This is my Liverpool-based Communist force, for A Very British Civil War (see previous entry if you are unfamiliar with VBCW). It represents a platoon strength force, plus a few Motor vehicles. The Communists of Liverpool are one of the more organised left-wing forces, thanks to the influx of veteran fighters from the Spanish Civil War and

advisers from the Soviets. My force are mostly equipped with rifles, but a handful wield Czech made Light Machine Guns, or Russian made SMGs (PPD 40's if you want to be beardy about it). They don't where uniforms as such, but one or two have started adopting the Birmingham Communist Brigades 'uniform' of grey flannel trousers and khaki shirts. This squad is lightly armed, with handguns and mills bombs. They could be used as drivers, runners etc. Or perhaps even a hit squad infiltrating the enemy lines in an attempt to assassinate strategically important characters. The Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was liberated from the Grosvenor estate. It was destined to be turned into an armoured car, but a commissar with taste stepped in and commandeered it. It has been hastily repainted and pressed into service as a staff car.A squad of Communists advance through woodlands on the Wirral, weary of ambush form royalist forces. They are mostly armed with rifles captured from military arms depots or supplied by their Russian allies. The man in front is a merchant seaman, and is carrying a Russian-made PPD-40 sub-machine gun. These weapons have been supplied in small numbers by the soviets to provide much needed firepower.A squad of Communists man a hastily erected roadblock trying to prevent Royalists forces encroaching on Liverpool. Here the ferocious woman in the middle of the picture is using a Czech made LMG smuggled into Liverpool via Spain, where it first saw service in the viscous fighting of the Spanish Civil War.