*When the French returned to Indochina in 1945 to 
*reimpose colonial authority they immediately
*found themselves up against armed Vietnamese 
*resistance.  Needing to quickly provide support 
*for colonial forces, the Armee de l'Air put various 
*confiscated Japanese types back into service.
*The use of such aircraft was also necessitated by 
*lend-lease retrictions on other available service 
*types that required their return to the United States 
*or limited their use only to areas in Europe.
*
*The Nakajima Ki-43 was by far the most plentiful of 
*the types forced back into service and conducted
*airstrikes with its guns and small bombs until
*quickly replaced by debatably more modern types 
*in French service in Indochina.