Starting my British Force for Burma: First Game 27Nov22

[joekano]

Well, it was time to start a new Army.  Since I already have a Japanese force, I thought the British could be a fun opponent in Burma. First up are some troops from the 81st (West Africa) Division.



https://majorthomasfoolery.blogspot.com/2020/09/81st-west-african-division-for-burma.html

[Jemima Fawr]

Superb painting!   

If you don't have it, try to get a hold of the excellent divisional history 'War Bush' by John A. L. Hamilton, as it discusses kit quite a bit.  Here's a summary:

Essentially the division went to war DEEP in the jungle of the Kaladan Valley in Nov/Dec 43 and left as much heavy kit as they could (including all their helmets) behind in depot.  At that point they wore KD with trousers and anklets rather than shorts.  JG was supplied by air starting in Jan 44.  When the 2nd Kaladan Campaign kicked off in late 1944 the division had lightened itself further (by that point they were operating on a much lighter scale of kit and supply than even the Chindits) and a lot of the troops by then were wearing home-made JG shorts and marching in bare feet.

The 3rd West African Brigade was detached as Chindits and never fought with the division.  They went over to JG before seeing action.

While the 81st WA Div was in the Kaladan Valley for the first time (Nov 43 to May 44), the 81st West African Recce Regiment was divorced from the division and was instead operating as XV Corps Recce Regiment (initially in scout cars and carriers) along the Arakan coast.  They wore KD (including helmets and shorts) throughout the first half of 1944.  Your photo of seated soldiers wearing KD is from 81 Recce Regt and your chaps are absolutely perfect for that Regt, with their mix of trousers, shorts, helmets and bush-hats.  They were increasingly used as an amphibious recce regiment, operating alongside 3 Commando Brigade and 'Z' Force and increasingly abandoning their armoured vehicles.  By late 1944 they had completely gone over to waterborne recce/raiding and had adopted JG.

I hope that's of some help.  Again, your models are superb.

[TacticalPainter]

They look great, Burma offers some great variation in units and is a theatre rich with gaming opportunities. Very tempted to add some Africans to my force after seeing this and reading Jemima Fawr’s informative post.

[Plynkes]

Nice! I have always fancied doing some King's African Rifles for Burma after reading a rather moving (and funny) account by one of their officers. And I don't even game WWII these days, either.

Fun fact: Don't know if the West African division did this, but the white officers of the KAR (in the same vein as Al Jolson, Justin Trudeau and Jimmy Fallon) adopted 'blackface' in combat, as their skin colour singled them out as officers, attracting an inordinate amount of fire from the Japanese.

[Jemima Fawr]

Nice! I have always fancied doing some King's African Rifles for Burma after reading a rather moving (and funny) account by one of their officers. And I don't even game WWII these days, either.

Fun fact: Don't know if the West African division did this, but the white officers of the KAR (in the same vein as Al Jolson, Justin Trudeau and Jimmy Fallon) adopted 'blackface' in combat, as their skin colour singled them out as officers, attracting an inordinate amount of fire from the Japanese.

Yes, I had the enormous privilege of knowing an officer of the KAR and he said the same thing about 'blackface'.    Not heard of it being done in 81 or 82 WA Divs though.

The KAR all served in the 11th (East African) Division (which fought at the end of the Battle of Imphal and the pursuit into Burma), the 22nd East African Independent Brigade (which fought with XV Corps in the Arakan from late 44 onward) and the 28th East African Independent Brigade (which fought right through from the Battle of Kohima to the Irrawaddy Crossings).  There was also the related 11th East African Scout Battalion, which was attached to 81st (West African) Division very late in the 1st Kaladan Campaign and didn't do very well, being badly cut up during the first battle at Myohaung.

The best figures for East Africans in Burma would probably be Australians for the Pacific War, as they also wore US-style gaiters.  The East Africans also don't seem to have taken their tin lids to war and instead seem to have universally worn bush-hats.  The East Africans received to have received JG before going into action.

[Plynkes]

I had thought of using Aussies. Personally I feel I'd need more than paint conversions to make them look like Africans (no disrespect to joekano's figs, which look great, it's a me thing), which would mean not only head-swapping some African heads on to the bodies, but also grafting the hats back on to the new heads. The bother of doing all that is what has held up this pipe-dream. 


Maybe some day... it's not as if I need them for a game.

[Jemima Fawr]

I had thought of using Aussies. Personally I feel I'd need more than paint conversions to make them look like Africans (no disrespect to joekano's figs, which look great, it's a me thing), which would mean not only head-swapping some African heads on to the bodies, but also grafting the hats back on to the new heads. The bother of doing all that is what has held up this pipe-dream. 


Maybe some day... it's not as if I need them for a game.

True enough if you're doing them in 28mm.  Mine are all in 15mm though

[joekano]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and Jemima,  I appreciate the book lead and all the additional details on the kit. I was stuck working off the limited information and photos I could find online and just took my best shot at it.  Glad to know I didn't mess things up too badly. 

On a side note, maybe you wouldn't mind advising further on the next units I have planned for the theater.  I'm putting together some European squads that I'm hoping can do double duty for Burma and Malaysia.  My plan was to use the Warlord plastic set again with all troops in KD shorts, with one squad in green brodie helmets (dark green as in Europe or another shade?), and the other in the pith helmets.  The last 2 squads will be Indian troops, and I wasn't sure if if Sikh or Punjabi heads would be better.  Again I was planning to use them in KD shorts so they show up in Malaysia as well. I've also heard the head wrappings stayed KD until very late in the war.   If any of these sounds completely off, please let me know.

Thanks again!
Chris

[Jemima Fawr]

Oh thank God/Allah/Guru Nanak for that, as I'd hate you to think that I was criticising.  Your painting and observation is superb and the blog is great as well.

Shorts are a tricky one.  They were pretty standard in Malaya/Singapore/Hong Kong/Java at the start of the war (yes with dark bronze green helmet), but were deeply frowned upon by Giffard and Slim, partly due to the difficulties of dealing with prickly jungle terrain while wearing them, but mainly due to them compromising the massive efforts to reduce the incidence of malaria, scrub typhus, etc.  That said, units with some 'latitude' such as the Chindis did sometimes wear them and 81 WA Div certainly went for shorts in a very big way after the 1st Kaladan Campaign (not sure about 82 WA Div though).

So I'd say KD is good right up until mid-way through 1944 (though odd bits of KD continued to be worn, especially by tank crew) and shorts (or 'Bombay Bloomers') could be worn by some units/individuals right up until the end of the 1st Arakan Campaign and 1st Chindit Expedition (Operation 'Longcloth') in early 1943.  After that they were effectively banned.

Sadly Burma does tend to be one of those periods which has an 'Early' and a 'Late' style of uniform.

Re turbans: Yes, Sikh turbans were usually KD and in black & white photos often look very pale (as does sun-bleached webbing).  However, they were sometimes covered with scrim netting as a camouflage measure.  The other races though simply didn't wear regimental turbans in the field (apart from some oddities such as MPs).  Typical headgear was simply the tin hat, usually covered in scrim. Soft headgear varied by regiment - Gurkhas had their own pattern of bush hat and the standard XIVth Army bush hat was a very popular item among KCOs and VCOs, though very rarely seen on the heads of the ordinary jawans.  They were more likely to wear the khaki beret-like GS Cap (a big floppy beret, like a tam-o-shanter that appeared mid-war), cloth 'cap-comforter' (fabric tube worn as a balaclava-type item or folded as a cap) or some other regimental headgear (there were various types).

Re webbing: As mentioned above, it was often very pale, being sun-bleached to a very pale cream colour.  However, it could also be dyed JG at source or by the unit (with varying degrees of success).  Blanco was generally despised and not used in the field, though my mate's dad (1 SLI - 7th Indian Div) said that it was very common to simply paint webbing in green or black vehicle paint, in order to stop it from rotting.

[Jemima Fawr]

Oh by the way, I've been working my way through various Burma topics on my blog.  The next part (254th Indian Tank Brigade at Imphal) should be up tonight: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/category/burma-campaign/

[Jemima Fawr]

Oh something else worth mentioning is that if you do an 'Early' Indian unit in KD for the 1941-43 period, you can use them as Japanese-allied Indian National Army troops for 1944-45.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Joekana they are lovely. Not something I’ve seen done in miniature before which is always a bonus. Your skin tone is very well done. Interesting information from Jemima (as alway!) really looking forward to seeing what you do next.

Keep up the good work,
BALM.

[joekano]

Thanks Jemima, that information is really useful and I'll have to do a deeper dice into your blog.  Since I already invested in 2 boxes of figures in shorts, I'll gear those towards the early part of the war and see about picking up some chindits and Gurkhas for the later half, with some units like the 81st to straddle the two. That's also good to know the Indian National Army. At this stage I'm trying not to annoy the Mrs. by letting this army get too out of hand, so I'm hoping to build in as much flexibility into this force as I can.

[Digits]

What I love about this hobby is the constant education....I never knew we had African troops fighting for us in Burma.  I lived in West Africa (Cameroon) for a couple of years in my youth.

Though the majority making up the near 90,000 African troops look like they were from Nigeria and sub Sahara, I am certain a few Cameroon chaps would have been there.

Fascinating, thanks.

[Jemima Fawr]

What I love about this hobby is the constant education....I never knew we had African troops fighting for us in Burma.  I lived in West Africa (Cameroon) for a couple of years in my youth.

Though the majority making up the near 90,000 African troops look like they were from Nigeria and sub Sahara, I am certain a few Cameroon chaps would have been there.

Fascinating, thanks.

Cameroon was a French colony, so while there might have been the odd individual volunteering to fight with the Royal West African Frontier Force, there weren't any Cameroon units in British service.  Plenty of Cameroon lads fighting in De Lattre's 1st French Army though!

The RWAFF consisted basically of four regiments - the Nigeria Regt, Gold Coast Regt, Sierra Leone Regt and Gambia Regt.  In Burma the 1st, 3rd and 4th WA Brigades were made up of Nigerian battalions, the 2nd and 5th WA Brigades were Gold Coast and the 6th Brigade was mixed Sierra Leonean, Gambian and Nigerian.  The 3rd, 5th & 6th Brigades were in 81 WA Div (though 3rd Bde was detached as Chindits) and the 1st, 2nd and 4th Brigades arrived later with 82 WA Div.  The different West African nations also provided artillery batteries, recce squadrons, engineer platoons, 'carrier' companies (i.e. lightly-armed troops that would carry supplies on their heads and who could also be used as labour to build roads, airstrips, etc) and these woould then be grouped together into larger units (e.g. 81 WA Recce Regt had a Nigerian, Gold Coast and Sierra Leone Squadron).