From StuartL - Altar of the Snow Lord (Revisited) - 30 Points

Hello all,

The final few hours are ticking down towards the end of the challenge, time for a couple of last minute posts. When the Snow Lord set me that challenge to paint up something for my Far East WW2 project, I had a couple of options that I was weighing up. In the end, I chose a unit of Naga Head-hunters, but I kept the other option to one side with the aim of coming back to it if I had time. Luckily, I did!

One of the most overlooked contributions to the Allied war effort came from the British colonies in East and West Africa. During the early stages of the war, African troops in the 11th African Division played a small role in the conflict in  Africa, but only fought one action before being disbanded as the war shifted to the North coast of Africa. As manpower became more of an issue during the war, the British high command decided to form 3 Divisions from the East and West African colonies. These became the 11th East African, and the 81st & 82nd West African Divisions. Despite having three fresh divisions to deploy, the British were hesitant to deploy them in Europe. Instead they were sent to India to bolster the 14th Army fighting against the Japanese. Part of the rational for the deployment was that the Africans should be well suited for jungle fighting as there are jungles in Africa. This is the equivalent of saying that the Swiss should be natural sailors as Europe has a coastline. A lot of the troops deployed to India and Burma had never seen a jungle before they entered basic training. As it transpired, the Africans did make excellent soldiers in the battle against the Japanese, and the Japanese rated them as one of the best units in the British forces they encountered. 

As part of 81st Division's artillery units, the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Regiment, West African Artillery deployed a battery of Bofors anti-aircraft guns to cover the Division from the few Japanese aircraft in the theatre. Generally speaking, the jungle was a poor place for towed artillery pieces and vehicles, plus the tree canopy generally prevented airstrikes, so I can't imagine that these would have seen a lot of action compared to the infantry.

The 81st Division's regular troops were all Africans, but all of the officers and most of the NCO's were of European descent, often being settlers and colonists. Major problems arose within the Division as a lot of them couldn't speak the language of the African troops very well. Mind you, many of the troops spoke different languages and couldn't communicate with each other very well either. General Slim, commanding 14th Army thought that the excessive numbers of European officers was an extravagant waste, most of the Indian units under his command had only about 1/8th the number of white men serving in their battalions compared to the African divisions.

The divisional insignia of the 81st West African was a Black Tarantula on a yellow background. I am sadly unable to get anything close to that on a 28mm mini, so had to settle for a black spot on a yellow square on the shoulders. The spider is supposed to be Anansi, a character from West African folk lore.

The model is from Warlord Games and was originally sold as part of their Australian set for the pacific. The rolled up sleeves and gunner with his jacket off seemed like a good fit for the tropical heat of Burma. I do have a small West African force for Bolt Action to paint up, but alas I didn't have time in this challenge, maybe in Challenge XII.

With the minutes counting down, I'd better tally up my score. 4x28mm minis, plus a 28mm artillery piece should add 30 points to my overall score. As I have already covered the WW2 Far East theme, there are no squirrels for me here. I have already claimed the bonus points for the Altar, so nothing extra to add to my score beyond the minis.

One more post from me before the end I hope.