W72 "BALL OF FIRE" v.4.0a

INDIAN CAMPAIGN, 1940-42

This campaign follows historic battles of the Indian 5th Division from 1940-46. This version has battles from 1940-42 in East Africa (Abyssinia, Eritrea and Sudan) and North Africa (Egypt and Libya).

The meaning of "Ball of Fire":
"The G.S.O.1 of the Division, Colonel Frank Messervy, submitted to units for their approval the suggestion that the design of the flash should be a boar's head; in this way it would be linked with the nickname of its first commander. But vehement objections to this idea were raised on the grounds that such an insignia would arouse resentment among the Muslim troops in the Division, whose religion forbade them to eat the flesh of the pig. This objection was recognized, and the boar's head cancelled. Messervy then tried the heads of other animals, but each one he devised had already been selected by some other formation. So a plain red circle was chosen. It was simple and distinctive; General Heath approved. The red circle, standing as it did on a black background, gradually came to symbolize a Ball of Fire."

From "Ball of Fire: The Fifth indian Division in the Second World War, by Antony Brett-James," 1951. The book is available online at www.ku.edu/carrie/specoll/AFS/library/Ball/fireTC.html

Author: Steve Brown
Conversion: kowdar
Efile: OpenGus
