Empire of the Rising Sun - ToTTP/LUA Remake Official Thread

[typhoon353]

Since your WW2 collections of French infantry don't include a specifically-stated Pacific Colony Free French unit, what uniform colour, kit, helmet, and rifle would be closest to the French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and New Hebrides forces?

Here you go; this one is actually based on an Osprey plate of a Vichy marine during Operation Ironclad (the Allied invasion of Madagascar), but I imagine colonial troops elsewhere across the French possessions in the Indian Ocean and Pacific would be using similar prewar equipment.

Though I have to question if this is the best use of a unit slot - the Free French really didn't do all that much in this theatre for most of the war, and this is going to represent, at best, a small and isolated handful of out-of-the-way island garrisons which the player may never get to (Polynesia especially) or may not even be on the map. Likewise New Caledonia was very quickly taken over by the Americans as a staging area in the South West Pacific and its more likely that the bulk of any forces the Japanese would have encountered in a fight there would have been US or Australian.

If you really need some Free French representation, a more interesting option might be the late-war Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO). This was a fairly substantial (two infantry and one armoured division & two marine brigades), US-equipped veteran force under Philippe Leclerc raised from volunteers from the FFL in Europe after the liberation for possible operations to recapture Indochina or in the US invasion of the Japanese home islands. As it turned out they arrived only after the end of the war to accept the Japanese surrender in Saigon and wind up fighting the Viet Minh over the next decade.

From a gameplay perspective, this could add some challenge in the late game for a player having held out longer than historically in having to deal with this and the other Allied offensives planned for 1945-46: Zipper/Mailfist (Malaya); Oboe (Borneo and Java) and Olympic/Coronet (Kyushu and Honshu), as well as the Soviet invasions of Manchuria and Sakhalin. Perhaps the French island garrisons could be folded into one slot with the one for the Vichy Tonkin division.

 

[Patine]

I've just had another look and I can't see one

The A6M (that IS the Zero's designation, isn't it it?) between the B5N and the D3A, slot number 111.

 

[Fairline]

The A6M (that IS the Zero's designation, isn't it it?) between the B5N and the D3A, slot number 111.

Gotcha. Time to change my glasses...

 

[Patine]

View attachment 729153
Here you go; this one is actually based on an Osprey plate of a Vichy marine during Operation Ironclad (the Allied invasion of Madagascar), but I imagine colonial troops elsewhere across the French possessions in the Indian Ocean and Pacific would be using similar prewar equipment.

Though I have to question if this is the best use of a unit slot - the Free French really didn't do all that much in this theatre for most of the war, and this is going to represent, at best, a small and isolated handful of out-of-the-way island garrisons which the player may never get to (Polynesia especially) or may not even be on the map. Likewise New Caledonia was very quickly taken over by the Americans as a staging area in the South West Pacific and its more likely that the bulk of any forces the Japanese would have encountered in a fight there would have been US or Australian.

If you really need some Free French representation, a more interesting option might be the late-war Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO). This was a fairly substantial (two infantry and one armoured division & two marine brigades), US-equipped veteran force under Philippe Leclerc raised from volunteers from the FFL in Europe after the liberation for possible operations to recapture Indochina or in the US invasion of the Japanese home islands. As it turned out they arrived only after the end of the war to accept the Japanese surrender in Saigon and wind up fighting the Viet Minh over the next decade.

From a gameplay perspective, this could add some challenge in the late game for a player having held out longer than historically in having to deal with this and the other Allied offensives planned for 1945-46: Zipper/Mailfist (Malaya); Oboe (Borneo and Java) and Olympic/Coronet (Kyushu and Honshu), as well as the Soviet invasions of Manchuria and Sakhalin. Perhaps the French island garrisons could be folded into one slot with the one for the Vichy Tonkin division.

What type of tank would have been predominant in that armoured division in the planned invasion? Since I do plan Operation Olympic, Operation Coronet, and other parts of Operation Downhill, as well as the Soviet invasion of Sakhalin, and, definitely Operation Ketsugo and a very-late-game Japanese-buildable Matsuhiro Underground Imperial Headquarters Wonder and Volunteer Fighting Force recruitment schemes to be very real possibilities in game, I'm definitely interested in this idea.

 

[typhoon353]

What type of tank would have been predominant in that armoured division in the planned invasion? Since I do plan Operation Olympic, Operation Coronet, and other parts of Operation Downhill, as well as the Soviet invasion of Sakhalin, and, definitely Operation Ketsugo and a very-late-game Japanese-buildable Matsuhiro Underground Imperial Headquarters Wonder and Volunteer Fighting Force recruitment schemes to be very real possibilities in game, I'm definitely interested in this idea.

2e DB would have been almost identical in organisation and equipment to one of its US counterparts (3 line battalions of M4s, one reconnaissance bn of M3 Stuarts, 3 self-propelled artillery bns of M7/M8s and 3 mechanised infantry bns on M3 half tracks), with the addition of a tank destroyer battalion of M10s. There should be some French lend-lease Shermans in Gareth's collection. Normally I'd advise to just represent it with one of the American Shermans already in the file to economise on the already packed roster, but given that this is the Division Leclerc that liberated Paris - quite legitimately the very best the Free French had - I suppose this is one of the special cases that might just warrant its own separate slot

 

[Dadais]

Though I have to question if this is the best use of a unit slot - the Free French really didn't do all that much in this theatre for most of the war, and this is going to represent, at best, a small and isolated handful of out-of-the-way island garrisons which the player may never get to (Polynesia especially) or may not even be on the map. Likewise New Caledonia was very quickly taken over by the Americans as a staging area in the South West Pacific and its more likely that the bulk of any forces the Japanese would have encountered in a fight there would have been US or Australian.

If you really need some Free French representation, a more interesting option might be the late-war Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO). This was a fairly substantial (two infantry and one armoured division & two marine brigades), US-equipped veteran force under Philippe Leclerc raised from volunteers from the FFL in Europe after the liberation for possible operations to recapture Indochina or in the US invasion of the Japanese home islands. As it turned out they arrived only after the end of the war to accept the Japanese surrender in Saigon and wind up fighting the Viet Minh over the next decade.

French there, I do agree.

Only about 5 thousand people, underarmed, got aligned against the Japanese in Indochine, which seems to be the biggest active french contribution in the Pacifics, under juridiction of the Vichy France.
Had not France lost the campaign of France, one should guess it wouldn't have much more resources to allocate to Indochine anyway, though negociations wouldn't have been held with the japanese.

The CEFEO was only a late force not for fighting the jap, but to secure back french sovereignty.

Here are some pictures taken in the thirties if whished

Spoiler Tonkin mixed batallions pictures :

 

[Fairline]

2e DB would have been almost identical in organisation and equipment to one of its US counterparts (3 line battalions of M4s, one reconnaissance bn of M3 Stuarts, 3 self-propelled artillery bns of M7/M8s and 3 mechanised infantry bns on M3 half tracks), with the addition of a tank destroyer battalion of M10s. There should be some French lend-lease Shermans in Gareth's collection. Normally I'd advise to just represent it with one of the American Shermans already in the file to economise on the already packed roster, but given that this is the Division Leclerc that liberated Paris - quite legitimately the very best the Free French had - I suppose this is one of the special cases that might just warrant its own separate slot

Just recently updated the French Shermans, all with Division Leclerc markings as it happens. They were beginning to upgrade their M4A2s to M4A3 76 tanks at the beginning of 1945, so that would be the one to go for.