Chain of Command East Africa 1940

[jonrog1]

Hi inspired by the recent Gembloux Gap video's on YouTube, have decided to greenlight a long held plan to develop an East Africa CoC campaign, both with the mainstream Commonwealth forces up against the early Italians, as well as the Gideon force behind the scenes goings on and the Ethiopian revolt. Browsing through the Empress and Perry product lists with a few odds and bobs in the spares box, it's all there.

You even get a shot at an amphibious landing with Operation Appearance!

Can anybody point me in a good direction for research, or info on gaming this intriguing campaign. Small scale actions with a wealth of varying troop types from the mainstream to the tribal, it seems ideal for CoC. And I get to field an FT17!

Cheers

Jon

[M5A2]

Jon,

I am interested in doing a Belgian platoon, would be interested in organistation,
Where to get 28mm figures, I have a Belgian platoon for Europe.
And uniform colours.

Many Thanks

Rich.

[Gingermick]

Alan Moorhead’s African Trilogy has a lot of coverage in this

[jonrog1]

Hi looking at the images for Colonial troops in the item linked below, the Colonial troops bear a passing resemblance to Perry Miniatures Vichy French Senegalese. So that range may be an option. I don't know how fastidious you are, but images are few and far between for Belgian overseas troops. I'm assuming they wouldn't be campaigning in their European uniform as they'd wilt. So Maybe the Perry French in shorts and Adrian are a close enough proxy.

Useful article on WW2 Belgians in East Africa.
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Bel ... index.html

Link for Belgian Askari troops WW2
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Bel ... ia-p3a.jpg

At a rough guess I'd say most of Belgium's manpower was in Europe facing the axis threat, and the mainstay in Ethiopia were colonial troops as indicated, with a smattering of officers in which case any figure in shorts and suitable sun helmet will probably suffice.

Best of luck with your research.

[jonrog1]

Further to last post

Excellent SHORT YouTube clip on Belgian Colonial troops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7xvQKWQB-g

For an Officer type, my all time favourite is this chap from Empress Minis.
https://www.empressminiatures.com/young ... -228-p.asp

Also have a look at the mule borne radio team in the same range, I've got both for my proposed Gideon Force.

Best of luck with your research.

[DougM]

Sounds like a very unusual and interesting platoon to model. I would be interested to hear how this goes.

[jonrog1]

I think for CoC the entire campaign is an excellent opportunity for early war gaming, with smaller scale skirmish potential leading up to larger encounters. On top of that you have regular forces involved with the likes of the M11/39 and Vickers light tanks both seeing action as well as the potential for guerrilla warfare with the Ethiopian rebellion. Add on potential French and Belgian involvement and it's got a lot going for it.

[sjwalker51]

It’s a campaign that caught my eye as well, but I’ve not got beyond starting to read up on it. Good introduction is “The First Victory” (Stewart) and there’s an extensive bibliography attached to the main Wikipedia article on the campaign.

[Archdukek]

If you haven’t already done so you might want to check out the lists and supplementary material for the Abyssinia campaign on the TFL Lard Island blog and the threads in the sticky post at the start of this board. Might give you some ideas.

John

[jonrog1]

The Abyssinian material has been absolutely invaluable and I'm using a lot of it as the background for the platoon organisations, especially the local Askari, Colonial troops. A fantastic read all the way through and can't praise it highly enough. Will be using the British Colonial sheets as the basis for my Gideon Force.

What I thought might be a side project is rapidly becoming "The project", there's just so many fascinating angles on the campaign.