This is the second last Australian Jungle Division section. The project just needs the fifth Australian Jungle Division section, a mule section, a 2pdr anti-tank gun, 3 Universal carriers and an LVT-4, to be totally finished and hopefully this will be later in the week if the carriers arrive.
With 4 Owen guns and a Bren gun per ten man section this meant the short range firepower required in jungle fighting was more than sufficient.
NCO with SMG
Three soldiers with SMG
Soldier with Bren gun
Five soldiers with .303 rifle (one the Bren gun loader)
Recently I have picked up an number of e-books on the Chaco War. It has always been a period of interest that has fascinated me but also one that I only had limited knowledge of.
The first book I wish to review is the Osprey Men-at-Arms Series the Chaco War.
However i should provide some background first.
The Gran Chaco is the most inhospitable part of the inhospitable Chaco Boreal, a largely uninhabited, 250,000 sq-mi region west of the Paraguay River and east of the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.
It is an arid, semi-desert, where some of the highest temperatures recorded in South America are encountered. In the west, near the mountains, the Gran Chaco is a flat, sparsely vegetated, waterless plain. Further east it is a thick, dry, almost impassable thornbrush jungle punctuated by dense stands of quebracho trees and grassy clearings. There are few people, but myriad biting, stinging insects and many tropical diseases. Prior to 1928, the region’s only real value was the tannin extracted from its quebrachos and the meager grazing it provided for cattle. Such was the unlikely bone of contention in South America’s bloodiest, twentieth-century war.
Bolivian Troops
“Often over-shadowed by contemporary events in China and Japan, the Chaco War (1932-1935) was a massive territorial war between Bolivia and Paraguay, which cost almost 100,000 lives. It was sparked by Bolivia’s attempts to capture a stretch of the Paraguay River to gain access to the Atlantic.
An old fashioned territorial dispute, the contested area was the Gran Chaco Boreal, a 100,000-square mile region of swamp, jungle and pampas with isolated fortified towns. The wilderness terrain made operations difficult and costly as the war see-sawed between the two sides. Bolivian troops, under the command of a German general, Hans von Kundt, had early successes, but these stalled in the face of a massive mobilization programme by the Paraguans which saw their force increase in size ten-fold to 60,000 men. Both sides acquired ‘modern’ technology including tanks and planes in an attempt to seize the initiative but by 1935 both sides were exhausted and a ceasefire concluded. “. From the publisher
Paraguayan troops
Like most of the Osprey Men-at-Arms series “The Chaco War” provides a good overview of the conflict for gamers, providing information on the beginnings of the conflict and reasonable detail on the various phases of the war.
As always there is plenty of information on the forces with the usual basic uniform and equipment information. Alas it also suffers from having good information on the higher OOB echelons, but minimal information on Battalion and lower organisation. This makes it less useful for gamers.
I think it is worth the money for an e-book on special at about AU$10.00. I would not pay full price for it.
For those interested in the period there is an excellent boardgame from Command Magazine just called Chaco. It is a complex game with an introductory version as well, but this suffers in comparison to the full version.
The World at War series has a better game “The Chaco War”.
Both are now difficult, but not impossible to get if you try eBay and Second Chance Games.
Many ranges are available to use as substitute figures especially for support weapons and artillery. The only AFV’s that were used are the Cardon Lloyd, FT17’s (allegedly, although I can find no evidence), and Vickers tanks.
Orinico Miniatures have a small range of 28mm figures and Khursan Miniatures have a larger range of 15mm figures including support machine guns and mortars.
Helion have a couple of excellent books in the Latin America @ War series that I will review in due course. There is also a definitive book on the war “The Green Hell” which is out of print and expensive if you can get it.
A while ago I received a gift from someone whom I will now call a “frenemy”!
I thought that looks great I might be able to do something with that. Then he said, and this is where the frenemy bit comes in, ” I thought it looked a bit like you”!
He likes blowing his own trumpet.
He keeps his money bag tightly closed.
He has little grey hair.
He likes a frothy or three – true providing it is old scrumpy!
His choice of clothes could do with some improvement
And looks like his had his head in the trough for far too long
Looks nothing like me!
See…………Oops wrong logo!
Guru says. “If you cannot laugh at yourself others will do it for you”!
It takes at least 3 crows to make a “murder” (group of crows) and I now have two of them!
Based on old English folklore referring to the “Three ravens” folk tale, where three crows plot to devour the corpse of a dead knight. Then they are thwarted by the knight’s hawk, hound, and mistress.
Another option could be from that great source of wisdom, no not Guru, but Homer of the Simpson variety, who destroys Marge’s garden scarecrow and inadvertently becomes leader to the local crows.
Marge is hesitant to share her bed with a “gang of crows,” and Homer gently rebukes her, “It’s a murder. A group of crows is called a murder.” It was on TV so it must be true!
These are one of the most useful Deadzone figures. The “Murder Birds” can be used for any period as flying monsters ready to attack the “good guys” at their masters demand.
Known by a variety of names, depending on the nature of local fauna, flocks of infected flying creatures are frequently reported as attacking the uninfected.
Larger Murder birds, believed to be 2nd generation creatures, grow larger and become aggressive pack hunters, while 3rd generation flocks may number hundreds of smaller creatures.
Unfortunately they suffer from the “mantic curse” of being hard to glue together. At least these did not require gluing and pinning!
I have 3 packs of two murder birds that I have painted in two lots. These first ones are resting on a treasure chest, objective, plague cure or whatever, and are ready to attack any one trying to purloin it.
I obviously missed some sprue bits on the birds beak! Funny how the close up shots shows the painting and preparation errors!
Tomorrow the “Murder Birds” flying CAP to protect the objective(s) these ones are sitting on.
I am not talking here about the Spin.VR Game available on steam but the Mantic “Living Legend” for Mazon Labs and the Plague factions.
The product of a failed experiment to “control” the Plague, all information on Subject 901 is heavily classified. This doesn’t stop witness reports of his violent actions alongside Plague forces from circulating, though.
Subject 901 is the only “Living legend” that you can have in the Deadzone “Mazon Holdings Faction”. Although not a figure with a lot of “grunt” I think he is a must just for the back story that you can create.
Subject 902 is also a “Living legend” that can be used in the Plague faction. He is more of an option than the Dr Gayle Simmonds alternative, and at only six points more is far better value.
During WW2 Australia produced four types of Universal Carriers:
Universal Carrier MG, Local Pattern No. 1
Also known as “LP1 Carrier (Aust)”. Australian production similar to Bren carrier but welded and with some minor differences. About 60 were sent to North Africa in 1940 and saw action in North Africa, Greece and Palestine. In all, 160 LP1 carriers were built by Victorian Railways at their vast Newport workshops in Melbourne. They were not successful as the engine overheated, there was a shortage of spare parts and break wear was excessive. Although problematic, much was learnt from the experience, and a new design was produced, which corrected many of the inherent faults of this first model.
Universal Carrier MG, Local Pattern No. 2
Also known as “LP2 Carrier (Aust)”. Australian-built variant of the Universal Carrier. Also produced in New Zealand. Used 1938–1939 Ford commercial axles; the 2A had 1940 Ford truck axles. Over 2700 of these were produced.
2-pounder Anti-tank Gun Carrier (Aust)
The Australian 2-pounder Anti-tank Gun Carrier, also known as 2-pdr Attack Carrier was built on an extended LP2 chassis. The driver had an open-topped compartment that was armoured on the front and sides. The gun was mounted on an open platform at the rear of the vehicle that allowed the gun to be traversed 360-degrees. The vehicle had a crew of 4: commander, gunner, loader and driver. Testing of the first prototypes began in August and September of 1941. At the conclusion of successful trials in February/March 1942, an order for 200 of them was placed with the first one being delivered in May 1942. They were built by Metropolitan Gas Company of Melbourne.
By the time the 2-pounder Anti-tank Gun Carrier came into service, it was already obsolete as most of the vehicles it was designed to combat had armour that was too thick for the 2-pdr to successfully penetrate. As a result, all of the carriers were kept in Australia and used as training vehicles and equipment for Australian reserve and volunteer units.
3 inch Mortar Carrier (Aust)
The Carrier, 3-inch Mortar (Aust) was a design based on the 2 Pounder Carrier with a 3-inch mortar mounted in place of the 2 pounder. Designed to enable the mortar to have 360 degree traverse and to be fired either from the vehicle, or dismounted. 400 were produced and were ultimately sent as military aid to the Nationalist Chinese Army. None of these are now known to still exist.
Bren Gun Carriers were allocated to all types of Australian Army Units.
Owing to the shortage of tanks, in the newly formed 1st Australian Armoured Division on July 1, 194 a great number of Carriers were pressed into service in Milne Bay and Cape Endaiadere, where their attack failed with all five attacking Brens destroyed on December 5, 1942.
I will provide more details of their use by Australians in combat when I post on a second carrier, but suffice to say, it did not take long for soldiers on the ground to realise their open top, light armour, and inability to traverse the jungle made them a liability. They were quickly replaced with carriers of the two-legged variety.
