French armour in Indochina

[Soviet-Salad]

Hello all,

so I have Meng's fantastic-looking Renault FT in 1/35 to build, and I want to give it an interesting paint scheme. Turns out 20 Renault FT's were stationed in Indochina at the start of WW2, so I think I'll try to model one of these. Problem is, I haven't been able to find any photographs of them in the Indochina theatre.

 

So my question is, does anyone know how these vehicles were painted? Bronco do a French Chaffee in Indochina war colours (all-over olive drab, imaginative), but this a US vehicle and in the wrong war.

 

If anyone has any ideas (or even better, references) please let me know.

[dcrfan]

No quite what you were after but in Tank Turret Fortifications by Neil Short there are pictures of turrets from H39 turret and Crusader turret on concrete bunkers in Indochina.  Other turrets mentioned include APX-R, Cromwell.

 

Mention of France using Sherman, Panther, Char B1, Hotchkiss H39 and Souma S35 in Indochina post WW2.

[John Tapsell]

On 9/28/2018 at 6:04 AM, dcrfan said:

Mention of France using Sherman, Panther, Char B1, Hotchkiss H39 and Souma S35 in Indochina post WW2.

Shermans - yes. The rest I would treat with caution. There is a persistent claim that a 'Panther' was seen in Indo-China but no real evidence has ever been unearthed. Add to that the fact that it would have been completely unsuitable for the terrain and the bridges and I can't see the logic (even the Sherman was considered to be too heavy for most of the bridges in the region - same issue for the Somua and Char B1). The Hotchkiss is a possible because it was lighter. The French definitely 'acquired' some ex-Japanese tanks when the latter surrendered in Indo-China but they were only an interim solution. The bulk of the post-war French armour in-theatre was supplied direct from America rather than from French stocks in Europe as far as I'm aware.

There was no perceived need for heavy armour in Indo-China pre-WWII - it was a colonial region where the most likely unrest could be dealt with by armoured cars and mobile infantry columns (the British approach was no different). There were no major tank units stationed there as far as I know so a small reserve of FT-17s was probably considered more than adequate

 

You have to remember that there were effectively two French Armies - the Metropolitan (European, mainland) and Colonial (everywhere else). The latter was considered inferior and received second choice of everything, including officers and men. 

 

Regards,

John