French Troops With Thompsons In Indo China

[shadycon]

As far as guard duty goes; I was in Bamburg, Ger. 72-73 [Army] , When we pulled reg. guard duty, no ammo. When we guarded the ammo bunkers we had 5 rds.

[Mk VII]

We had a whistle, a flashlight, and a pickaxe handle, and instructions not to hit anyone with it.

[wv1928]

Thanks for the pictures. Very interesting indeed.

[rpbcps]

Amazing what you come across, when looking for something else.

Following my imprunto display at the Blyth Battery Museum, I was looking for some items to compliment what I already have, for the planned display in June / July, date tbc. Thanks to some board members a few items are enroute 🙏🏼

One other thing I have been looking for, was a 30 rnd Thompson /M3 mag bag, to compliment my display of the evolution of Pattern 37 webbing for use with the Thompson 30 rnd magazine. See story in Chapter Three of  Tom Davis's book, 'Great Britain - The Tommy Gun Story'. The idea is to show the comparisons between pouches used for XX mags, 30rd mags and L drum mags by the US and British forces.

Anyway an original US Thompson 30 rnd mag bags in the UK are very expensive; for my needs, to expensive. Reproductions are relatively cheap, but I loath to buy repro stuff.

Then I stumbled upon a compromise on a French website. A French made copy of the WW2 US made 30 rnd Thompson  / M3 mag bags. Produced in France for use in Indo China, hence posting in this topic.

I was not aware France had produced these pouches for their troops in Indochina. So that was a pleasant surprise when I stumbled upon it. 

Overall I think it is a good compromise for my future displays and collection

Edited April 22 by rpbcps
Typo

[rpbcps]

On 2/15/2017 at 3:03 PM, shadycon said:

As far as guard duty goes; I was in Bamburg, Ger. 72-73 [Army] , When we pulled reg. guard duty, no ammo. When we guarded the ammo bunkers we had 5 rds.

 

On 2/15/2017 at 9:45 PM, Mk VII said:

We had a whistle, a flashlight, and a pickaxe handle, and instructions not to hit anyone with it.

I found this quote on line:

"In 1940, when the Thompson Model of 1928’s were first being issued to British Home Guard units, there was a shortage of .45 ammunition for them, which was not standard for the British army.

Many units were issued with new Thompsons, albeit initially with no ammunition. Peter Evans, ex-East Yorkshire Home Guard, said: “We had two Thompson guns and several dozen Enfield Pattern 1917 rifles, which were chambered for the [American] .30-calibre ammunition, but we were issued with .303 cartridges which were no use. We had no ammunition at all for the Thompsons though and were told that in the event of invasion we were to apply to the nearest regular army headquarters for a supply of cartridges” .