"What Uniform for Early War Brits in Burma/Malaya?" Topic

Looking for suggestions on 28mm figures for this time period. What would have been the uniform for that region?

Shorts?

;-)

B

Any 8th Army range will do. Note that helmets would have been green and not sand.

My grandfather's regiment was diverted from the Middle East and arrived in their khaki drill uniforms. AFAIK they didn't bother repainting their sand coloured helmets green.

Any old desert figures will do.

Very long baggy shorts though. "Bombay bloomers" as shown above.

Thanks guys! I suspected shorts may be the proper wear but I wanted to make sure.

Retreat in sandy shorts, stand in green ones attack in jungle green😉?

POWs in loin cloths unfortunately ….with ribs sticking out, is more likely.

Remember there were far more Indian units than "Brits" (a term, in the heading, that really does sound wrong when used for so many Commonwealth forces, back then….and these days, even more so) in Malaya/Burma.

I wonder if those figures would be passable suitable:
link

Not at all, Umpapa. You're better off just using standard 8th Army figures from the likes of Strelets and Airfix.

Been meaning to get these. I don't collect toy soldiers, but there's a first time for everything.

Percival looks far too beefy there. In reality he looked like a Donald McGill character.

Percival:

Donald McGill caricature:

Remember that although the majority of the troops weren't British, because it was a defeat it's still a "British" defeat.

Compare Waterloo.

That is not Percival carrying the flag.

He was an incredibly unfortunate chap, but not quite the idiot oft portrayed. He was totally short of any immediate adequate support, to meet a grossly underestimated enemy. He did have an unfortunate appearance, that is true, with those upper front teeth especially.

It was still a massive disgrace. The Commonwealth forces way outnumbered the Japanese assault troops. Our lot had the advantage of defending also. The fall of Singapore contrasted badly with First Tobruk or Bataan (Conceding that they both were different in retrospect, but not at the time)