Dear friends, we would like to share photos of the test build of Monty’s office caravan kit with you. The model will be released in a few days, stay tuned for our announcements!
Love it; as I said before, just crying out for a couple of figures - the FM himself, and an RASC Staff Clerk taking dictation!
Great looking off road camping vehicle.
Brian, any idea which one is the best quality? I have a diorama in mind with Monty.
I remember doing this in the early 2000’s with the old Matchbox 1/76. Scratched the interior from what little information I could gain from the internet at the time. Nice to know I didn’t do a bad job. Although I never was able to get the toilet looking right!
Iirc, he had photos of Rommel and other German officers on the walls?
I’m afraid I don’t quite know, though I do/did have access to the ancient Tamiya Famous Generals set; that particular figure is quite small but then he was quite a small person.
Note that most of the time he dressed pretty casually in civilian pullover and civilian corduroy trousers. He permitted his officers to dress however they liked, which led to some pretty startling uniforms amongst his personal liaison officers for instance, including German boots and I believe in one case a German splinter-camouflaged parka. Not so the common soldiery of course who had to wear whatever they were issued with!
Anyway, back to Monty. Whilst he wore whatever he wanted to - or rather, what he considered worked for him (hence a specially designed coat and trousers made from a waterproof material - an early Gore-Tex if you like) - he could smarten up when required, as for instance, in the German surrender at Luneburg Heath, where he controlled events masterfully.
Without teaching you to suck eggs, you may wish to bear in mind that if inside the office truck, he would probably remove his headdress, which then leaves you with the conundrum of finding a suitable head!
However, your diorama could, of course depict him outside, but again, unless he was going walkabout around his Tac HQ, he again, would probably be bare-headed. Anyway, that’s all neither here nor there really; you could easily display him fully attired, in conversation, about to get in his staff car, or Jeep come to that, with whatever extra figures you so wish.
As I think I’ve indicated before, I could almost be lured into tackling a small diorama myself - with my antecedent equivalent taking dictation from the great and the good.
Just a further piece about the Field Marshal; here he is on the 11th May, or shortly afterwards, dressed in an officer’s shirt (with sleeves rolled down - which is technically wrong as May would warrant “Shirt Sleeve Order”), and a pair of cords almost washed out to white.
You can see the Tac HQ complex behind him, with the rear of the office truck facing the camera.
The occasion was Monty giving FM Busch a huge bollocking for not toeing the (surrender) line sufficiently; I must admit, I take an almost perverse delight in seeing the diminutive British officer giving a physically large Teutonic FM a piece of his mind (probably because I’m small too!)
Another image:
Busch died just 2 months later; not that I’m suggesting as a result of the bollocking, but it probably didn’t help his ego much.
For completeness’ sake I should point out that the truck shown in profile is Monty’s personal caravan, ie living quarters and where he slept; it was snaffled from the Italians in the western desert and fitted to a Mack truck chassis.
I was just about to ask what kind of truck that was in the background on the right Brian, thank you.
I aim to please Richard!
I’m sure I’m over-egging the pudding here but a pic of the interior of the office caravan:
and an external shot in colour - the green one being the office - with the living caravan parked up next to it:
with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Alanbrooke), and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Great pics Brian. I found the interior color pic yesterday just browsing around. The bottom photo is cool too. That Italian truck would make an interesting conversion.
I had never appreciated that Monty was only 5’6"
You’re various posts on the subject have been most illuminating on a subject I’m not overly familiar with, other than the most famous facts/stories.
Well, thanks for the interest; I suppose I dig into all this stuff as a) I enjoy military history, and b) I was a Staff Clerk (ie a Clerk on the Staff) at various Formation HQs - from Brigade through to Army Group - during my somewhat extended career in the Army).
Some time ago I attempted to model a Corps HQ - that of 1st British Corps - in 1/300. It’s somewhere on the site within the auspices of a campaign “Lifting the Fog of War: Command & Control”, but a brief glimpse is here:
This as I remember it from c.1971, but the development and practices of movement and survivability by doubling up duplicate HQs all stemmed from the Second World War practices.
Anyway, all a bit removed from Monty’s Tac HQ c. 44/45 I admit.
I try and imagine what it would have been like in say, Monty’s HQ - probably quite demanding (though I’ve known several of similar ilk) - as he was what we might refer to these days, as a charisma bypass. That said of course, a successful General doesn’t have to be a nice person. Those that do have a pleasant disposition are easier to work with that’s for sure, but the business of generals is death and destruction, and we shouldn’t forget that perhaps.
I’m currently trying to find out the complete make up of his Tac HQ - it didn’t just consist of his 3 caravans of course; I’m sure there would have been several office trucks, possibly an armoured command vehicle or two, and then of course, an extensive comms set up. The there would have been a defence platoon at least I would have thought, and possibly a troop of armoured cars. There were two messes at Tac, so cooks, soldier-servants (bat-men), general-duties men (Pioneer Corps), Military Police etc.
Just for the record, Montgomery’s PA - that is his clerical PA (he also had a Canadian officer as a Personal Assistant) was one WO1 (SSM) R Playforth RASC - a direct antecedent - as it were. Here he is in a pic I purloined off the www:
Anyway, I’ve banged on far too much for now!
Why does he have photos of German generals on the walls?
Perhaps it always pays to have your enemy in mind; you know the sort of thing, “Now Rommel/Model/Kesselring etc, what would you do?”
At first glance I thought Churchill came dressed as a bus conductor!
It’s the uniform of The Royal Yacht Squadron (a sailing club) of which he was a member.
