Les Francais Contre Les Viet-Minh avec Tuk Tuks.

Temps- Mercredi 13th Mai 1953

Place-Quelque Part Au Vietnam.

Monsieur O’Brien inspects his troops.

        Mais oui this evening found us in the struggle between the French colonists and the Viet-Minh during the early fifties where the French still wanted to hold on to part of South East Asia but were just whittled away. The numbers were down on our last encounter with Chief Skulker being caught up in his football team’s bid for glory and Comrade Gilchristi was in Beograd.Herr O’Brien and myself were first on the scene so we divvied up the French colonists between us and prepared to be assaulted by an awful lot of Viet-Minh in the capable hands of El Presidente and encore une  fois the late arrival of Oor Andrew.

Sleepy River Scene.

Just in case.

Morning in Vietnam.

Here come the Tuk Tuks.

         The French forces consisted of French para squads backed up by some armour and were confronted by an awful lot of Viet-Minh who would just respawn every time a squad was eliminated.Not so Les Francais.We thought there should’nt be any problems as we had armour and they didn’t.Somebody should have told the Viet-Minh that.So we set our defences in the town and positioned a couple of squads at nearby firebases backed up by the armour to blunt the attack on the town and waited for the onslaught.

Prowling (In French)

Passing the time.

“Spicy Noodles Please.”

Winding her way home after a busy evening.

                It didn’t come as a torrent more a gentle trickle as El Presidente started probing the defences of the fire base on his side and loading another squad onto some Tuk Tuks in order to speed themselves into the attack.A solitary volley was fired at the fire base inflicting one casualty but that was that and with the end of that quick turn we all headed across to the local hostelry for some vittles and beer.No Vietnamese food on the menu though-pity.

Only took one shot.

And they are getting nearer.

Looking for Monsieur O’Brien.

And they are now on my radar.

           Oor Andrew arrived to join us for the second half hoping to waylay the French imperialists but the Paras were having none of it and intended to sell the town dearly. The second half began with a wishful attack on our armour protecting Herr O’Brien’s firebase by a bazooka armed Vietnamese lad hoping for the luck of the Vietnamese gods to help him and they must have been listening because lo and behold he hit it and it disappeared into a flaming load of scrap metal.Not the restart we had envisaged.Fresh from their initial success Oor Andrew attempted to assault my firebase noticing there was a tank situated in it rich for the pickings.As soon as he fired on the firebase my own lads popped up and after gaining a battlefield promotion proceeded to fire back and ready themselves to repel borders.Oor Andrew took his chance and rushed the buildings taking casualties in the process and found themselves in Mano a Mano with my survivors who came out on top and destroyed the attackers.No bad till we realised they would be coming straight back after a quick respawn.

Master of all it surveys.

Machine gun at the ready.

Monsieur O’Brien’s heavy weapons pret.

More cannon fodder for my big rifle.

 El Presidente’s forces had rid themselves of their Tuk Tuk transport and proceeded to leg it up the road towards the town .Time for my recoiless rifle to come to the fore and start clearing the road of these usurpers and combined with Herr O’Brien’s concentrated mortar fire managed to destroy another squad .El Presidente was having similar luck attacking Herr O’Brien’s firebase with bad luck and inaccurate dice rolling preventing his forces from getting anywhere near clearing the firebase.

My men having to leave their bottles of wine.

Deciding wether or not to attack the Sherman.

And they do.

      On the other side of town Oor Andrew was having better luck as he threw everybody lock,stock and barrel at my firebase which was good luck for me as it left the town alone.Another assault  was sent in with this time the squad getting the upper hand albeit with a load of casualties of their own.The only problem was that my Sherman tank was still on the premises but not for long as it engaged reverse gear and quickly left Dodge.Oor Andrew’s lads decided to rapidly follow it and hoped to do away with it and they did suceed to a point as they successfully attacked it but couldn’t damage it apart from setting it on fire but this was instantly doused.This advance to the rear left the Vietnamese-Minh in charge of another firebase but time was running out for them to take over the town.

Regrouping after setting it on fire.

Monsieur O’Briens infantry showing face.

My militia giving the Viet-Minh a bloody nose.

    On the other side of town El Presidente wasn’t having much luck both against Herr O’Brien’s firebase and also his lads who had foresaken the Tuk Tuks headed up the road to meet their fate which came in the form of a recoiless rifle perched on a building to give it more of a view of the surrounding countryside. The rifle was very successful in ridding us of another Vietnamese-Minh squad which came with the help of my mortar and some gunfire from Herr O’Brien’s infantry.Another squad was trying to creep around the town but even although it was being pruned I brought out another squad from hiding-just in case.My tank had actually retired enough to help in hindering the Vietnamese-Minh squad from capturing any real estate.      

El Presidente’s forces nearing the edge of town.

Another Viet-Minh squad dwindles.

Oor Andrew’s semi victorious squad had retired to the relative safety of my abandoned firebase and had met up with some reinforcing squads complete with a bazooka firer who after missing the tank found himself the subject of some machine gun gun fire which destroyed the whole team.Oor Andrew knew that the final whistle was drawing near so just decided to set up camp in the firebase as crossing the open ground would be impossible in the remaining time.El Presidente was off the same ilk a even though their forces could be replaced there was not enough time left.A “close”victory for the French colonists who although took a few hits in the suburbs they survived long enough to fight another day but not for long.

Still at the edge of town.

Still prowling

       A great and different game and for once played very amicably.All figures,scenery and scenario provided by El Presidente.

       See You All When I See You.

     This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.