Father of France

Chapter 175 The Contest Between Germany and Japan

First of all, hundreds of Panzer IV tanks and their derivative assault vehicles were definitely not to be given to the Catholic forces. The Governor's Office wasn't that confused; even if they were, Corman would have reminded them.

The local armed plans, whether for Vietnamese Catholics, Hmong, or highland ethnic groups, are currently limited to specialized light infantry units. The advantage of this is that it keeps these armed forces in the French army's comfort zone.

Meanwhile, the hypothetical enemy, the Viet Minh forces, are not very dangerous because of Chiang Kai-shek's overbearing arrogance and lack of external support.

France still has ample time to adjust its armed forces plan. Combat effectiveness is not solely determined by weapons; at least in warfare with a certain level of technological sophistication, the psychological aspect remains crucial.

If the morale isn't strong enough, then we can't even use the US military as an example. Since World War II, the US military's technological capabilities have far surpassed those of its adversaries. Let's take a country of similar strength to Vietnam, such as South Korea, as an example. A contrasting factor for South Korea is North Korea.
If a fighting spirit cannot be demonstrated, even better weapons will quickly lose their value in uniting the people. After the collapse of the Shia Crescent, Iran, which was thoroughly outmaneuvered by Israel, is now just a roadside...

After the Korean People's Army demonstrated its combat capabilities, the most direct victim was South Korea. South Korea's military capabilities had long been questioned due to reasons such as extremely poor treatment of its soldiers and the fact that its internal boxing was the best in Asia.

However, because North Korea faced difficulties after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its equipment was outdated, while South Korea was a much wealthier, less developed country, many people only suspected but could not make a definitive conclusion. They believed that the sinking of the Cheonan was due to the South Korean military's lack of training, since it was just one conflict and could not represent a general phenomenon.

However, after the performance of the North Korean People's Army on the Ukrainian battlefield, it can be concluded that North Korea's constant manipulation of South Korea is not due to the kindness of South Koreans, but rather because North Korea's fighting strength is indeed superior to that of South Korea.

Arming reactionary forces has always been difficult, especially given the premise that the dominant ethnic group in the country is strong, the proportion of the dominant ethnic group is too high, and the influence of religion in the country is not strong.

Once the Soviet proletarian theory was accepted, the reactionaries simply could not hold on without foreign aid.

This has even become a pattern in East Asian countries. After Chiang Kai-shek, the United States no longer dared to believe in the fighting capacity of the reactionaries. In the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the United States had no hope for the reactionaries and had to intervene itself.

France couldn't do any better. After Koeman managed to gather a few capable and willing Viet Minh forces that combined nationalism and the proletariat, he couldn't do any better next step.

The French army in French Indochina had to take on the main responsibility of fighting against the Viet Minh. As for Catholics, Hmong, and highland peoples, as long as they didn't drag the French army down and could catch their breath when necessary, that would be considered a success.

The Vietnamese National Army, with Catholics at its core, finally finished months of marching training and began to resemble an army, receiving German-style weapons from Europe in batches.

"So there are quite a few Germanic soldiers after all," Koeman said with a dry joke, watching the Vietnamese soldiers, whose uniforms had a touch of French military style, train with German-style weapons in their hands.

"With the armed operation over, French Indochina will have 300,000 National Army troops to assist us, and we can wipe out the Viet Minh threat." Lefèvre was much more confident than Corman. The Viet Minh only had tens of thousands of armed men. Couldn't 100,000 French troops plus 300,000 National Army troops suppress them?

"I hope so." Koeman outwardly adopted an optimistic attitude, but he knew in his heart that the problem of Vietnam was never the problem of that country. The outcome depended on the result of the civil war in the East.

If the great Eastern power were a normal dynasty, it would inevitably pay attention to two countries: Korea and Vietnam.

This has almost become a standard for whether a dynasty is qualified. Regardless of winning or losing, it must be done once, otherwise it's as if one's mind is not clear.

Once Chiang Kai-shek is dealt with, the major Eastern power will not tolerate the continued existence of French Indochina, nor will it allow the Korean Peninsula to fall entirely into enemy hands. The duration of French Indochina's existence depends entirely on which country the major Eastern power attacks first.

Koeman's memory first focused on the Korean Peninsula, and he hoped that it would be the same in the world.

In fact, according to Koeman's idea, he is still far from his ideal of building a powerful army. He hasn't even laid the foundation. At least he should equip every French soldier with bulletproof vests.
With current technology, Kevlar body armor is nowhere to be found. Current body armor is similar to that of Napoleon's cuirassiers, which is very cumbersome to wear. Moreover, given the temperature in the Indochina Peninsula, how can you fight a war in such hot weather while wearing iron plates on your body?

Besides body armor, the only other thing is night vision equipment. Wearing night vision equipment is much more reliable than using African soldiers whose night combat potential is superior to that of the French army.

However, this is still impossible. In fact, even in the 21st century, the widespread use of night vision equipment remains the exclusive domain of a few countries' militaries. Ordinary countries, relying on their own resources without foreign assistance, simply cannot afford to equip themselves with it. As someone who widely absorbs news from various countries, Koman has seen South Korea's defenses breached. South Korea, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, claims to have the best army in Eurasia, only inferior to the US Army, making it the second-best army in the world.

South Korea claimed this, but after seeing the PLA's large-scale night vision equipment during military exercises, they directly said it was impossible, because the South Korean army also cannot equip its soldiers with individual night vision equipment.

The mainstream individual night vision equipment costs at least $10,000, and South Korea is not among the few countries that can widely equip it.

Equipping a soldier with individual protective gear and night vision equipment would make him virtually immune to most infantry weapons.

Although the United States has been embroiled in counterinsurgency wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the casualties during the more than ten years of fighting have been relatively minor. This is enough to show that guerrillas using light weapons face a very difficult situation when they encounter even a small group of modern infantry.

If he could solve the current problems with the French army's individual protection and night vision equipment, he could even consider annihilating the Viet Minh now, instead of crawling and retreating.

The news of the French military operation in Haiphong, French Indochina, and the subsequent large-scale offensive, effectively ended the negotiations between the Viet Minh and the Georges Pitoure government. The Viet Minh representatives, led by Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap, left Paris. If it were up to Corman's idea, why not try house arrest?
But given the current circumstances, the French Communist Party, as one of the three major parties in France, and the Viet Minh, due to their class affiliations, have also attracted the attention of the Soviet Union. Some things can be done secretly, but absolutely cannot be done openly.

If it were a tribe in French Africa, and France secretly and ruthlessly killed them without the knowledge of other countries, that would be one thing.

However, if other countries become concerned, detaining a negotiating delegation at such a time will give other countries an opportunity to exploit the situation.

General Ta Shangliu's explanation was reasonable, and he then dismissed it, saying, "We can defeat the Viet Minh on the battlefield just the same, so there's no need to worry about it."

"Of course I believe in my comrades' abilities, but after the National Army completes its reorganization and training, more defensive tasks will still need to be assigned to them." Koman was always so obedient in front of General Dashanliu, simply because he was a high-ranking officer.

The French army is currently in the process of sweeping through the Viet Minh-controlled areas following the Battle of Haiphong. The main weaponry of the Viet Minh, their current adversary, consists of Japanese equipment left over from the Japanese army. This equipment was obtained by the Viet Minh from the Japanese forces in French Indochina after Japan's surrender.

However, if the Viet Minh forces were to engage in positional warfare in the face of the French army's heavy weaponry, it would be tantamount to suicide.

Take the Panzer IV tank that was sent this time, for example. Although this German-made tank is boxy and you can't find any trace of the shape of later tanks on the whole vehicle, it is still not something that the Viet Minh can fight against.

To deal with this type of tank, the Japanese army would typically deploy the Type 92 heavy machine gun or the Type 97 automatic cannon, if available. The Type 92 armor-piercing rounds of the former could penetrate 12mm of armor at 300 meters, while the Type 97 was a Japanese version developed based on the Swiss Solothurn S18 anti-tank gun, capable of penetrating 30mm of steel plates at 200 meters.

However, this automatic cannon, which the Japanese army had high hopes for, performed poorly in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. In the War of Resistance against Japan, it rarely encountered armored targets that required it to deal with. In addition, its complex structure and high price—the price of one automatic cannon was enough to buy eighty Type 38 rifles—so it was hastily discontinued after only 1,200 were produced.

The Japanese army could only use scraps from the navy, and the countries from which they sourced their weapons were all like that. The Viet Minh was even worse. Didn't Koeman know about this country? It's rare for socialist countries to have poor heavy industry, and Vietnam is one of them.

Even decades later, in 2019, Vietnam's military technology award was given to an 80mm cannon, while France is still using 90mm tank guns.

After a few years, there was a lot of progress. The self-production capacity finally increased from 80 mm to 122 mm, which was a great achievement.

Decades later, this is still the case. The Viet Minh are now even less capable of making any improvements to Japanese weapons; they are reassuringly incompetent.

The campaign to subdue the Viet Minh also took an interesting turn, becoming a clash between German and Japanese weaponry, essentially a civil war among the Axis powers in French Indochina. It appears that German weaponry was far superior to Japanese weaponry.

(End of this chapter)