to top of obelisk during operating hours, statues and placards, Bunker Hill Museum

History:  In the early days of the American Revolution, Colonial militia put the British controlled city of Boston under siege.   On June 13, 1775, British forces attacked the Colonials at Bunker and Breed's Hills on the Charlestown peninsula.  The Colonial troops repelled several assaults on their positions, causing considerable losses to the British.  The British eventually stormed and won the hills, but would never underestimate the resolve of the colonial militia again.
The Bunker Hill Monument actually sits on Breed's Hill, where the main colonial defensive position was located.  The construction of the monument has a long and controversial history.  The monument was expensive and construction was halted several times due to lack of funding.  The oversight Association had to sell off most of the land on Breed's Hill to cover the expense of finishing the project in 1842.  Only the hill's summit survives now as the park upon which the monument stands.

Traveler's Notes:  The discerning battlefield topographer will lament the urban growth that has wholly swallowed up the original hills.  Still, you can at least get some small feel of the orientation of the environs and the flow of the action.  Driving the narrow streets of Boston certainly works as a metaphorical recreation of the channeled avenue of advance that served the British so poorly that fateful day.  The Bunker Hill Museum across the street from the monument offers free admission as part of the National Parks.  It contains many excellent artifacts, dioramas and interactive maps to explain the battle and its participants.

Resources: www.nps.gov/bost/historyculture/bhm.htm, Bunker_Hill_Monument, Battle_of_Bunker_Hill

USS Hartford Nine Inch Gun

Location: Gaylord, Michigan

Features:  Nine Inch Gun from USS Hartford, flagship of Admiral Farragut's fleet during the American Civil War with commemorative plaque.

History:  Admiral Farragut and his squadron were instrumental in blockading the Confederate Gulf Coast ports.  He is most recognized for his role at the Battle of Mobile Bay with his "Damn the torpedoes!" response.  History of monument unknown.

Traveler's Notes:  Monument discovered while stopping for lunch in Gaylord, July 2012.  We were on our way to the 200th anniversary of the surrender of Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island during the War of 1812.

Resources:   David_Farragut, USS_Hartford_(1858)