Himmler’s Crusade

The German expedition to Thule was not their first  attempt to uncover the secrets of the planet and its creatures.  In 1938 Himmler sent an expedition to Tibet, ostensibly to find the origins of the Aryan race.  This is documented in Himmler’s Crusade: The Nazi Expedition to Find the Origins of the Aryan Race  : 

 “Why would the leader of the Nazi’s dreaded SS, the second-most-powerful man in the Third Reich, send a zoologist, an anthropologist, and several other scientists to Tibet on the eve of war? Himmler’s Crusade tells the bizarre and chilling story one of history’s most perverse, eccentric, and frightening scientific expeditions. ….. “

What the author of this book doesn’t disclose is that the expedition was actually investigating the fabled Yeti – Himmler was obsessed with the idea that ancient, powerful creatures were part of the Nazi ideal, and would eventually be vindicated with the Thule expedition.

The expedition failed to find a Yeti, but some of the German soldiers  posed for this prank photo:

Failure to find a real Yeti didn't stop German soldiers staging this photo

Table plan

Here is the latest sketch Alan has done of the table.  It now has a lot more terrain on it, which will be great for skirmishing.

New Evidence

This  amazing photo  has come to light.  It seems that the Nazis were not the first to find dinosaurs – here we  see Union soldiers of the American Civil War standing over the body of a pterodactyl.

An American boy holds an unknown flying creature.  The wings and head are different to a pterodactyl – where did it come from?

Poster 2 – An Army 65 Million Years in the Making

For me this is the definitive image for Jurassic Reich. Another superb poster from Alan.

Figures

But can he punch out a T Rex??!!

For the Allies we’ll be using Kosta’s Dogface GI’s, filled out with some “generic” Allied troops.  Don’t know about the Germans yet – thats in the hands of Nic and Kosta.  We plan to use dinosaurs from Shadowforge, with converted German riders.  I’m going to be hanging out for the dinosaurs! Its always easier to write a game when you have the figures in front of you to give you inspiration.

 

Poster 1 -Where Pterodactyls Dare

The first of Alan’s posters for Jurassic Reich!

The Scenario –

Alan's very first concept sketch for the table. Originally it was 6 feet x4 feet - it has now grown to 8x4 !

So what is the actual game on the day all about ?  On the left is the very first sketch Alan did, based on a couple of emails between us.  And it is still essentially how the game will look – Schloss Schwarz on the northern edge, the dinsoaur compound (or “dinolager”) beside it in the far corner .  In the middle of the table are a few village buildings, which have now become army barracks. 

The valley is the training ground for the new, elite, Panzersaur division (we’re still having debates about that name!).  In the dinolager, the dinosaurs are bred and trained up.  There is a secret laboratory (of course) in the castle, where research goes on to make better, trainable, dinosaurs.

The Fuehrer has decreed that a propaganda film should be made, to demonstrate to the world the new might of  Germany – who now controls the most primeval of forces!

To make this film they have brought in the well known film director, Otto “Dino” De Laurentis .  They have also kidnapped Ginger Snaps,  well known American war photographer – she is to appear in the film to give it added credibility.

The Allies have three missions: 1) destroy or capture the film, before it is released to the world, 2) destroy the laboratory and dino hatchery and 3)  rescue Ginger Snaps.  All in a days work!  The Germans, as well as preventing this, are desperate to get the film out.

At this stage there will be  3 German players, and 3 Allied players – the Allies will have 3 squads coming in on the southern end of the table, on the left, centre, and right.  The 3 German players will control forces in the Dinolager, castle, and valley…  we’re playing around with variations on this …  maybe  one of the Allied squads are Soviets with their own agenda ….    one of the allied squads will be paratroopers and have to be “dropped” into their target area….

The allied squads will probably be 10-15 figures each. At this stage I’m not sure about the Germans, except for  dino riders – about 15-18 “on parade” in the valley… which should look nice.

As to rules – for Little Wars I plan to keep it simple simple simple.  I probably won’t use any published set of rules – though I’m highly impressed with Song of Blades and Heroes as a fast, versatile set of rules.  I’d like to do two sets of rules – one for the games day, and one for home use, which would be a  more detailed.

Otto “Dino” De Laurentis

Otto De Laurentis was a film director of the 30’s and 40’s, who became fascinated at an early age with the new art of film special effects and cinematography.  His films included Herr Kong (a sequel to King Kong), One Flew Over the Pterodactyls Nest and Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls . His fascination with prehistoric creatures, and the fact they appear in all his films, led to his nickname “Dino”.  When Germany decided to make a propaganda film to demostrate the new Jurassic Reich, Otto was an obvious choice, and he leapt at the chance to work with real dinosaurs!

Nazi Cows Invade Britain!

In April this year there was this news story:

“A breed of cattle that was recreated by Nazi geneticists after becoming extinct can be seen in Britain for the first time for 2,000 years. Aurochs were last seen in Britain in Roman times but they became extinct in mainland Europe in 1627.”

“However, before the Second World War, Nazi leaders recruited zoologist brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck to bring the hardy breed “back into existence ..  The breed features in Teutonic folklore and Heck cattle were seen as a symbol of German oppression and efforts to build a master Aryan race.”

“The Heck brothers traced the species’ descendants to domestic breeds and created the cattle at zoos in Berlin and Munich …  The cattle were largely destroyed following the defeat of Nazism in 1945. However, some survived in nature conservation parks in mainland Europe, and 13 Heck bulls and cows have now been imported from Belgium to a farm at Broadwoodwidger, West Devon.”

“Derek Gow, a farmer and conservationist, who has imported the half-ton animals, said the Nazis wanted to recreate the auroch to evoke the power of the “runes, folklores and legends of the Germanic peoples”, and Heck cattle were used as a propaganda motif.”

You can read more reports at Google News .  My two  favourites are the Sun, which features the  Dad’s Army graphic above and the classic headline “The Herd Reich“ , and the Independent:  “Hitler has only got one bull (and it’s alive and well in the West Country)”

And for a fascinating look at the German zoologist Lutz Heck

So truth is stranger than fiction – its only one step back (ok, a long one!)from Aurochs to dinosaurs!

Thule – the start of Jurassic Reich

Thule as Tile on the Carta Marina of 1539 by Olaus Magnus, shown located to the north west of the Orkney Islands, with a "monster, seen in 1537".

Thule was first referred to by the ancient Greeks – a land somewhere to the north of Britain, in the Arctic circle.  Nazi mystics believed Thule to be the ancient origin of the Aryan race.  Much of this fascination was due to rumours surrounding the Oera Linda Book found by Cornelis Over de Linden during the 19th Century.  The Thule Society was founded in 1919. It had close links to the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (DAP), later the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP, the Nazi party).

And they were right.  Thule existed – but no longer on any modern map – or on the surface of the Earth.  In 1940 Germany invaded Norway, for strategic military reasons historians would lead us to believe.  But the real reason was that the Germans had come into possession of documents that purported to lead to a world that lay beneath the world’s surface - primitive, hidden, waiting…..

And so Norway was captured by the Nazis – but no-one knew the real reason. German expeditions found the entrance to the interior of the earth, to the lost, sunken world of Thule.  There they found a prehistoric land that existed beneath our own – and there they discovered living, breathing dinosaurs.  The expedition  returned with some dinosaur young, some eggs, – and a new path was forged for Germany. At last Germany had made contact with its mythic roots – and it had the creatures to prove it – now Germany would demonstrate to the world that it commanded not only the best troops and technology – now it  could harness and train the most primeval forces the world has known.  Terror was about to be unleashed on the battlefield.