Goumier
Encyclopedia
Moroccan Goumiers were soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa
, between 1908 and 1956. The term Goumier was also occasionally used to designate native soldiers in the French army of the French Sudan
and Upper Volta
during the colonial era.
In French military terminology, a goum was a unit of 200 auxiliaries. Three or four goums made up a tabor
. An engine or groupe was composed of three tabors. A goum in this case was the equivalent of a company in regular military units and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a battalion. A tabor was the largest permanent goumier unit.
Each goum was a mix of different berber
tribes mainly from the Atlas mountains
of Morocco
.
) and infantry (Tirailleur
) regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique.
These semi-permanently employed Moroccan goumiers were initially raised by General Albert D'Amade to patrol recently-occupied areas. Goumiers also served as scouts
and in support of regular French troops, and in 1911 they became permanent units. Nominally, they were under the control of the Sultan of Morocco, but in practice they formed an extension of the French Army
and subsequently fought for France in third countries (see below). However, their biggest involvement was in Morocco itself during the period of French "pacification".
Initially, the Moroccan Goums wore tribal dress with only blue cloaks as uniform items, but as they achieved permanent status they adopted the distinctive brown and grey striped jellaba (a hooded Moroccan cloak) that was to remain their trademark throughout their history with the French Army. Their normal headdress was a turban
. Goums included both infantry and cavalry elements. Their traditional and favoured weapons were sabre
s or elongated dagger
s.
An equivalent force known as the Mehal-La Jalifiana was raised in Spanish Morocco
using France's goumiers as a model.
to withdraw a substantial portion of the regular French military forces from Morocco for service on the Western Front
. Remaining separate from the regular Moroccan regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique, the Goumiers gave valuable service during the Rif Wars of the 1920s. They subsequently became a form of gendarmerie
, keeping order in rural districts of Morocco.
al-sized units, about 12 000 men in total) served with the Allied forces
during World War II
. They specialised in night raiding
operations, and fought against the forces of Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany
during 1942-45. Goumier units were also used to man the front lines in mountainous and other rough terrain areas, freeing regular Allied infantry units to operate along more profitable axes of advance.
. After the armistice of 1940
, the Goums were returned to Morocco. To evade strict German limits on how many troops France could maintain in North Africa, the Goumiers were described as having Gendarmerie
-type functions, such as maintenance of public order and the surveillance of frontiers, while maintaining military armament, organization, and discipline.
The 15th Army Group commander, British General Harold Alexander
considered the French Moroccan Goumiers as "great fighters" and gave them to the allies to help them to take Bizerte
and Tunis
.
After the Tunisia Campaign
, the French organized two additional groups and retitled the groups as Groupement de Tabors Marocains (G.T.M.) Each group contained a command Goum (company) and three Tabors (battalions) of three Goums each. A Tabor contained four 81-mm mortars and totalled 891 men. Each infantry Goum was authorized 210 men, one 60-mm mortar, two light machineguns, and seven automatic rifles.
An anonymous junior officer from the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment, a unit that fought alongside the Goumiers in Tunisia, wrote:
Separate from the groups, the 14th Tabor did not participate in the fighting in Europe and remained in Morocco to keep public order for the remainder of the war.
, landing at Licata
on July 14, 1943, and was attached to the U.S. Seventh Army. The Goumiers of the 4th Tabor were attached to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division on July 27, 1943 and were recorded in the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment's log files for their courage. Upon their arrival many Italian soldiers surrendered en masse, while the Germans began staging major retreats away from known Goumiers presence.
The Italian campaign
of World War II is perhaps the most famous and most controversial in the history of the Goumiers. The 4th Group of Moroccan Tabors shipped out for Italy in November 1943, and was followed in January 1944 by the 3rd Group, and reinforced by the 1st Group in April 1944.
In Italy, the Allies suffered a long stalemate at the German Gustav Line. In May 1944, three Goumier groupes, under the name Corps de Montagne, were the vanguard of the French Expeditionary Corps
attack through the Aurunci
Mountains during Operation Diadem
, the fourth Battle of Monte Cassino. "Here the Goums more than proved their value as light, highly mobile mountain troops who could penetrate the most vertical terrain in fighting order and with a minimum of logistical requirements. Most military analysts consider the Goumiers' manoeuvre as the critical victory that finally opened the way to Rome."http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/archives/990909.shtml
The Allied commander, U.S. General Mark Clark
also paid tribute to the Goumiers and the Moroccan regulars of the Tirailleur units:
During their fighting in the Italian Campaign, the Goumiers suffered 3,000 casualties, of which 600 were killed in action.
women to serve as "camp followers" in rear areas set aside exclusively for the Goumiers."http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/archives/990909.shtml According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 people were raped by Goumiers. http://www.cassino2000.com/cdsc/studi/archivio/n07/n07p09.html Those rapes, later known in Italy as Marocchinate
, were against women, children and men, including some priests. The mayor of Esperia (a comune
in the Province of Frosinone
), reported that in his town, 700 women out of 2,500 inhabitants were raped and that some had died as a result. In northern Latium
and southern Tuscany
, it is alleged that the Goumiers raped and occasionally killed women and young men after the Germans retreated, including members of partisan formations
.http://www.dalvolturnoacassino.it/DOC/marocchinate2.pdf
On the other hand a British journalist commented, “The Goums have become a legend, a joke… No account of their rapes or their other acts is too eccentric to to be passed off as true.”
The French Expeditionary Corps executed 15 soldiers by firing squad and sentenced 54 others to hard labor in military prisons for acts of rape or murder.
, by Cape Corse.http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
from the Germans in June 1944. The operation was called Operation Brassard. The island was more heavily defended than expected, and there were many casualties on both sides as a result of the severe fighting.
, and Alsace
during late 1944 and early 1945. The Goumiers started landing in southern France on August 18, 1944. Attached to the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division, all three groups took part in the combat to liberate Marseille
from August 20–28, 1944. The 1st Group was subsequently used to secure France's Alpine frontier with Italy until late October 1944, and then took part in the forcing of the Belfort Gap in November. During late September and early October 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Groups fought in the areas of Remiremont
and Gérardmer
. All three groups fought in the Vosges Mountains during November and December 1944, facing extremely cold weather and bitter German resistance. After hard fighting in the Vosges Mountains and the Colmar Pocket
, the 3rd Group was repatriated to Morocco in April 1945. It was replaced in Europe by the 4th Group, which had returned to North Africa after French forces left Italy. http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
in the Bienwald
from March 20–25, 1945. In April 1945, the 1st and 4th Groups took part in the combat to seize Pforzheim
. In the last weeks of the war, the 2nd Group fought in the Black Forest
and pushed southeast to Germany's Austria
n border. During the same period, the 1st and 4th Groups advanced with other French forces on Stuttgart
and Tübingen
. By mid-1946, all three groups had been repatriated to Morocco.
The total of Goumier casualties in World War II from 1942 to 1945 was 8,018 of which 1,625 were killed in action.http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
in 1954. Stationed in the northern frontier zone of Tonkin, the goumier units were used mainly for convoy escort and quadrillage de zone (regional search and destroy) duties. By contrast with the regular Moroccan tirailleurs, who enlisted for fixed terms of service, the goumiers were contracted to serve specifically in Indo-China for the period of hostilities..
As in previous campaigns, the goumiers were organised in battalion sized Tabors, each comprising several Goums or companies. The proportion of French officers to Moroccan other ranks was low, with normally only two in each company. Locally recruited Indochinese auxiliaries were attached to each Tabor as reconnisance units. Brigaded for administrative purposes in the Groupement de Tabors Marocain d'Extreme Orient there were, at any one time, usually three Tabors serving in Indochina during the war against the Viet Minh. In October 1950 the 11e Tabor was overrun at Na Kheo, with only 369 survivors out of 924 goumiers and French officers..
During this, their final campaign in French service, the goumiers continued, at least for parade and in cold weather, to wear the distinctive flat-topped turbans and brown-striped djellabas that had distinguished these units since 1911.
Fourteen thousand Moroccan personnel were according transferred from French service. The modern Moroccan military includes both a Royal Gendarmerie and Auxiliary Force Companies. Both forces have an overlapping rural policing role and are in that sense the successors of the Goumiers.
, citations made during World War I, World War II or colonial conflicts were accompanied with awards of a Croix de guerre
(Cross of War) with attachments on the ribbon depending on the degree of citation: the lowest being represented by a bronze star (for those who had been cited at the regiment or brigade level) while the highest degree is represented by a bronze palm (for those who had been cited at the army level). A unit can be mentioned in Despatches. Its flag is then decorated with the corresponding Croix. After two citations in Army Orders, the men of the unit concerned are all entitled to wear a fourragère
.
with bronze palm (Army
level) seventeen times and the Croix de Guerre with silver gilt star (corps level) nine times :
In 1945, the Goumiers received their first flag, from Charles de Gaulle
. In 1952 this standard was awarded the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France.
of World War II has a key role in Alberto Moravia
's 1958 novel "Two Women
" (Orig. title in Italian "La Ciociara") and the 1960 film
based on the novel.
Similarly, in the novel Point of Honor by Mortimer R. Kadish (1951), whose setting is the American Army campaign in Italy in 1944, the closing pages depict the protection by Americans of Italian villagers against a threat of rape and murder by "Ayrab" or "Goum" troops.
Army of Africa (France)
The Army of Africa was an unofficial but commonly used term for those portions of the French Army recruited from or normally stationed in French North Africa from 1830 until the end of the Algerian War in 1962.-Composition:...
, between 1908 and 1956. The term Goumier was also occasionally used to designate native soldiers in the French army of the French Sudan
French Sudan
French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...
and Upper Volta
French Upper Volta
Upper Volta was a colony of French West Africaestablished on March 1, 1919, from territories that had been part of the colonies of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Côte d'Ivoire...
during the colonial era.
Description
The word originated in the Maghrebi Arabic word Koum (قوم), which means "people". The non-specific designation "Goumi" (French version "Goumier") was used to circumvent tribal distinctions and enable volunteers from different regions to serve together in mixed units for a "common" cause.In French military terminology, a goum was a unit of 200 auxiliaries. Three or four goums made up a tabor
Tabor (Morocco)
A tabor is a Moroccan military term used to describe a formation of three or four goums. A goum in this case is equivalent to a Company and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a Battalion...
. An engine or groupe was composed of three tabors. A goum in this case was the equivalent of a company in regular military units and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a battalion. A tabor was the largest permanent goumier unit.
Each goum was a mix of different berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
tribes mainly from the Atlas mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
.
Origins
The designation of "goumiers" was originally given to tribal irregulars employed as allies by the French Army during the early 1900s in southern Algeria. These mounted allies operated under their own tribal leadership and were entirely distinct from the regular Muslim cavalry (SpahiSpahi
Spahis were light cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the indigenous populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel now recruited in mainland France...
) and infantry (Tirailleur
Tirailleur
Tirailleur literally means a shooting skirmisher in French from tir—shot. The term dates back to the Napoleonic period where it was used to designate light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns...
) regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique.
Morocco, 1908-34
Algerian goumiers were employed during the initial stages of the French intervention in Morocco, commencing in 1908. After their terms of enlistment expired, the Algerians returned to their homeland, but the advantages of indigenous irregulars were such that they were replaced by Moroccan levies. Retaining the designation of goumiers, the Moroccans served in detachments under French officers, and initially mostly Algerian NCOs, both of whom were usually seconded from the Spahis and Tirailleurs.. Moroccan sous-officers were in due course appointed.These semi-permanently employed Moroccan goumiers were initially raised by General Albert D'Amade to patrol recently-occupied areas. Goumiers also served as scouts
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....
and in support of regular French troops, and in 1911 they became permanent units. Nominally, they were under the control of the Sultan of Morocco, but in practice they formed an extension of the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
and subsequently fought for France in third countries (see below). However, their biggest involvement was in Morocco itself during the period of French "pacification".
Initially, the Moroccan Goums wore tribal dress with only blue cloaks as uniform items, but as they achieved permanent status they adopted the distinctive brown and grey striped jellaba (a hooded Moroccan cloak) that was to remain their trademark throughout their history with the French Army. Their normal headdress was a turban
Turban
In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
. Goums included both infantry and cavalry elements. Their traditional and favoured weapons were sabre
Sabre
The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...
s or elongated dagger
Dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a sharp point designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. The design dates to human prehistory, and daggers have been used throughout human experience to the modern day in close combat confrontations...
s.
An equivalent force known as the Mehal-La Jalifiana was raised in Spanish Morocco
Spanish Morocco
The Spanish protectorate of Morocco was the area of Morocco under colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.-Territorial borders:...
using France's goumiers as a model.
World War I
The Goumiers did not see service outside Morocco during the First World War. Their existence did, however, enable General Hubert LyauteyHubert Lyautey
Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey was a French Army general, the first Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925 and from 1921 Marshal of France.-Early life:...
to withdraw a substantial portion of the regular French military forces from Morocco for service on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. Remaining separate from the regular Moroccan regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique, the Goumiers gave valuable service during the Rif Wars of the 1920s. They subsequently became a form of gendarmerie
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
, keeping order in rural districts of Morocco.
World War II
Four Moroccan groups (regimentRegiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
al-sized units, about 12 000 men in total) served with the Allied forces
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They specialised in night raiding
Raid (military)
Raid, also known as depredation, is a military tactic or operational warfare mission which has a specific purpose and is not normally intended to capture and hold terrain, but instead finish with the raiding force quickly retreating to a previous defended position prior to the enemy forces being...
operations, and fought against the forces of Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
and Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during 1942-45. Goumier units were also used to man the front lines in mountainous and other rough terrain areas, freeing regular Allied infantry units to operate along more profitable axes of advance.
North Africa 1940-42
In May 1940, 12 Moroccan Goums were organized as the 1st Group of Moroccan Auxiliaries (French: 1er Groupe de Supplétifs Marocains - G.S.M.) and used in combat against Italian troops operating out of LibyaLibya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. After the armistice of 1940
Armistice with France (Second Compiègne)
The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed at 18:50 on 22 June 1940 near Compiègne, in the department of Oise, between Nazi Germany and France...
, the Goums were returned to Morocco. To evade strict German limits on how many troops France could maintain in North Africa, the Goumiers were described as having Gendarmerie
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...
-type functions, such as maintenance of public order and the surveillance of frontiers, while maintaining military armament, organization, and discipline.
Tunisia, 1942-43
The 1st GSM (Groupe de Supplétifs Marocains) fought on the Tunisian front as part of the Moroccan March Division from December 1942, and was joined by the 2nd GSM in January 1943.The 15th Army Group commander, British General Harold Alexander
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was a British military commander and field marshal of Anglo-Irish descent who served with distinction in both world wars and, afterwards, as Governor General of Canada, the 17th since Canadian...
considered the French Moroccan Goumiers as "great fighters" and gave them to the allies to help them to take Bizerte
Bizerte
Bizerte or Benzert , is the capital city of Bizerte Governorate in Tunisia and the northernmost city in Africa. It has a population of 230,879 .-History:...
and Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
.
After the Tunisia Campaign
Tunisia Campaign
The Tunisia Campaign was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces. The Allies consisted of British Imperial Forces, including Polish and Greek contingents, with American and French corps...
, the French organized two additional groups and retitled the groups as Groupement de Tabors Marocains (G.T.M.) Each group contained a command Goum (company) and three Tabors (battalions) of three Goums each. A Tabor contained four 81-mm mortars and totalled 891 men. Each infantry Goum was authorized 210 men, one 60-mm mortar, two light machineguns, and seven automatic rifles.
An anonymous junior officer from the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment, a unit that fought alongside the Goumiers in Tunisia, wrote:
- Two companies of Goums...were stationed next to our CP, and these had sent out two raiding parties the same night... Mostly mountain men from Morocco, these silent, quick-moving raiders were excellent at night raids, and in surprise attacks. How successful they had been was attested by the two [French] officers who had command of the companies of the Goumiers. The companies lacked most of the clothing, equipment and weapons necessary for warfare. Several raids had remedied that. Inspection of their clothing revealed a good many German articles of clothing under their conventional brown and white vertical striped robes. Their rifles were mixed German and Italian, with a few old French rifles firing clips of four. Mess equipment, and a good deal of the food was also of enemy origin, as were the knives, pistols, blankets and toilet articles. From questioning of the Italian prisoners, it was evident that they had either heard or experienced the merciless raids of the Goums, and they wanted no part of them. Part of the Goums' success lay in their silence as they moved forward, and in their highly perfected art of camouflage. One anecdote ran that one warrior had so successfully camouflaged himself all day in full sight of the Germans that a German officer had wandered over to what he thought was a bush, and had urinated on the motionless head of the Moroccan soldier who bore the trial well, but who marked that particular officer down for special attention that night. Goums did not take any prisoners, and it was well-known to the Germans and Italians what befell anyone who ran afoul of those Moroccans. There was certainly no desire to have our battalion tangle with either of the two raiding parties sent out the same night.http://www.bluespader.org/uploads/1/071_1.html
Separate from the groups, the 14th Tabor did not participate in the fighting in Europe and remained in Morocco to keep public order for the remainder of the war.
Italy, 1943-45
The 4th Tabor of Moroccan Goums fought in the Sicilian CampaignAllied invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis . It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign.Husky began on the night of...
, landing at Licata
Licata
Licata is a city and comune located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River , about midway between Agrigento and Gela...
on July 14, 1943, and was attached to the U.S. Seventh Army. The Goumiers of the 4th Tabor were attached to the U.S. 1st Infantry Division on July 27, 1943 and were recorded in the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment's log files for their courage. Upon their arrival many Italian soldiers surrendered en masse, while the Germans began staging major retreats away from known Goumiers presence.
The Italian campaign
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
of World War II is perhaps the most famous and most controversial in the history of the Goumiers. The 4th Group of Moroccan Tabors shipped out for Italy in November 1943, and was followed in January 1944 by the 3rd Group, and reinforced by the 1st Group in April 1944.
In Italy, the Allies suffered a long stalemate at the German Gustav Line. In May 1944, three Goumier groupes, under the name Corps de Montagne, were the vanguard of the French Expeditionary Corps
French Expeditionary Corps (1943-1944)
The French Expeditionary Corps , also known as the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy , was an expeditionary force composed of French soldiers that fought in the Italian Campaign during World War II under the command of General Alphonse Juin....
attack through the Aurunci
Aurunci
The Aurunci were an Italic population which lived in southern Italy from around the 1st millennium BC. Of Indo-European origin, their language belonged to the Oscan group...
Mountains during Operation Diadem
Operation Diadem
Operation Diadem, also referred to as the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino was an offensive operation undertaken by the Allies in May 1944, as part of the Italian Campaign. It was launched at 2300 Hours on 11 May 1944 to break the German defenses on the western half of the Winter Line and open up...
, the fourth Battle of Monte Cassino. "Here the Goums more than proved their value as light, highly mobile mountain troops who could penetrate the most vertical terrain in fighting order and with a minimum of logistical requirements. Most military analysts consider the Goumiers' manoeuvre as the critical victory that finally opened the way to Rome."http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/archives/990909.shtml
The Allied commander, U.S. General Mark Clark
Mark Wayne Clark
Mark Wayne Clark was an American general during World War II and the Korean War and was the youngest lieutenant general in the U.S. Army...
also paid tribute to the Goumiers and the Moroccan regulars of the Tirailleur units:
- In spite of the stiffening enemy resistance, the 2nd Moroccan Division penetrated the Gustave [sic] Line in less than two day’s fighting. The next 48 hours on the French front were decisive. The knife-wielding Goumiers swarmed over the hills, particularly at night, and General JuinAlphonse Juin- Early years :Juin was born at Bône in French Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912.- Career :...
’s entire force showed an aggressiveness hour after hour that the Germans could not withstand. Cerasola, San GiorgioSan GiorgioSan Giorgio, is the Italian form of Saint George. When used as the name of a person it is frequently contracted to Sangiorgio.-Places:Many town and villages are named after the saint, including the following comuni, or ‘municipalities’:...
, Mt. D’Oro, AusoniaAusonia-Places:Argentina* Ausonia, Argentina, a community in General San Martín Department, CórdobaItaly* Ausonia, Lazio, a comune in the Province of Frosinone-Ships:* German aircraft carrier I , a German aircraft carrier...
and EsperiaEsperiaEsperia is a comune in the Province of Frosinone in the Italian region Lazio, located about southeast of Rome and about 40 km southeast of Frosinone...
were seized in one of the most brilliant and daring advances of the war in Italy... For this performance, which was to be a key to the success of the entire drive on RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, I shall always be a grateful admirer of General Juin and his magnificent FEC.
During their fighting in the Italian Campaign, the Goumiers suffered 3,000 casualties, of which 600 were killed in action.
Reported atrocities
However, the military achievements of the Goumiers in Italy were accompanied by widespread reports of war crimes: "...exceptional numbers of Moroccans were executed—many without trial—for allegedly murdering, raping, and pillaging their way across the Italian countryside. The French authorities sought to defuse the problem by importing numbers of BerberBerber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
women to serve as "camp followers" in rear areas set aside exclusively for the Goumiers."http://www.sonic.net/~bstone/archives/990909.shtml According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 people were raped by Goumiers. http://www.cassino2000.com/cdsc/studi/archivio/n07/n07p09.html Those rapes, later known in Italy as Marocchinate
Marocchinate
Marocchinate is a term applied to the mass rape and killings committed during World War II after the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy by Goumiers, Moroccan colonial troops of the French Expeditionary Corps ), commanded by General Alphonse Juin.- Background :Goumiers were colonial irregular...
, were against women, children and men, including some priests. The mayor of Esperia (a comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...
in the Province of Frosinone
Province of Frosinone
The Province of Frosinone is a province in the Lazio region of Italy, with 91 comuni . Its capital is the city of Frosinone. It has an area of 3,244 km², and a total population of 489,042 .The Province was established by Royal Decree on 6 December 1926 with territories belonging to Lazio...
), reported that in his town, 700 women out of 2,500 inhabitants were raped and that some had died as a result. In northern Latium
Latium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
and southern Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, it is alleged that the Goumiers raped and occasionally killed women and young men after the Germans retreated, including members of partisan formations
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
.http://www.dalvolturnoacassino.it/DOC/marocchinate2.pdf
On the other hand a British journalist commented, “The Goums have become a legend, a joke… No account of their rapes or their other acts is too eccentric to to be passed off as true.”
The French Expeditionary Corps executed 15 soldiers by firing squad and sentenced 54 others to hard labor in military prisons for acts of rape or murder.
Corsica, 1943
In September 1943 the 2nd Group of Moroccan Tabors participated in the liberation of Corsica, and fought the Germans in the mountains near BastiaBastia
Bastia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It is also the second-largest city in Corsica after Ajaccio and the capital of the department....
, by Cape Corse.http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
Elba, 1944
The 2nd Group of Moroccan Tabors was part of the French Forces that took ElbaElba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
from the Germans in June 1944. The operation was called Operation Brassard. The island was more heavily defended than expected, and there were many casualties on both sides as a result of the severe fighting.
Mainland France, 1944
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Groups of Moroccan Tabors fought in the campaigns in southern France, Vosges MountainsVosges mountains
For the department of France of the same name, see Vosges.The Vosges are a range of low mountains in eastern France, near its border with Germany. They extend along the west side of the Rhine valley in a northnortheast direction, mainly from Belfort to Saverne...
, and Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
during late 1944 and early 1945. The Goumiers started landing in southern France on August 18, 1944. Attached to the 3rd Algerian Infantry Division, all three groups took part in the combat to liberate Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
from August 20–28, 1944. The 1st Group was subsequently used to secure France's Alpine frontier with Italy until late October 1944, and then took part in the forcing of the Belfort Gap in November. During late September and early October 1944, the 2nd and 3rd Groups fought in the areas of Remiremont
Remiremont
Remiremont is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.Inhabitants are called Romarimontains.-Geography:Remiremont is located on the Moselle, close to its confluence with the Moselotte, southeast of Épinal...
and Gérardmer
Gérardmer
Gérardmer is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.-Culture:The Fantastic'Arts festival of horror and fantastic film has been held in Gérardmer each year since 1994.-External links:...
. All three groups fought in the Vosges Mountains during November and December 1944, facing extremely cold weather and bitter German resistance. After hard fighting in the Vosges Mountains and the Colmar Pocket
Colmar Pocket
The Colmar Pocket ; in Alsace, France, was the site of an operation during the Second World War, between 20 January and 9 February 1945, where the French First Army and the U.S...
, the 3rd Group was repatriated to Morocco in April 1945. It was replaced in Europe by the 4th Group, which had returned to North Africa after French forces left Italy. http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
Germany, 1945
The 1st, 2nd, and 4th Groups of Moroccan Tabors fought in the final operations to overrun southwestern Germany in 1945. The 1st Group fought through the Siegfried LineSiegfried Line
The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...
in the Bienwald
Bienwald
The Bienwald is a large forested area in the southern Pfalz region of Germany near the towns of Kandel and Wörth am Rhein. The western edge defines the eastern extent of the Wissembourg Gap, a corridor of open terrain between the Bienwald and the hills of the Pfälzer Wald. In the northwest, the...
from March 20–25, 1945. In April 1945, the 1st and 4th Groups took part in the combat to seize Pforzheim
Pforzheim
Pforzheim is a town of nearly 119,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. It is world-famous for its jewelry and watch-making industry. Until 1565 it was the home to the Margraves of Baden. Because of that it gained the nickname...
. In the last weeks of the war, the 2nd Group fought in the Black Forest
Black Forest
The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres ....
and pushed southeast to Germany's Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n border. During the same period, the 1st and 4th Groups advanced with other French forces on Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
and Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
. By mid-1946, all three groups had been repatriated to Morocco.
The total of Goumier casualties in World War II from 1942 to 1945 was 8,018 of which 1,625 were killed in action.http://www.farac.org/php/article.php3?id_article=64|
Indochina, 1949-1954
Following World War II Moroccan goumiers saw service in French Indo-China from June 1949 until the fall of Dien Bien PhuDien Bien Phu
Điện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
in 1954. Stationed in the northern frontier zone of Tonkin, the goumier units were used mainly for convoy escort and quadrillage de zone (regional search and destroy) duties. By contrast with the regular Moroccan tirailleurs, who enlisted for fixed terms of service, the goumiers were contracted to serve specifically in Indo-China for the period of hostilities..
As in previous campaigns, the goumiers were organised in battalion sized Tabors, each comprising several Goums or companies. The proportion of French officers to Moroccan other ranks was low, with normally only two in each company. Locally recruited Indochinese auxiliaries were attached to each Tabor as reconnisance units. Brigaded for administrative purposes in the Groupement de Tabors Marocain d'Extreme Orient there were, at any one time, usually three Tabors serving in Indochina during the war against the Viet Minh. In October 1950 the 11e Tabor was overrun at Na Kheo, with only 369 survivors out of 924 goumiers and French officers..
During this, their final campaign in French service, the goumiers continued, at least for parade and in cold weather, to wear the distinctive flat-topped turbans and brown-striped djellabas that had distinguished these units since 1911.
Following Moroccan independence
With Moroccan independence in 1956, the Goums were incorporated into the new Royal Army of Morocco. Following negotiations between the French, Spanish and Moroccan governments, it was agreed that both regular and auxiliary Moroccan units could be transferred into the new Forces Armées Royales or FAR.Fourteen thousand Moroccan personnel were according transferred from French service. The modern Moroccan military includes both a Royal Gendarmerie and Auxiliary Force Companies. Both forces have an overlapping rural policing role and are in that sense the successors of the Goumiers.
Decorations
In FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, citations made during World War I, World War II or colonial conflicts were accompanied with awards of a Croix de guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
(Cross of War) with attachments on the ribbon depending on the degree of citation: the lowest being represented by a bronze star (for those who had been cited at the regiment or brigade level) while the highest degree is represented by a bronze palm (for those who had been cited at the army level). A unit can be mentioned in Despatches. Its flag is then decorated with the corresponding Croix. After two citations in Army Orders, the men of the unit concerned are all entitled to wear a fourragère
Fourragère
The fourragère is a military award, distinguishing military units as a whole, that is shaped as a braided cord. The award has been firstly adopted by France, followed by other nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.- History :...
.
Second World war
In total, between 1942 and 1945, the Group of Tabors, Tabors and Goums earned the Croix de GuerreCroix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with bronze palm (Army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
level) seventeen times and the Croix de Guerre with silver gilt star (corps level) nine times :
- The 2nd Group of Tabors were awarded the fourragèreFourragèreThe fourragère is a military award, distinguishing military units as a whole, that is shaped as a braided cord. The award has been firstly adopted by France, followed by other nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.- History :...
(colors of the médaille militaireMédaille militaireThe Médaille militaire is a decoration of the French Republic which was first instituted in 1852.-History:The creator of the médaille was the emperor Napoléon III, who may have taken his inspiration in a medal issued by his father, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland...
) for having earned the Croix de GuerreCroix de guerreThe Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with bronze palm four times - The 1st, 3rd and 4th Groups of Tabors were awarded the fourragèreFourragèreThe fourragère is a military award, distinguishing military units as a whole, that is shaped as a braided cord. The award has been firstly adopted by France, followed by other nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.- History :...
for having earned the Croix de GuerreCroix de guerreThe Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with bronze palm two or three times
First Indochina War
- The 1st and 5th tabors were awarded the fourragèreFourragèreThe fourragère is a military award, distinguishing military units as a whole, that is shaped as a braided cord. The award has been firstly adopted by France, followed by other nations such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal.- History :...
for having earned the Croix de GuerreCroix de guerreThe Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with bronze palm two or three times
In 1945, the Goumiers received their first flag, from Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
. In 1952 this standard was awarded the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France.
In fiction
A scene in which women are raped by goumiers during the 1944 Italian CampaignItalian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
of World War II has a key role in Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
's 1958 novel "Two Women
Two women (novel)
Two Women is a 1958 Italian language novel by Alberto Moravia. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her teenaged daughter from the horrors of war. When both are raped, the daughter suffers a nervous breakdown...
" (Orig. title in Italian "La Ciociara") and the 1960 film
Two Women
Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...
based on the novel.
Similarly, in the novel Point of Honor by Mortimer R. Kadish (1951), whose setting is the American Army campaign in Italy in 1944, the closing pages depict the protection by Americans of Italian villagers against a threat of rape and murder by "Ayrab" or "Goum" troops.
See also
- IndigènesIndigènesDays of Glory is a 2006 French film directed by French-Algerian Rachid Bouchareb. The cast includes Sami Bouajila, Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Mélanie Laurent and Bernard Blancan....
: a DramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
presenting the story of four Algerian tirailleurs (not Moroccan goumiers). Awarded the Prix d'interprétation masculine du Festival de Cannes at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival2006 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury....
. - RegularesRegularesThe Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas , known simply as the Regulares , were the volunteer infantry and cavalry units of the Spanish Army recruited in Spanish Morocco. They consisted of Moroccans officered by Spaniards...
- La Ciociara
External links
- Augustin-Leon Guillaume's Goums in a Modern War, Edward L. Bimberg
- Bill Stone, "Book review. Bimberg, Edward L. The Moroccan Goums: Tribal Warriors in a Modern War" (1999)
- Driss Maghraoui, 1998, "Moroccan colonial soldiers: between selective memory and collective memory - Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in North Africa", Arab Studies Quarterly (Spring, 1998)
- Allan Peterson, San Diego Reader, 1998, "Pizza Man's Atrocity Hunt" (Anecdotal allegations of war crimes committed by Goumiers in Italy)
- Portraits de Goumiers - 37 photographs taken in 1944 by Léo Durupt in the small French town of Le Val-d'AjolLe Val-d'AjolLe Val-d'Ajol is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.-External links:*...
- VosgesVosgesVosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been... - Author unknown, 2003, "History of FEC and its Divisions"
- Lescel (2002), Fédération des Amicales Régimentaires et des Anciens Combattants website article no. 366 (March 2002) "Goumiers, Goums, Tabors" (French language text)