Tin-clad porpoises
Some 75 years ago this week, IC-92646, an M8 Greyhound armored car of “Groupement Sizaire”, fords a river near Mao Khe in French Indochina, sometime between 31 March and 5 April 1951. Note on the front of the hull the anchor insignia of the French army’s colonial troops, a badge that earned such men the nickname “Marsouins” or porpoises.
ECPAD Réf. : TONK 51-37D R7
Colonel Robert Sizaire’s scratch Mobile Group (groupe de mobile, or GM) was formed in late January 1951 and was a two-battalion experimental blend of light infantry and light armor, with the former carried via halftracks and the latter built around 18-ton M-24 Chaffee (the French used 1,250 of the little “Cadillac tanks” in the 1950s-60s) and Greyhounds.
Crossing a bamboo bridge by the first elements of the “Sizaire” group armed with M24/29 FM LMG and MAS 36 rifles. Note the “Chapeau de Brousse” bush hats.
The M-24 Chaffee “Angouleme” of Group Sizaire, with riders from the 6th BPC (paras) and local Thai partisans (beret) differentiated from the bush-hatted tankers and grenadiers.
This could almost pass for Italy in 1944. However, it is the square at Sept Pagodes (now Phả Lại part of Hải Dương Province, in Vietnam’s Red River Delta) where the members of the “Sizaire” group are gathered, circa March 1951. Note six M-24 Chaffees, at least 13 M3 Half-Tracks, two Jeeps, and a GMC CCKW “Deuce-and-a-Half” 2.5-ton 6×6 truck
The Sizaire Group, combined with the 6th BPC (6th Colonial Parachute Battalion), platoon of the RICM (Colonial Infantry Regiment of Morocco), a company of African riflemen (from 30e Bataillon de marche de tirailleurs sénégalais), and Lt Nghiem Xuan Toan’s Tho partisan company, successfully defended the isolated Mao Khe and Ben Tam outposts on Provincial Route 18 (PR 18), between Bac Ninh and Hong Hai against a determined attack by the Viet Minh TD (Trung Doan) 36 and 209 regiments in between 29 March and 5 April– later reinforced by elements of three divisions– with the tanks being crucial in the counter-attack that broke the back of Giap’s guys.
Advance of M24 Chaffee tanks from the “Sizaire Group” towards Mao Khe across the Tonkin landscape. In the foreground, the M24 Chaffee “Metz” tank, bearing the number 5 on its turret.
Mao Khe with a knocked-out Sizaire Group Greyhound after the fighting.
The fighters of Dong Trieu (these are the first elements of the “Sizaire” group), the day after a night of fighting. In the background, a damaged watchtower. Note the bush hats, MAT-49s, and M1 Carbines.
While successful, the poor road network made even light armor problematic in Indochina– a boogeyman of later suffered by American/ARVN M-48s and M-113s– and Sizaire’s unit was soon broken apart and sent its separate way.
The M24 Chaffee “Angoulême” tank (registration number IC-93003) fell into the water when the scrap metal bridge collapsed.
The column of M24 Chaffee tanks, under the command of Colonel Sizaire, is stopped in April 1951. In the foreground, an M24 Chaffee tank is stuck in the mud, seen from above; it bears the number 6 on the turret; in the background, the M24 Chaffee tank registered IC-93016 and bearing the number 12 on the turret.
Who was Sizaire?
Colonel Sizaire at the wheel of a jeep, March 1951. His passenger is General de Lattre de Tassigny, at the time the French commander in Indochina. Note that Sizaire’s cap has the colonial troops’ anchor.
Born in 1904 in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Sizaire’s father, Emile Vital Pascal Sizaire, was a literature professor in his 40s who left his position at the university to meet his death as a field officer at Verdun in 1916. Does it get any more old republic?
Our younger Sizaire went on to make the military his career. Enlisting as a volunteer in 1922, he fought against the Rif in Morocco, within a unit of Senegalese riflemen (23e RIC). Passing through Saint-Maixent in 1926, he served in a variety of positions in the colonial forces, taking his bride, Lucienne, while stationed in Bamako (French Sudan) in 1931, before assignments in Algeria (1932) and Indochina (1935).
A junior officer during the Battle for France, leading a company of the 12th RTS (12e Regiment de Tirailleurs Senegalais), he was redeployed to Dakar and finally to Morocco under Vichy orders. Post Torch in November 1942, he cast his lot with De Gaulle and, as a battalion commander (Chef de Battalion) with colonials of the 4th RTS participated in the liberation of Corsica (Operation Vesuvius) in September 1943, the capture of the Italian island Elba in June 1944 (Operation Brassard)– his battalion capturing Monte Tambonne and the German batteries at Aquabonna– and the August 1944 Dragoon Landings which led to the liberation of Toulon and Southern France that August, picking up an American DSC in the process. After the Battle of Colmar in 1945, he finished WWII as the second in command of the 21e RIC (the old 4th RTS), standing on German soil.
It was as a colonel commanding the 21e RIC that he arrived in Indochina in April 1946, joining the fight against the Viet Minh. Once the 21e RIC was sent back “home” to Africa, Sizaire remained in-country as colonel of the newly arrived 3e RIC. Sent back to France in 1949, he flew back to Indochina to join his “Marsouins” in late January 1951, setting up his Groupement Sizaire as detailed above.
He went on to become the French commander in Laos (commandant les Forces du Laos) until January 1953.
Then came a brigadier’s star and command in Brazzaville for the next four years, where he helped stand up the army of the newly independent Congo. After serving as the commandant of the NATO Defense College in 1959, Lt. Gen. (Général de corps d’armée des troupes coloniales) Sizaire was moved to the retired list in 1964 after helping create and equip the Cameroonian Army. He held numerous decorations, including two Croix de Guerre, and was a Grand Officier of the Légion d’Honneur
He then spent a decade as mayor of Cayeux-sur-Mer. He passed in Picardy on a Saturday in the summer of 1975, aged 71, leaving behind three children and a host of grandchildren.