[1938] The Penal Gang

There is one criminal platoon in the 1st Solway BUF. C Company, 2nd Platoon, Lt. Alfred Jingle commanding. These chaps were all in jail for a variety of reasons and when the whole thing went up in 1936, the jailer (a BUF man) gave them the choice: serve the BUF (and the King, by extension) or serve your time. A number of the younger lads did just that. And they've been nothing but trouble for Lt. Jingle and C Company's commander Captain Edward Leeford ever since.

The trouble with penal military units is that they're trouble. Discipline? Honor? Duty? Not much of any of those. As a result, in each engagement, they've retreated rather than hold, destroyed (and stole) useful gear (but left little evidence of the thefts) and made a general nuisance of themselves. And they're at the end of their tether and not getting any better.

They've been moved around so much during the siege that they've got no trust from their fellow soldiers (not that they've done anything to earn that trust, quite the opposite). They've been banned from the town and the problems that they are causing are increasing the resistance within the townsfolk towards the whole 1st Solway.

The criminals of 2nd Platoon fear no-one, except for The Butcher. Oh, yes. Him they fear. And Thompson disappeared last week, after mouthing off to The Butcher. There's speculation that he's somewhere in a ditch, with a bullet in the back of his head.

With Jingle and Leeford at wits end, Thornsby is hoping that the Manx forces will whittle down 2nd Platoon for him, but he has no plans for dealing with them so far. As a group of wild cards in the deck, the GM can used them as troublemakers on both sides, shooting at the wrong time, going farther afield than ordered (both in terrestrial distance as well as authority) and generally making themselves trouble for the PCs.