Rising Sun!

The first Flames of War book featuring the Japanese army was Rising Sun. The book belongs to the early war period (1939-1941), together with Blitzkrieg, Hellfire and Back, Burning Empires and Barbarossa.

Rising Sun cover page.

Rising Sun includes Japanese, Finnish and Soviet lists and focuses on the following battles:

• Nomonhan incident (May - September 1939), a succession of battles between Japanese and Soviet troops at the border between Mongolia and Manchuria.
  
  
• Soviet invasion of Poland (September 1939), following the German invasion of Poland as agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact to split Poland between Germany and Soviet Russia. Poland army is not covered by the book, but can be found in Blitzkrieg.
  
  
• Winter War (November 1939 - March 1940), where the Finnish army defended and repelled the Soviet invasion of Finland.

Rising Sun contents.

Regarding the Japanese, the book presents four different lists:

• 3rd Sensha Rentai: Medium tank company rated Fearless Trained.
• 4th Sensha Rentai: Light tank company rated Fearless Veteran.
• Hohei Chutai: Infantry company either from the 7th Division (Fearless Veteran) or from the 23th Division (Fearless Trained).
• Kithei Chutai: Calvary company rated Fearless Veteran.

My chosen list is the Hohei Chutai with some light tank support and will be shown in the following posts, together with descriptions and tips on how to paint and base it.

Hohei Chutai!

I strongly recommend to anyone interested in the Japanese army or in any of the other nationalities and conflicts covered in this book to have a look at it. It has very interesting historical background of the battles as well as really nice pictures of the available models, specially some awesome Finnish troops on skis!

Stay tuned for more!

Banzai!