"Headgear for Malaya 1941 troops" Topic

I've ordered some Perry Desert Rat figures for use as Indian Army and 1st Malay Regiment troops for the invasion of Malaya 1941.

I've not been able to find a definitive source for uniforms for these troops. I've seen photos of them in both steel helmets (Brodies?) and native headgear (khull+turban for the Indians or songkok for the Malays).

However, I can't tell if a mix of all of these were used in the field or if it was steel helmets in the field and traditional headgear for training exercises.

Can anyone help with an answer or a reference?

I'd say you're on safe ground with tin hats in action other than Sikhs, and some of them wore tin hats too. There's bound to be the odd pic with solar topees or whatever, but you won't go far wrong with helmets.
Longer shorts might be more if a challenge, but personally I would n't worry about it.

Should have said how nice it is to hear of someone else doing 1941-2….all the way fro Kota Bahru to Bukit Timah!

Thanks for the info, and yes, happy to add to the action for 1941-2, especially since my group is gaming in Malaysia.

I just picked up Two Fat Lardies' scenario book on the campaign and it looks like there's plenty to keep us busy.

Have you got any blog posts on your games?

Some Scots might also be found in tam o'shanters.

The book "Quartered Safe Out Here" by George MacDonald Fraser, covers Burma, and they wore the Aussie-style hats for headgear (except for the Indians & Sikhs).

Yes, but Fraser wasn't there in 41, his book covers 1944/45.

The last photo I have of my grandfathers regiment has them all in solar topees, but they've go their tin hats too.

They arrived in early 42, diverted from the ME so they are all in desert kit.

Ether…Blog posts…nope; we might have some pics of our 20mm Burma stuff on our drop box page, but we sold it all recently and moved over to 28mm. My wife has a lovely Sikh company painted by Alba Studios (there might be some pics on their website/facesplatter/whatever)and they'll doubtless feature in a Warlord website article in due course.
Where are you? We're planning on spending a few days in Singapore and three weeks in Penang in January/February. We're sad, sad individuals so we generally take toys with us on holiday. We've been known to play games on actual battle sites; how geeky is that?
I doubt if you'd have seen many Tam o'Shanters in battle – maybe the odd one, but mostly tin hats for obvious reasons. I think the well-known photos of Argylls in Malaya wearing tams are essentially publicity shots.

@uglyfatbloke I'm based in Selangor/Kuala Lumpur. There's a fair number of gamers in Singapore, though I'm not in touch with them. You'll have good pickings anyway. If you make it to Selangor give us a shout. Most of the Bolt Action here is Western Europe but with luck I may have my Japanese and Malaya forces ready by then.

I think I ordered some of the Perry's topees for variety's sake.

Thanks for the input, all

Also, I've seen pics of round pill-box type hats for Dogras, though not, I think, in combat. . I can't recall ever seeing pics of troops in topees in battle, but you never know – some TMP-er may have knowledge of such a thing.
We're only at KL to get picked up and driven to Malacca, but if you fancy a jaunt to Malacca or Penang….
We're in Singapore for four nights and we certainly would n't be opposed to meeting any Singapore-based players for a game one evening. We'll be in Saigon too if anyone there would like to meet up for a game?

There's a Bolt Action Singapore group that can be found on Facebook. You couldn't do worse than to look them up or to ask for alternatives if you've another ruleset you favour.

Put a note in their facebook page, but it kind of looks like nothing 's been posted there for a while – I may be wrong about that; I'm really not a facebook user.