Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

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Primarch
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Re: Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

Post by Primarch » Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:23 am

Lt. General Mutaguchi - Continued...

The plan put forward by Mutaguchi was incredibly bold. His three infantry divisions and supporting units would cross the Chindwin river and advance across country to the border of India where British forces were believed to be assembling for an offensive into Burma. Due to the rugged nature of the terrain they had to cross, the Japanese supply lines would be virtually non-existant. Instead the men of the army would carry as much equipment with them as they could. Food would be supplied 'on the hoof,' as thousands of cattle were rounded up and distributed to the units. Once the Japanese reached the British lines, they would force them to retreat and resupply from the depots the British had built for their own invasion plans. At that stage it was believed that India would be wide open, with most of the units stationed in India being spread around on police duties and unable to form a cohesive counter attack.

In addition to the Japanese troops, the Indian National Army would accompany the advance. Once the British and loyalist Indian troops near the border were defeated, the INA would take the lead. It was hoped that the news of Indian soldiers advancing into the country to liberate it from the British would lead to an uprising across the country. Any civil disorder would make the task of the Japanese troops far easier.

Once the plan reached the higher echelons of command, it's obvious flaws were picked apart. The Japanese simply didn't have the resources available to conquer India, nor to maintain an army there if the fighting wasn't over with quickly. Advancing thousands of men through dense jungle was audacious enough, but even the boldest commander doubted the ability of 100,000 troops to subdue an area the size of India.
In the end the plan was sent back to Mutaguchi heavily modified. He was authorized to advance to the border of India to counter any invasion into Burma and to ensure that American supplies were not able to reach the Chinese forces fighting the Japanese further east via the Burma road.
As the order filtered back down through the chain of command, and was passed on by Mutaguchi to his divisional commanders, he was careful enough to leave his officers room to continue their advance if the believed it were possible. General Mutaguchi had set his sights on delivering India to the Emperor and wasn't going to pass up the chance to do so if he could help it.

In hindsight, Mutaguchi's plan was overly ambitious to say the least, but in this regard he was a victim of his own success. Up to this stage in the war, the British had retreated at every turn. There was simply no reason to think that they wouldn't continue to do so once Mutaguchi's troops made contact. This, combined with Mutaguchi's intolerance for scepticism from his officers meant that the concerns of the divisional commanders fell on deaf ears.

As time would prove, the plan was flawed in that it simply did not allow for the fact that the troops defending India were not the same troops who had retreated all the way from Singapore a few years earlier. The British, Indian and African troops the Japanese encountered were better trained, better led and better equipped than before. Even so, the speed with which the 15th Army advanced left the defenders reeling and Mutaguchi came within a hair's breadth of opening the way into India.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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Re: Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

Post by Primarch » Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:14 am

It's been a while since I updated this blog it seems. (Nearly 18 months, where does the time go?)

So to get things moving again....

I have painted up some units for the Indian National Army. As I guess most people are generally less well informed about the WW2 battles in Burma and India than say, Normandy, I feel I should offer some explanation.

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Once the Japanese army overran the British in Singapore, Malaysia and Burma they took a large number of prisoners. Among the large number of Indian prisoners captured, there were some of them who thought that the Japanese might be the best way to free their homeland of British rule. In 1942 the POW's formed the first Indian National Army, but it was disbanded later that year. It reformed under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose, a young, radical politician who was in hiding from the British and looking to gain support for an independent India from both Germany and later Japan. As well as those hoping for a way to create massive political change at home, there were also a lot of soldiers who signed up as a way out of the Japanese POW camps.

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Equipped with captured British equipment, including the older style Khaki Drill uniforms and lightly armed in comparison to both the British-Indian army and their Japanese allies, the INA was meant to lead the Japanese way into India. The idea was that upon seeing their former comrades 'liberating' India, other local units would defect and overthrow the British. When they encountered their fellow Indians, the INA troops were seen as being traitors and were often shot by their fellow countrymen if they were captured. When this harsh reality came to light, it severely damaged the morale of the INA. Add to this the fact that the Japanese high command saw them as being more of a nuisance than a professional fighting force, often assigning them guard duties or construction tasks, and it should come as no surprise that the INA was not successful in it's aims during the war.

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Even if the INA had been successful in liberating India from the British Raj, they were aware that their allies might simply have moved in to replace the Raj, thus preventing Indian independence. On the Japanese side of things, there was certainly the benefit of propaganda to be had from the INA, but they were largely sidelined during the attempted invasion of India that led to the battles of Kohima and Imphal. When the Japanese invasion was halted and then reversed, parts of the INA force formed a rearguard for the fleeing Japanese formations, holding back the British advance before falling back themselves.

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After the war was over, the Indian view of the INA changed quite quickly. While they had been criticized for taking up arms against their fellow countrymen during the war, post-war they were treated as true patriots. Trials of captured INA soldiers generated massive sympathy across the country and, despite being convicted and sentenced to exile from India, the INA commanders were instead released. All captured INA troops were released as well, though they lost any pay or allowances they would have been due if they had remained POW's. They were also forbidden from joining the newly formed Indian Armed Forces as one of the conditions for Independence. Subhas Chandra Bose died in 1945 while attempting to flee to Russia, unfortunately never living to see India becoming free of the Raj.

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Re: Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

Post by Primarch » Sun Jan 31, 2021 8:54 am

In 1944 the Japanese army launched Operation U-Go, an offensive aimed at entering India through the border with Burma. Planning for the offensive had begun in 1943 after the Chindits had (rather ironically) proven to the Japanese that it was entirely possible for infantry units to advance through the dense jungle and hills along the border. In March, 5 Japanese infantry divisions advanced into the Northeast India regions of Manipur and the Naga hills. The British Indian army had been expecting an attack by the Japanese, but had no idea where or when it would strike. The sudden advance by the Japanese army quickly pushed into the border regions and several British Indian divisions were encircled and trapped in the areas of Kohima and Imphal.

Fighting in these regions would last for nearly 4 months and saw 10s of thousands of casualties and the eventual shattering of the Japanese offensive force. Conditions were harsh, and food, medicine and ammunition were in short supply on both sides.

The Naga were a group of tribes that lived in the jungles on the edge of India. They were headhunters and farmers, eking out an existence in the harsh climate and on land ill suited for agriculture. Fierce and independent, it was only the arrival of the British that tamed them. In exchange for a cessation of all headhunting (it still happened from time to time), the British supplied the Naga with medicine and heroin (Yes, the Empire did some very questionable, if not downright evil things). This brought relative peace and stability to the region and by all accounts, the Naga had good relationships with the local government representatives. So much so, that when the Japanese invaded, the Naga warriors signed up with the British as scouts, messengers, guides and even soldiers. Among all of the tribes, there were supposedly only two Naga warriors who went over to the Japanese, the others largely siding with the British.

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At first armed only with muzzle loading muskets and their Dao swords, the Naga took on the role of guiding British patrols through the jungle, keeping watch for advancing Japanese units and rescuing downed airmen. Eventually they would receive supplies of more advanced weapons from the British reserves, but they always fought well regardless. That the British took a rather more relaxed view towards headhunting when it was directed against Japanese troops also encouraged the Naga who saw it as an important coming-of-age ritual for young warriors.
Warriors from the tribes would often decorate their skin with tattoos made from tree sap pigments. Only those who had been a part of a headhunting raid were allowed to tattoo their skin in such a fashion. They would traditionally wear necklaces of precious stones, bones and feathers, and wore kilts and wraps of dark cloth with colourful stripes.

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Of the Naga, Field Marshall William Slim wrote, "Many a British and Indian soldiers owe his life to the naked head hunting Naga, and no soldier of the Fourteenth Army who met them will ever think of them but with admiration and affection."

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When I first started researching my Far East project, I was unable to find any miniatures suitable for the Naga tribesmen. Luckily Konrad is great at sculpting, so I supplied him with a bunch of Zulu sprues from Warlord Games, figuring that their near naked appearance would be a good starting point to build from. Konrad certainly did not disappoint and produced these 8 unique miniatures for me. He added earrings and necklaces to some of the models, extended the loincloths into kilts and wraps, added leg wraps and changed the hairstyles of the models. He even managed to get one in a kneeling pose. All in all, they came out very nicely and I hope that my paint job is worthy of his efforts.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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Re: Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

Post by YellowStreak » Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:38 pm

Great write-up Prim and nice sculpting work by Konrad!
So many games, so little time....
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Re: Bolt Action Blog - East of the Empire

Post by Primarch » Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:57 pm

YellowStreak wrote:
Wed Feb 03, 2021 1:38 pm
Great write-up Prim and nice sculpting work by Konrad!
Thanks for reading it!
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450

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