The Loose Association of Wargamers

grizzlymc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:27 am Am I correct that the Brits in Burma never had an armoured division, it was just armoured brigades?

That's right. They started out with 7 Armd Bde, which left all but one of its Stuarts in Burma before being withdrawn and reformed in North Africa.

50 Indian Tk Bde sent a half-squadron of Valentines to the Arakan late in 1942 and promptly lost them. They went back to the Arakan again with XV Corps in 1943, this time with Lees and Stuarts in regimental strength and did somewhat better that time, thanks largely to Slim-era retraining and Slim's tactical doctrine. 50 Tk Bde eventually built up to several regiments of Lee/Grant, one of Stuart and eventually a regiment of Sherman, even conducting amphibious ops down the Arakan coast.

254 Indian Tk Bde was with IV Corps at Imphal, with three regts of Lee/Grant and one of Stuart. These were heavily engaged during the Battle of Imphal and then accompanied XXXIII Corps into Burma and the Battle of Mandalay.

255 Indian Tk Bde was initially in reserve with XXXIII Corps and was equipped with three regts of Sherman V and one of Stuart, but was then swapped with 254 Bde during the advance into Burma and supported IV Corps during the Irrawaddy Crossing, the Battle of Meiktila and the subsequent advance to Rangoon.

A small number of Indian Armoured Divisions were formed, but none got closer to the front line than conducting garrison duty in Egypt/Palestine before being broken up as independent brigades or being reformed as other types of formation (including an Airborne Division).

You'd feel a bit ripped off if you volunteered for tanks and then started jumping out of perfectly airworthy aircraft.

grizzlymc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:50 am You'd feel a bit ripped off if you volunteered for tanks and then started jumping out of perfectly airworthy aircraft.

I seem to remember that they were infantry battalions that had converted to armoured battalions (numbered RAC bns) and then into gliderborne Airlanding battalions that never got used. There was also a hell of a lot of transferring in and out, so while the divisional number might stay the same, virtually everyone and everything within that division had been replaced.

One Gurkha battalion was 'voluntold' to become Paras when the British 151 Para Bn was transferred to the UK. They were proud to be selected, but alarmed when told that they've have to jump out of aircraft at 500 feet. The SNCOs presented the men's concerns to the CO and suggested that 200 feet would be preferable. "But at that height your parachutes won't have time to open!" replied the CO...

"Parachutes, Colonel-Sahib?..."

After a little more explanation, the Gurkha NCOs went away visibly relieved...

I've read that story, I think in "It is better to die than live a coward"

grizzlymc wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:20 pm I've read that story, I think in "It is better to die than live a coward"

First recounted in Harry Seaman's 'The Battle at Sangshak' (it's since been misattributed and changed with the re-telling). Seaman served in the same brigade and heard it directly from the Gurkha Para CO.

RMD wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:45 pm Two India Pattern Wheeled Armoured Carriers, one of them converted to a mortar carrier (Flames of War):

I'm always confused as to whether these were the Indian equivalent of the bren carrier or not. Were they operated by the divisional recce troops (pretty sure the Central India Horse from 4th Inf Div had them), or by the individual infantry battalions (or both)?

Any used in Malaya in '42?

They are very nice models RMD.

When I visited Tata Steel HQ in India a few years back they had a Tata made armoured car on display, don’t think it was used outside of India though ?

Hi,

Could I politely request that this thread be kept for points claims etc. for the challenge, please? If it's been a week since I updated the totals then I don't want to be clicking through multiple pages trying to spot where people actually claimed points...

Cheers

A

Count Belisarius wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2020 5:16 pm Hi,

Could I politely request that this thread be kept for points claims etc. for the challenge, please? If it's been a week since I updated the totals then I don't want to be clicking through multiple pages trying to spot where people actually claimed points...

Cheers

A

Hey, it's not my fault that people keep asking flippin questions!

Could a mod split the thread off? Say one for India Pattern Carriers and another for Cold War Cloggies?

No worries. I've done it manually