France's starting presence east of Suez is useful but small. Lamotte-Picquet, a sloop, and an armed merchant cruiser are at Saigon, with another sloop on the Indochina station and patrol craft farther into the Pacific. This is not an existing battle fleet capable of checking Japan. Later Far Eastern strength in the scenario therefore depends on coalition redeployment and continued access to French bases rather than on a large force already stationed there.
Notable Point · 20:23-20:43
France begins with only a small Far Eastern station
The light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet and a handful of smaller vessels show how limited France's existing Pacific force was.