Free French 1940-1943 WIP New vehicles received today

[lou passejaire]

some more stuff :

Bofors 40mm manned by 1st Fusiliers Marins Regiment from early 1942 to 1943

[lou passejaire]

Laffly S15R Colonie , as used by Tchad Leclerc Forces


heavily converted mad Bob Laffly W15T
just primed ...

a Laffly S15T who carried the 75mm gun before Kufra is done too pics to come ...

[lou passejaire]

laffly S15 T "colonial" the one who was broken just before Kufra
Laffly W15T from Mad Bob Miniatures heavily converted


a 75mm Gun for Erytrea or Syria


Foreign Legion Command ( Bir Hakeim and latter ) and sappers and miners ( late 1942 - 1943 )

[pocoloco]

Great start Lou! 

What rules set are you planning to use?

[lou passejaire]

Bolt action as set of rules, home made free french army list 

[emosbur]

Is a Sahariana what I see in the background? The ESCI/ITALERI one?

[lou passejaire]

no, it's a FOW one, found with a desert rat motorized platoon in a box unopened since ... some years 

[lou passejaire]

H39 Tanks , Syria

Lorraine 37, Syria

2 Foreign Legion section ( the one in helmet has an alternative Spahi NCO for Tunisia )

a Foreign Legion section ( still an alternative Spahi NCO for Tunisia in red side cap ) and a sappers and miners unit

a legion MMG

a Legion 81mm mortar and spotter

Legion Command : Captain, caporal VB, Radio

Command n°2 : Legion Lieutenant, Spahi Officer, spahi with wine 


Poor quality 

[Anna Elizabeth]

La Legion! I like them. They are *not* poor quality.

If you'd like some tips for improvement, I'd say a little refinement of uniforms and faces could be added, but they are a nicely finished and based force ready for play.

[lou passejaire]

i was a best painter, before i began to have some visual troubles 
sometimes i say that i paint in braille 

[Helen]

Nice work Lou on the collection. Your knowledge is invaluable in addition to your attention to detail.

[raif]

i follow your thread with strong interest! do you know which vehicles the free french forces had in north africa? especially in the battle of bir hakeim? The only informations i found only speak from 63 bren gun carriers and artillery. But i couldn't believe that there weren't no trucks or other vehicles.

[lou passejaire]

thanks all 

from pics , the free french in bir hakeim used :
a large amount of carriers ( some modified with 25mmAT gun )
a dozen dodge Tanake armoured cars
chevrolet 30cwt with 75mm gun portee
unidentified 3ton trucks, some with 75mm gun portee ( GMC 2,5 ton ? Matford V8 , somethin else ? )
morris cs8 fitted with 25mmAT guns on naval mount
CMP 30CWT and 15CWT
a dodge as command vehicle

some ambulance .


Later , Marmon Herrington, Crusaders, Bedford , Morris, etc .
for sure there were no tanks or other armoured cars

[raif]

Thank you very much for these valuable informations! You mean with crusaders the tanks!? Yes?

What did you mean with later? The time of the evacuation?

[lou passejaire]

most of the vehicles were lost at Bir Hakeim 
After Bir Hakeim, the spahis ( who were not involved in the last fight ) were issued with marmon Herrington Mk3 , and a squadron was equiped with 75mm self-propeled "conus-guns" .
The 1st Tank company was issued with Crusader Mk2 tanks ( later some Mk3 in replacement, then some Sherman ) .
The artillery regiment was issued with 25pdrs and BL 5.5-inch Medium Gun. ( with Morris tractors )
The Fusiliers Marins regiment was issued with Bofors 40mm
The North african anti-tank units were issued with 6pdrs ( but i think that they kept some 75mm guns )
infantry units have carriers , same number as british one

Transport was bedford trucks, CMP, and 2nd hand Morris 15CWT, captured german and italian trucks, jeeps,