Battle for Wargamers, Good and Bad but first, the very Ugly

Battle magazine went through a number of iterations in the 1970s and early 1980s, as “Battle”, “Battle for Wargamers” and then incorporated into Military Modelling as “Military Modelling including Battle for Wargamers”

This is the first post of what will hopefully be a series looking at various aspects of the magazine. It was sometimes good, it was often quite bad (especially when compared to modern era publications), but before getting round to rosy nostalgia, I thought I would focus on a sometimes uglier side to the magazine.

Those Nazi Regalia Back Covers

With origins as a general military and militaria publication is is perhaps unsurprising that there would inevitably be coverage of Nazi medals for those people who seem to like such things. Was this more of a thing back then ? It feels like that was the case but I must admit I don’t really know. Even so, having several issues in 1976/77 with full colour photos of Nazi regalia on the back covers seems tasteless indeed.

The Dodgy Classified Adverts

The magazine soon began to host a classified adverts section. There always seemed to be a few adverts for militaria shops selling the sort of Nazi daggers, medals etc. referred to above. But from 1976 a company that seemed to have various names but usually involving “Viking” started blatantly advertising Nazi marching songs, specifically Horst Wessel. I am assuming they weren’t targeting music fans. This guy was still being allowed to post adverts in 1981. You can’t help wondering if Model & Allied Publications really needed the fiver a month that they were getting from him.

The Simply Terrible Article: “In the Beginning There Was HG Wells”

In October 1978 there appeared a breathtakingly horrible article. A ‘joke’ story about an African tribe adopting Little Wars as the basis of a religious text. Told in the worst Bernard Manning style and with cartoon illustrations that would have seemed inappropriate in the 19th Century. And this went on for three pages. The only reason i’m not declaring this to be the worst article in the history of wargaming magazines is that I haven’t read them all. I’m pretty sure it would be in the top 1 though. No pictures from this – don’t particularly want them on my site.

I can’t imagine what possessed the editor. This was the last issue of Battle for Wargamers before it was folded into Military Modelling. There were very few adverts in the issue. Perhaps he was desperate to fill space but it’s hard to believe there was no other material available.

“That” Advert

November 1978 was the first issue incorporating Battle into Military Modelling. On page 875 (page numbers were by volume not by individual issue) there was an advert that simply beggars belief.

An offer to subscribe to the English language version of the magazine of the association of former Waffen SS soldiers……..

This advert only appeared once. No indication is given as to whether this was an editorial decision. But the fact that it appeared in the first place is astounding. I can’t believe that this would have been considered normal even in 1978.

Reaction at the time

There was no editorial comment page in the magazine, we don’t know what the team thought of these ugly items. The regular columnists didn’t refer to them. In February 1979 there was a letter that was highly critical, and another one the following month. But that was it, no further debate that I have noticed.

I have a great love for this old magazine, there are many classic articles by the greats of our hobby. But equally it is important to recognise that there were problems with it. The criticisms raised represent only a tiny proportion of the content of Battle in the seven years that MAP published the magazine in various guises. But still, we need to remember that the ugly bits were definitely there. I think that helps me appreciate the quality and great editorship of magazines from more recent times such as the excellent Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy and the wonderful Battlegames (gone but sadly missed).

In future posts intend to write more on some of the themes and interesting bits during the life of Battle, Hopefully. something more positive next time !