From Curt: Thornycroft LCA for Douglas' Shallows (50 Points)

For 'Douglas' Shallows' I offer a 1:50 scale Thornycroft landing craft (LCA).

The Thornycroft LCA was designed in 1938 after it became clear to the British that war with German had only been delayed, not forestalled. The Imperial General Staff desired a craft that could carry a platoon of men, have a low profile, be quiet on approach and be able to land their payload in 18 inches of water. After rigorous trials it was determined that the Thornycroft design was the best fit. It was made primarily of mahogany and had two 65hp engines, allowing it to make headway at 6kt fully loaded.

Canadians and the Thorycroft LCA have a tragic association with both being involved in the August 1942 Dieppe raid fiasco. I have a personal connection with the Dieppe operation as two men from my home town were members of the South Saskatchewan Regiment which landed at Green Beach on that day. 

Due to navigational errors, the South Saskatchewans were set down on the wrong side of the River Scie and became bottled up by machine gun and mortar fire at the foot of its only bridge crossing. Their commanding officer, Charles Merritt, led his men across the bridge under heavy fire and then proceeded to knock out several pillbox positions on the other side. Nonetheless, the battalion was forced back to the beach, and with their defensive perimeter closing in, Merritt decided to stay with the rearguard and the wounded. They fought until out of ammunition and then surrendered. Merritt was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions that day.

I was generously given two(!) Thornycrofts by Alf at Barrage Miniatures when we visited Madrid a few years ago. They are very nice resin models, meticulously scaled to 28mm figures (yes, Nick, I believe Alf said it was built to 1/48 to 1/50 scale). ;)

On top of the excellent casting, Alf created an ingenious way to display the boat with its loading ramp up or down by utilising two separate prow inserts. The inserts are very robust and look great.

A fairly quick paintjob, I've done it up in a three tone camo, common to that early period of the war. From what I understand, the boat identifiers for the Dieppe operation were hand-painted in red and so I've tried to copy a similar style here.

I did a bit of archival sleuthing and found a list of all the LCAs that were lost at Dieppe and found a few images to correlate to them. Here is one image of LCA 215, which from the position of the photo places it at Red Beach (you can see one of the abandoned Churchills behind it and the town's seawall further in the distance). 

LCA 215 grounded at Dieppe.

As to points I suggest simply scoring the Thornycoft as a 28mm vehicle. With the 30 points of Douglas's Shallows that should give me 50 points to add to my tally.

-Curt

From DaveD - that a nice piece MrC , the camo gives it a nice bit of something extra - 50 pts it is