Not surprisingly, there is a tendency amongst many armchair generals interested in the Indo-China War to focus on the period of the United States' direct involvement from the mid 1960's onward. The earlier phase of the war, the ultimately doomed French attempt to hang on to their South East Asian colonial empire, is sometimes neglected. Thanks to sculptor Mike Broadbent, Eureka can now offer you an alternative to Airborne Cavalry in Hueys and the Viet Cong - in the form of French Foreign Legionnaires and the Viet Minh.
France scrambled to reassert itself in its former South East Asian colonies after the Second World War, but it proved an uphill struggle against an already well-established Communist powerbase in northern Vietnam under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. France's initial attempts at conciliation (the independence of Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam Republic was officially recognized in Paris) soon floundered when it became clear that French ideas of 'independence' did not match those of the Vietnamese Nationalists and Communists who came to be referred to as the Viet Minh. Guerrilla warfare broke out, and French troops found themselves embroiled in an escalating insurgency conflict.
Between 1946 and 1949 the French held their own, but the intensity of the war increased and by 1950 the Viet Minh were receiving growing support from the U.S.S.R. and China in both war materials and training. The French system of fort-based cordon defence proved inadequate as large numbers of well-equipped, trained, and highly motivated Viet Minh guerrillas launched major assaults from the jungle highlands - forcing the French to abandon north Vietnam. The military situation improved briefly for France at the end of 1950 with a great deal of the lost territory being regained, but French control over these areas proved to be tenuous and their fortunes swung back and forth during 1951 and 1952 as the balance of the war slowly tilted in favor of the increasingly confident Viet Minh. The war culminated in the epic siege of Dien Bien Phu (1953), when the French attempted to draw the Viet Minh out into an open, set-piece battle in which they hoped to destroy their elusive opponent. However, the Viet Minh turned the tables on the French, assembling troops and artillery on a scale the French had not envisaged, and some 15,000 French soldiers found themselves surrounded and cut off. The siege lasted six agonizing months with scenes reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War One. Frantic French attempts to relieve and resupply the garrison proved ultimately hopeless - as ammunition and food steadily ran out. When the Viet Minh finally overran the garrison, only 73 French soldiers managed to escape. Dien Bien Phu effectively marked the end of French influence in Indo-China.
The release notes on our website include some useful links to French Indo-China websites and articles, for anyone interested in exploring this period.
Our new 15mm range provides you with all the troop types needed to fight these bitter battles. The majority of the French forces doing the fighting were provided by the Foreign Legion, other colonial units, and French-trained indigenous soldiers. The "Legionnaires" of our catalogue listing will cover all these as their equipment - much of it straight out of World War Two - was universal. The Viet Minh come with a variety of suitable Communist block-supplied weaponry and captured material.
Here are the catalogue details for the new miniatures:
New 15mm French Indo-China War
Sculpted by Mike Broadbent
Number in parenthesis denotes the number of variants. Variants are supplied randomly
French Foreign Legion
300ICW01 - Legionnaire in helmet with MAS 36 (6)
300ICW02 - Legionnaire in helmet with MAT 49 (2)
300ICW03 - Legionnaire and No.2 in helmet with FM24/29 LMG - 2 figures (1)
300ICW03a - Legionnaire in helmet with FM24/29 LMG (1)
300ICW04 - Legionnaire Officer in helmet (2)
300ICW05 - Legionnaire Radio Operator in helmet (1)
300ICW05a - Legionnaire with radio telephone in helmet (1)
300ICW06 - Legionnaire 30.cal HMG team in helmet - 2 figures (1)
300ICW07 - Legionnaire 80mm Mortar team in helmet - 3 figures (1)
300ICW08 - Legionnaire 60mm Mortar team in helmet - 2 figures (1)
300ICW09 - Legionnaire 57mm recoilless rifle team - 2 figures in helmet (1)
300ICW10 - Legionnaire in helmet with M1 Carbine (2)
300ICW11 - Legionnaire in bush hat with MAS 36 (6)
300ICW12 - Legionnaire in bush hat with MAT 49 (2)
300ICW13 - Legionnaire and No.2 in bush hat with FM24/29 LMG - 2 figures (1)
300ICW13a - Legionnaire in bush hat with FM24/29 LMG (1)
300ICW14 - Legionnaire Officer in bush hat (2)
300ICW15 - Legionnaire Radio Operator in bush hat (1)
300ICW15a - Legionnaire with radio telephone in bush hat (1)
300ICW16 - Legionnaire 30.cal HMG team in bush hat - 2 figures (1)
300ICW17 - Legionnaire 80mm Mortar team in bush hat - 3 figures (1)
300ICW18 - Legionnaire 60mm Mortar team in bush hat - 2 figures (1)
300ICW19 - Legionnaire 57mm recoilless rifle team - 2 figures in bush hat (1)
300ICW20 - Legionnaire in bush hat with M1 Carbine (2)
Viet Minh
300ICW30 - Viet Minh with rifles - MAS36, SMLE and Type 99 (8)
300ICW31 - Viet Minh with SMG - MAT49, Type 50 and Thompson (4)
300ICW32 - Viet Minh with DP LMG (2)
300ICW33 - Viet Minh Type 92 HMG - 2 figures (1)
300ICW34 - Viet Minh Bazooka team - 2 figures (1)
300ICW35 - Viet Minh 60mm mortar and crew - 2 figures (1)
300ICW36 - Viet Minh 80mm mortar and crew - 3 figures (1)
300ICW37 - Viet Minh mortar/artillery crewman (3)
300ICW38 - Viet Minh Bugler (2)
300ICW39 - Viet Minh Standard Bearer (2)
300ICW40 - Viet Minh Officer (2)
All these miniatures can also be ordered in the U.K. from Fighting 15s, and in the U.S.A. from Eureka Miniatures U.S.A.