"Rapid Fire 1940 French Infantry Org. " Topic

I have been looking at how to organise my 1940 French infantry for Rapid Fire rules.

In the original edition of the Rapid Fire rulebook that I was looking at, one scenario has an order of battle for French infantry battalions that involves 3 10 figure infantry companies, a support company with a single MMG and crew and a small command unit.

Looking at the organisational data in the Osprey MAA on the French Army in 1940, the above organisation does not seem very accurate, I came up with something roughly like this:

Small command group: CO and 3 figures
3 Infantry companies: 8 figures
Support company: 2 MMG and 4 figures

The above should probably have some rifle grenades, possibly a 60mm mortar in the HQ section?

At regimental level I thought an additional support company with 2 25mm A/T guns and crew and an 81mm mortar would be good.

Does anyone have any other thoughts?

I had another few questions in my mind too:

Were infantry stationed in the colonies organised in the same way as the metropolitan troops? And did the organisation and equipment of colonial units serving in France differ much from regular infantry battalions?

Coconuts,

The VB rifle grenade launchers were found in every section (squad), plus an extra at the platoon command level for a total of four per platoon.

The 60mm mortar at the command level is in order, while the two 25mm AT guns and 81m mortar will complete your support assets. You can also justify one (1) Renault UE tracteur legere as a Regimental asset, and perhaps a single 47mm anti-tank gun as an attached divisional asset.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Regarding the colonial troops, ideally they were organized exactly like their metropolitan counterparts. In practice, being in the colonies, it was not unusual for shortfalls to exist with the more modern equipment, especially anti-tank guns. In some units that fought in France from May-June 1940, the WW1-vintage 37mm 18SA "trench gun" was used in lieu of the more modern 25mm 34SA weapon. Artillery was invariably always horse drawn unless an attached asset at the divisional level such as tractor-drawn heavy artillery.

As a side note, attaching a company of WW1-vintage Renault FT-17s or more modern R-35s or (if gaming Sedan) the FCM 36 is appropriate as well for French infantry formations. Tanks were frequently broken up into companies to support local commanders in accordance with french tank doctrine, as tanks were meant to support the infantry, just like in WW1.

Of course, if your divisional CO managed to round up a few Char B1bis and assign them to your battalion for a local counter attack like General Leclerc did, so much the better…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Yes – I organise my 1940s French pretty much how you describe for Rapid Fire.
HQ CO & 3 figures plus a 2 figure 60mm mortar
3 8 figure Companies (1 with a Grenade Rifle)
2 MMGs and crews.

Regimental support in the shape of an 81mm mortar and a 25mm A/T gun or 2.

Upon further review of Rapid Fire and various references I have on the subject, the French infantry company at full strength contained 190 men divided into four rifle sections and a command cadre. Assuming the Rapid Fire ratio of one figure = 15 men still holds, then a 10 figure infantry company is in order.

Where my own jury is still out is on the subject of representing the support elements in Rapid Fire terms, as the ratio is one model = five (5) AFVs or weapons. For example, the full strength of the French machine gun company in an infantry battalion consisted of two 25mm anti-tank guns, a single 81mm mortar, four heavy machine gun sections each with four heavy machine guns for a total of 16 HMGs.

Granted that with the 60mm weapons present ideally at the platoon (section) command level, and add in some additional 25mm weapons from the regimental level (each French infantry regiment has a six-gun section of 25mm AT guns, two 81mm mortars, and three Renault UE tractors at full strength), and we get five 25mm weapons to get the one (1) actual model on the table under Rapid Fire conventions.

But then one is back to the problem of a sixteen gun machine gun company with a 5 to 1 representational ratio under Rapid Fire. Three HMGs or four HMGs…. Hmmm…

The 81mm mortars are a problem as well, as even if both regimental weapons are put at your battalion's disposal, that give you three such weapons, not enough to get the 5 to 1 model representation on the Rapid Fire table. Enter the 60mm mortars at the section command level, which comprised a total of nine (9) such weapons in the entire regiment (ie., there were shortages of these handy little mortars). So if we've got three 60mm weapons and (being generous with the regimental support) three of the 81mm weapons, which way do we split this particular hair?

My own thought is that if one allows for a particularly proficient group of poilus manning either the 60mm mortars or the 81mm weapons, we can justify skewing the result in Rapid Fire terms to allow for one of either a 60mm or an 81mm mortar team, *but *not *both.*

This very 'mortar gap" BTW was a thread on the France 1940 group on Yahoo I belong to a number of months ago…

So I break down my French infantry battalion for 1940 now as follows:

HQ. CO & 3 figures + either a 60mm mortar team *or* an 81mm mortar team

3 x 10 figure rifle companies including a rifle grenade in each.

3 x HMGs (Hotchkiss) if being conservative, four if being generous/those Frenchmen won the shooting proficiency competition just before the Germans crossed the Meuse to say "gutentag!"

1 x 25mm 34SA anti-tank gun (with a little help from our friends at the Regimental HQ level).

1 x Tracteur Legere UE to act as a tow vehicle for the AT gun, or to move the mortar at the Battalion COs discretion.

Of course, if you're really feeling frisky, you could always assign a couple of 47mm Puteaux 37SA anti-tank guns from *divisional* assets (just don't tell the German player that it can knock holes straight through all of his panzers like a knife through a tin can)…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Hello Leland,

Though the Rapid Fire rule book says the figure to man ratio used is 1:15, the organisations used in the rule book seem to indicate something more like 1:25 (e.g. a German infantry company had more or less the same number of men as a French one, but is nearly always 8 figures strong in the Rapid Fire organisations). The whole thing does seem to be quite flexible, so I think a lot of it is up to how each player chooses to organise their troops…

I chose to go with a support company in each battalion of 2 MMG because, though not as accurate as a 3 MMG company, I think 3 is too many for most early war games, unless it's a fortress or MG unit.

For the other support weapons, I decided that if there was an odd number of them (e.g. 3 in each battalion, as for the 60mm mortar) I would round up to 5 and use one model if the number was 3 or more, and ignore the extra if there were only 1 or 2 'surplus' weapons.

I also decided that the best way of representing the other support weapons (e.g. 81mm mortar and 25mm A/T gun) at this level was to count the total number across the regiment, and make a seperate regimental support company. This would have 1 81mm mortar and crew (for the 5 present in reality across the 3 battalions) and 2 25mm A/T guns and crew (for the twelve across the 3 battalions).

When using several Rapid Fire battalions, I would definitely expect to be able to use some additional support from divisional level units, such as a few 47mm guns, some 75mm batteries or larger (always good to have plenty of these), etc.

Another way around the Rapid Fire organisation problems is to use the rules for company/battalion level games, with each platoon being made up of about 8 figures and a small command unit with a 60mm mortar; support would probably come in the form of seperate platoons of 2 MMGs detached from the support company, a 25mm A/T gun likewise etc. In some ways I prefer company level games, as it's the kind of WW2 games I used to play using Donald Featherstone rules a long time ago.

how many battalions for each regiment?