"Chasseurs d’Afrique 1942" Topic

Hi guys,

Does anyone know how these units were organized in French North Africa? I just read a book on Operation Torch and now I'm all excited about scenarios where I get to pit M3 Stuart's against Renault 35s.

Thanks,
Mark

There was a fellow who ran a game on this very premise at Historicon last month. Adam M. Wine, but I have no contact info.

There is a book, Les Chasseurs d'Afrique, by Jacques Sicard and Francois Vauvillier. I believe it has what you're looking for. It isn't cheap, but it's available from a bunch of sources.

The main problem is that it's in French. I have one, but I can't make heads or tails of it. Sorry, but with the book and a translator, you should be set.

Install Google Translate on your phone and select the camera function. Translates the text as you look at it.

Not the best approach, though. Scanning the pages w/ OCR and then running them through Google Translate on desktop is better, but slower.

Phone lets you scan through things and look for what's interesting, but the translation can be fragmented.

In theory they had two squadrons of 20 odd tanks each (a mix of H35, R35 & H38.

To be honest with the actions at Port Lyautey you only need a platoon or so as the only action between M3s and French tanks was at the south end of the landing beaches where first 7 tanks of 66th Tank battalion fought off 15 – R35s (to be honest could have been any of the three types listed above) from dug in positions then the next morning 10 more M3s (70th Tank Battalion Company "C" joined this blocking force and fought another action supported by US aircraft. The French did manage to knock out at least 2 M3s but just didn`t have the strength to break through to the beaches.

Elsewhere a major counter attack towards Tafaraouni Airfield was met by "B" company 1st Armoured Regiment plus some tank destroyers supported by US piloted Spitfires leaving 14 wrecks along the road leading back to Sidi bel Abbes.