"French Motorised Infantry in 1940" Topic

Recently acquired the boxed set of Peter Pig's French motorised infantry. Great little figures. For uniform/equipment reference I got "1940 Le Soldat Francais" volumes 1 & 2 from Histoire et Collections. Fantastic books but the text is in French which I can read and usually get the main idea but sometimes not. Minor details are usually lost. What I need are some book/website suggestions about the Fall of France (preferably in English) especially ones that go into detail about these guys. How, when and where they were used. Lots of pictures would be a plus. Thanks in advance.

Paul

I wish you luck, so far finding sources that go into that kind of depth on ANY French forces and written in English has produced virtually nothing.

The France 1940 (France 40?) Yahoogroup.

OK. You have several flavors of French motorized troops:

1) Motorcycle squadrons with the GRDIs. These are motorcycle recce squadrons that fought as dismounted dragoons. They wore the motorcyclist/tanker's helmets and even had light support weapons along for the ride. Part of the recce units organic to infantry divisions.

2) Dragons Porte. Motorized infantry organic to the DLMs and DLCs. In the DLCs they rode in Citroen-Kegresse P17 halftracks. In the DLMs they rode in either Lorraine 28 or Laffly S20TL 6x6 troop carriers. They wore the Adrian helmets, were organized in ten-man squads and had a second FM 24/29 Chatterault automatic rifle in each squad to compensate for having two fewer men than the leg infantry counterparts. Support weapons were also mounted in the same or similar vehicles as the troops rode in.

3) Dragons Cuirassier. Motorized infantry organic to the DCRs. Their ride was the Lorraine Chenillette armoured personnel tractor with armored personnel trailer. Same gig as the dragonsporte in the DLMs, except they got the actual APCs in the 1940 French motorpool. Support weapons were either carried in Lorraine tractors or towed/carried by other types of vehicles (ie., Laffly V15s, etc.)

I can dredge up more details if you like, and I second the recommendation for the France 1940 Yahoo group! Excellent bunch of hooligans!

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson

"I wish you luck, so far finding sources that go into that kind of depth on ANY French forces and written in English has produced virtually nothing."

That seems a little harsh….

free and researched with references

PDF link

Wow!
Thanks for the link, Kevan!
I've been getting forces ready for Stonne '40,
and that will really help.
(French 3rd Mech Inf and 3rd Armored vs
German 10th Armored and Grossdeutschland)

Chris

Thanks for the help guys. Looks like I have some reading and painting to do.

Paul

Thanks, Kevan! I've been thinking about a French force for early war, mixed motorcycles and Dragoons Porte. You see, two motorcycle platoons and two Dragoons platoons is a valid list for Flames, and could be either a Dragoons company or a motorcycle company depending on the HQ.

Peter Pig figures are the mounted Dragoon figures which are suitable for RDP (regiment dragon Porte) and GRDI (Infantry Division recce) or any one in fact mounted on motorcycles. (however it does seem that not all RDP had the armoured unit style helmet mle35)

The DCR's mounted Infantry wore standard infantry uniform, however there trousers were blue off the field and khaki when in combat?

There are several books out there with pics, osprey have a couple and i will give you the name of the uniform guide when i get home.

The best guidebook available in print on this subject IMHO is Jouineau's OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE FRENCH ARMY 1940:

link

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson

This might interest you too:
link

Andy,

seen it; it's very cool! Especially so to see so many 1940-vintage French vehicles restored to running condition.
Now all they need is a Citroen-Kegresse P16 halftrack armored car for the GRDI reenactment group…

Leland R. Erickson

Thanks for the link Andygamer. Nice to see the colors of the vehicles and even better to see them restored. Like I told Leland in a PM all of the men in the boxed set have the tanker/motorcyclist helmets and are heavily armed with HMGs, LMGs and light mortars. There are also a couple CharB1 bis, 3 FT-17s, and 8 trucks. His thought is that they represent an ad-hoc unit which makes sense to me. Especially since after Leland's response I was going through the box and found the packing slip which has the title "Once more into the breach, 1940." Does anyone make the Peugeot 202 in 15mm? Can you imagine using 4 or 5 of them in a drive-by :).

Paul