'Empire' From StuartL - Empire - The British Empire in WW2 - 100 Points

 Hi all,

    For this Empire themed round, I had initially thought to enter some other figures from a well known SF game, but instead went for something a bit more historical and realistic.

    As you can guess from the title, my entry revolves around the British Empire, specifically during WW2. I think most wargamers will have at least some idea about WW2 and the armies that fought in it. Germany, Russia, America, Canada, Japan, Italy and the UK to name the bigger players. Most people also probably have some idea of the battles in Normandy and on the Eastern Front. But how about the Far East? At this stage, you're probably thinking of the Americans island hopping in the Pacific, or the Australians in Papua New Guinea. 

    One of the less well known parts of WW2, was the British defence of India, followed by the offence into Burma. During that campaign, lots of Indian regiments took part along with some British troops stationed in India. However, manpower was a problem and the British high command had to get their thinking caps on. They needed troops that they could easily move over to India, that came from a place that had jungles and that wouldn't strip the planned campaigns in Europe of vital fighting men. So, they looked at the assets they had available and decided to send troops from Africa. Specifically African soldiers made up primarily of African natives, not European colonists (there were a few sent over, and we will get to them in a minute). Brigades were sent from East Africa and West Africa, shipped over to India to aid the fighting against the Japanese. These forces had not been assigned to the European campaigns as the thought of having African soldiers killing Europeans was something the British higher-ups didn't want to encourage. 

    So, to showcase the theme of Empire, I have painted some West Africans from the 81st Division sent to India to retake Burma from the Japanese on behalf of the British. 

    When the African forces arrived in India, General William Slim was shocked to see a large number of white officers and NCO's in the regiments. While the Indian regiments had less than a dozen white officers in them, the Africans often had 50 or more. To make matters worse, they often spoke different languages to the men that they commanded, which caused numerous problems. In combat, the Japanese snipers took to shooting the white men first, so they started wearing black boot polish to disguise themselves (I have resisted the temptation to black-up my NCO here). After that the Japanese just shot the guy who was clearly giving orders, so it didn't really help much.

    The British thought that the African regiments were sub-par, being ill-disciplined when in camp, (the fact that they couldn't understand their NCO's may have had something to do with it), but the Japanese thought that they were some of the best jungle fighters the British had. Whereas a British or Indian force relied on mules or machines to transport their equipment, the Africans brought porters with them. They had nearly triple the number of men on their order of battle as a British regiment. This let them traverse terrain that animals couldn't climb and trucks couldn't handle, plus the porters could stand guard and even fire a rifle if need be.

    

    After the war, when they returned to Africa, many of these veterans became leaders of independence movements in their home nations. Having been asked to fight for the independence of others, they decided to use their skills for themselves, leading to the collapse of British rule in most of Africa in short order.

    

    The insignia of the 81st West African Division was a spider, a reference to Ashanti mythology.

    All of the figures are from Warlord games and made from a mix of their old British box set, their 8th army box set and some heads that I bought from Gripping Beast.

    For 10x 28mm minis, 50 points is standard, plus an additional 50 for the theme round. That should add a nice, round 100 points to my score. This should also add one more Squirrel to my side duel too.

My ongoing duels information:
Skulls - 141 (+0)
BSRoD - 16 (+0)
Squirrels - 9 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans