French Indochina Series (2 Viewers)

[Gunn Miniatures]

The sandbag emplacement has been designed to go with the Vietnam war Australian machine gunner, but of course it can be used for any number of purposes, like housing Bigeard and his fellow officers as per the photos. As you can see its a fairly large piece and will comfortably house 3 men or a mortar crew.
Th sandbag accessory pack will be available shortly along with INDO 001 FFL Paratrooper.





That's it for now, thank you for all your fantastic support so far in 2021, next month should see the release of some top ups for the Boer war series, 2 more figures from the Japanese surrender 1945 plus other goodies.
Its adieu now from the Team @ Gunn

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Lt. General Marcel Bigeard


Jumping into DBP with his men once in 1953 as Operation Castor commenced and then again in March 1954 at the conclusion, was Marcel Bigeard known as 'Bruno' by his men, an outstanding officer with an even bigger reputation for getting the job done. Bigeard had served in WW2 after escaping German custody and fought with the FFL in Algiers before being parachuted into occupied France to assist the French Resistance.


Bigeard was a keen self-publicist, welcoming journalists among his troops, which assisted his cause by getting the materials needed to help him succeed. His units were noted for their dedication to physical fitness above the normal requirements of the army. This unique style also included creating the famous 'casquette Bigeard' cap from the 'excess' material of the long shorts in the standard uniform.


A fitness fanatic known for his austere lifestyle and working out several hours every day, Bigeard was famous for being one of the fittest men in the entire French Army. He exuded a peculiar sort of French machismo; he always led from the front while refusing to carry a weapon, never asked his men to do anything that he would not do himself, and was well known for his saying: "It is possible, it will be done. And if it is impossible, it will still be done".


A colorful man, Bigeard was extremely popular with the troops under his command for his courage and for always leading from the front, but his contempt for superior officers who did not suffer the same hardships as ordinary soldiers, the "generals with middle-aged spread" as Bigeard called them, made for tense relations with his commanding officers.


He participated in many operations during his time in Indochina including a combat drop on Tu Lê in November 1952. In this operation Bigeard's men were outnumbered ten to one. Fighting off the Viet Minh, Bigeard conducted a fighting withdrawal through the jungle ensuring all the wounded men were carried to safety with the battalion.
It was also in 1952 that he fully qualified to be a flying pilot of a military transport helicopter so as to be fully capable of commanding a paratrooper battalion.
An extremely able military tactician, Bigeard was called by the British military historian Martin Windrow the "intuitive master of terrain, who could conduct a battle by map and radio like the conductor of an orchestra.
Bigeard was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel during the ongoing fighting at DBP, making of him a recognized figure while leading his battalion on points Éliane 1 and 2, specially co-directing intervention troops of the retracted camp of the CO Colonel Langlais. This was in some ways seen as a reward for his valiant command of his troops before the expected massacre at the end of the battle. Bigeard was a member of the 'para mafia' who were a high ranking group of para officers who oversaw the combat operations with the camp at DBP.


Bigeard called Dien Bien Phu a "jungle Verdun", the final and most intense battle in Vietnam as the Vietnamese used their Soviet-built artillery on the hills above to rain heavy fire on the French positions; every day the Vietnamese staged huge "human wave" attacks, sending thousand of infantrymen to try to storm the French lines, only to be repulsed time after time. Bigeard's paras were engaged in the heaviest fighting at Dien Bien Phu, and of his 800 men, only 40 had not been killed by the end of the battle.
His men were involved in the last French counterattack on 28th march, the mission being to reclaim some of the perimeter lost to the Viet Minh, hundreds of the enemy were killed in this attack with artillery ordnance also captured. The Viet Minh were stunned by the French ability to launch an attack at this late stage of the siege, the M-24 Chaffee tanks based at DBP played a crucial role in this attack as well as the overall defence of DBP. With this in mind TG have already started production of a Chaffee tank for armour fans of this series.


Lieutenant-colonel Marcel Bigeard was made a prisoner of war on May 7, 1954, during the fall of the camp. After the battle, the Vietnamese forced the French prisoners on a death march to POW camps, making them march through a hot, humid jungle whilst refusing to provide food, water or medicine. It was a tribute to Bigeard's intense physical fitness regime that he emerged from Vietnamese captivity in relatively good health. He was liberated four month later, leaving Indochina for good on September 25, 1954. Upon returning to France, Bigeard told the French press he "would do better the next time.


Post indochina he continued his military career with the French army in Algeria, where he was instrumental in running a successful campaign against the FLN (local Algerians who were trying to establish an independent Algeria). Bigeard was definitely a soldier of the old school of military thinking, he saw torture as a necessary means to justify the end results. His paras were ruthless to the extreme but they got the job done giving no quarter and expecting none. Bigeard wrote in his memoirs "Was it easy to do nothing when you had seen women and children with their limbs blown off by bombs?"
Notably Bigeard survived 2 assassination attempts by the FLN who put 3 bullets in his chest, one during a PT session as he was out running one morning unarmed alongside the Mediterranean sea. Its a testament to his physical bearing that he survived and returned to duty within a few days of both attempts.


Bigeard was posted from Algeria in 1960, taking up several appointments in Africa and France before retiring in 1976. He died at his home in 2010 and was buried with full military honours. His stand at DBP has been compared by Max Boot the American historian as follows: "What Bigeard and the rest of the "para mafia" did at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu should be remembered in the way that the 300 Spartans' defense of the Hot Gates has stirred boys' dreams for 2,500 years. Few do so remember it, but among their number are the American generals who have been prosecuting our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."


He remains one of Frances most decorated soldiers. The pictures below show Bigeard on parade post Indochina and the second photograph shows him with 2 of his officers the day they parachuted into DBP. Its one of the most iconic photographs of the whole campaign and as such we felt that here at TG it just had to be made as a set, a fitting tribute to a great soldier.

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Following on from INDO 001 we have four members of an FFL patrol INDO 002-005, below are the resin samples of these figures for your enjoyment. Our patrol are equipped with a variety of weapons including a 30 calibre machine gun, M2 carbine and a MAT49 machine gun, one of the most successful French guns ever manufactured.

 

[Gunn Miniatures]

Dear All
Welcome to a special May newsletter featuring details of a new range coming from Thomas Gunn in the near future, the French military in the colony of Indochina.


INDOCHINA


Indochina is the name for 3 country's that initially came under French rule in the 1800's, namely Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Although the French brought architecture, railways and roads they also ruled the region with an iron fist, any insurrection being harshly subdued, as has been the way of all empire builders since the beginning of time.


French hegemony was interrupted during WW2 by the Japanese who annexed the country once France had been defeated by Germany. After the Japanese defeat in 1945, the French were keen to reestablish their control over Indochina and carry on with the rule of French law as if nothing had changed during the interim. Unfortunately for the French, the seeds of independence had been fermented by the Viet Minh, a Communist group of revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh. Although initially not very successful, the rise of China as a Communist power in 1949 led to a large increase in weapons for the Viet Minh. With more and more heavy weapons being supplied to them, the Viet Minh grew in confidence and were able to take on the French in set piece battles and by using guerilla warfare tactics to subdue any smalltime opposition be it civil or military.


The Viet Minh were as brutal if not more so than the French, any civilian who showed any disobedience to their cause would be swiftly dispatched by machete, firing squad or sometimes buried alive. Thousands of innocent people died under their regime even before it became the official governing body of the country. On the battlefield the Viet Minh leadership showed little regard for their soldiers welfare and favoured wave mass attacks by infantry against French positions, with a horrendous loss of life that has still not been made official to this day. They were more successful in ambushing French convoys and vast swathes of the country were no go areas for the authorities as the Communists tightened their grip.


After 8 years of insurrection the French decided on a set piece battle that would destroy the Viet Minh once and for all, luring them to a place called Dien Bien Phu (DBP). The operation was codenamed Operation Castor.
Parachuting men and equipment into DBP in November 1953 the French set up a heavily defensible position surrounded by mountains. As there was an airfield there, artillery and tanks were also transported via this method into the camp.
The French rightly assumed assumed the Viet Minh would come en masse to expel the French, they wrongly assumed the Viet Minh would not be able to bring heavy artillery to bear onto the forward facing slopes overlooking the camp. By a mammoth effort using thousands of Viet Minh soldiers and civilians they succeeded in bringing artillery fire to bear onto the French positions by March 1954 . Within two months and after a daily artillery barrage and a seemingly unending appetite for sending infantry in suicidal assaults against heavily fortified positions, the Viet Minh succeeded in overrunning DBP.


The 11,000 French army survivors were marched off into captivity where over 70% of the French died during a 3 month period of captivity, the Vietnamese/Thai/Cambodian allies of the French who were interned at the same time suffered a 90% death rate in the camps, basically they were starved to death.
Interestingly Dien Bien Phu has often be called the last stand of the SS, the ranks of the legion being filled at that time with many Germans from Hitler's 3rd Reich.


The war ended shortly after DBP with the French agreeing to leave Indochina and an interim government being set up to run the South along capitalist lines, the North being run under a Communist regime, with the intention of unifying the country once open and fair elections could take place. Of course this never happened and the country was then set on a course for the second Vietnam war, this time featuring America and her Allies coming to the aid of the South Vietnamese. The rest as we know is history.


Our first pieces will feature 11 interactable figures that can be combined or used independently of each other. These will mainly feature FFL paras as they would have appeared at DBP, following on we will then have French Marine Commandos making a raid on a VM village, pictures of these to follow soon, pictures of the real thing below. Of course there will be vehicles and the re-release of our small jungle hut ACC PACK011 due to popular demand.







INDO001 FFL PARA NCO.


Our first figure in this range features a French Foreign Legion paratrooper, he can be used in a variety of diorama positions, in ours he was designed to be overseeing his patrol as they return to base. This NCO wears the lizard camouflage pattern uniform issued to French Paratroopers in the region from 1953 onwards. He also carries the folding airborne MAS36 rifle and is wearing mainly American WW2 webbing equipment with French DF37 issue grenades attached to it.

 

[WesternOutlaw]

Great historic info re. Indochina, thanks (love the real photos as well).

Our first pieces will feature 11 interactable figures that can be combined or used independently of each other. These will mainly feature FFL paras as they would have appeared at DBP, following on we will then have French Marine Commandos making a raid on a VM village, pictures of these to follow soon, pictures of the real thing below. Of course there will be vehicles and the re-release of our small jungle hut ACC PACK011 due to popular demand.

Some awesome and unique figures with lizard camo, re-released jungle hut, and new vehicles, a perfect equation for an amazing new series!

{bravo}}

 

[WesternOutlaw]

The Viet Minh were stunned by the French ability to launch an attack at this late stage of the siege, the M-24 Chaffee tanks based at DBP played a crucial role in this attack as well as the overall defence of DBP. With this in mind TG have already started production of a Chaffee tank for armour fans of this series.

There you go, Steve. Nice!

 

[Horus]

Lots of good news in this release from TG Rob, so a big round of applause for Thomas Gunn ! {bravo}}{bravo}}{bravo}}

Steve

 

[cantinetozzo]

Love it...Bruno Bigeard was a hero, a great soldier and man. Happy to see him reproduced in TS form. Also i recommend "The Last Valley" by Martin Windrow...encyclopedic...

 

[Beaufighter]

Here’s a thought: how about a M24 Chaffee Tank? Different markings and conflicts.

It can be used for:

• WWII (1944-45) US Army & Free French
• Korean War (1950), US Army, "Pusan Perimeter"
• Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954), French Markings
• French Algeria War (1954-62)

Just a thought; "Get more bang for your buck!"

Carlos

Outstanding idea Carlos! I love the history behind these future releases too! Plus, the Chaffee is one of my favorite tanks!

 

[cantinetozzo]

One of the great movies about this war by one who was there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgIR403MCx4&t=26s

 

[cantinetozzo]

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The sandbag emplacement has been designed to go with the Vietnam war Australian machine gunner, but of course it can be used for any number of purposes, like housing Bigeard and his fellow officers as per the photos. As you can see its a fairly large piece and will comfortably house 3 men or a mortar crew.
Th sandbag accessory pack will be available shortly along with INDO 001 FFL Paratrooper.

View attachment 275473

View attachment 275472

That's it for now, thank you for all your fantastic support so far in 2021, next month should see the release of some top ups for the Boer war series, 2 more figures from the Japanese surrender 1945 plus other goodies.
Its adieu now from the Team @ Gunn

Please notice that the Para on the right with the swaggering pose near the seated Bigeard is another personality: Captaine Botella , commander of the 5th BPVN (Battalion of Parachutist Vietnamese) or "5eme Bawouan".

 

[The Military Workshop]

This series has got me looking at what the French did post WW2 and learnt a lot did not previously know. Read quite a bit about Bigeard and often described as the most decorated French officer. Tom has posted a great pic of him wearing medals and I think that may not have been his final entitlements. Being in the medal mounting business I found his medals impressive. He looks like the French version of LTCOL David Hackworth. The French do their medals in a different way to Australian and British medals but check out the medal 2nd right which has a very long length of ribbon with clasps on it. That is an overseas operational medal with his citations. He also had a Distinguished Service Order from the Brits after being parachuted into France in WW2 to assist the Resistance. The medal from Laos has a great name.

Like many post war French he served in Algeria and that is an interesting but nasty campaign. Going through the French commanders in Algeria on Wikipedia is interesting and you will notice 4 very senior ones have pretty much had their earlier careers purged as they blotted their records by going against the French Govt. Another top General was "de-Generalled" and forbidden from wearing his uniform or medals after saying the torture tactics employed were justified.

His medals were :

French Honors

Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur
Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 with 6 citations out of which 3 at the orders of the armed forces (3 palms).
Croix de guerre des Théatres d'Opérations Exterieures with 17 citations out of which 12 at the orders of the armed forces.
Croix de la Valeur Militaire with 4 citations at the orders of the armed forces.
Médaille de la Résistance decree of (6/09/1945)
Escapees' Medal
Colonial Medal with "Extrême-Orient" (Far East) clasp
Commemorative Medal of the 1939-1945 War
Indochina Campaign Commemorative Medal
Algeria Commemorative Medal
Medaille des blessés with 5 stars (5 wounds)
Honorary Légionnaire de 1ère classe of the Foreign Legion in 1954[10]

Foreign Honors

Distinguished Service Order (UK)
Commander of the Legion of Merit (US)
Grand officier du Mérite Sénégalais
Grand officier du Mérite Togolais
Grand officier du Mérite Comorien
Grand officier du mérite Saoudite
Officier de Ordre du Million d'Eléphants et Parasol Blanc du Laos
Commandeur de l'ordre du Mérite national mauritanien
Commandeur du Mérite centrafricain
Commandeur fédération pays Thaï
Commandeur du Dragon d'Annam
General Bigeard was awarded 27 citations, including 19 palms and 8 stars.

 

[WesternOutlaw]

This series has got me looking at what the French did post WW2 and learnt a lot did not previously know...

Wow! That's a lot of medals.

 

[paxtoysoldier]

Kudos for covering this period!

 

[joesgis]

Fantastic looking sculptures and paint! I really like the attention given to weapon detail and how they are well scaled. Your painters are really outstanding, the best in the biz. Thank you for the photos and I hope the new range is a big hit! Joe

 

[jason foote]

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Lt. General Marcel Bigeard


Jumping into DBP with his men once in 1953 as Operation Castor commenced and then again in March 1954 at the conclusion, was Marcel Bigeard known as 'Bruno' by his men, an outstanding officer with an even bigger reputation for getting the job done. Bigeard had served in WW2 after escaping German custody and fought with the FFL in Algiers before being parachuted into occupied France to assist the French Resistance.


Bigeard was a keen self-publicist, welcoming journalists among his troops, which assisted his cause by getting the materials needed to help him succeed. His units were noted for their dedication to physical fitness above the normal requirements of the army. This unique style also included creating the famous 'casquette Bigeard' cap from the 'excess' material of the long shorts in the standard uniform.


A fitness fanatic known for his austere lifestyle and working out several hours every day, Bigeard was famous for being one of the fittest men in the entire French Army. He exuded a peculiar sort of French machismo; he always led from the front while refusing to carry a weapon, never asked his men to do anything that he would not do himself, and was well known for his saying: "It is possible, it will be done. And if it is impossible, it will still be done".


A colorful man, Bigeard was extremely popular with the troops under his command for his courage and for always leading from the front, but his contempt for superior officers who did not suffer the same hardships as ordinary soldiers, the "generals with middle-aged spread" as Bigeard called them, made for tense relations with his commanding officers.


He participated in many operations during his time in Indochina including a combat drop on Tu Lê in November 1952. In this operation Bigeard's men were outnumbered ten to one. Fighting off the Viet Minh, Bigeard conducted a fighting withdrawal through the jungle ensuring all the wounded men were carried to safety with the battalion.
It was also in 1952 that he fully qualified to be a flying pilot of a military transport helicopter so as to be fully capable of commanding a paratrooper battalion.
An extremely able military tactician, Bigeard was called by the British military historian Martin Windrow the "intuitive master of terrain, who could conduct a battle by map and radio like the conductor of an orchestra.
Bigeard was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel during the ongoing fighting at DBP, making of him a recognized figure while leading his battalion on points Éliane 1 and 2, specially co-directing intervention troops of the retracted camp of the CO Colonel Langlais. This was in some ways seen as a reward for his valiant command of his troops before the expected massacre at the end of the battle. Bigeard was a member of the 'para mafia' who were a high ranking group of para officers who oversaw the combat operations with the camp at DBP.


Bigeard called Dien Bien Phu a "jungle Verdun", the final and most intense battle in Vietnam as the Vietnamese used their Soviet-built artillery on the hills above to rain heavy fire on the French positions; every day the Vietnamese staged huge "human wave" attacks, sending thousand of infantrymen to try to storm the French lines, only to be repulsed time after time. Bigeard's paras were engaged in the heaviest fighting at Dien Bien Phu, and of his 800 men, only 40 had not been killed by the end of the battle.
His men were involved in the last French counterattack on 28th march, the mission being to reclaim some of the perimeter lost to the Viet Minh, hundreds of the enemy were killed in this attack with artillery ordnance also captured. The Viet Minh were stunned by the French ability to launch an attack at this late stage of the siege, the M-24 Chaffee tanks based at DBP played a crucial role in this attack as well as the overall defence of DBP. With this in mind TG have already started production of a Chaffee tank for armour fans of this series.


Lieutenant-colonel Marcel Bigeard was made a prisoner of war on May 7, 1954, during the fall of the camp. After the battle, the Vietnamese forced the French prisoners on a death march to POW camps, making them march through a hot, humid jungle whilst refusing to provide food, water or medicine. It was a tribute to Bigeard's intense physical fitness regime that he emerged from Vietnamese captivity in relatively good health. He was liberated four month later, leaving Indochina for good on September 25, 1954. Upon returning to France, Bigeard told the French press he "would do better the next time.


Post indochina he continued his military career with the French army in Algeria, where he was instrumental in running a successful campaign against the FLN (local Algerians who were trying to establish an independent Algeria). Bigeard was definitely a soldier of the old school of military thinking, he saw torture as a necessary means to justify the end results. His paras were ruthless to the extreme but they got the job done giving no quarter and expecting none. Bigeard wrote in his memoirs "Was it easy to do nothing when you had seen women and children with their limbs blown off by bombs?"
Notably Bigeard survived 2 assassination attempts by the FLN who put 3 bullets in his chest, one during a PT session as he was out running one morning unarmed alongside the Mediterranean sea. Its a testament to his physical bearing that he survived and returned to duty within a few days of both attempts.


Bigeard was posted from Algeria in 1960, taking up several appointments in Africa and France before retiring in 1976. He died at his home in 2010 and was buried with full military honours. His stand at DBP has been compared by Max Boot the American historian as follows: "What Bigeard and the rest of the "para mafia" did at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu should be remembered in the way that the 300 Spartans' defense of the Hot Gates has stirred boys' dreams for 2,500 years. Few do so remember it, but among their number are the American generals who have been prosecuting our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."


He remains one of Frances most decorated soldiers. The pictures below show Bigeard on parade post Indochina and the second photograph shows him with 2 of his officers the day they parachuted into DBP. Its one of the most iconic photographs of the whole campaign and as such we felt that here at TG it just had to be made as a set, a fitting tribute to a great soldier.

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Wow, he is going to have to get a bigger shirt!

 

[Poppo]

The level of realism in these figures is amazing. They look like real people.

 

[Horus]

Could be quite a few cross over purchases between K&C and this coming TG range, such as civilians, diorama accessories such as sand bag fortifications, Huts, Water Buffalo and vehicles all benefiting both ranges. Looking forward to seeing this range develop !

Steve

 

[Horus]

If one is looking for reading material on Dien Bien Phu and/or the French in Indochina, you can do no better than Bernard Falls and his two classic works, "Hell In A Very Small Place" and "Street Without Joy". They are both incredible reads. Despite the age of the works, they are unsurpassed to this day. -- Al

So I've been reading "Street without Joy" very aptly named. From start to finish it was pretty much one catastrophe after another for the French it's only surprising they held on as long as they did and certainly gives plenty of scope for ideas for dioramas !

A fiction book about Indochina I remember reading forty odd years ago was "The Devils Guard" was a very good read I recall.

Been looking at some of the vehicles used by the French during that time period there and I was surprised to see a photo of a Bren Gun carrier parked up alongside a Sdkfz 251 and in another French troops armed with MP 40's

Another interesting vehicle and perhaps one that TG might be interested in producing is the C15TA, used in North West Europe and Far East in WW2 by Britain and Commonwealth Countries, French in IndoChina and up into the mid sixties by ARVN.

Link shows one next to a converted Dingo Scout car

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=119880&thumb=1&d=1612726205

Steve