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Jamieson VC
Sean50
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Manche, France
Joined: March 20, 2007
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Armorama: 328 posts
Posted: Monday, December 17, 2018 - 07:45 AM UTC
Hello there

A bit of a long post so sorry for that...

Some time ago I was discussing this particular hobby with a friend and colleague, and he asked whether I had made models of specific events or actions. Whilst I do endeavour to be as accurate as I can be in terms of terrain, buildings, markings etc, I hadn't ever got around to doing something so specific, despite having many ideas both in my head and in my note pad (I make notes and doodle a lot...). I'll give a nod here to Jerry Rutman -in particular his Falaise Pak40- which gave me the push I needed to do this.
I've lived in Normandy for many years now but grew up in Norfolk. There were two Victoria Crosses awarded to men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Normandy (as it happens, both men were born in London, but I lived there for a bit too so it kind of "fit"), Sidney Bates and David Jamieson, from the 1st and 7th Battalions respectively. Bates' was sadly a posthumous award (and one which I hope to return to in miniature soon).
Capt David Jamieson was, as I said, in the 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment. Here he is:


His battalion was part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division, which had fought in Operations Charnwood and Pomegranate prior to the crossing of the River Orne near Grimbosq, which is where Jamieson earned his VC.

A quick screenshot courtesy of IGN for some geographical context:



And an aerial photo form 1947 (also courtesy IGN). Grimbosq is the village just to the right of the centre of the image, the River Orne is clearly seen along with the one bridge (Pont de Brie, near the bottom of the photo) which had been, rather unhelpfully, destroyed byt the Germans:



For "visual inspiration", there's quite a nice painting by Peter Archer of Jamieson atop a Churchill (see citation below):



So, what did he do?

"Captain Jamieson was in command of a Company of The Royal Norfolk Regiment which established a bridgehead over the River Orne, south of Grimbosq in Normandy. On 7th August 1944 the enemy made three counter-attacks which were repulsed with heavy losses. The last of these took place at 18:30 hours when a German Battle Group with Tiger and Panther tanks attacked and the brunt of the fighting fell on Captain Jamieson's Company. Continuous heavy fighting ensured for more than four hours until the enemy were driven off, after suffering severe casualties and the loss of three tanks and an armoured car accounted for by this Company. Throughout these actions, Captain Jamieson displayed outstanding courage and leadership, which had a decisive influence on the course of the battle and resulted in the defeat of these determined enemy attacks.

On the morning of 8th August, the enemy attacked with a fresh Battle Group and succeeded in penetrating the defences surrounding the Company on three sides. During this attack two of the three tanks in support of the Company were destroyed and Captain Jamieson left his trench under close range fire from enemy arms of all kinds and went over to direct the fire of the remaining tank, but as he could not get in touch with the commander of the tank by the outside telephone, he climbed upon it in full view of the enemy. During this period Captain Jamieson was wounded in the right eye and left forearm but when his wounds were dressed he refused to be evacuated. By this time all the other officers had become casualties so Captain Jamieson reorganised his Company, regardless of personal safety, walking amongst his men in full view of the enemy, as there was no cover.

The enemy counter-attacked the Company three more times during that day with infantry and tanks. Captain Jamieson continued in command, arranging for artillery support over his wireless and going out into the open on each occasion to encourage his men. By the evening the Germans had withdrawn, leaving a ring of dead and burnt out tanks round his position.

Throughout this thirty-six hours of bitter and close fighting, and despite the pain of his wounds, Captain Jamieson showed superb qualities of leadership and great personal bravery. There were times when the position appeared hopeless, but on each occasion it was restored by his coolness and determination. He personally was largely responsible for the holding of this important bridgehead over the River Orne and the repulse of seven German counter-attacks with great loss to the enemy."

The "enemy", along with parts of the 271.InfDiv, was "KG Wünsche"- Panthers from 3./SS-PzRgt12, Tigers from 2./sSS-PzAbt101 and grenadiers from SS-PzGrenRgt26.

Jamieson himself always maintained he was just "doing his job", but still. As an aside, there were a couple more individuals (one from either side) who I think warrant similar representation if I can get around to it.

I'm going to include two main elemnts... Jamieson on top of a Churchill from 107th Rgt, RAC and a Bren group in a hastily dug scrape.

First off, the AFV Club Churchill IV. I have a 90% complete Mk III in the attic, and I enjoyed the build. With the Mk IV, the cast turret needed some attention as it looks a bit odd as supplied, IMHO:



Some Mr Surfacer 1000 dabbed on with a brush and followed by some smudging and sanding will hopefully do the trick.

The Bren crew are from Dragon. I've just got the basic poses down and am getting them "settled in" to their meagre cover. The area where they fought slopes upwards from the Orne towards the Foret de Grimbosq, which I hope to convey. There were a few more orchards then than now, but precious little otherwise. I need some Bren magazines... I see Ultracast do some which look nice - any comments on them or other suiggestions welcomed. This is all WIP of course...



The idea is to do these guys as almost like a seperate vignette and then blend that into to bigger picture. This will hopefully allow me to work on details like the spent mags, spare pouches, open pack etc..

As always, comments, thoughts and suggestions more than welcome.

Cheers

Sean
BootsDMS
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England - South West, United Kingdom
Joined: February 08, 2012
KitMaker: 978 posts
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Posted: Monday, December 17, 2018 - 08:56 AM UTC
An admirable project - there's a guy who did it for real.

Beware the idiosyncrasies of British webbing.

Good luck.

Brian
marcb
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Overijssel, Netherlands
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Posted: Monday, December 17, 2018 - 09:16 AM UTC
Love it!

The Bronco 17 pd anti tank gun crew (#35087) might have a usefull figure.

Looking forward to your progress.


Regards,

Marc
Sean50
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Manche, France
Joined: March 20, 2007
KitMaker: 340 posts
Armorama: 328 posts
Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2018 - 05:06 AM UTC
Brian

Thanks. A really modest man too by all accounts.
I'm OK with webbing... I think. Time will tell.

Marc,

Thanks. I believe I'm using the very figure you're thinking of....

Got some work done on the Churchill and received some nice heads with MkII helmets from Ultracast, along with some spare Bren mags. GOOD TRADER ALERT received my order promptly (less than ten days Canada to France over Christmas...) and well packaged. Nice job.

Bren crew are thus more or less complete anatomically:



Capt Jamieson now has two arms but only one when I took this photo:



Although this would in fact be a case where a pointing arm would fit and be appropriate, I've gone with something else.....
More to follow shortly.

Cheers all

Sean
jrutman
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Joined: April 10, 2011
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Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2018 - 05:55 AM UTC
Really nice concept for a dio for sure! I am very familiar with this action and it looks like you will do it justice!
J
Dioramartin
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
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Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2018 - 09:59 PM UTC
Hey Sean great idea & it’s taking shape very nicely. Also a very intelligent choice to not have a pointing arm – firstly because the tank commander couldn’t see what direction was being pointed to (presumably Capt J called out points of the clock), and secondly he would likely have needed both hands to stop falling off the hull. How cool if Jerry did a companion dio viewed from the German side?
Sean50
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Manche, France
Joined: March 20, 2007
KitMaker: 340 posts
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Posted: Sunday, January 27, 2019 - 11:10 AM UTC
Jerry and Tim

Thanks for your comments.

No update as such as I'm away in London for a bit, but I did manage a trip up to Norwich to catch up with some old friends from my punky youth


And that little trip meant that a look at this little lot was almost obligatory:



Hopefully get back into the model at the end of the week when I'm home.

Cheers

Sean
cheyenne
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Posted: Monday, January 28, 2019 - 11:34 PM UTC
Beautiful work so far Sean , it's nice to see a build commending an actual hero and event !!!
Sean50
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Manche, France
Joined: March 20, 2007
KitMaker: 340 posts
Armorama: 328 posts
Posted: Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 03:09 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Beautiful work so far Sean , it's nice to see a build commending an actual hero and event !!!



Thanks, I hope I can do it justice

A small update.... There's a small detail question that was bugging me, and I now have the answer. In accounts of the action (including the VC citation), it's stated that Jamieson was unable to communicate with the commander of the Churchill by telephone. I didn't know whether this was because the telephone wasn't working, or wasn't there at all. I mentioned I was in London last week.... well there's a recording of an interview with Jamieson in the IWM's sound archive. I went to have a listen for two reasons.... one was to listen out for any detail (such as the telephone thing) and the other was just too hear the guy speak (quite posh, unsurprisingly). As luck would have it, he said that he tried to speak to the commander but there was "no answer", so this confirmed the presence of the telepehone, and a consequent fitting of a Resicast examlpe to the model:



I've left it open, and may leave the handset hanging so as to tell that part of the story.

Another little detail was how long he actually spent on top of the tank.... hardly any. He said he climbed up, a feat made easier by his height, the "trap" was open and he yelled at the commander (who he described as "a young subaltern or something") to "Get the hell out of here!". That was it.... so lucky I decided against him pointing and giving directions

He said "Well, at that moment the tank's blown up! The force just threw me off, and the tank brewed up!"
This also clarified another thing, as I was tempted to show one of his wounds, which would be incorrect.
Here's the man, again, in just basic undercoat, yelling at the tank commander. My plan is to try and work the latter's left arm so he's raising the cup of the headphones:



Sorry for the poor photo.
Finally, one more thing from the interview. He remarked on his "incredibly overrated citation", and said "I never have felt, I really honestly haven't felt that I deserved that VC compared to what other people went through"

Cheers

Sean
Dioramartin
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New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
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Posted: Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 12:23 PM UTC

Great research work Sean, going back to source. Ain’t it strange how stories get altered in the re-telling, as I’ve found out myself! Makes me wonder whether we can trust any account other than first-hand ones and even then they might not be 100% accurate, but when you got a citation based obviously on eye-witnesses and the subject’s own words it’s got to be 99%
M4A1Sherman
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Joined: May 02, 2013
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Posted: Saturday, February 02, 2019 - 12:42 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hello there

A bit of a long post so sorry for that...

Some time ago I was discussing this particular hobby with a friend and colleague, and he asked whether I had made models of specific events or actions. Whilst I do endeavour to be as accurate as I can be in terms of terrain, buildings, markings etc, I hadn't ever got around to doing something so specific, despite having many ideas both in my head and in my note pad (I make notes and doodle a lot...). I'll give a nod here to Jerry Rutman -in particular his Falaise Pak40- which gave me the push I needed to do this.
I've lived in Normandy for many years now but grew up in Norfolk. There were two Victoria Crosses awarded to men of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Normandy (as it happens, both men were born in London, but I lived there for a bit too so it kind of "fit"), Sidney Bates and David Jamieson, from the 1st and 7th Battalions respectively. Bates' was sadly a posthumous award (and one which I hope to return to in miniature soon).
Capt David Jamieson was, as I said, in the 7th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment. Here he is:


His battalion was part of the 59th (Staffordshire) Infantry Division, which had fought in Operations Charnwood and Pomegranate prior to the crossing of the River Orne near Grimbosq, which is where Jamieson earned his VC.

A quick screenshot courtesy of IGN for some geographical context:



And an aerial photo form 1947 (also courtesy IGN). Grimbosq is the village just to the right of the centre of the image, the River Orne is clearly seen along with the one bridge (Pont de Brie, near the bottom of the photo) which had been, rather unhelpfully, destroyed byt the Germans:



For "visual inspiration", there's quite a nice painting by Peter Archer of Jamieson atop a Churchill (see citation below):



So, what did he do?

"Captain Jamieson was in command of a Company of The Royal Norfolk Regiment which established a bridgehead over the River Orne, south of Grimbosq in Normandy. On 7th August 1944 the enemy made three counter-attacks which were repulsed with heavy losses. The last of these took place at 18:30 hours when a German Battle Group with Tiger and Panther tanks attacked and the brunt of the fighting fell on Captain Jamieson's Company. Continuous heavy fighting ensured for more than four hours until the enemy were driven off, after suffering severe casualties and the loss of three tanks and an armoured car accounted for by this Company. Throughout these actions, Captain Jamieson displayed outstanding courage and leadership, which had a decisive influence on the course of the battle and resulted in the defeat of these determined enemy attacks.

On the morning of 8th August, the enemy attacked with a fresh Battle Group and succeeded in penetrating the defences surrounding the Company on three sides. During this attack two of the three tanks in support of the Company were destroyed and Captain Jamieson left his trench under close range fire from enemy arms of all kinds and went over to direct the fire of the remaining tank, but as he could not get in touch with the commander of the tank by the outside telephone, he climbed upon it in full view of the enemy. During this period Captain Jamieson was wounded in the right eye and left forearm but when his wounds were dressed he refused to be evacuated. By this time all the other officers had become casualties so Captain Jamieson reorganised his Company, regardless of personal safety, walking amongst his men in full view of the enemy, as there was no cover.

The enemy counter-attacked the Company three more times during that day with infantry and tanks. Captain Jamieson continued in command, arranging for artillery support over his wireless and going out into the open on each occasion to encourage his men. By the evening the Germans had withdrawn, leaving a ring of dead and burnt out tanks round his position.

Throughout this thirty-six hours of bitter and close fighting, and despite the pain of his wounds, Captain Jamieson showed superb qualities of leadership and great personal bravery. There were times when the position appeared hopeless, but on each occasion it was restored by his coolness and determination. He personally was largely responsible for the holding of this important bridgehead over the River Orne and the repulse of seven German counter-attacks with great loss to the enemy."

The "enemy", along with parts of the 271.InfDiv, was "KG Wünsche"- Panthers from 3./SS-PzRgt12, Tigers from 2./sSS-PzAbt101 and grenadiers from SS-PzGrenRgt26.

Jamieson himself always maintained he was just "doing his job", but still. As an aside, there were a couple more individuals (one from either side) who I think warrant similar representation if I can get around to it.

I'm going to include two main elemnts... Jamieson on top of a Churchill from 107th Rgt, RAC and a Bren group in a hastily dug scrape.

First off, the AFV Club Churchill IV. I have a 90% complete Mk III in the attic, and I enjoyed the build. With the Mk IV, the cast turret needed some attention as it looks a bit odd as supplied, IMHO:



Some Mr Surfacer 1000 dabbed on with a brush and followed by some smudging and sanding will hopefully do the trick.

The Bren crew are from Dragon. I've just got the basic poses down and am getting them "settled in" to their meagre cover. The area where they fought slopes upwards from the Orne towards the Foret de Grimbosq, which I hope to convey. There were a few more orchards then than now, but precious little otherwise. I need some Bren magazines... I see Ultracast do some which look nice - any comments on them or other suiggestions welcomed. This is all WIP of course...



The idea is to do these guys as almost like a seperate vignette and then blend that into to bigger picture. This will hopefully allow me to work on details like the spent mags, spare pouches, open pack etc..

As always, comments, thoughts and suggestions more than welcome.

Cheers

Sean



Hi, Sean!

I'm REALLY LIKING your whole concept! Keep us posted with your progress!!!
jrutman
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Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: April 10, 2011
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Posted: Monday, February 04, 2019 - 02:31 AM UTC
I hope your bust schedule makes room for you to give us another update in the near future?

J
SRAMSEY
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South Carolina, United States
Joined: January 28, 2010
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Posted: Monday, February 04, 2019 - 04:13 AM UTC
Sean

Looking forward to seeing this build progress. You definitely have a great start.

Shawn
Sean50
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Manche, France
Joined: March 20, 2007
KitMaker: 340 posts
Armorama: 328 posts
Posted: Wednesday, March 06, 2019 - 10:58 PM UTC
Thanks for your comments Jerry and Shawn

Now I need some advice, please....

I was going to place this on a base with no buildings, just vegetation. On going through Jamieson's account and others, some structures seemed appropriate. I've fixed part of a small wall to the base, with the Bren position beside it. If this doesn't seem "natural" or "professional", please let me know, it can be fixed.

The other side of the base I'd thought about another building but it's a bit tight so it's just the very corner.

I've used a half-finished Mk III for reference, as the Mk IV is drying. Ignore suspension issues, it's for another base. With the building:





And without (I've used my crappy "paint" ability to try and give an idea of a pile of rubble:





Opinions as to what works, what doesn't work etc welcomed. I know the tank is quite close to the Bren position, that can be adjusted a little.

Thanks in advance

Sean
jrutman
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Posted: Thursday, March 07, 2019 - 02:11 AM UTC
I would use the building and cut down the height on the wall,putting a bit of rubble at the bottom.
J
strongarden
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Joined: May 14, 2012
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Posted: Thursday, March 07, 2019 - 04:13 AM UTC
Just found this Sean, and it is excellent. What an incredible story of a real event. Hero personified.

Everything looks and feels well accounted for, but I might increase the space in front of the Churchill just a wee bit. Depends on how much more will be going on overall, as you have stated.

Really look frwd to following this Sean

Regards
Dave
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