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Who was the producer of the motorcycles of the French army in the First Indochina war? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by sir_pronoun@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I tried duckduckgoing it for quite a bit and failed. Does anybody have an idea?

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[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Terrot 500 RGSTA ?

Peugeot 175 D4 ?

From this forum (en français bien sûr). It speak about motorbike since 1950, so that would make sense with Indochine and I think I can recognise some of the models from archive photos. It says that before 1950, French army used a bunch of brands like BMW, Harley, Triumph, Gnome et Rhone and others from 1930 and WWII, but from 1950 and onwards they tried to harmonise the material and the list is on the forum.

Otherwise, your best bet would be searching for CEFEO material (corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient) as it was the more involved in the war.

There is a book about material used in this war but I don’t know if they wrote anything about motorbikes.

The forum from the first link seems to be a good source of information tho.

[–] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Lemmy keeps amazing me with the answers that come up. Many thanks, that is great!

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Are we talking a bout this noncredibledefence submission? Vespa 150

[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From the forum in my comment below.

Yup, they used it, only for paratroopers but they had some.

[–] maniii@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That vespa and that cannon do not look survivable if para-dropped. Also an artillery cannon with no-recoil ? How would that even work on a Two-wheeler like a scooter ? Im pretty sure you would have to dismount and re-assemble the cannon on solid ground.

[–] Mcduckdeluxe@reddthat.com 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's probably a recoilless rifle, doesn't need to be anchored like a normal cannon.

[–] maniii@lemmy.world -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Despite the name, it is rare for the forces to completely balance, and real-world recoilless rifles do recoil noticeably (with varying degrees of severity).

A Vespa cannot take that kind of forces and survive.

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they could? After all, these things were built.

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago

No see, keyboard warriors intrinsically know more about military practice than actual military producers and planners. It's unfathomable these experts aren't provided with a job on military contribution boards.

[–] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I wish we were!