I have been watching this thread fron the begining,surley the heroic's of the 1er Compagnie/5e , led by capt Bizard who made a breakout down the airstrip, from Huguette over the Viet Minh trench's using grenade's and partially filled sand bags as body armour in the early morning to escape the hord's of the enemy?
has anyone read the book by martin Windrow (the last valley)
before you call the french in Indo China
Did the USA do better ?
ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Id sooner be 20 minutes late in this world than 20 years to soon in the next
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
I dont think anyones doubting what those guy's did in Indochina was truely heroic. After all they were hampered by an economy still struggling after WW2, an armed forces still dependant heavily on US & UK hand me downs.
the comment taken out of context was that in the modern Legion, French nationals on the whole do not make good legionaires. Allways exceptions to the rule but on the whole no.
as i've said before, lets NOT start this again & get the topic back on track.
end of NO MORE.
the comment taken out of context was that in the modern Legion, French nationals on the whole do not make good legionaires. Allways exceptions to the rule but on the whole no.
as i've said before, lets NOT start this again & get the topic back on track.
end of NO MORE.
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Hi lads
I agree with some of your comments Ted
Apart from Officers of course the French Nationals who joined the Legion as O/R's
(albeit joining under false Nationalities) don't stick it long, that's a known fact.
As for the French Metropolitan Units, i think people in general under-estimate them.
Getting back on track, an incident in Indochina which intrested me was the 1945 retreat
of the Legion garrison from Saigon.
Apparantly when the War ended the Japs turned on the Vichy French population with a
savage ferocity, previously Saigon was populated with quite a few French Nationals
(Military and civillian alike) and most of these were butchered at the Wars end.
Previously these people had been free to move about the area and even the Military
were tolerated by the Japanese, obviously because of being Pro-Vichy and were even in
some cases allowed to act as a type of "Police-Force" being mostly disarmed.
The Japanese turned on these people, obviously in reprisal for what happened at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki because they were "Westerners", but there was a small Vichy Legion garrison
led by a certain Sous-Lieutenant Chenel which fought its way out of the entrapment and
through the jungles to the safety of Nationalist China where after a short internment the
survivors were returned to France.
It is a fantastic story and well worth some research, unfortunately not a lot is written about
it, i think this was due to the fact that even though these men did a an incrediable feat the
French Govt still regarded them as "Vichy" so the incident i think was "white-washed"
Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings
Regards Peiper.
I agree with some of your comments Ted
Apart from Officers of course the French Nationals who joined the Legion as O/R's
(albeit joining under false Nationalities) don't stick it long, that's a known fact.
As for the French Metropolitan Units, i think people in general under-estimate them.
Getting back on track, an incident in Indochina which intrested me was the 1945 retreat
of the Legion garrison from Saigon.
Apparantly when the War ended the Japs turned on the Vichy French population with a
savage ferocity, previously Saigon was populated with quite a few French Nationals
(Military and civillian alike) and most of these were butchered at the Wars end.
Previously these people had been free to move about the area and even the Military
were tolerated by the Japanese, obviously because of being Pro-Vichy and were even in
some cases allowed to act as a type of "Police-Force" being mostly disarmed.
The Japanese turned on these people, obviously in reprisal for what happened at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki because they were "Westerners", but there was a small Vichy Legion garrison
led by a certain Sous-Lieutenant Chenel which fought its way out of the entrapment and
through the jungles to the safety of Nationalist China where after a short internment the
survivors were returned to France.
It is a fantastic story and well worth some research, unfortunately not a lot is written about
it, i think this was due to the fact that even though these men did a an incrediable feat the
French Govt still regarded them as "Vichy" so the incident i think was "white-washed"
Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings
Regards Peiper.
- Crazy Feldgendarme
- Posts: 2256
- Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:46 pm
- Location: Telford
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Can we get back to the origonal thread here gents the clue is in the Title so back on track please.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.
GeFoPo
GeFoPo
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Well if you look through the memorial wall its suprising how many German name's appear on it wether they are SS or not it makes interesting reading
http://www.memorial-indochine.org/4_en_mur_virtuel.php#
http://www.memorial-indochine.org/4_en_mur_virtuel.php#
Id sooner be 20 minutes late in this world than 20 years to soon in the next
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
thats a good link NOMAD, some good info on there.
made me wonder re the names, i wonder if they would be the persons orig name or his nom de guerre ?. They are issued on an ad hoc basis & climb the alphabet by one every time one is issued out at enlistment (first & last name). so you may be American but end up with a german name if you get my drift ... & it has been known if the recruiter is of a certain nationality he has a habit of dishing out names that come from his own country. So it can make it quite difficult to gain a true nationality count.
the published stats state that deaths in service in Indochina during 1945 to 1954 are :-
officers = 309
sous officers (NCO's) = 1082
Legionnaires = 9092.
(above figures are for the FFL & do not include French Armed units)
made me wonder re the names, i wonder if they would be the persons orig name or his nom de guerre ?. They are issued on an ad hoc basis & climb the alphabet by one every time one is issued out at enlistment (first & last name). so you may be American but end up with a german name if you get my drift ... & it has been known if the recruiter is of a certain nationality he has a habit of dishing out names that come from his own country. So it can make it quite difficult to gain a true nationality count.
the published stats state that deaths in service in Indochina during 1945 to 1954 are :-
officers = 309
sous officers (NCO's) = 1082
Legionnaires = 9092.
(above figures are for the FFL & do not include French Armed units)
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Thats a lot of Legionnaires Ted.Ted wrote: the published stats state that deaths in service in Indochina during 1945 to 1954 are :-
officers = 309
sous officers (NCO's) = 1082
Legionnaires = 9092.
(above figures are for the FFL & do not include French Armed units)
I know casualty rates for the Foreign Legion were staggeringly high during WW2
as well.
From memory i think the Free French FFL left over 3000 dead Kepi-blancs behind at
Bir Hacheim in N-Africa in 1942, and that was just one battle
Regards Peiper.
- Crazy Feldgendarme
- Posts: 2256
- Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 7:46 pm
- Location: Telford
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
peiper we aint talkin about the FFL in this thread we are talking about ex SS in vietnam.
Kindly keep it that way.
Kindly keep it that way.
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.
GeFoPo
GeFoPo
Re: ex SS and the Vietmhin and Vietcong
Ok FeldgendarmeCrazy Feldgendarme wrote:peiper we aint talkin about the FFL in this thread we are talking about ex SS in vietnam.
Kindly keep it that way.
I thought the post was related along with
the French/Indochine thread
No probs!
Regards P.