Les Troupes Coloniales d'Indochine

[1886lebel]

Les Troupes Coloniales d'Indochine


I believe these are of the 7ème Bataillon Indochinois (7th Indochinese Battalion) which was formed on February 16, 1916 in the Tonkin, at the Seven Pagodas, under the command of Chef de Bataillon Dez. This battalion numbered around 1,000 men. The unit landed in Marseilles and then were directed to Camp de Fréjus, which was located on the Mediterranean coast between Nice and Toulon, where they were to undergo training in military techniques and in a rudimentary soldier's French called parler tirailleur to April 1917. On April 10 the battalion then was attached to the 12ème Division (12th Division) where its companies were divided up within the units of this division:
1ère Compagnie (1st Company) went to the 54ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne at Sept Monts
2ème Compagnie (2nd Company) went to the 67ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne at Ambrief
3ème Compagnie (3rd Company) went to the 350ème Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne at Sept Monts
5ème Compagnie (5th Company) went to the divisional depot of the 12ème Division at Rozicie
4ème Compagnie (4th Company), the SHR (Battalion HQ) and the Compagnie de Mitrailleuses (Company of Machine Guns) were assigned to Montramboeuf under the command of Chef de Bataillon Dez
The battalion was to be engaged in combat with the 12ème Division at 2ème Bataille de l'Aisne and the Chemin des Dames on May 5,6 and 7 of 1917. The men from these companies were basically used following the attack of the main forces in re-provisioning supplies, sweeping of the conquered German trenches of stragglers and organizing the conquered land for the follow through units.
In June of 1918 the battalion was assigned to a “quiet” section of trenches in the sector near Anould in the Vosges where it remained until June 22 and while there they pushed back an enemy attack. After June 22 the unit was assigned to an area north of Munster called Centre de Résistance Clové where they repelled two attacks accompanied by huge bombardments and asphyxiating gasses finally bieng pushed back between the 29 and October 30 1918. The battalion was resting in Lorraine when the Armistice came. The battalion embarked at Marseilles on February 15 1919, to go back to Haïphong where it is dissolved.









Another couple interesting pictures, probably of one of the 15 Bataillons d' Etapes who built these prefabricated Baraque Adrian





More of the history of Les Troupes Coloniales d'Indochine to follow
Patrick

[oskar2ndchev]

Now we need to find some interested Vietnamese...

[rsm2ndbtnlf]

Lets open the floodgates.. I'm sure we can get space somewhere for the Japanese! The French sector is going to be pretty well packed!!

French frontline troops, Senagalise, Imperial Chinese, Russians, Italians, Portugese.... please shake me when someone rolls over and leaves a space for reality?

[oskar2ndchev]

We're just a representative "slice of life" here.

To be fair, we can also have Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, New Foundland men (since technically they weren't part of Canada at this time), South Africans, and Indians (if we do an early war scenario). ;D

And all of them could have easily rotated through the St. Ozena Sector, that legendary part of the Western Front that you'll never find on any map.

The way I see it, if it can be historically justified and enough people want to do it, in line with the rules, why not? We may not have the "wall of feldgrau" but we make up for it with variety.

[1886lebel]

Lets not forget the U.S. 92d and 93d Divisions, There were a few guys many years ago that did 369th "Harlem Hellfighters" at a GWA event.



Lets not forget the Tirailleurs Malgaches (Madagascar) as well

The Portuguese would be assigned to the British sector of the trenches not French BTW

Patrick

[Larry Dunn]

Apr 13, 2009 22:17:15 GMT -8 @rsm2ndbtnlf said:

Lets open the floodgates.. I'm sure we can get space somewhere for the Japanese! ...

I was going to suggest the siege of Tsingtao (the Japanese vs. the Germans, plus Austrian sailors from the SMS Kaserin Elisabeth and Kronprinz Rudolph) as our early war event, but I didn't think it would be good for Seph's blood pressure ;D

-Larry

[oskar2ndchev]

But with that event, THERE IS a place for the British- no worries there! The Austro-Hungarian sailor impression may work out to be the easiest to do. :-)

[1886lebel]

Here are some more pictures of them in the trenches ...





I got some more later to post up plus some more information on the men

Patrick

[1886lebel]

During the Battle of the Chemin des Dames from the 5th to 7th of May 1917 that the 7ème Bataillon Indochinois (7th Indochinese Battalion) fought there, they suffered 21 killed, 95 wounded and 67 missing in action, presumed dead. It was during this battle that Tirailleur Ngo Dinh Phu killed 2 enemy soldiers in a hand to hand combat and capturing 16 men including a Capitain, for his deed he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
By the end of the war there were 97 Tirailleurs of the 7ème Bataillon Indochinois who had won the Croix de Guerre.