H.M.L.S. Thunderchild in action on The Patio.

 

I've got my wooden 'Landship' finished and took the opportunity of the fine weather to take some photos outdoors. (note - in the background is one of the gigantic felines that roam The Patio )

Here we see General Stoores , Mr Kipling (war correspondent) and Col. Flashman inspecting the Landship 'Thunderchild' . Against a lot of opposition from the military it is being crewed by Naval personal under Capt. 'Jolly Rogers , here seen standing on the upper decking .

Although it arrived to late to see action in  'The Great Patio War' it was put through several training missions and the hard surface of the Patio proved a perfect terrain for its movement . Here we see a rare still photo from a now lost piece of cinematography* of the Landship .in motion. 

However not everything went as planned , whilst maneuvering over some rougher terrain in got stuck and had to be partially disassembled to recover it . The above photo is from Kipling's 'Dispatches from the Patio' , a publication which was heavily criticised at the time for it's anti Red Army stance . It was so badly received  that Kipling temporarily abandoned his writing career and went back to the family cake confectionary business before returning to writing childrens stories .

*a sad loss as it was probably one of the first military action films .