I was working at the UK National Archives trawling for information to support my master's dissertation when I came across an intriquing reference in a Foreign Office file to a proposal that 100 aircraft on Martinique should be permitted to be transported to French Indo-China. The Foreign Office document was dated Feb 1941 and indicated that it was an American proposal to move the aircraft from Martinique. Now, the only aircraft that I know of in Martinique were the French aircraft deposited there from the carrier Bearn which included a number of B339Bs of Belgian origin. This leaves the intriquing possibility, had the scheme gone ahead, that the French would have operated Buffalos in Indo-China with the Japanese already occupying half the country. Potential for the Japanese to use the Buffalos against British forces in Malaya/Singapore, perhaps? It makes an interesting "might have been" which I thought I should share with the forum.
Kind regards,
Mark LKBS
