Interesting Scenario

[Helen]

Hi Folks

I found this interesting Scenario:

by Rudy Scott Nelson

Singapore Mutiny 1915

 For Wargamers this represents a great source for skirmish level scenarios. In January 1915, elements of the 5th Light Infantry regiment (mainly Moslem) were instigated to revolt by local imans. The imans felt that it was wrong for the Moslem soldiers to fight the Ottoman Turks who were also Moslem on behalf of the Christian British. The regiment was actually scheduled to be reassigned to Hong Kong not Europe or the Near East. The mutineers were supported by a few soldiers from the Malay States Volunteer Rifle Regiment and a few Sikhs from an artillery battery and a replacement unit.

The British raised a combined force from a variety of sources. The force consisted of 90 French sailors and marines with two machine guns from the French Cruiser Montcalm; 80 sailors from the HMS Cadmus; 200 Japanese civilians with sailors from the Japanese fleet; 20-30 armed Methodist clergymen; a detachment of loyal men from the mutinying units; unknown number of Russian sailors; 150 soldiers from the guard of the Sultan of Johore and Commonwealth citizens from Canada, South Africa and Australia. Volunteers and Embassy staff from Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and the USA were also formed into ad hoc self defense units.

The loyal detachment from the mutineer units was isolated in a bungalow complex with the British Commander. A British relief force consisting of a few artillerymen, the Methodist clergy volunteers and the 80 British sailors fought their way to the relief of the isolated detachment. By the time the Suppression force had been formed, the mutineers had scattered and fled to the jungle. A great ‘What If’ scenario would be if the mutineer force had decided to remain at their base and fight the Suppression force.
 


Note:  German POWs interned and German Sailors, some from the SMS Emden were invited by the mutineers to assist them, but they declined. This is an ideal wargame with a what if approach!  

God Bless

Helen

[Plynkes]

Wondeful idea! Hurrah for the Methodists! Now who makes Methodist ministers in 28mm?  

That scenario sounds like it was dreamed up to make a game by someone with an interesting, but incomplete figure collection, rather than a real event.

Nice one.

[Helen]

Wondeful idea! Hurrah for the Methodists! Now who makes Methodist ministers in 28mm?  

That scenario sounds like it was dreamed up to make a game by someone with an interesting, but incomplete figure collection, rather than a real event.

Nice one.

Hi Poly

I've a few accounts where this actually happened. They actually killed some of their officers, but there were other officers in with the plot (Indian Mutiny on a small scale all over again). Its nice that the author managed to hunt down the additional info. I managed to find out about the German Sailors in my thirst for knowledge.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

What a great scenario, would love to play "what-if-germans-would-join-in"

[Operator5]

Sounds exactly like my approach to wargaming. A bunch of ad hoc units thrown together and put into battle.

And I agree with Poly, I'd love to see some Methodist Ministers armed for war.

[Poliorketes]

This is strange. I never heard of the 1915 mutiny until last week, when I searched for sepoy mutiny on wikipedia and found not only the intended 1857 mutiny but also the 1915 one. And now a szenario...

There seemed to be about 300 germans, some of them escaped. That would be a nice extra scenario, Avoiding both mutineers and british to get away...

[Plynkes]

Hi Helen, I hope you don't think I was calling you a liar, as I wasn't.

I merely meant what with Sepoys, French, German, British and Russian sailors and all, it reminded me of one of those scratch games where you just pile together all your available figures from various projects and then try and come up with a plausible scenario for why they are fighting each other.

I do this sometimes as I often have too many projects on the go, and none of them are finished. This is usually the point when I get the call saying "Can you russle something up for Friday?"

 

[dominic]

This is indeed an interesting scenario, and I am ashamed that I did not think of it earlier!

The mutiny seems to have taken place over a wide area.  Indian troops in Singapore were stationed near the Alexandra Hospital area on the western side of the Island.  That would be about 5-10km to the city where it appears one of the skirmishes took place - at the bungalow of one of the senior officers somewhere near the city outskirts.

Another group went to Tanglin barracks (about 10-15km) to try to free the German sailors.

Then when things went awry, many of the mutineers tried to flee to Johore (about 30-40km) where many were rounded up by the Sultan of Johore's forces.

I don't know the Order of Battle of British or Empire troops involved in this, but it does appear that Singapore's defences were stripped bare at the time.  The Singapore Volunteer Corps were on holiday, so it appears only policemen and ad hoc civilian volunteers were on hand to stop the revolt, in addition to the companies of Marines from a French, British, Russian and Japanese ship.

If you're looking for Methodists, there is a Vicar in one of the Foundry Home Guard sets.  There are also numerous armed nun sets!

Finally, there appears to be a new book out which links a fictional Flashman-like character - Captain Lauterbach of the Emden - to the Singapore Mutiny!  Worth a read, I think!

[Plynkes]

I want a Wesleyan Minister with a Lewis Gun!

(Even if they didn't have Lewis Guns in 1915!)

[PeteMurray]

The Germans and Turks sent a legation to Afghanistan in 1916 to try the same sort of thing, with the idea it would force the British to keep more troops in India. The Germans promised arms and advisors and the Turks played up the Umma angle. In that particular case, nothing came of it.

That is a fascinating case, though, and like Poly said, it reads like something thrown together in haste by wargamers on Friday night. As is usually the case, history is as weird as anything we can come up with! Thanks very much, Helen!

[Plynkes]

The Methodist Minister unit sounds like something straight out of Monty Python. I don't think I'll be able to picture them other than with the faces of Palin, Jones, Chapman, etc.

[PeteMurray]

Methodist Minister post #3

Oh for Wesley's sake, just contract someone to sculpt them already! Otherwise I fear we'll be subjected to months of you moaning that nobody makes them in 28mm and you collection won't be complete, food has lost its taste, the birds no longer sing, etc etc etc ad nauseum.

[Hammers]

Singapore Mutiny 1915
 

You beat me to it! I was reading about this just the other week and thought I'd set up a game with my group and post wonderful pictures and everyone would worship me! ;-)

 ...Embassy staff from Sweden...

Didn't know about this! Huzzah! Good old Sweden!  I bet they made all the difference.

the Methodist clergy volunteers

Plynkes, why not use the GW Warhammer flagellants for these?

Note:  German POWs interned and German Sailors, some from the SMS Emden were invited by the mutineers to assist them, but they declined. This is an ideal wargame with a what if approach!  

In Wargaming World they most certainly participated. Not only that, they had also secretely built a Kaiserlichen Damfer Spatsieren Aparatus (steam walker) out of the barracks stove and empty sardin tins.

[Helen]

Hi Helen, I hope you don't think I was calling you a liar, as I wasn't.

I merely meant what with Sepoys, French, German, British and Russian sailors and all, it reminded me of one of those scratch games where you just pile together all your available figures from various projects and then try and come up with a plausible scenario for why they are fighting each other.

I do this sometimes as I often have too many projects on the go, and none of them are finished. This is usually the point when I get the call saying "Can you russle something up for Friday?"

 

Hi Poly

No I wasn't thinking that at all. I was just adding extra cast members into the theme. German Sailors in which I've over 80 would add weight to the argument of What if?  

Guys thanks for the comments as I'm also looking at another interesting scenario set in the Far East involving alot of colourful er drab units. Our member from Sweden must be reading the same book.  

Old Glory Civilians from the Boxer range maybe suitable too.  I think this would be  a great conevntion game that you could have the public participate in. The controllers handle the mutineers and Germans the public the Allies.

God Bless

Helen

[Poliorketes]

The Germans and Turks sent a legation to Afghanistan in 1916 to try the same sort of thing, with the idea it would force the British to keep more troops in India. The Germans promised arms and advisors and the Turks played up the Umma angle. In that particular case, nothing came of it.

Yeah, the stupid Afghan Khan waited till the war in europe was over to receive full british attention.