Tag Archives: Indochina

Mortars and Sandals

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Between February 22 and 28 1951, Haiduong (French Indochina, now Vietnam).

Elements of the locally recruited Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. During this operation, the search of villages (Le Thon, Hong Tien, Phung Do, and Phung Xa) allowed the capture of Viet Minh partisans who had hidden in underground hiding places and shelters.

Note the mix of French and British kit, the nonchalantly carried 43-pound 60mm Brandt Mle 1935 light mortar (including very local footwear), and MAS-36 7.5mm rifle.

Ref.: TONK 51-28 R31, Guy Defives/ECPAD/Defense

The BMI was formed in January 1948 as the Annamite Bataillon, largely from the remnants of the five assorted Tirailleurs Indochinois regiments that dated to the 1880s and had fought against the Germans in WWI then the Japanese and Thais in WWII.

The five regiments of Tirailleurs Indochinois fought in numerous campaigns across Southeast Asia between 1880 and 1947 including forming 27 rifle battalions during the Great War, several of which fought in Europe.

With the lineage of the old Tirailleurs Indochinois– indeed carrying the flag and honors of the old 1er régiment de tirailleurs tonkinois (1er RTT)—  the Annamite Bataillon was redesignated the BMI in 1950 and was something of an elite unit over the tail-end of the French war against the Viet Minh.

Note the black beret, a standard headgear for the unit, complete with its distinctive dragon and anchor badge. (Bataillon de Marche Indochinois (BMI) advance through rice paddies during Operation Marécages. )

Based south of the Tonkin Delta, theirs was a war of sharp actions among the rice fields and brown water.
Once the Geneva Accords went through in 1954, the BMI was disbanded and many of its members– who had elected to remain in the French Army rather than join the ARVN– joined the 1st battalion of the 43e Régiment dInfanterie de Coloniale (43e RIC), bound for service in Algeria.

Yankee Brandt 60

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Some 81 years ago this month, January 1954, Dien Bien Phu, French Indochina, members of the newly-formed 5e BPVN (5e bataillon de parachutistes vietnamiens) of Groupe d’Opération Nord-Ouest (GONO), operate their American-made M2 60mm mortar.

You have to love the mix of TAP 47/52 lizard camo jackets and American M1 helmets as well. Réf. : NVN 54-9 R61, Daniel Camus/ECPAD/Défense

Based, ironically, on the French Brandt 60mm Mortier Modèle 1935 and licensed by that company for production in America, the U.S. M2 mortar was a hit with light infantry of all strokes for the last half of the 20th Century. Weighing just 42 pounds all-up (which is light for a mortar), a five-man crew (two in a pinch) could land 3-pound shells out to a mile away for as long as the ammo held out, even topping 30 rounds per minute if the rounds are staged and ready.

The French paras loved it in Vietnam.

Légionnaire du 2e bataillon étranger parachutiste (2e BEP) Roger Chapel, working a 60mm M2 mortar in Indochina, 10 May 1952. Note the crowd-pleasing belt of M49A2/3 HE mortar bombs around his waist– some 18 pounds of shells– and the M4 Collimator sight on the left of the mortar. Réf. TONK 52-123 R12, Jean Péraud/ECPAD/Défense

The French developed a light mortar shell vest with segmented front and back canvas pockets to carry 8 rounds of 60mm mortar ammunition (24 pounds of shells) for use in Indochina and later Algeria. These could be used to carry extra machine gun magazines too like 16 Bren .303/MAC 24 7.5mm magazines, a cool 16 Ba mươi ba “333” beer cans, or 8 magnum-sized ‘Foster’s lager’ beers!

The M2 was replaced in U.S. service by the new and improved (47 pounds!) M224 60mm company mortar after 1978, but you can be sure that thousands old the old “Yankee Brandts” still linger on in arsenals across the Third World.

The Man from Texas

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90 years ago– 12 July 1954– French Cochinchina: “A portrait of Sergeant Major Robert Biet, of the amphibious group of the 5e Régiment de Spahis Marocains (5e RSM). He was nicknamed ‘the man from Texas.'” Note the SGM’s personal sporting rifle slug over his shoulder, a British Enfield .38/200 revolver in an open-topped holster, combat short shorts, and a bevy of DF 37 (smooth) and OF 37 (ridges) bottle grenades tucked into his pistol belt via their spoons.

Photo by Pierre Ferrari/ECPAD/Defense Ref.: SVN 54-25 R31

While the French had been licked at Dien Bein Phu in May 1954, as seen above, they did not withdraw the last of their troops until 1956.

As for the 5th Moroccan Spahis — an altogether different force from the 5e Régiment de Spahis Algériens (5e RSA) which existed from 1914 to 1962– they were formed as a horse cavalry unit in Morocco in 1943 shortly after the Torch Landings, they deployed to Europe after August 1944 and, after constabulary use in the Toulouse region, they were engaged in Alsace, then in the Black Forest and dissolved after occupation duty in Germany.

5e Régiment de Spahis Marocains, WWII

Reformed in 1949 for service in Indochina, they fielded a mixed force of armored reconnaissance units in Cambodia and around Saigon as well as two platoons of riverine troops on shallow draft brown water boats (as seen above in the first image).

They were disbanded for the final time on 1 February 1955.

Calling in

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Um, U.S. Marines or possibly Army Alamo Scouts in the Pacific circa 1943-45?

Nope, the above are French paratroopers of “Ancien du 3,” the famed 3e BPC (Bataillon de Parachutistes Coloniaux) somewhere in Indochina in December 1952. Note the USGI surplus frogskin/duck hunter camo, the M1 Carbines, M1 steel pots, and the SCR-536 “handie talkie” radio, which had even less range than the Carbines. The only Gallic items in the image that give the paras away are the muzzle of a 7.5mm MAS-36 rifle to the left and the OF37 grenades on the belt of the para to the right. Of note the MAS carrier also has a slung M1A1 Carbine. 

The photo was snapped after the assault on Na San Base 24, with the battle-weary paras extracted after seven hours of vicious combat.

For those curious, the cadre of what was to become 3e BPC was formed in Vannes, France on 8 January 1948 and then shipped to Indochina where it was fleshed out with local drafts and remnants of other units to become the 3e BCCP (3e bataillon colonial de commandos parachutistes) in Saigon in November. Renamed the 3e GCCP (3e groupement colonial de commandos parachutistes) in 1950 and disbanded due to losses, 3e BCCP was reformed in 1951 from a cadre sent from Saint-Brieuc the redesignated the simpler 3e BPC on 28 May 1952, six months before the above image. It served notably in the battles of Dong-Khé, That-Khé, and Na-San.

July 6, 1952 – French Indochina. Preparation of paratroopers of the 3e BPC before boarding on a Dakota aircraft at Bach Mai Airport. Réf. : TONK 52-146 R1 ECPAD/Defense

Dissolved upon the end of the French involvement in Indochina (with its all-Vietnamese companies– 3e and 23e compagnies Indochinoises Parachutistes— transferred to form the core of the new Vietnamese airborne unit) 3e BPC was reformed once again in 1955 for service in Algeria, based at Sidi Ferruch, then redesignated the 3e RPIMa (3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment) in 1958.

Shifting its garrison to the castle of Carcassonne– in metropolitan France for the first time in its existence– in 1962, the current 3e RPIMa has since then served in Chad (several times), Lebanon, Djibouti, Central Africa, New Caledonia, Togo, Gabon, Rwanda, Iraq, Zaire, all over the former Yugoslavia, and the Congo.

The regiment’s motto is “Être et durer” (“to be and last”) and it carries the names of 477 paratroopers lost in battle since 1948 on its roll of honor.

If you hold your ear close, you can almost hear a gearshift…

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In my travels around New Orleans, I tend to come across old French Foreign Legion insignia in antique and curious goods shops. My guess is that francophiles and Cajuns in the area often at one point would sign up for life in the old Legion then return home at the end of the contract and, holding their old insignia as souvenirs of places long gone, they would eventually ebb away from them when they passed on to the great barracks in the sky. Echoes of history, I suppose.

This one is appropriate today.

It belongs to the 2nd Foreign Legion Transportation Company, 519th Transportation Group (2e Compagnie de Transport de la Legion Etrangere du Groupe de Transport No 519) which only existed from June 1949 to 31 July 1953– disbanding 70 years ago today.

Rushed into battle, it had been created from 120 members of the 1er REI based at Sidi Bel Abbes following a crash course (no pun intended) in truck driving.

After forming in Algeria, CTLE 2/519 spent its life in Indochina. While there, it was largely based in the Cholon district of Saigon, and ran troops, ammunition, food, mail, and vehicles throughout Cochinchine, working primarily with the famed 13e DBLE and the Legion’s 1er REC.

Collecting Foreign Legion Badges tell us that CTLE 2/519’s badge was approved on 20 April 1950, and that “many variants of the badge exist, the normal version of the badge is made by Drago, Paris.”