Steven’s Gurkha Battalion for Crossfire

With my Japanese battalion ready for duty in Burma, my next project was the Gurkhas to face them. This is a battalion nominally from 17th Indian Light Division, the guys who fought at Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong on the Imphal Plain 1944. You might recall from my A Case Study in Balagan Thinking – How I justify collecting Japanese, my justification for collecting Japanese was that I’m (kind of, sort of) Welsh, and so are the 2nd Battalion, 4th Prince of Wales’s Own Gurkha Rifles (kind of, sort of). Anyway, I’ve now got a battalion of Gurkhas for Crossfire. Yay! Can’t wait to get that bag piper on table.

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Order of Battle

I used a tweaked version of the 14th Army Battalion – Order of Battle in Crossfire:

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The Box

Like all my recent forces, the Gurkhas live in a Really Useful Box.

There are two layers of figures.

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Battalion HQ

I put all my Battalion Commanders on 50mm x 50mm bases to distinguish them from Company Commanders and rifle squads, both of which are on 30mm x 30mm bases. That extra space allows me to put some more figures on. So I’ve got an officer, radio operator, mule driver with two mules, and a bag piper. ID is “Q-BC”

The radio operator is a Gurkha figure, but I’ve taken the officer from Eureka’s Australian range. He looks nicely rugged and suitable for Burma.

Although I often put a vehicle on the BC stands, for Burma I’ve gone for mules instead. This hints at the off road, jungle warfare that dominated much of the campaign. The mule driver is from Eureka but the mules are from Peter Pig.

Gurkha units had a close association with the Scottish units of the Anglo-Indian Army, so all of Gurkha battalions had bag pipers in the HQ. I had to have one because, lets face it, bag pipers are cool (what can I say, one of my grand mothers was a Colquhoun). The piper figure is from a Flames of War British in Italy rifle company pack.

Some how I managed to get two HQ guard squads. Guys armed with SMG. One of the squads has hats and the other helmets. The ID for both is “Q-.-.” indicating they can be attached to any company and any platoon.

The battalion would have had a “Sniper Section”. I don’t need figures for this as Sniper are always hidden in Crossfire.

Heavy Weapons

Unlike other nations the official British organisation had no integral machine guns (Forty, 1998). However, some battalions added an integrated machine gun platoon of four weapons (Bevis, 1999). They could also have some machine guns assigned from the divisional machine gun battalion (Crossfire; Jemina Fawr, 2020). In fact first person British accounts of Burma often mention machine guns attached from division, which makes the machine gunners a different ethnicity to the riflemen (e.g. English riflemen with Indian machine gunners).

I have put one HMG stand at the battalion level.

Although on the order of battle, for one reason or another many battalions did not have a anti-tank platoon. Apparently Gurkha battalions never had an anti-tank platoon (Bevis, 1999). It was also common for British and Indian battalions to convert their anti-tank platoon to a transport function (Jemina Fawr, 2020); transport units are not represented in Crossfire. All of which means I didn’t get anti-tank guns for my Gurkhas. But I do have some Lloyd Carriers for my future project: A British battalion from 17th Indian Light Division. And those guys will have anti-tank guns needing tows.

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Rifle Companies

Following British practice, the Gurkha battalions had four rifle companies. Apparently entire battalions of 14th Army either wore a hat or wore a helmet in combat. In the interests of variety I’ve split my companies by hat / helmet. A and B Companies have hats. C and D companies have helmet. Aside from the headgear, all four companies follow the same pattern: Company Commander, HMG, 2″ mortar, Forward Observers, and four rifle platoons.

The normal British order of battle had three platoons in the rifle companies (Forty, 1998). However, when 17 Indian Division converted to a light division, it shrunk the squads to allow an extra platoon per rifle company, making four platoons per company in total (Grant, 1993).

Officially Platoon Commanders would have been either British NCOs (slightly bigger than Gurkha figures with an SMG) or Gurkha junior officers (figures with berets and pistols). But I have used the occasional Gurkha infantry man a a PC representing Gurkha NCOs stepping into gaps as the officers took casualties.

There is much debate about whether PIATs were carried in the field in Burma. Some units battalions did not have PIAT but could get them issued from stores on request. The battalions of 17 Indian Division on the Tiddim Road carried PIATs as a matter of course (Grant, 1993). They acquired a few Victoria Crosses for tank hunting. So each platoon has a Red Dot squad, indicating the presence of infantry anti-tank weapons. Unfortunately, the only Gurkha figures I could find are with hats, so my helmet companies don’t have PIAT figures, but they still get a red dot squad.

I allow one HMG per company to align with the organisation given in the Crossfire rule book. Most probably these would have been assigned from a divisional machine gun battalion, and from a non-Gurkha unit, but I’ve opted to just use Gurkha figures.

‘A’ Company (ID Q-A)

‘B’ Company (ID Q-B)

‘C’ Company (ID Q-C)

‘D’ Company (ID Q-D)

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Engineer Company (ID Q-E)

I now get a fifth company for every battalion I collect for Crossfire. This is an sapper / engineer / assault engineer / anti-tank assault engineer company, depending on the nationality and context.

The 14th Army Battalion – Order of Battle in Crossfire only has a single Engineer Platoon in the battalion, but gives several options for how to field that platoon:

• 1 x Pioneer Platoon: assumes the men are “engineers” rather than “assault engineers”, regardless of equipment
• 1 x “Assault Platoon”: Formed in some battalions, I assume these were the engineer platoon with additional flame throwers, explosives, and attitude (Jemina Fawr, 2020)
• 1 x Assault Pioneer Platoon: Forty (1998) says two engineer sections in an Engineer company were “assault” and one “pioneer”. This option assumes “assault” means assault engineer in Crossfire, and “pioneer” means engineer
• 1 x Pioneer Assault Platoon: Bevis (1994) says one flame thrower was issued to each Engineer platoon, so this option allows only one section the assault engineer classification under Crossfire, with associated +1 in close combat

Unfortunately, there are no Gurkha engineer figures so any classification is nominal. I went for four platoons in the company, like the rest of the battalion.

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Reconnaissance Company

I’ve gone for a Carrier Recon Platoon and a “Commando Platoon”, lumped together in a nominal Reconnaissance Company. Nominal because there are no company level assets, just the two platoons.

I had a big debate with myself on the ID to give these platoons. Eventually I landed on Q-R for the Reconnaissance Company, Q-R-C for the Carrier Platoon and Q-R-R for the Commando Platoon.

Carrier Platoon (ID Q-R-C)

Bevis (1999) says the Gurkha battalions did not have a carrier platoon, however, Grant (1993) mentioned instances were Gurkha battalion of 17 Indian Division did have them. The organisation in Crossfire lists only three sections in a carrier platoon but there were four (Forty, 1998).

Players can choose how their carrier platoon is deployed in Crossfire:

• Carrier Platoon: one carrier per squad and an optional carrier for the PC. This is my house rule for carriers. The official Crossfire rules say one carrier for the entire platoon.
• Jeep Platoon: replace the carriers with jeeps (Jemina Fawr, 2020); the jeeps are optional as Crossfire doesn’t really support soft skin vehicles.
• “Fire Support Platoon”: used as a dismounted fire support platoon (Jemina Fawr, 2020); I simulate 12 bren guns as as three rifle squads with an HMG, in a similar way that early war Germans get a bonus HMG stand for their good quality LMG
• Recon Platoon: reform as a reconnaissance platoon (Jemina Fawr, 2020); my Crossfire house rules give Recon squads a bonus on RBF.

I’ve gone for the Recon Platoon option.

Commando Platoon (ID Q-R-R)

Some battalions had a “Commando Platoon” (see Commandos in the 14th Army in Burma). Initially I thought these were repurposed carrier platoons, but Grant (1993) makes it clear that the commando platoons were separate. The commando platoons in 17 Indian Division were formed from men seconded from the rifle companies. In that division the commando platoons seemed to pre-exist conversion to a light division but were disbanded when the division reverted to a normal order of battle after Imphal.

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Regimental and Divisional assets

Some support elements from brigade, division and corps (Bevis, 1999; Davies, n.d.; Forty, 1998; Wikipedia: 7th Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom); Wikipedia: 254th Indian Tank Brigade; Wikipedia: 255th Indian Tank Brigade)

Notes:

(1) The American style M3 Lee tank was used by the British in Burma. It was much more common than the British style Grant (Davies, n.d.; Wikipedia: 254th Indian Tank Brigade; Wikipedia: 255th Indian Tank Brigade).

(2) Ten Grants served with ‘A’ Sqn, 146th RAC (9th Duke of Wellington’s Regt [West Riding]), 50th Indian Tank Brigade, XV Corps (Davies, n.d.).

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Figures

The majority of figures are from Eureka Miniatures (UK) – Gurkhas although there are a couple of Eureka Miniatures (UK) – Australians in the mix. The piper is from Flames of War.

From Eureka Miniatures (UK) – Gurkhas

300WWT201 Gurkha with No1 Mk4 rifle in slouch hat
300WWT202 Gurkha with No1 Mk3 rifle in slouch hat
300WWT203 Gurkha with No 1 Mk4 rifle and kukri in slouch hat
300WWT204 Gurkha with No 1 Mk3 rifle and drawn kukri in slouch hat
300WWT205 Gurkha in slouch hat, Thompson SMG
300WWT206 Gurkha NCO, Sten SMG, slouch hat
300WWT206a British NCOs – Sten SMG, slouch hat
300WWT207 Gurkha Vickers HMG and crew, slouch hat [2 Crew]
300WWT208 Gurkha Bren LMG and crew, slouch hat [2 Crew]
300WWT209 Gurkha with PIAT in slouch hat
300WWT210 Gurkha radio operator, in slouch hat
300WWT211 Gurkha mortar and crew, slouch hat [2 Crew]
300WWT212 Gurkha with No1 Mk4 rifle in helmet
300WWT213 Gurkha with No1 Mk3 rifle in helmet
300WWT214 Gurkha with No 1 Mk4 rifle and kukri in helmet
300WWT215 Gurkha with No 1 Mk3 rifle and drawn kukri in helmet
300WWT216 Gurkha in helmet, Thompson SMG
300WWT217 Gurkha NCO, Sten SMG, in helmet
300WWT217A British NCOs – Sten SMG, helmet
300WWT218 Gurkha Vickers HMG and crew, helmet [2 Crew]
300WWT219 Gurkha Bren LMG and crew, helmet [2 Crew]
300WWT221 Gurkha mortar and crew, helmet [2 Crew]
300WWT223 Gurkha Officer
300WWT223a British Officer

From Eureka Miniatures (UK) – Australians

300WWT70 Pacific Australian officer

From Peter Pig Range 8 WW2 – British includes some specialist 8th Army figures.

375. 14th Army – 3 Mules+3 men

From Flames of War

BBX04 Rifle Company (Italy) – Not in production

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Credits

Martin Boulter from Silurian Wargames Limited painted the Gurkhas. He uses a style that is similar to the Black Undercoat Method of painting but uses more shades. For example on the flesh he uses a mid brown base layer then does highlights in flesh tones.

Martin was aware of my WW2 Painting Guide: 14th Army in Burma but has his own ideas about painting.

I based and flocked them. I used my Standard Base Sizes and Number of Figures in Crossfire. Basically a rifle squad has 3 figures on a 30mm x 30mm base.

Simon Field painted the Lloyd Carriers, including the cool divisional tac signs.

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References

Bevis, M. (1999). List B37 BRITISH INFANTRY DIVISION, INDIAN INFANTRY DIVISION 1944-1945 Burma B, CT3, AT2 if Ghurka. MicroMark.

Davies, R. M. (n.d.). British & Indian Armoured Units Of the Burma Campaign: A Painting Guide V1.8. www.Fireandfury.com.

Grant, I. L. (1993). Burma The Turning Point: The seven battles on the Tiddim Road which turned the tide of the Burma war. Zampi Press.

Jemina Fawr. (2020, 27 March). The Forgotten Wargames Army: XIVth Army in Burma (Part 1). Jemima Fawr’s Miniature Wargames Blog.

Jemina Fawr (a pseudonym of a Welsh bloke) has painted a marvellous Sikh army in 15mm and shared lots of interesting details about 14th Army organisation

Forty, G. (1998). The British Army Handbook, 1939-1945. The History Press Ltd.

Wikipedia: 254th Indian Tank Brigade

Wikipedia: 255th Indian Tank Brigade

Wikipedia: 7th Armoured Brigade (United Kingdom)

Wikipedia: M3 Stuart