The portray of a French
Indochina soldier must be one of
the most complex one to put
together accurately
as it will depend on the unit
portrayed and the actual year during
the war.
Some of units uniforms
remained the same for several
years and other (mainly
Airborne) evolved yearly
during
the 8 years French Indochina
war.
WWII French, British, US
and then French uniforms
equipments and weapons were used
at specific time with specific
units,
so your own research is vital!
Some of the later
French uniforms and equipment
were either
TTA "Toute Armes"
(all Army branches)
or
TAP "Troupes Aeroportees"
(Airborne) only.
You are a man, Go to
Indochina to defend liberty
You will become a leader!
French
Dog tags (plaque
d'identité)
The main dog tag used
during the Indochina war was the
M1918 wrist type.
This an lozenge shape
with rounded corners and breakable
in two parts. The information is
quite minimal.
On the front first name and surname and
incorporation year,
on the back recruiting
office name and recruiting
register number (not service
number)
This is repeated on the
lower section
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Model 1918 dog
tag on matching
Military records
book and sleeve.
The date of
incorporation is
January 1925.
Type used
in Indochina
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Model 1950
Date of incorporation
is 1955 and the
county is Jura. I believe
that the GSA stand
for "Group
Sanguin A"
typical of the
50's no blood
Rhesus
Type
mainly used in
Algeria
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Model
18 Dog Tag which would have
been used in Indochina (the two
tear oval type)
Enlisted/NCO
Front:
you would have: date of
incorporation in the military
followed by the
soldier
surname and first name, reversed
on the lower section
Back:
is the
recruitment town and his
recruiting number for that year,
again reverse on lower section.
Officer
Generally:
Front : Officer, followed
by surname and first name, again
reversed on the lower section
Back: date and town of
birth on both section
In 1950 a new dog tag started to
be issued, this time it was
designed to be hang around the neck and was of an oversize
rectangular shape with circular
top and bottom shape. Again this
was designed to be broken in
half with the same information on
both parts. Like the earlier
model, information was minimum
with first name and surname, this time
below was your service
number. Nothing was on the back
of the dog tag.
Despite the fact that most
units decided to exhaust stocks
of their M1918 dog tags prior to
issuing the new model, they
started to appear late in
Indochina with fresh troops.
The French service
numbers were made of two groups
of two number the first being
the last two digits of your the
National Military incorporation year, the
second two was the number of
your county were the
incorporation was done (France
is divided in counties all
having a two digit number)
and then followed by your recruiting
register number.
French army dog tags are only
made for troops serving in a war
theater,
they were supposed to be kept
with the "Livret Militaire"
(Army records book) and were only
supposed to be issued for combat operations
and
returned after until the next
operation, this would explained
why you don't always see them.
Due to the size
of the M1950 dog tag, they were uncomfortable
to wear and it was not uncommon
for soldiers not to wear them in
the designed place ie around the
neck!
"A
young NCO having fought in
Algeria and then in Tchad
pointed out that he used to wear
his attached to the inside of
his bush hat or on his web belt,
the only checks made was to make
sure that they were all return
after combat operations! "
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The
"Old
Timer" says
The 1918 dog tag is the most reprensative for the indochina war, the 1950 model was typical of the Algerian war. Beware, the French introduced a new version in 1993 similar in shape to the model 1950 but this time in a rectangular shape with just the corners rounded.
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