The year is 1900. Marching side by side, ready to do mortal combat with a common foe are troops from…

 …the United States Marines and Army, British Royal Marines, British Army, Imperial German Army East Asia Brigade and Seebattalion, French Army and Navy, Austro-Hungarian Navy, Indian Army, Imperial Russian Army and Navy, Nepalese Gurkha mercenaries in British service, His Majesty’s Chinese Regt. Italian Bersaglieri infantry and the Imperial Japanese Army….

 A science–fiction alternate history book? One might almost think there was no other option, this alliance would be impossible in reality. 

Uh-uh! This REALLY happened! Yup, in 1900.

 The scene, south-east China; a complicated series of internal events rouses an army of nationalistic / political / religious ‘militants’ to expel or kill all ‘foreign devils.’ For foreign devils, read ‘non-Chinese.’  

As usual in an uprising setting, initially the Chinese ‘Boxer’ rebels gained ground swiftly, then stalemated as a defense formed and those attacked and threatened consolidated their resources in the Legation District of Peking.

 An ‘almost unbelievable-they-survived’ 55-day state of siege came next, cut off and surrounded in a foreign land by millions of enemies…

 …followed by in this instance rather unique to military history, by a multinational ‘cavalry coming to the rescue’ in the form of an American / British / German / French / Austro-Hungarian / Russian / Indian / Italian / Japanese, divisional-plus strength relief expedition.

 Really a fascinating read, all in all.

 Author Lynne Bodin lays out a complex political situation and one almost without precedent, rather nicely in a 40-page book. A great sprinkling of period photos (over 100 years ago!) really helps the reader get into the feel of the time and place. Inclusion of maps and Legation District city-layout helps clarify the perhaps complex-sounding situation, too.

 Artist Chris Warner has a gob of different uniform styles to portray, as well as the Boxers’ really interesting, colourful Chinese militaristic-civilian garb. His renditions of different countries’ soldiers make really interesting study. The Men-At-Arms’ usual 8 pages of center colour provide no fewer than 34 possibilities for a go at ‘copy-this-painting for your converted or scratchbuilt figure.’

 The 1963 film, “55 Days At Peking” gives a nail-biting action-thriller Hollywood-point-of-view visual to the siege of the Legation District and flavour of the time and mood (Zeitgeist-lite) and is highly recommended. Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven lead the cast of an award-winning production. Interestingly, the sets were built in Spain, China being (again) closed to outsiders. 

If one looks around hard enough, figures of the 19^th à 20^th century era are available and some centons ago there were a few old Men-at-Arms and maybe a Valiant one in 54mm. For the most part, if one wants to do model soldiers from the Boxer Rebellion, conversion or scratchbuilding is almost surely in your future, though many conversions will not take much work. There are a couple of production Chinese Boxer figures around, but not popular, to say the least. The subjects are available in The Boxer Rebellion are different enough though, doing one or two will surely spice up your display cabinet. Doing a figure or two from The Boxer Rebellion allows an opportunity for you to relate the story of when many traditional enemies and not-at-the-time allies banded together to liberate their embassy compounds and in the doing, fight a common foe, 105 years ago.

 This reviewer highly recommends The Boxer Rebellion as a real ‘one-off’ bit of unique military history where a number of traditional enemies square off against a common foe in a very, very foreign land…and what the hey, it’s a relief from the endless boring tedium of more Panzers, Waffen SS, FW 190s and Bismarck models.

 Review copy purchased from Prosek’s Greenhouse and Military Model Shop, Winfield, Illinois, USA, Charles Prosek, USMC Retd., Proprietor.

 Reviewed by James Hood

 (author site updated October 2005) see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover)

 M2 Book review #38   

   October 2005

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