British & Commonwealth (28mm) Malaya Campaign 1941

Reviewing the Chain of Command rules, it appears useful to be able to differentiate senior leaders, junior leaders from normal troops.

More internet research lead me to the Tactical Painter Blog, which although he games in 20mm is worth a read. I also like his concept of Platoon Boards I will look to come back to that later hopefully.

I have an aversion to square bases so I am going to try:

• 20mm bases for troops,
• 25mm bases for Junior leaders and
• 32mm bases for Senior leaders

I will 3D print bases with coins in to give the figures some weight and also later for transport I can use magnets to hold them in place more securely.

Member Elessar2590 has some 3d bases on Thingyverse but he hasn’t done 20mm bases primarily because the smallest coin “we” have in the UK is 1 penny which is 20.3mm.
But thanks to the EU (See Brexit even gets into wargaming) we have access to the Euro 1 cent coin a copper covered steel coin of 16.25mm diameter.

So after talking to friends I got some euro cents so after checking measurement commenced designing 20mm base 3mm thick to accommodate a euro cent in Fusion 360

A short while later 20mm, 25mm, 32mm and prone base (also to be cavalry base) all designed and printed up.

Note: that not all 2p and 1p coins are magnetic the mint has increased the steel content in newer coins so you will need to test them with a magnet. Expect to get a strange look from the Bank Cashier when you turn up with a bag of 2p and 1p coins and ask to change them for the same amount and denominations!

Now its time to consider how to build the sprues:

The 8th Army Sprue comes with the following heads:

Punjabi Mussalam/Yusufzai heads (x6)
Scottish Tam O’Shanter heads (x6)
Tin helmet heads (x6)
Sikh heads (x6)

The Commonwealth Infantry Sprue comes with the following heads:

Australian heads (x6)
Generic Special Forces (x10)
Tropical helmet heads (x6)
New Zealander heads (x2)

From the above the New Zealander and Generic Special Forces heads are destined for the bits box.

Per my internet research all the other heads can be used.
The Wikipedia articles on the Malaya Command and Battle of Hong Kong are a useful starting point as they outline the forces present.

UK, Canadian & Australian:
A build consisting primarily of tin helmets would enable British, Canadian, Scottish and Australians to be represented.
To add more flavour some additional figures built with Australian Slouch hats and Tam O’Shanter.

So 3 different Command Teams (6 figures)

• Tin hats,
• Australian Slouch hats,
• Tam O’Shanter

3 Sections with Tin hats (30 figures)

Then to spinkle through the platoon

• 1 Section with Australian Slouch hats (10 figures)
• 1 Section with Tam O’Shanter (10 figures)

Boys Rifle & 2″ Mortar team in Tin hats (4 figures)
[Maybe later do additional figures in Australian Slouch hats, Tam O’Shanter.]

For additional flavour a section in Tropical hats would be nice but of more limited use as less interchangeable but useful to represent fresh units maybe as the Support option (maybe in future build this up to an entire Platoon)

Looking at the history in Hong Kong some interesting units fought:
40 Royal Marines under Major Giles attached to HMS Tamar (the naval station) fought to defend the island as did a squad of Free French under Captain Jacques Egal which might make an interesting future project!
For more about the Free French click here.

On the Singapore front It would appear that Royal Marines survivors of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse (Force Z) also fought with the the Argyll & Southern Highlanders
Click here for more information on the Plymouth Argylls and here.

Looks like I was premature in dismissing the beret heads on the sprues …..!

Context:
The Malayan campaign began when the 25th Army, under the command of Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita, invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941. Japanese troops launched an amphibious assault on the northern coast of Malaya at Kota Bharu and started advancing down the eastern coast of Malaya. Japanese forces also landed at Pattani and Songkhla in Thailand, then moved south across the Thailand-Malayan border to attack the western portion of Malaya.
More info available on line good starting point is Wikipedia

At Salute I managed to get on the demo game being run by the Too Fat Lardies and that hooked me into the period, the figures used at Salute after close inspection were Warlord Desert War plastic figures, and some subsequent research “Google” confirmed that the tropical kit was fine, plus the head selection on the 8th  Army and Commonwealth Infantry sprues worked well for the units present in Malaya to face the relentless onslaught of the Japanese in the peninsula.

For the companion Project Blog on the Imperial Japanese Army click here

Figures:

• Warlord Bolt Action – British Commonwealth Infantry Sprues x3 (18 Figures)
• Warlord Bolt Action – 8th Army Sprues x3 (18 Figures)
• 2 sets of Gurkha heads (10 heads)

Pending the new book the most up to date Chain of Command List for British Far East 1941 

Without the new Far East Chain of Command book the difficulty is the weapons for the Junior Leaders the 1940 British Platoons had rifles the army would be slowly introducing SMG into units with the priority likely to be home service.

The Sten was only just being produced in the U.K. so it’s unlikely to have made its way to the region, the U.K. was purchasing Thompson’s so that is a possibility so I will build my senior sergeant with a Thompson but will probably arms the rest with Rifles.

Chain of Command unit: (38 men)

Command Team: (2 men)
Lieutenant, Senior Leader, with pistol
Sergeant, Senior Leader, with Thompson SMG

2” MORTAR TEAM (3 men)
2” mortar with two crew

BOYS AT RIFLE TEAM (3 men)
Boys AT rifle with two crew

Section One (10 men)
Corporal, Junior Leader, with Rifle

       LMG TEAM RIFLE TEAM
Bren gun with three crew

Six riflemen

Section Two (10 men)
Corporal, Junior Leader, with Rifle

       LMG TEAM RIFLE TEAM
Bren gun with three crew

Six riflemen

Section Three (10 men)
Corporal, Junior Leader, with Rifle

       LMG TEAM RIFLE TEAM
Bren gun with three crew

Six riflemen

So I am therefore 2 men short …..

For information for future builds (will need some Lewis Guns)
Volunteer units in Hong Kong and Singapore will replace all Bren guns with Lewis guns.
Canadian units in Hong Kong will replace the Bren in the third section with a Lewis gun.

So as I need more figures a quick look at support options requiring figures

Medical Orderly (1)
Entrenchments for one Section (10)
Boys AT rifle Team, (2)
2” mortar Team, (2)
Sniper Team (2)
Regular Infantry Section with Junior Leader (10)
Forward Observer and 3” mortar battery (1)
Recce Section of two Universal Carriers, 4 crew each. One Junior Leader (9)

Amounts to 39 figures (I have excluded the Engineering teams as these will require significant modification …) so it looks like a Box of either 8th Army or Commonwealth Infantry will be required…

So the build commences.

Thanks to some magazine freebies I can extend the base force.

I have built a platoon in Tin helmets, using Warlord Commonwealth, 8th Army and some left overs from late war British.

in addition I have a section each of troops in

Tam O’Shanter’s

Slouch Hats

Turbans

Having read accounts I felt I should aim to have a entire Platoon of Empire troops so my Section of Sikhs is the start of that plan.

In addition I have built some extra Australians with a Boys anti tank Rifle and 2” mortar.

The figures are based on 3d printed bases and PVA’d then dipped into Chinchilla sand from the local pet shop. Left to dry and then tapped to loosen any sand not adhering and then PVA’d again.

Next is base coating and painting ….