Visiting Maastricht

Visiting the city of Maastricht, a quick visit to part of it's surviving fortifications was planned.
The fortifications are in the 1860 situation.
Some pictures Peter took.

Tunnel through the curved flank of a bastion.

Outside of the curved flank with loopholes and ventilation openings above.

 The face and salient of the Holstein bastion and opposite the loopholed counterscarp with a sortie door opposite the salient.

 A lunet protecting the Holstein bastion. Watch the steep way up and the flank protections of the lunet.

            On the right the door of the tunnel leading to the bastion underneath the dry moat.

            On the left the door is closed with brickwork.

The right wing of a couvre-face protecting the front of a bastion. To the utmost right the edge of a lunet.

To the right, the lunet in front of the couvre-face.

A large sortie to let through mounted troops, protected by a drawbridge. The drawbridge is covered by loopholes on its flank and the pit below is also covered by loopholes beneath the moat-level. 

  Another, but now smaller sortie. The drawbridge has been removed meanwhile.

Crisis 2013

Being back from the Crisis show in Antwerp here some pictures from the show.
As always a great show, a lot to see. Improvement on the catering were made and afaik no hick ups occured. Not counting of course the blue smoke that was seen some times.
A big thanks to all the members of TSOA for giving us the pleasure of spending our money.

And the link to their "offical report" about Crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iau2NneAjUc

Starting with some pictures of our Demo: Guelders vs Guelders or the fight for the inheritance of Guelders in 1373. We (or better peter) had build part of the walls of the city of Venlo under which the armies of both sisters (both possible heirs tho the throne of the deceased duke of Guleders) fought their battle.

 The town of Venlo undre attack

 The defenders

 and the attackers.

 Overview of the terrain

with the city of Venlo as the target of both parties.

Some pictures of games which were shown. Sorry that I cannot remember all the names of the clubs involved. I hadn't a lot of time to see everything and only made a quick tour  around the show.

Starting with a look at the crowd at Hall 1

 Three pictures (above and beneath)of the great AWI game by THS.

 A 54mm battle

 Napoleonic batle with 2 dimensial figures .

28 mm figures by North Star for the 1672-1680 period; these look very good on the table.

A ww2 game

 followed by a game situated in Korea

ACW game by La Grande Armee















 20mm WWgame

 1745 game in 15mil

 BOB game

1914 game Crush the Kaiser in 20mm

 A great idea with she smoke signals.

Pike and shot society "thinking?"

Dave as bookseller

A great Napoleonic battle was fougjht

Figures for crisis

Well, we put the figures we will be used for the Crisis show on parade. Some additions are being worked on.

We hope to see you at Crisis.

Ca Ira and Duc de Gueldres

Maybe You have noticed some new items in the header above.
"Ca Ira" was or is still an existing blog about the French Revolutionary period 1792-1797 but the information of "Ca Ira" will be published here on the Alde Garde blog and "Ca-Ira" will be terminated once all the info is put on this blog.

Peter is very interested in the 80 years war, so various info about that period will be published under those headings. 

Other headers will also include the ancient, medieval, renaissance and probably Dutch related ww2 info. 


Our website, www.aldegarde.nl is still under reconstruction although you can look there for older material.

Holiday in the Alsace; a WW1 Museum

As you maybe know, in World War 1, the frontline between Germany and France on the eastern border of France, stabilised from 1914 onwards more or less on the heights of the Vosges.
The Vosges is a range of mountains with a max height of 1.400 metres. The Vosges almost run north to south parallel to the Rhine and formed a barrier to the invading German troops. This is clarly shown on this map.

So from 1914 onward a desparate fight between the troops was fought with a lot of casualties. Various museums still commemorate these desperate fights, cemetaries show the amount of killed.
The military road which was build by the French on their side of the mountains still exists today (called: Route des Cretes)  and is on this moment a tourist highpoint on which you see the beautifull landscape of the Alsace But it also runs along the battlefield and cemetaries of that period.
When following the route from North to South you can end at the Grand Ballon with its obversatory; it is the highest point of the Vosges.

One of the most famous battlefields in theAlsace is the Hartmannswillerkopf (or in French : Veille Armand) which has a musee and where you can walk over the battlefield. Sadly I couldn't make it but here some information: http://www.getalsaced.com/vieil-armand-world-war-one-memorials.html . I only took a picture of the cemetary.

I visited the "Musee de la Linge"  (see: http://www.linge1915.com/index1-an.html ) which is also part of a WW1 battlefield and has a museum. The museum isn't big but they were expanding it. When you are in the neighbourhood, visit it please, it's worth your time.

Some pictures I took, hope you enjoy.

One remark to the picture above: right of the tree I put in an arrow near a pole with a small white shield. There was the French front line. In the near foreground, the german line. Distance between those appr. 10 to 15 meters. Between them some barbed wire. Otherwise they could shake hands.

When You visit the Alsace, don't forget Strassbourg or the Haut Koningsbourg castle (see below). A lot to see.