Indochina Hellcat

1/48 Hasegawa Hellcat

Gallery Article by Mark L. Rossmann on June 4 2015

 

      

History:
As WWII ended the colonial powers shifted their priorities to retaining territory before the war. Japanese Army and Air Force staff remained in many places as allied governments moved to reclaim their former empires, but was slow to occur as post WWII was reeling to recover from this world wide catastrophe. The Potsdam conference had divided Indochina along the 16th parallel, with Nationalist Chinese in charge of the north and the British in the south. 

The air war over French Indochina represents a very interesting and unique period of modern history. A war fought with obsolete weapons, against an enemy without a single aircraft, a situation unheard of in modern times. It was a war that paralleled the long struggle that was to occur for 30 years with French and U.S. involvement. There was extraordinary variety of aircraft that served in the conflict. From seized Japanese Oscars, Jakes and a Rufe, through French-built Ju-52's acting as bombers. British Spitfires, Mosquito’s and U.S. King Cobra, C-47’s, Invaders, Hellcats on through to Bearcats, Corsairs, the French war effort in the air had a truly broad spectrum of aircraft.

Click on images below to see larger images

The French Aeronavale received 124 F6F-5s and 15 F6F-5Ns in 1950. Squadrons were deployed aboard the carrier Arromanches, used in action in the ground-attack role in Indochina up to 1954. 

As the attrition of the Seafire and Dauntlesses occurred, the F6F-5 Hellcats and SB2C Helldivers began to replace them, no carrier had been sent to Indochina for two years (1949 and 1950). The situation was deteriorating; the CV Arromanches led by Capitaine de Vaisseau Granger-Veyron, cast off in August 1951 with two squadrons. The 1F squadron equipped with F6F Hellcats, led by LV Varela de Casa and the 3F squadron, led by LV Waquet equipped with SB2C Helldivers. CV Arromanches remained in Indochina until May 17th, 1952; the missions of the two squadrons were strikes against bridges, roads, railroad tracks and CAS. During these missions casualties occurred as LV Gautriaud and SM Jacq of the 3F squadron, LV Lenglet flight deck officer and SM Geoffroy of the 1F squadron were both killed flying Hellcats.

At the end of August, returning to Indochina, the Arromanches under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Laha had aboard 12F squadron equipped with Hellcats, led by LV Vercken and 9F with Helldivers, led by LV Bourragué. Like previous operations, the squadrons struck communication routes between North Vietnam and China, mostly CAS missions for troops fighting in the Tonkin Delta. October 1952, the Arromanches moved west off of Thailand due to catapult problems for repairs, the Hellcats and Helldivers were transferred to Haiphong-Cat-Bi AFB.

After repair, Arromanches retrieved her squadrons, missions off the carrier continued until they were delivered back to Cat-Bi AFB. They provided the same missions working with the French Air Force. In April of 53, the CVL La Fayette took 12F and 9F squadrons on board to continue missions. In June, 12F and 9F squadrons returned to France aboard the La Fayette

The Arromanches left France on September 9th of 1953, with the 11F (ex-1F) and the 3F squadrons armed with Hellcats and Helldivers, commanded by LV Castelbajac and LV Marmier. Missions again consisted of CAS and strikes over North Vietnam. In December, an 11F Hellcat was shot down north of Hanoi, with its pilot KIA.

In January 1954, the squadrons began missions over Dien Bien Phu, In March LV Doe de Maindreville of the 11F and his aircraft crashed in Along Bay. 11F then transferred to Haiphong Cat-Bi, while 3F transferred to Hanoi-Bach-Mai. Further losses occurred in subsequent months, 11F losing a Hellcat and pilot KIA over Dien Bien Phu, the commanding officer of the 3F crashed near Meos, the Hellcat of LV Klotz (11F) was shot down but he survived, SM Robert’s Hellcat was shot down but he died in the captivity of the Viet-Minh..

On May 7th 1954, the retreat of Dien Bien Phu occurred, the French Navy units continued to carry fight to the Viet Minh until July 21st when the treaty at Geneva was signed. Losses occurred, in May a 14F Corsair and pilot were lost, a Hellcat and pilot of 11F were lost in June and the last casualty a Corsair and pilot of 14F in July.

3F and 11F squadrons remained in Indochina until September when they were flown aboard CVE Dixmude, arriving back in France in November. 

The last French naval missions were carried out from January to June 1956 by the CVL La Fayette armed with F4U-7 Corsairs belonged to the 15F squadron.

The Model:
This is a Hasegawa Hellcat that was built in the late “90’s” with U.S. naval markings of the PTO. It was seeing its age, so I stripped off decals and the small parts and repainted it with Testors rattle can Dark Sea Blue. Final touch up to over sprayed areas and some weathering provided the matt for a new set of decals, dull coat spray finished it off. This represents a Hellcat from Flotilla 1F, flying off the Arromanches in 1952.

Decals are from Berna Decals in France, (BD 48-24) F6F-5 Hellcat. It contains decals for Flotille 1F, 12F, Escadrilles 3S and 57S, cost was about $18.00

The rebuilt model, I think, turned out to satisfactorily represent a French Hellcat.

References:

  1. Time Life – World War II “The Aftermath : Asia” 

  2. Berna Decals – BD 48-24. 

  3. Air War Over Indochina Website – by William Alcott 

  4. French Fleet Air Arm Site (www.ffa.net

Thanks to Steve for his great site….

Mark L. Rossmann

Photos and text © by Mark L. Rossmann