The colonial forces did not mean inferior, and at one time occupied a very important position in the French army sequence.

No colonial nation would have been tamed from the beginning, colonial plunder was soaked in blood from the bones, and the republic needed a steady stream of benefits from the colonies, and the colonial troops were an important tool to protect these interests.

The French specially designed uniforms and equipment for her colonial troops to adapt to the local environment and climate, so that these French warriors could fight more efficiently in the local area, and the details of which were probably only comparable to the British, and the Wehrmacht was far behind on this issue.

This small unit belonged to the 1st Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment, whose headquarters were in Siem Reap, and which had been transferred to Banteay Meanchey Province two weeks earlier.

Generally speaking, some local soldiers were recruited into such troops, but the colonial military top brass stubbornly believed that the short Khmers were not suitable for war, and they preferred the Viet people, who were generally well nourished, more aggressive in character, and at the same time had no major language barriers, and after training, they were very obedient to the orders of their superiors.

However, the Khmer people are extremely hostile to the Viet people, and they are also hostile to the Siamese, and there is a hatred and contradiction between these three countries and peoples that have accumulated over the past century. So in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, most of the colonial troops stationed in Khmer were composed purely French.

Captain Danielle was the commander of the 1st Company of the 2nd Battalion, but now he only had this platoon in his hands, and one of the remaining men and horses escorted a group of important baggage to De Lie, and the other followed the regimental headquarters and sunbathed in Siem Reap.

Speaking of which, this is still a light motorized infantry platoon, but the actual establishment is not at all what it seems. Because the size of the army is so large, and the refitting and grouping are very confusing, the boundaries of the motorized troops in France have always been blurred in practice, which can refer to the mobile troops of pure motorized marches, or ordinary troops who use cars to transport baggage, and even more generally refer to all infantry units equipped with cars.

This infantry platoon of sixty-five officers and men was equipped with a Citroen half-ton truck. The pickup truck was obviously not used to carry people on the march, and they were not the Indian army, otherwise only a motorbike would have been enough.

Now the small truck, painted blue-gray, was loaded with the belongings of the entire platoon, various ammunition, spare weapons, field cooking utensils, and field rations enough for the platoon to eat for three days, and behind the high pile of wagons was a 25-mm anti-tank gun of the Haqikes SA34 type.

As the first anti-tank gun officially designed by France, this weapon performed well in the early days of the war, although the effective range was only 1,000 meters, but the armor-piercing ability of 40 mm was enough to destroy most of the German armored units.

The French were armed with a large number of these guns, and even supported a number of them for the British Expeditionary Force, which eventually fell into the hands of the Germans. Historically, the Germans gave it the equipment designation PAK112(F) as a supplementary firepower for second-line troops, and also sold a lot to allies, such as Romanian and Finnish armies.

But now that history has changed, the Germans simply did not look down on this small cannon, so they returned it to the French army, except for a few for study.

The French army also found that this thing was outdated in terms of performance, and now the whole world seems to be engaged in heavy tanks, but France built a full 6,000 of this kind of artillery at that time, and even if it was lost in the war, there were almost 5,000 left, and it would be a pity if they were all scrapped.

As a result, the Germans found a business opportunity in it, although the range of this thing is not very good, but the accuracy is really good, it can almost be pointed at within a thousand meters, it is easy to operate, the rate of fire is high, and it also has the power to destroy most of the light tanks in the world at that time, which is not exactly what the Chinese government needs most?

The gun weighed only 480 kilograms, and two strong soldiers could drag it away, powerful enough to take out all known Japanese tanks, and equipped with explosive shells that could be used to hit pillboxes.

The Germans deliberately added the SA24 to the arms trade catalog, so when the French sent troops to the colonies, they loaded almost half a shipload of these guns.

The Chinese side is indeed very interested in this kind of French artillery, and the first batch of 200 units has been ordered, and it is ready to be tested on the battlefield in real combat, and then consider whether to follow up the purchase.

Because this batch of artillery was no longer considered a trophy of the Germans, the French became the supplier this time, and the German side paid for it in francs quite readily, so that the business made the Pétain government, which was already in financial trouble, like discovering a new world.

The French colonial troops were also given a batch of these guns to strengthen the anti-tank fire of the colony, and there were still half a boat there.

The colonial forces had been under pressure from the Siamese and Japanese armies with armoured units, and the armoured units of French Indochina were scarcely worth mentioning compared to these two countries.

The Siamese Army's British armored vehicles, the main equipment is the Cardenroyd tracked machine gun vehicle and the Vickers six-ton tank, although they are lightweight units, but they are not the Renault FT17 produced by the French in World War I can match, not only the difference in quantity, the two sides are not the same era at all.

For example, the anti-tank battalion of the Third Colonial Infantry Regiment has obtained a batch of the latest 47-mm anti-tank guns, and the artillery battalion of the infantry regiment has been supplemented with a bunch of 75 or even 105-millimeter caliber big guys.

Paris is clearly preparing to make a big move in Asia, and according to less reliable sources, the British now have some ideas, and Danielle speculates that this may be referring to the Malay Peninsula.

"Mr. Captain!" The communications soldier stood beside Citroen and called out to the company commander.

"Something happened." Danielle threw away the cigarette butt in his hand and strode over.

"It's Major Duwa, the Siamese bombed the air station in Silkophon half an hour ago." The communications man handed the headset to Danielle.

"It's me, Danielle, good afternoon, Mr. Major." Danielle took off his helmet and placed it on the hood, snapping the headphones on his head.

"Yes, Mr. Major, I understand, Mr. Major. How so? Is the situation serious? I know... But the troops I have at the moment... Okay, Mr. Major, you know I didn't mean that, okay, no problem at all. Yes, long live the Republic, long live France! Danielle took off his headphones and motioned for the communications man to turn off the microphone.

"What's wrong? I heard that the Siamese Air Force bombed Sycomo? Ensign Barr asked.

"Yes, half an hour ago, but not in the city, but in the suburbs of the airfield. The casualties there were severe, and the entire base was almost destroyed. Danielle put on his steel helmet and fastened the strap on his chin.

"Are the Siamese crazy, this is war." Ensign Barr's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes, second lieutenant, there's going to be war. The command was to move our company to the border immediately and bring my map bag. Danielle said to the orderly standing nearby, and the soldier hurriedly spread his legs and ran towards the company commander's officer's marching bag.

The company commander took the map from the panting orderly and laid it on the hood of the Citroen.

"Our current location is near here, and we just passed by this river. Now let's get here. Danielle pointed to a point on the map.

"The Songsong outpost, it's less than a hundred meters from the border." Ensign Barr frowned.

"I've been there, it was an old-fashioned barracks with a pentagonal shelter wall and an airstrip two hundred meters to the south for light planes to land. Originally, there were thirty Khmer soldiers stationed there, but now it is not known how many remain. Our task was to get to this post before dark and then hold on there until the follow-up troops arrived. Danielle put away the map, folded it into a strip, and inserted it back into his map bag.

"What does that mean, that the Siamese will attack there?" Barr asked.

"Now we can't tell what the Siam Army will do next, I think there is a possibility of this, gather the troops, second lieutenant!" Danielle puffed up his chest and gave the order to the second lieutenant.

"Yes! Mr. Captain. Barr bumped his heel and saluted the company commander.

The next moment, the shrill and short assembly horns of the French army echoed from the side of the road.

PS: Yesterday's title should have been "preface", but it turned out to be written incorrectly, and there is a chance to change it again.

Thank you for your understanding and encouragement, I am very touched and I am deeply grateful again. (To be continued.) )