Battle of Dompaire

[Panzermechaniker]

Until I started delving into my present project tank Free French M4A3 (76)"Champagne" I had never heard of this battle. It was a very serious defeat for the Germans. "Champagne" was knocked out but all the crew survived and there is an interview with the driver of her and an explanation of exactly how the Panther got her. So while researching as much as I can for an idea of the general weathering and how the storage was placed on the French Shermans and having unearthed a lot of still images I finally stumbled upon this superb documentary. Although it is in French it is an excellent combination of actual footage, beautiful fully functioning restored French Shermans, Wolverines, halftracks and support vehicles. Plus some very good footage of Panthers and P-47s in action. Not the usual AI produced YT video footage with the same old shots that aren't even relevant to the subject. Here is the link. My French is basically non-existent these days. Maybe 50 words so I'll link a short video in English that is very good on describing how the whole battle went. The researching the history is one of the best benefits of this RC tank hobby. It's well worth an hour's time

The documentary

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and the English video on how the battle was waged

phpBB [video]

[MonsieurTox]

Thank you very much for this documentary. It's very well done and informative, too bad subtitles are not available for those who don't speak french.
It gaves me a lot of ideas for my builds !

[ColemanCollector]

That's definitely going to be worth a watch
Thanks for the link.
50? Beat me by 2!

Mike.

[Panzermechaniker]

Yes a French M-10 would be really cool. I liked the way the French named all their tanks and tds as well as numbers. In both documentaries the descriptions of the movements during the battle of the various vehicles the names are used rather than a number so much easier to visualize how the battle progressed and which vehicles got knocked out and their location. I actually was surprised there ware no subtitles but the restored vehicles being driven properly out in the wild in the re-enactments is worth it alone. Plus it's very well filmed and the tanks and countryside look great on a large screen. I have never even given a thought to going to that area of France. Definitely on my bucket list

[MonsieurTox]

Yes a French M-10 would be really cool. I liked the way the French named all their tanks and tds as well as numbers. In both documentaries the descriptions of the movements during the battle of the various vehicles the names are used rather than a number so much easier to visualize how the battle progressed and which vehicles got knocked out and their location. I actually was surprised there ware no subtitles but the restored vehicles being driven properly out in the wild in the re-enactments is worth it alone. Plus it's very well filmed and the tanks and countryside look great on a large screen. I have never even given a thought to going to that area of France. Definitely on my bucket list

Yeah, they named their M10 after French vessels (Destroyers, battleships etc) because the guys from the RBFM were from the Navy. They used navy aiming sights in their M10. Their M10 also had specific modifications so their are easy to spot. The Mistral and Siroco were quite successful (6 and 9 kills). They fighted in Dompaire.

If you want more info, you may find it interesting, and it's in english

https://mikesresearch.com/2019/04/28/re ... rs-marins/

I won't be very original but my M10 will probably be the Mistral or the Siroco Probably the Siroco, because he had an hedgerow cutter and was already wearing 3 white kill marks on the gun barrel when it entered Paris.

Tanks were named after French cities.

[Panzermechaniker]

Thanks for the link and the info.

I originally just wanted to do a M4A3 76 Sherman that wasn't a US version and when I saw the Peddinghaus decal sheet I really liked the look of it. I'm really glad I did. The research on it has been fascinating. Have learned so much about it and the Free French tankers which is something I had zero knowledge before I started this project. Surprised more people don't do French tanks from this period. I find the markings make a tank type I always thought looked kind of goofy look quite impressive.