This posting from my On Parade! series, in which I’m slowly reviewing every figure in my wargaming collection, features my WW2 colonial French army.
When I began researching which army to choose in my first foray into WW2 wargaming with 28mm figures, I was surprised to read about the amount of fighting that took place between the Allies and the Vichy French in North Africa and the Middle East. Often French were even fighting French. Zut alors, there was my army choice – French who could fight on either side!
And what exotic troops I could take: the Foreign Legion, Moroccan Spahis, Senegalese Tirailleurs … along with weird and wonderful transports and armour.
So let’s review what I have in my colonial French army.
Starting with my infantry, here we see a squad of Foreign Legionnaires, made up of figures by Perry Miniatures. They more likely would have worn helmets in battle, but I couldn’t resist the famous white kepi! Another uniform feature of the legionnaires was the ‘cheche’ neck-scarf that my troops are all wearing.
Here’s another squad, including a prone machine gun crew. On the roof of the building are an officer and an artillery spotter.
The infantry are supported by a mortar and machine gun manned by Tirailleurs recruited from the French colony of Senegal.
On the right is the famous ‘Soixante-Quinze’, the nickname given to France’s 75mm quick-firing field artillery pieces.
All these figures and the gun are by Perry Miniatures.
To transport carry my legionnaires, I have two Berliet VUDB armoured personnel carriers by Mad Bob Miniatures.
As described by Martin Windrow in Military Modelling March 1981 (see, saving old those old MM magazines from my teenage years has paid off!), the VUDB was ‘a four-wheel drive car bearing a strong resemblance to a hearse … guns could be mounted in any of four ports at front, back and sides. With a crew of three and a box of grenades, these underpowered but reliable old buses proved their worth many times over’.
Here’s the distinctive boxy shape of a White-Laffly AMD50 armoured car, in this model by Mad Bob Miniatures.
The turret had two guns, a 37mm gun at the front, and a machine gun at the rear.
These armoured cars were predominantly relegated to France’s overseas territories from 1937.
A Dodge Tanake by Perry Miniatures. These strange vehicles were converted Dodge 3-ton trucks with added armour.
They were armed with a 37mm gun, along with a coaxial light machine gun, as well as a second machine gun on an anti-aircraft stand at the rear left of the gun pit.
This Heath Robinson-ish contraption is a Conus auto-canon. I’ve manned it with a crew of Moroccan Spahis, recognisable by their distinctive red side-caps. The model is by Perry Miniatures.
The only tank in my force is this diminutive Renault R35 light tank, a resin model by Neucraft Models.
This was a relatively well-armoured infantry support tank, but slow (only 12mph) and lacking in good antitank-capacity, being fitted with only a low velocity short-barrelled 37mm gun.
Neucraft also supplied a second turret with this kit, so I can also use this model as a later type R35 with the long-barrelled SA38 37mm gun.
So that’s my colonial French force for WW2 (or inter-war) battles set in North Africa and the Middle East.
Don’t forget to visit my other On Parade! postings, in which I’m gradually doing inspection parades of every army in my wargaming collection.
DRESSING THE LINES 
Brilliant stuff! Have you collected the figures that the Perrys developed as Vichy French? They would be useful in Syria in 1940-41 and later in Algeria and Morocco against Operation Torch. I love the Mad Bob vehicles – he really has filled a niche for the types of vehicles like the Conus and Tanake which had very limited use but with which you could have a lot of fun on the table top. Again, very nicely done.
Very inspiring and informative. I had no idea Mad Bob mini’s were so extensive for the period.
Very nice collection, quite something different. Great painting, too. I am very much enjoying your On parade series, thanks for sharing!
Lovely stuff, and what an interesting force to represent..
French in North Africa? What can one say but something like: “Major Strasser’s been shot … Round up the usual suspects.”
“Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.”