French Block Houses

This is an interesting PDF about French block houses in Indo China:

https://monlegionnaire.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/french-blockhouses-vietnam-two.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0lhI666Bxt70OZ3vHDWnj1rUfdPmM7acbM7-33Vn8kt7KMupqJBM_W48s

Awesome find and a lot of new photos. Sure wish I had the
link for that old post that diagrammed forts by year. Printed a copy and it was a trove of info.

Thanks for sharing

Sam

excellent ..

That's a nice find!

Outstanding find. Thanks for sharing.

I have started to build some of them in 28mm (for a kind of Hue Bunker Hill area). I have two Solido R35 turrets that I could reuse. Yes very good reference.

Richard,
Looking good so far! Can't wait to see your finish projects.
There were old French blockhouses all over I Corps. So
your gaming use would not just be around Hue. Thanks
for sharing.
Sam

Sam, do you mean this..... https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vdqh26gfviu9j2208v785/FORTIFINDO.doc?dl=0&rlkey=6hpaisz8difteb1ym9c77uha3

Mishima,
I have an old laptop and could not access the whole link.
I don't remember the cover, but it was around 35 pages
or more and had drawings and floor plans for each. Blockhouses
and forts were categorized by year and there was a huge
variety. Need to find my where my copy is buried. This
may well be the same site. Print was green on white
paper. If this treasure is the same sight, it will be a wealth of
information for those gaming the French War and our war as well.
Hope you are well.

Sam

Sounds like the same one, 35 pages.
You should be able to download from that link, sorry if it doesn't work.
I got this from someone here, so just returning the favour.
Tim

Thanks Tim!
For those of you who game this era, that link is a treasure
trove of information and huge resource for you scratchbuilders.
Again, thank you Tim for finding this and posting it.
best always
Sam

I just find this photo of a "bloc central 52/53" on top of a Hue citadel gate. Nice to have on a wargame table.

Cool! I would just be happy for the gate and some walls. Although I guess if I could make that, the block house would be easy in comparison.

Tom

Thanks for all the blockhouse info! Great reporting!
indotoc

I tried to model some French bunkers that I could reuse for Vietnam war period.
I used your precious documentation.
Here are my models beside a 28mm Pulp miniature GI

this is a 1/43 Crusader tank turret

They look really good. Some great ideas and execution there. Thanks for sharing

Some photos I took of Huế blockhouses in January:


On the corner of Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Khuyến Streets, just up from the Église du Rédempteur de Huế.



Ground level blockhouse beside the entrance to the Cửa Trài Gate, just south of the redoubt where the ARVN 1st Division was based.


Walltop blockhouse south of the Cửa Trài Gate.


Another blockhouse, a couple of kilometres further south, on top of the Citadel's east wall.

Thank you for sharing this.
These bunkers look larger than I imagined. These hexagonal blockhouses seem high, with different levels of embrasures. very interesting.
I is great to find places where such History witnesses did not faded away.
Sometimes I wonder if these hegagonal blockhouses are all from the French period or if they where built later by Vietnamese or US engineers on the same model. Like those at Bunker Hill near Hue. Because there are very numerous.

Anyway, different types of French bunkers could be found in South Vietnam (not only the hexagonal type), like around Vung Tau or Da Nang. like this model (it was still present during an US airbase building, but was  certainly blasted then.


And this one (near col des nuages)

Yes, I wondered about how old they are too. It was hard to tell - the east wall of the Citadel was heavily bombarded by the Americans in February 1968, including by a US Navy destroyer, so I would not be surprised if they were built after the Tet Offensive.

excellent thread ,, great photos otb

Hello,
as part of French fortifications legacy there was the "Point 16" near Vung Tau, often photographed as an old French fort by US soldiers. I read it was demolished in 2015. I tried to respect the shape of it but could not resist to add a (fictional) armoured cupola on it (similar to the one we could see at cité d'Aleth in Saint Malo). Here are some pics with Gringo40s miniatures.

That Cloche is spot-on. Great rendition