I recently picked up a book that should prove of interest to any Naval Wargamer, you may or may not have seen it: "The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860-1970" by E.H.H.Archibald, the Curator at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. It lists almost every ship that served in the Royal Navy during that time. There are a number of colour plates and 350 two-colour lithographs showing the profiles of various ships, taken from the naval architects drawings, also giving specifications or armament, range, armour speed, etc." Bill Newburn of California "Please don't change the title, it's traditional, and to break a proud tradition, is surely anathema to any military minded person! Increased circulation through greater dedication converting others is what we should all be aiming at as I am convinced that no regular subscriber and no mere reader (to draw the distinction) could bear to go without the Newsletter should you not receive the financial support to at least break even. That is why I am pleased to introduce a fresh subscriber by paying the first subscription. Also Wargamer's Newsletter makes a first class gift." Philip Williams of Hereford "I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you - I have had hours of enjoyment out of your magazine and really appreciate the time, money and effort you obviously put into the magazine and agree with you that those people who share their magazine around are cutting off their noses to spite their own faces. I should think that I am the only wargamer to have played only one wargame with an opponent this year but out here in the wilds of Indonesia one is hard pressed to find opponents. My one opponent was the Defence Attache - a Colonel of some experience - who now refuses to play me as I routed his army very quickly! I would wish that your magazine had more in it about the American Civil War and I find that the Napoleonic wargamers have things too much their own way with regard to models e.g. Hinchliffe, Miniature Figurines, etc., still they are in business to make money. You may care to pass on to any of your subscribers the following American Civil War magazine address - Civil War Times Illustrated, Gettysburg, Pa. 17325, U.S.A. (subscription £ 4 per annum). I have only received one copy so far (there are 10 a year) but I am very impressed - the battle details of skirmishes, small battles, etc., as well as uniforms are very good - a worthwhile magazine. Well, please keep up the good work - I hope that I will find a few more opponents but even if I don't, fighting myself has certain advantages!" Robert Hoffman of Djakarta "Like so many others who seem to be writing to you recently, I too started at University last October. However, living in lodgings means I cannot take my stuff with me, and this along with the work and new interests means that several times over the last couple of months I have felt myself losing interest in wargaming. However, when I get home again at vac's etc., one of the things that never fails to arouse my interest again is reading the copies of the Newsletter that have accumulated while I have been away. Therefore although I can appreciate your feelings of sometimes wanting to pack it all in, I for one would be very sorry to see the end of the Newsletter, something would certainly be lost to the hobby. I hope that the Newsletter will continue." Philip Stevens of Wolverhampton "Thank you for another year of interesting reading. However, I have become just a little dissatisfied with the content of the magazine and feel that there is no longer such a great deal of original material between the covers as there was back in 1968 etc. Although of course the magazine shows a higher standard of printing and picture reproduction than ever it did then, I do not find it as intereating. I like to grumble from time to time and I realise that it is not your fault that most information has been used already." S.D. Sole of Haywards Heath "As a subscriber to the Newsletter of many years' standing, I am writing to protest against the unkind and unwarranted attack made on your contributor D. B. Clark, in the article obscurely entitled "Value for Money", March 1972 Newsletter. Doubtless the author, S.J.Douglas, aid not realise how offensive his words would appear in cold print so I hope that he will atone for his insulting remarks by allowing you to print his own rules for the Zulu Wargame so that your readers can make comparisons. D.B.Clark obviously had a lot of fun "getting up" his campaign, which he describes with great clarity, and it seems that he wanted to share his pleasure with your readers. I appreciate his labour of love and you, as Editor, thought highly enough of the articles to print them. S.J.Douglas, less lucidly, seems to be trying to tell us that you need more Zulus than Regulars to make an interesting battle and that it is a good idea to deploy your figures in advantageous positions. I do not think that D.B.Clark would dispute these points as he explains how best to achieve them. Let us have controversy in wargaming by all means but let us be a little more polite and constructive about it. So how about printing. those rules of S.J.Douglas, or does he made a charge for his expertise?" G. Angus Whiting of London "In March's issue in article appeared in which a German Tiger tank destroyed 25 Allied vehicles in one fell swoop. This tank, or another Tiger which did the exploit had also previously destroyed no fewer than 119 Russian tanks on the Russian front. I am interested in the German-Soviet conflict and was reading 'Barbarossa' in which it stated a full strength German Panzer Division in 1943 consisted of 100 AFVs. The Division consisted of Tigers, Panthers, MK IV's, etc., and nearly one-third were Jagdpanzers (SP's). These figures are very rough of course. I am reading "War and Peace" and something Tolstoy wrote greatly interested me. At Jena, Napoleon scattered the Prussian army to the winds and as a consequence Prussia fell. "Why, if a minute part of a country's population is defeated must the rest knuckle under?" This answer would seem to be in the French Resistance, but that was 135 years afterwards. A month or two back a leaflet was included in "Wargamer's Newsletter" advertising Jayprint products. I sent off 1.25P for their set of six colour plates and three battleplans. When they arrived I was highly pleased, they were larger, more defined, and on better quality paper than I ever expected. My only complaints are that the red uniform on one plate is a bit watery, and the battle plans tend to get cluttered up by regimental badges. It was also rather long in coming, the miner's strike I suppose. I wonder what Napoleon or Hitler would have done about the pickets?) Now all I have to do is find some wall space. Did you know that a date-box makes an excellent pair of large barges. I want quite a few of them and have duly received chronic gut ache. Can we have any Franco-Prussian or Austro-russian battle reports please?" C.Trustram of Wilmslow, Cheshire "As an interesting aide, I thought you might be interested to know that although I had received the December and January issues of the Newsletter the November issue had not arrived. I received the November issue today, postmarked England 28th October 1971. This would indicate four months in transit. With that type of postal service the issue could have swam the ocean in four months. Either the postal department provides terrible service or very slow ships. I formerly subscribed to a dozen or more publications. But I found your effort so outshone the others that I no longer subscribe to the majority of them. Your Newsletter and two others are all that I now subscribe to, having in my library now only the three fine journals." Francis S. Durocher of New York, U.S.A. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 122 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1972 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com