Bolt Action: Campaign: New Guinea

The Imperial Japanese Navy had its own arm of amphibious soldiers, which were roughly comparable to Commonwealth and US Marines – the Special Naval Landing Force. IJN and SNLF scout teams were used to probe hostile coastlines for potential landing sites and locate garrison forces. Once the opposing force was located, scouts would endeavour to identify the enemy and immediately report details of their numbers and capability. Due to their skill in concealment and hardiness, scouts are rated as Veteran.

IJA and SNLF scout teams count as an infantry unit for the purposes of the generic Reinforced Platoon Selector from the Bolt Action rulebook. They also count as an infantry unit for all of the Theatre Selectors of the Armies of Imperial Japan book.

Cost	45pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 2 men
Weapons	Rifles
Options	- The NCO may have a submachine gun instead of a rifle for +3pts.
Special Rules	- Scouts count as observers/snipers for set-up purposes (Bolt Action rulebook, p.118). - Behind enemy lines. When making outflanking manoeuvres scouts ignore the -1 modifier to their order test to arrive.

The 144th Infantry Regiment, which spearheaded the first wave of the South Seas Detachment’s push through New Guinea, was supported by engineers right from the outset. Engineering units were either attached to infantry regiments from divisional engineering regiments or formed an organic part of Japanese Army infantry brigades, such as within the organisation of independent mixed brigades. Here, engineering regiments were often battalion sized and consisted of between three to five companies, with no formalised battalion structure as such. Standard Japanese Army engineering units were trained to carry out a variety of tasks such as building fortifications, roads and bridges. Specialised engineering units also existed for operations such as tunnel warfare and pier construction.

IJA Engineer squads count as Infantry for the purpose of the generic Reinforced Platoon Selector from the Bolt Action rulebook or any Reinforced Platoon which allows IJA Infantry or IJA Veteran Infantry as a unit option. A maximum of 1 IJA Engineer squad may be taken per Reinforced Platoon.

Cost	35pts (Inexperienced), 50pts (Regular), 65pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 4 men
Weapons	Rifles
Options	- Add up to 7 additional men with rifles at +7pts (Inexperienced), +10pts (Regular) or +13pts (Veteran). - The NCO may have a submachine gun instead of a rifle for +3pts. - Up to 1 man may have a light machine gun for +20pts. Another soldier becomes the loader. - Up to 1 man can have a flamethrower instead of a rifle for +20pts – another man becomes the assistant.
Special Rules	- Tank hunters (if anti-tank grenades taken).

Throughout the entire war, the forces of Imperial Japan often favoured attacking at night to use the cover of darkness to mask their intentions until the latest possible moment. This could also be combined with using small, lightly armed infiltrator units to sow confusion behind enemy lines by carrying out attacks in the heart of enemy positions, or eliminating defensive emplacements or command units.

0–2 Night Infiltrators can be used in the generic Reinforced Platoon Selector from the Bolt Action rulebook, and the following Theatre Selectors in Armies of Imperial Japan: The Fall of Singapore 1942, The Battle for Guadalcanal 1942, The Battle for Tarawa 1943, Burma 1944, Iwo Jima 1945, Negros Island 1945, Battle for Okinawa Sugar Loaf Hill 1945.

Night Infiltrators may only be used in scenarios using the Night Fighting special rules.

Cost	33pts (Regular), 42pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 2 men
Weapons	Rifles
Options	- Add up to 3 additional men with rifles at +11pts each for Regular or +14pts each for Veteran. - The entire squad may be tough fighters for +1pt per model. - One Japanese Night Infiltrator squad per force may replace its NCO with an officer for the following points cost: Second Lieutenant: 40pts (Regular), 55pts (Veteran); First Lieutenant: 65pts (Regular), 80pts (Veteran)
Special Rules	- Tough fighters (if taken). - Forward deployment. Japanese Night Infiltrators may use the forward deployment rules for observers and snipers (Bolt Action rulebook, p.118).

Whilst the entry in Armies of Imperial Japan (p.26) gives details for fielding a sniper team, it was more common for Allied forces in the Pacific to report encounters with lone Japanese snipers, or teams of snipers acting as individuals rather than pairs. A favoured tactic of the lone sniper was to secure himself towards the top of a tree with rope, and then wait for enemy soldiers to walk past before firing into their backs. Many Allied soldiers fired weapons into ‘likely’ trees whilst advancing, so powerful was the effect of the sniper threat. A variety of weapons were used by snipers, although the lower-powered 6.5mm cartridge was favoured by many as it produced no smoke and little noise when fired. Many Allied soldiers even reported snipers using light machine guns in lieu of rifles.

The Japanese lone sniper may replace the standard sniper team entry in any Japanese Reinforced Platoon

Cost	55pts (Regular), 72pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 sniper
Weapons	Rifle
Options	- 1 Lone sniper per force may replace his rifle with a light machine gun for +10pts.
Special Rules	- Lone sniper. As it does not have the team weapon rule, the sniper does not suffer the -1 to hit for not having a spotter. - Team weapon (if LMG taken). The sniper suffers the -1 to hit with an LMG, as he has no loader. - Bold attacker. The Japanese lone sniper is well accustomed to working alone and attracting the fire of large numbers of enemy soldiers. He may ignore the effects of having one pin marker assigned to him. Further pin markers act as normal (i.e., two pin markers still counts as two, and so on).

Each IJA infantry battalion included a machine gun company, which was made up of three machine gun platoons. These in turn were composed of four machine gun sections, were led by a sergeant who commanded up to ten soldiers and a single machine gun. Whilst this amount of manpower might seem excessive when compared to the machine gun crews of other nations, this also included a number of ammunition bearers and horse handlers for moving the gun and ammunition whilst the company was in transit. Officially, several men in each section were not issued weapons as their job was to move supplies and equipment, but in practice most men were provided with rifles.

The IJA machine gun section may replace the standard Japanese medium machine gun team option in any Theatre Selector.

Cost	45pts (Inexperienced), 63pts (Regular), 81 pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 3 men
Weapons	1 MMG
Options	- Add up to 7 additional men with rifles at +7pts (Inexperienced), +10pts (Regular) or +13pts (Veteran) each.
Special Rules	- Overmanned team. The MMG is restricted by the normal rules for a team weapon, with the following exceptions. One man is required to fire the MMG, whilst up to two men will act as loaders if available. Any men not loading the MMG may fire their rifles as normal. If the model carrying the MMG is destroyed, the remainder of the team will continue to operate as a normal rifle-armed infantry squad without the MMG. - Fixed (MMG only).

There are many documented accounts of Japanese soldiers combining ingenious improvisation with selfless bravery to make the ultimate sacrifice and assault enemy tanks in suicide attacks – these are covered by the suicide anti-tank teams detailed in Armies of Imperial Japan (p.26). However, even with all of the courage in the world it was not possible to carry these attacks out if resources did not allow it. Faced with starvation, disease and extremely limited resources and therefore devoid of any significant explosive devices, many Japanese soldiers in the New Guinea campaign were forced to rely on simpler and less effective methods of countering rare appearances of enemy tanks, such as jamming wooden logs into the tracks, using simple petrol bombs or lighting large fires directly beneath tank hulls. Whilst these attacks were far less effective than the explosive assaults made in other theatres, they were certainly not without success.

The improvised anti-tank team may replace the suicide anti-tank team option in any Theatre Selector.

Cost	24pts (Regular), 32pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 1 man
Weapons	Rifles, improvised anti-tank weapons
Options	- Up to 3 additional men at +12pts each (Regular) or +16pts each (Veteran).
Special Rules	- Improvised tank hunters. The unit has the normal rules for tank hunters but also counts as tough fighters when attacking vehicles. However they always use the superficial damage chart against fully enclosed armoured targets. - Forward position. An improvised anti-tank team counts as observers/snipers for set-up purposes - Extra selection. You may take up to 3 improvised anti-tank teams as 1 selection in each Reinforced Platoon. Note that you can do this in addition to an anti-tank rifle team in selectors that allow you to field an anti-tank team.

The Japanese Type 88 was developed by the Army Technical Bureau after exhaustive studies of the best features of corresponding weapons used during World War I, particularly the British Vickers QF 3-inch 20cwt AA gun. The resulting weapon was expensive to manufacture, but performed exceptionally well and was issued to nearly all medium AA batteries. In combat, the high velocity of the Type 88’s projectile made it suitable as an anti-tank weapon, although not on a par with the dreaded German 88mm gun which Allied intelligence initially mistook it for. Over 2,000 Type 88 guns were manufactured and they were valued highly enough that many were withdrawn for the defence of the home islands later in the war.

The Type 88 counts as an anti-aircraft gun for the purposes of the generic Reinforced Platoon Selector from the Bolt Action rulebook. It also counts as an anti-aircraft gun for the following Theatre Selectors in the Armies of Imperial Japan supplement: The Invasion of Manchuria 1931–32, The Fall of Singapore 1942, The Fall of Corregidor 1942, The Battle for Guadalcanal 1942, The Battle of Tarawa 1943, Burma 1944, Iwo Jima 1945, Battle for Okinawa 1945.

The Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (KNIL) or Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was officially formed in 1830 as a fighting force for Dutch colonial rule in the East Indies, initially as an army which was independent of the Royal Netherlands Army. The KNIL fought against indigenous groups across the region throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, expanding Dutch influence and ensuring the security of Dutch colonies.

After the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, the KNIL was largely isolated and suffered from problems with supplies and reinforcements. Large-scale recruiting of local militia units and civilian auxiliaries brought the numbers up to 85,000 personnel by the end of 1941 in an attempt to prepare for the defence of the Dutch East Indies. However, the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in December 1941 resulted in a quick and decisive victory for the aggressors. Defensive positions in Dutch New Guinea were also quickly overrun, although several small groups were able to escape the Japanese advance and either flee to join up with Australian forces, or remain in the jungles to conduct guerrilla warfare campaigns.

The most famous of these KNIL guerrilla groups fought under the leadership of Captain Johannes Willemsz-Geeroms, who led his hugely outnumbered men in a retreat from Manokwari when the Japanese arrived in April 1942. With only 62 soldiers and 17 Papuans surviving the assault, later augmented by three American soldiers who had escaped from the Philippines, Willemsz-Geeroms fought back in a series of guerrilla attacks from the jungle until, weakened and malnourished from months of fighting, he was captured and executed in May 1944. Command of the group then fell to Sergeant Mauritz Christiaan Kokkelink, who split his few survivors into small groups and led a fighting withdrawal across the jungles of New Guinea in an attempt to contact advancing Allied forces. In October 1944, after two and a half years of waging guerrilla warfare across some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet, the last few survivors of the KNIL in New Guinea reached Allied lines and were sent to Australia to recover. Kokkelink was one of the survivors and was awarded the Knight 4th Class of the Militaire Willems Order for his actions.

The following units may be used as infantry squads in the generic Reinforced Platoon in The Netherlands Army List detailed in Armies of France and the Allies (p.55) or in this book’s KNIL Guerrillas Theatre Selector.

KNIL rifle platoons were based around three rifle sections, supported by a separate light machine gun section and an integral mortar section. Very little information is recorded regarding how Dutch guerrillas in New Guinea organised their units but given the immense physical and logistical pressures they operated under, it doubtless would have been on an ad-hoc basis using whatever equipment that could be salvaged or captured. The options here are based on the initial KNIL rifle section organisation, with options for more experienced guerrillas.

Cost	35pts (Inexperienced), 50pts (Regular), 65pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 4 men
Weapons	Rifles
Options	- Add up to 3 additional men with rifles at +7pts (Inexperienced), +10pts (Regular) or +13pts (Veteran) each. - The NCO can have a submachine gun instead of a rifle for +3pts. - Add a local scout with a rifle at +32pts (Inexperienced), +35pts (Regular) or +38pts (Veteran).
Special Rules	- Local scout. The attached scout’s knowledge of the local jungle paths and trails in the area allow the guerrillas, when outflanking, to arrive on the short board edge of their choice, rather than having to choose the side before the game begins.

KNIL rifle platoons normally included only a single light machine gun, segregated in its own eight-man section. This would normally be a Danish Madsen LAM M15, a magazine-fed weapon with a cyclic rate of fire of some 450 rounds per minute. With the fall of the Netherlands in 1940, it became even more difficult to keep more specialised weapons supplied with parts and ammunition, and following the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies these problems were only exacerbated as KNIL units were forced to operate from small jungle bases.

Cost	48pts (Inexperienced), 60pts (Regular), 72pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 NCO and 3 men
Weapons	Rifles, 1 man has a light machine gun. Another soldier acts as loader.
Options	- Add up to 4 additional men with rifles at +7pts (Inexperienced), +10pts (Regular) or +13pts (Veteran) each. - The NCO can have a submachine gun instead of a rifle for +3pts. - Add a local scout with a rifle at +32pts (Inexperienced), +35pts (Regular) or +38pts (Veteran).
Special Rules	- Local scout. The attached scout’s knowledge of the local jungle paths and trails in the area allow the guerrillas, when outflanking, to arrive on the short board edge of their choice, rather than having to choose the side before the game begins.

Faced with the near constant, life-threatening dangers of warfare, soldiers with religious beliefs have very often found deep comfort in the pastoral care of clergymen attached to their armies. However, it is a foolish soldier who believes that chaplains are only there to preach and serve the needs of believers. Chaplains of many faiths, denominations and nationalities have been decorated for bravery across a myriad of duties, and many have paid the ultimate price.

A chaplain’s duties include holding religious services (sometimes under enemy fire), administering care and prayers to the dying (such as last rites) and acting as a direct link between front-line soldiers and higher ranking officers so as to speak on behalf of the men to fight their corner for issues such as welfare, food and conditions in the field.

Chaplains often accompany front-line units in the very thick of the action and many have been decorated for facing enemy fire to carry wounded soldiers back to friendly lines for medical attention. The mere presence of an unarmed priest braving enemy fire is often enough to galvanise combat troops into action, because if the padre can do it, they should be able to!

Be it for spiritual care, the extra influence to improve physical well-being, the knowledge of having another man willing to recover them if they are wounded or the comfort of the last prayers in those last seconds, a chaplain is a welcome addition to any fighting force.

Chaplains can be added as a HQ choice to any force selector in Armies of the United States; new American and Australian force selectors in this book already state whether or not a chaplain can be included.

If you wish to add a chaplain to a force from another nationality not covered by the scope of this book, you must have your opponent’s approval: this may require some research as not all militaries of the era used chaplains.

TOP SECRET

DIVINE PROTECTION

As the fighting intensified around Sanananda in January 1943, the newly arrived 2/7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Logan were quick to take heavy casualties. After Logan was killed in the fighting, Padre Frank Hartley approached his replacement, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Moses, and asked for two volunteers to help him bury the dead. Moses told him to wait for the fighting to die down, but the chaplain was insistent and went up the chain of command to Brigadier Dougherty who gave him permission. Two men who had never attended any of Hartley’s services volunteered to help him. The three men worked tirelessly to give Christian burials to as many of the fallen as they could. At one point, Japanese fire swept across their position, pelting the ground around them. The two men took cover as Hartley remained standing to conclude the burial. He replied to the soldiers’ pleas for him to take cover:

‘I’m doing God’s work and God will protect me.’

Hartley survived the encounter. Tragically, the same fortunes were not received by many of his fellow clergymen in the field; only days before, Padre Clive Cox had been killed whilst burying the dead of the 49th Battalion.

A chaplain is an HQ choice: 0–1 may be added to any Reinforced Platoon of the nations mentioned above.

Cost	20pts (Inexperienced), 25pts (Regular), 30pts (Veteran)
Composition	1 chaplain
Weapons	None
Options	- The chaplain can have a pistol for +1pt.
Special Rules	- Self-defence only. Clergymen are not soldiers and will not take part in hostile actions – they cannot fire any weapon, nor assault enemy units. However, there is anecdotal evidence of several examples of chaplains who broke regulations to carry a pistol for self-defence only; German chaplains were even issued a pistol. If your chaplain is equipped with a pistol, it can only be used in close quarters if the enemy assaults him. - Non-combatant. The chaplain is there to support the soldiers, not win battles. A chaplain unit cannot be used to claim or contest objectives. - Inspiring presence. Upon receiving their order die (except for Down), a chaplain may select one friendly unit within 6” and roll a D6, applying the following modifiers: Inexperienced -1, Veteran +1. On a 4+, the chaplain may remove 1 pin from the selected unit.

Cost	96pts (Inexperienced), 120pts (Regular), 144pts (Veteran)
Team	4 men
Weapons	1 heavy anti-tank gun
Options	- May add a spotter for +10pts.
Special Rules	- Team weapon. - - Fixed. Flak. - Versatile. May fire as a light howitzer.