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In 1937 the Second Sino-Japan war began. France, while concerned about Japanese intentions in the SEA region did little to reinforce its military strength in FIC, instead depending on locally sourced soldiers and obsolete aircraft, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Armée_de_l'Air_in_the_colonies_(1939–62)

I'd like to propose a POD that leads to large scale Anglo-French war games or exercises that reveal the weaknesses of the Malayan defenses, thus impacting British preparations for the upcoming war with Japan. We'll leave Siam/Thailand out of it, so we can't copy the exact Japanese strategy of landing troops from Thailand. If you want, we can add the DEI forces for good measure.

The British motivation is to test their newly constructed defenses at Singapore, the RAF bases up north, and how the Army can best counter an invasion.

The French motivation is to find out how to best fight to fight the Thais, with assumption of active or passive Japanese support. The French want to do it on the cheap, but still use the exercise to give experience to their torpedo and bomber strike aircraft squadrons, and amphibious warfare units. To keep fuel costs down, the French deploy bicycle-equipped mobile infantry units.

In short, can the French show the Brits the weaknesses of Malaya in time for improved strategy?

First of all, we need a POD that gets the French to invest the resources and attention in FIC during this period of a remilitarized Germany on its border. Perhaps worries about Japan or Thai intentions?
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