Hôtel de Vendôme, Paris, Tuesday, 25 April 1949
Having spent a number of weeks examining the offerings of most of Europe’s arms and vehicle manufacturers, as well as observing the performance of such equipment under simulated combat conditions in the Russian-sponsored Militariad, the members of the Philippine Technical Commission had reassembled in Paris to consider the final recommendations that they would submit to their government.
Colonel Magundayao formally called to order the meeting of the senior members of the committee; Lieutenant Colonel Garovillo, representing the armor branch; Lieutenant Colonel Monasterio, representing the artillery branch; Major Delgado, representing the infantry branch; and Captain Estrada, a specialist in aviation.
“Gentlemen, the time has come to get down to brass tacks. Garovillo, your recommendations?”
“As we have previously discussed sir the Army’s primary need is to update and expand its mechanized and motorized scouting forces. Even cutting requirements to the bone and handing down existing equipment to other units leaves our requirements at nearly six hundred light armored vehicles, aside from infantry carriers.”
Magundayao looked at his notes and grimaced. “Our technical staff rates the British equipment – the Ferret scout car, the Saracen armored car, and the Saladin troop carrier highly but…”
They all were aware of the problem. Though excellent in terms of design the Saracen and Saladin vehicles would not be available in any numbers for at least a year, and they would be expensive to acquire and to operate. Garovillo went on…
“Yes, but the French have made a counter-proposal that I do not believe we can ignore. The Hotchkiss VLD can be configured to fill the reconnaissance, liaison, and support role for which we need new vehicles; they are perhaps not perfect but they have the advantage of commonality, a great boon to maintenance.”
“And overall the package would be less expensive?”
“Absolutely! Not only that – Hotchkiss has offered to enter an arrangement for later deliveries to be made in kit form for local assembly, and they are at least willing to discuss license production for the future.”
Given the perennial need to stretch funds to the maximum extent possible, this was a factor that appealed to them all.
“Very well, that settles that. Our French friends win round one. What about tanks?”
Garovillo picked another file folder. “I’d love to equip our units with the British Centurion or the German Panther or the Russian T-47 – they are among the best tanks in the world – but they were not designed for our country.”
Delgado said the magic word. “Bridges.”
“Yes – there is not a bridge in the islands that could support their weight. Which is why our initial recommendations were to acquire a small number of Montbruns to issue to the armored regiments and replace retain our M45 medium tanks for the time being. Again, the French have made us an offer we cannot refuse.”
Garovillo explained that the French had offered several hundred of their older Char-8 Montbrun medium tanks out of their reserve stocks, and the only cost to the Philippine Army would be the charges to bring them up to the current Char-8A4bis standards.
Magundayao kept his thoughts on French generosity to himself. He recalled the old proverb, “The enemy of my enemy might be my friend.” Garovillo continued with the details of the plan to shuffle the Army’s tank inventory about and leverage the new vehicles that would be acquired. That covered the two greatest concerns that had prompted sending the mission half-way around the world. At last he turned to Monasterio. “And your branch’s needs?”
“Other that the additional CA-6B self-propelled howitzers Colonel Garovillo has already discussed my only recommendation is to consider the Yugoslav M47 recoilless gun to augment our mountain artillery. And I would not rate it a top priority – we acquired new mountain guns from Skoda not too many months ago. I would suggest acquiring a small number for troop trials.”
Delgado spoke up. “If we acquire some for trials, I would suggest considering them as replacements for our current group of antitank guns.” Magundayao appreciated Delgado’s brevity; and he made a note to write a personal recommendation for acquiring a small number of the ‘funny cannon’.
They considered a number of other needs and reviewed the recommendations before them. Small arms, motor transport, engineer equipment, even rations – they had looked at many things on their mission.
“Estrada, you have been very quiet.”
“Yes sir. I realize that the needs of the armor and artillery branches are the primary reason the Mission was sent here. Moreover, the argument could – and likely would – be made that helicopters belong in the Air Force’s wheelhouse. But we cannot ignore them; particularly to deploy troops in difficult country like Mindanao.”
Magundayao could not deny Estrada’s observations. The demonstrations of French, German, and Russian rotary wing aircraft they had witnessed had left powerful impressions on all of them. “So, what would you recommend?”
Estrada shrugged. “Pilot training would be the first priority. I am only qualified to fly civilian light aircraft but our French friends trusted me sufficiently to take the controls of one of their SH.20 Cigale helicopters under the watchful eye of the primary pilot. There are special techniques to be learned but conversion training should not be difficult. Acquiring a small number of machines like the SH.20 or the German Fa336 would be a start.”
Monasterio interjected. “Aren’t they the same aircraft? I thought the Germans were building the SH.20 under license from the French?”
“They are, so it becomes a question of who do we buy from? And that depends in large measure if we chose to opt for any larger machines.”
There were nods around the table.
“The French SH.40 and its Russian counterpart, the Sikorsky 19, are about at the limit of what the Air Force would allow us to operate. Something as large or complex as the German Wf21 or the French SH.30 they would demand to have in their own inventory.”
“And they would be correct.” Lieutenant Colonel Monasterio was not enamored with the concept of Army aviation.
“We can fight that battle later Colonel.” Magundayao was more forward thinking. “Very well then. I think we are in general agreement with most if not all our recommendations. Before we depart for Manila Friday morning let us concentrate in nailing down the terms of the agreements made with the French authorities so that we can lay complete details before the Chief of Staff.”
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