Results 1 to 10 of 10

Thread: The British in French Indo-China 1945-1946

Threaded View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #3
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default French return to Saigon

    Post 8 explains why this thread appears:

    Some will be familiar this short campaign, with the 20th Indian Infantry Division providing the "muscle", with some RAF support, has been an interest of mine. So I have created this new thread.

    Alas the Search facility failed again, so I will copy the relevant posts in this thread to here. They nearly all came from this thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ble-(post-WW2)

    All this was prompted by discovering a short, eighteen page article by Daniel Marston: 'The 20th Indian Division in French Indo-China, 1945-1946: Combined Operations and the 'fog of war'. Note the irony the paper was given to a Japanese military audience.(Ends).



    I've read a couple of books on the First Indo-China War and found it startling that the French were able to return a small military force to Saigon, in October 1945, after the Japanese had surrendered to a British Indian division, under General Gracey, in September 1945. This altered the facts on the ground between the non-French civil administration (nationalist & communist Viet Minh) and the French who sought a return as a colonial power.

    That is a very short summary and my point is not what happened in Saigon, but the ability of the French to move a military force from Europe by sea there. This was a France dependent on Allied assistance, mainly from the USA; involved shipping - not in available in great abundance from France herself I suspect and money somewhere.

    What an opportunity missed?

    The British would have left and who knows who in place as government. Aside, in fact the division then went to Java, part of the Netherlands East Indies, to a similar situation and the most intense, bloody fighting of its war.

    Not to overlook that what became North Vietnam after the Japanese surrender was occupied by the Nationalist Chinese (which was hated by the locals) and they left to be replaced by the French.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 03-09-2019 at 07:51 PM. Reason: Add intro
    davidbfpo

Similar Threads

  1. The US role in French Algeria 1945
    By davidbfpo in forum RFIs & Members' Projects
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 07-28-2022, 08:49 AM
  2. Replies: 70
    Last Post: 04-29-2019, 07:54 PM
  3. South China Sea and China (2018 onwards)
    By AdamG in forum Asia-Pacific
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 02-19-2019, 05:11 PM
  4. The British Indian Army
    By blueblood in forum Historians
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 01-02-2019, 07:47 PM
  5. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 11-19-2018, 12:32 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •