Reivers Revenge - A Family Feud.

 

The Pringles weren't happy, young Lizzie had been seen with Jackie Charlton at Yetholm Fair and now her brother Jimmy was on the war path. No way on this earth was a Pringle going to be seen out with a Charlton unless they had swords in their hands, now he was hell bent on kicking Jackie's arse from Halidon Hill to Ecclefechan.

On nearing Charltons bastle Jimmy Pringle yelled out "come oot an' fight Charlton, if yer want wor Liz it'll cost ye two coos and a sheep......failin' that....yer life." Not wishing to be trapped in the bastle with the undignified risk of being scumfished (smoked out) the Charltons emerged and faced the irate Pringle. The two sides jostled around each other trying to get the edge.

As the two sides neared shots were fired and arrows loosed, to no avail, eventually it came down to whacking each other with whatever they had, unfortunately two of the Pringles came up against the Charlton hero, Big Dave, they were no match and were put out of action. The Pringles saw this was a serious occurrence, it was now or never...charge!

With the loss of his archer Jimmy Pringle and his cousin Wattie Pringle gave things a second thought, perhaps they had been a little hasty. At this juncture Father Crozier and his band of monks and a nun happened to be visiting the Charltons, seeing what was happening Father Crozier called for them to stop, which they did. The Pringles picked up their wounded and headed north uttering nasty oaths, Jackie Charlton might not see Lizzie for a while, but she's worth it, he'll wait for her brother to calm down and try again.

Airmen Rescued - Vietnam 1967.

Acting on information received from ARVN sources a watch was put on the village of Pho An, in this vill was a VC post, and kept there were two downed American airmen, our job was to infiltrate at night and rescue the flyboys.

"The Cage" at Pho An.

Our boys were landed by PBR, they krept around the edge of the village, not a sound was made, each of the four man patrol got into their prearranged positions. The PBR waited off station for the sound of gunfire, then they would move into position to give support fire.

Suddenly one of the VC guards turned as if he had seen something and began to move towards the patrol, it was now or never. Shots rang out into the gloom and the VC went down, his comrade very soon followed. Two of the patrol ran forward to secure the airmen while the other two gave fire, the PBR was quickly on station and poured fire down the centre of the village.

The fight was quite one sided, the remaining VC were cut down as they ran out to help their comrades, the two airmen were quickly bundled away. Further up the road gunshots were heard as reinforcements came walking in, fire from the PBR scared them off a bit.

In the melee one of the Americans was killed, beating a fighting retreat the others got back to the boat dragging their fallen friend with them. The PBR kept up a heavy rate of fire while the men got in, the VC fired wildly into the darkness as .50 tracer zipped over their heads. In an instant the PBR was gone and it was all over.

This was a bit of a challenge, hadn't played a Vietnam scenario in decades. What can I say, the Americans were bloody lucky, the VC couldn't see their hands in front of their faces, hit anything or get any reasonable reinforcements into the battle with any speed or numbers, oh well, them's the breaks!

Shootout At Crackett's Hut - Van Diemen's Land 1844.

 

Henry Davey and his band of bushrangers have taken over old man Crackett's hut in Reilby forest near Liffey, the police at Launceston have been notified and several constables under Inspector Smith were despatched with local man John Blake as guide.

Meeting up at a nearby hut, the police reckoned this would just be a case of surrounding the hut and they would all come quietly, the bushrangers had other plans.

In an extended line the constables and Mr Blake moved off through the scrub, the Davey gang, although having a couple of men on the lookout, were none the wiser.

The blaise attitude of the constables soon alerted the bushranger on lookout, he fired of a "coowee" and the rest of the gang were warned. When the constables showed themselves in the open and almost at point blank range, a volley exploded into them felling two instantly.

As the forces of law and order retreated another constable was shot, Mr Blake made it to safety and reported in a very loud voice what had happened to Inspector Smith at the other hut.

At this moment Mr Greene turned up with his militia, who are just local farmers that had suffered attacks from the Davey gang and wanted revenge. They were soon briefed by the Inspector and moved forward to join Mr Blake in the scrub, unfortunately George Grebell showed too much of himself and got shot, so he left.

Creeping forward inch by inch the posse crept closer to the bushrangers, musketry whistled all around, Mr Blake managed to get a lucky shot in and a bushranger went down, taking advantage the right flank ran in, Crackett's hut was almost within reach.

With both the bushrangers outside the hut now out of action, the rest of the gang were sitting ducks, but they still wouldn't surrender. Gaining access to the rear of the hut one of the farmers fired into the gloom through a window, the shot killed Henry Davey instantly.

The last remaining bushranger standing then surrendered, with his wounded comrade they were led away, the rope at Launceston will be busy soon.

Skirmish At Rooikopje Township.

 

A small detachment of the 1st Battalion Essex Regiment supported by a few sturdy chaps from the Black Watch, found themselves occupying an encampment on the outskirts of the Rooikopje Township in the Orange Free State. So bored were they that they even decided to mark their regiment in stone on the ground outside the camp, which seems to have become quite the thing these days.

The bugle sounded very early in the morning, the usual thing, a quick patrol around the town and back for breakfast, the Black Watch contingent provided the camp guard. Sometimes the locals provided eggs and milk, sometimes they didn't. On this morning the locals couldn't be found at all.

Today a surprise was planned for the morning patrol, a Boer Commando had evacuated the township and was in the process of taking positions when the British patrol wandered in. Taken a little by surprise themselves they quickly took positions and watched.

By the time the British had realised there was something wrong it was a bit too late, a familiar sound that put the fear of God in them erupted from the other side of the kopje, Mauser fire and a pom-pom. The first pom-pom shells overshot and set light to a building, the Essex lads had little choice but to advance.

Another salvo of pom-pom shells struck home killing one of the Essex boys, but they crept forward house by house. Meanwhile back at the camp, the Black Watch guards advanced towards the township in order to give support.

The pom-pom was obviously getting a little flustered at this point as the next salvo fell a little short on the top of the kopje, with the next shots being fired at the town the mounted Boers decided to use this as the signal to charge. The pom-pom shells managed to set fire to another house and killed a British soldier, the fighting in the township had been going in the British favour with several Boers killed, now it was the mounted men's turn to try and sway the battle in their favour.

The mounted commando had no idea that there was a line of irate Scotsmen formed up across the road, and it came as a bit of a shock! Bullets whizzed everywhere, two Boers were killed and one Black Watch and one Essex lad were killed. The Boers rode off across the veldt taking their pom-pom with them, ready to fight another day.

One of the Boers left it a bit too late to disengage, he was taken prisoner. All there was left to do now was to tend to the wounded and bring in the dead, as it turned out there were 6 Boers and 6 British killed. All this before breakfast, I doubt there will be any eggs or milk from Rooikopje Township anytime soon.