""Free French" 1/144 scale decals?" Topic

Hello everyone,

At 1/144 scale, where to find appropriate decals for the "Free French" in 1944-1945?

Thank you…

link

Thank you, I know it and have it, are there no others?

The only other French decals that I know of are early war which is not what you're looking for.

are you planning both 1/72 and 1/144 then?

I saw and replied to your earlier request re the M4A2

Yes both, thank you.

a PM gone to you now with an offer to help.

Free French were massive by 1944-5 with units in Italy (often forgotten), Southern France and of course the "cool" lot, the Leclerc 2eme DB, part of Patton's of 3rd Army, well initially anyway.

Their AFVs had such attractive markings, they make great models.

But Free French could go back to Somuas in Tunisia, or even earlier in the Western Desert or Lebanon, Syria!

Finally, I have learnt that, to the French, the title Free French totally depends on the very day you joined the fight against the Axis. Within 24 hours decides it.

In practice, most French soldiers fighting in 1944-5 were former Vichy North African troops. These folk had killed their countrymen in the Levant (not to mention British and Commonwealth troops) and had slaughtered some elements of the Torch invasion force later on. But they changed sides.

It took Leclerc a long time to accept the naval unit with M10s into 2eme DB for just that reason (ex Vichy sailors). The RBFM went on to be one of the most effective TD units in NW Europe

All what you say is true, but De Gaulle was a rebel as well as the communists.

"Vichy"represented legitimacy because Marshal Pétain did not make a coup to take power like the two Bonaparte for example.

Did they collaborate?

Others in their place could not have done better, because the third republic had to pay the Germans 400 million francs a day during the occupation!.

This is a fascinating and very controversial subject.

The French still debate whether the Petain government was legitimate (legally, the de Gaulle claim to represent France was very dodgy indeed). If Vichy was legal, then the situation is very different to that of the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway for example. Their govts escaped to exile.

Poland did not, but never surrendered. Czechoslovakia never got the choice. But units fought on.

What became Vichy France did sign an Armistice. A cease fire. If legally binding, then any French civilian (indeed a regular soldier, but it never happened) taking up arms could be executed (not tortured etc of course).

The British executed German spies (unless they could turn them) and the Allies had no reluctance to shoot enemies caught in Allied uniforms as In the Bulge. In both cases these are recorded as war crimes by the Axis on our guys (or gals)

The Allies bent the rules. Best one for me is in "The Great Escape" when Cavendish is asked "What information were you asked to collect etc?", which is presented as sheer Gestapo nonsense.

However the latest releases on MI9 suggest that was just what was expected. POWs were expected to carry out espionage. That is contrary to the Geneva Convention…debriefing on return is different of course.

Yes, it's a fascinating and very controversial subject because there are more and more French people who are historically uneducated.

Yes, the French are still debating the legitimacy of the Pétain government (because legally, de Gaulle's claim to represent France was indeed very, very, very dubious). Vichy was legal and as the government of the third republic after May/June 40 did not know fled into exile, the situation was therefore very different from that of the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway for example. In June 40, they should have joined the French colonies and continued the war, come what may, same as in 1871.

The Gaulists were rebels and practically all of the extreme right who did not want to "collaborate".

Fortunately, Hitler was Francophobic, otherwise the war would have lasted longer…

What about the defeat of 1940, it is due (on the military level) to the victory of 1918, then (on the civil level) to the period called "between the two wars" with its leftist government.

What about Hitler's defeat, it is due to his victory over France, "I defeated the French army? But then, I can defeat anyone!?

The Gaullists were far from exclusively extreme right. Leclerc's pre war politics were a bit that way, but many of his troops were left wing and even anarchists, vestiges of Spanish Civil War republican troops who wanted to fight Fascism. Most notable were the Spaniards of La Neuve 9th Co RMT

I am a huge admirer of the courage it took to fight on when your country had surrendered, so ignominiously. All I was questioning was the legal status of soldiers in uniform, who fought on (and who were treated as POWs even by the Nazis) and the FFI largely in civvies (who were treated as having committed murder).

Read Wiki

link

under the Legitimacy heading

and you will find a very good debate on the legality of Petain's govt in late 1940.

Yes La Neuve 9th Co du RMT had a lot of Spaniards but only her…

In 1940, the French army was captured, there was no bloodletting like in 14/18 and that's a good thing. For the legal status of the "Free French" soldiers in uniform, who fought the Nazis, the armistice having been signed, they did not have to fight Germany and for the FFI and FTP, as Claude Autant-Lara says "When you don't wear uniforms, you don't make war on those who wear them!"

Lovely diorama, cobweb across window is a nice touch.

Now this is weird

I see my very long (and complex)reply about the legality of various French Free forces appears as, to just quote;

"Lovely diorama, cobweb across window is a nice touch."

My response was of deeper profundity, but not remotely to do with the subject title of course. As we Irish will say it " Arrah fecckhit, sure what does it matter anyway?"

The "Free French", it's original "that's all!