No, the British painted theirs red, as you can see on any map of the world printed in Britain before 1955. The French painted theirs blue. I can only assume that the dastardly French had come along and tried to pretend that was their land under our soldiers.
Gorgeous game, looks like it was great fun, and I think we have to forgive the unpainted minis and naked table, for starters because it was just a test-run, and secondly because you did it with such great style.