Interesting little campaign. T34/85s, Turkish troops some still in British WW2 helmets. Airborne drop by Turks.
1. Has anyone gamed it?
2. Does anyone publish an Osprey style uniforms guide?
3. You have British SBAs. Interesting little scenario.
WE did it at LWA many many years ago with 2nd WRG modern. Good fun,
We have some intresting info on it in the Military Intelligence Museum, turns out one of ours was spying for the Turks, and the Greeks found out!
All the organisations are available on the Wargames Vault
eg
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/91220/T24M-Turkish-Order-of-Battle-JulyAugust-1974-Invasion-of-Cyprus
Mark
There should be some ITV News footage of the actual invasion as IIRC they were winding up a report for some programme when the Turkish troops (paras?) invaded/dropped and simply walked past them. Quite surreal.
Oh that reminded me, a book I have on the Valentine tank says the Turks used a single Valentine bridgelayer in the campaign:
Dick Taylor, Into The Valley, MMP Books Green Series no.4111 pg.121
He has missed that the Turks also had Valentine IX and Bishops as well as Mk.II and Mk.IV in WW2, so the report may not be 100% accurate....
Mark
Quote from: sultanbev on 07 July 2020, 02:44:29 PM
Oh that reminded me, a book I have on the Valentine tank says the Turks used a single Valentine bridgelayer in the campaign:
Dick Taylor, Into The Valley, MMP Books Green Series no.4111 pg.121
He has missed that the Turks also had Valentine IX and Bishops as well as Mk.II and Mk.IV in WW2, so the report may not be 100% accurate....
Mark
First thanks for all the leads I will chase up.
I know that "tank" used by Greek Cypriots - it was a Valentine hull minus the turret that was fitted with an LMG (Bren?)
Of course you can feild the entire Cypriot armoured force 10 T34/85
A little to recent for my liking, particularly as my niece has a Turkish husband, and the grandmother of a former colleague was shot (murdered0 by the invading Turks.
We went to Cyprus in 2014 and sated in the south. On collecting the hire care the lady on the desk said we were not allowed to take it in to the "Occupied Zone". So this is still very fresh in the minds of all involved
Quote from: Orcs on 07 July 2020, 07:24:47 PM
A little to recent for my liking, particularly as my niece has a Turkish husband, and the grandmother of a former colleague was shot (murdered0 by the invading Turks.
We went to Cyprus in 2014 and sated in the south. On collecting the hire care the lady on the desk said we were not allowed to take it in to the "Occupied Zone". So this is still very fresh in the minds of all involved
I totally get it, which is why a lot of my current wargaming is based around fictitious states and scenarios.
The EOKA boasted that with the CNG they could wage a guerrilla action, but found it was a different war to the one against the British. The entire young male populations of Greek villages "disappeared".
I found a Kings & Generals video which I must award 5 stars. Well balanced and very well illustrated. Recommended.
The Turkish para drop mentioned by Steve was a disaster - 90 dead out of 120 . Illustrates how dated such overt ops are. when the DZ is dominated by determined AAA and becomes a killing ground.
Hi, just spotted this thread.
On a more humorous note, in the 1980s I was working in the Aircargo business and had dealings with a Customs agent.
He was a flamboyant lad, even in those days, long hair and some impressive facial hair.
He claims to have been drunk in Cyprus on the night of the invasion, as would be typical with many Kiwis he fell asleep on the beach.
Says he awoke at dawn to see a tank being off loaded onto the sand and he was very politely moved on his way back to his hotel.
I always thought he would have looked a real sight to your average Turkish conscript.
Quote from: Sunray on 08 July 2020, 11:28:50 AM
The Turkish para drop mentioned by Steve was a disaster - 90 dead out of 120 . Illustrates how dated such overt ops are. when the DZ is dominated by determined AAA and becomes a killing ground.
Large-scale para drops appear to be disasters waiting to happen. The first ever SAS mission. The German drop on Crete - successful yes, but they never did another one. Arnhem.
I'm sure there are probably hundreds of successful ones that I don't know about and I'm probably talking bollocks, but they do appear to be risky, and when they go wrong they go badly wrong.
Quote from: Raider4 on 24 July 2020, 07:59:06 AM
Large-scale para drops appear to be disasters waiting to happen. The first ever SAS mission. The German drop on Crete - successful yes, but they never did another one. Arnhem.
I'm sure there are probably hundreds of successful ones that I don't know about and I'm probably talking bollocks, but they do appear to be risky, and when they go wrong they go badly wrong.
When is jumping out of a perfectly working aircraft safe?
Mind you when is going into battle anything other than risky.
Put the two above together and you can see numerous reasons to avoid a combat jump.
Not to a Para, but do tend to be different. Rember that the gas drill has an additional command for them - "Start breathing again" at the end. ;D