Native Troop Formations

[sedecula]

I've been looking around, and I haven't seen evidence of any of the native troop formations.

There were irregular forces operating on many of the Solomon Islands;

There were a fair number of natives helping as "base force" troops - in the hundreds and maybe thousands as far as I can ascertain (I'm reading through the Morison books on the campaign).

Wouldn't Jacob Vouza express consternation at this?

Is there a hidden effect not shown in the unit roster?

[FirstPappy]

The role of the "Base Force" in this game is to provide support for aircraft maintenance and readiness. So unless the natives were previously employed before the war by Pan Am I doubt they would be represented as "Base Force" units. Perhaps some kind of garrison troops instead? Or maybe they could be represented abstractly in determining the hex's ability to support certain size bases?

[sedecula]

Perhaps base force isn't the right term. They functioned as bearers, especially around port facilities. Perhaps they could be represented as engineers, or boost the support rating or unloading speed in an established port?

There should be some way to fairly represent them - they were significantly helpful to the Allied effort, and on the other hand did little to help the enemy.

[Don Bowen]

There were two "native" combat units in New Guinea.

The Papuan Infantry Battalion was formed in New Guinea in 1940. It had Australian Officers and few Australian NCOs but was primarily made up of New Guinea native troops. It was a light-infantry formation and performed primarily scouting functions along the North Coast of Papua and the Kokoda Track. They were also pressed into service as carriers as only the Papuan Natives could manhandle a load over the Papuan terrain.

The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles was a local defense force (militia in the true sense of the word) formed primarily from returned soldiers (discharged veterans). It also was formed in 1940 and had a nominal strength of 23 Officers and 482 other ranks. Officially a Battalion, with three rifle companies, a Machine Gun company, and Headquarters - it had units at Rabaul, Wau, Salamaua, Lae, Madang, and Kavieng. Note that there were also small sections of the 2/1st Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force, in several of these same locations. The Independent Companies were commando-type organizations that functioned quite like the Green Berets.

Once the home areas of the NGVR were overrun the units performed deep reconnaissance and occasional raids on Japanese installations. Some NGVR units were with Kanga Force (which was formed around the 2/5th Independent Company, AIF).

There were also Native troop formations on Fiji (including some crack units) and on Samoa but that is outside the scope of Uncommon Valor (waiting for WITP).

Don

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Don Bowen
There were two "native" combat units in New Guinea.

The Papuan Infantry Battalion was formed in New Guinea in 1940. It had Australian Officers and few Australian NCOs but was primarily made up of New Guinea native troops. It was a light-infantry formation and performed primarily scouting functions along the North Coast of Papua and the Kokoda Track. They were also pressed into service as carriers as only the Papuan Natives could manhandle a load over the Papuan terrain.

The New Guinea Volunteer Rifles was a local defense force (militia in the true sense of the word) formed primarily from returned soldiers (discharged veterans). It also was formed in 1940 and had a nominal strength of 23 Officers and 482 other ranks. Officially a Battalion, with three rifle companies, a Machine Gun company, and Headquarters - it had units at Rabaul, Wau, Salamaua, Lae, Madang, and Kavieng. Note that there were also small sections of the 2/1st Independent Company, Australian Imperial Force, in several of these same locations. The Independent Companies were commando-type organizations that functioned quite like the Green Berets.

Once the home areas of the NGVR were overrun the units performed deep reconnaissance and occasional raids on Japanese installations. Some NGVR units were with Kanga Force (which was formed around the 2/5th Independent Company, AIF).

There were also Native troop formations on Fiji (including some crack units) and on Samoa but that is outside the scope of Uncommon Valor (waiting for WITP).

Don

Don, you know way too much about the New Guinea campaigns for a yank;) Love your input!

[Don Bowen]

Originally posted by Raverdave



Don, you know way too much about the New Guinea campaigns for a yank;) Love your input!

Thank you Sir. Its just 'cause Australia produced such fine official Histories of WWII.

Don

[stubby331]

Hmmm... Im also impressed,

Don, your a man of deep wisdom. I can tell.

Ever thought of running for office?

(In fact, I really wish you would)...

(Arnold Potts is my nomination for most hard done by Australian brigade commander of the war. )

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by stubby331


(Arnold Potts is my nomination for most hard done by Australian brigade commander of the war. )

Indeed I tend to agree with you, the man was very much hard done by, considering what he had to work with and against.