"North African tribal fighters in WW2?" Topic

Learned colleagues I was wondering if there were any good sources and illustrations of African tribal fighters that helped out/fought alongside either the Allied or Axis forces in the North African campaign. I am aware that the Italians and the French used their colonial troops – but I was wondering if any of the berber/moroccon/taureg tribes chipped in at all alongside anyone?

thanks in advance for your peals of wisdom!
Simon

Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Senegalese plus Druss, Lebanese, Circassian, Arab and others all fought for French during WW2 in various theaters.

Type Tirailleur into your browser (add the country or origin too to narrow your search) and sit back and watch Google do its thing.

French colonial troops fought in Europe against the Germans in 1940.
Against the Brits/Aussies in Syria/Lebanon/Madagasscar in 1941.
Against the Germans/Italians in the desert (Bir Hakheim, etc)
Against the Brits/Yanks during Operation Torch then later vs the Germans/Italians in Tunisia.
They fought in Italy, then took part in the Invasion of Southern France and fought to the Rhine……

Thanks Richard – what about irregular troops that might be associated with the likes of the Berber/Taureg tribes?

there were no more "irregular" troops during WW2 in north africa .

The most "exotic" troops were Free French regular colonial Meharist units in tchad

who , from late 1940, fought the Italians during the Fezzan Campaign with a little help from LRDG

The picture is of the Meharist unit of the Compagnie portée de Largeau in Tchad , the gun is an old WW1 37mm infantry gun .

thanks Lou!

Honestly Lou………… :-(

Lebanese/Syrian militia fighting with the Armee d`Levant were mostly irregulars.

You forget about the huge role played by the Goumier in Tunisia, read -
La campagne de Tunisie 1942/44 by Spivak & leoni
Les djich dans la campagne de tunisie by Soulie
La guerre de tunisie by Audouin-Dubreuil

Also the photo is indeed Meharistas but was taken in Southern Tunisia in `43, it can be found in the offical French pictorial history of the war "du Tchad au Rhin" Vol:1
(Fezzan, tripolitane – Tunisie)

Highly recommended book -

Mountian Warriors (Moroccan Goums in WW2) by Edward Bimberg
ISBN 978-0-8117-3461-5

Abyssinian irregulars were used by both sides in the East African campaign. Raventhorpe and Lancashire(?) miniatures did them in 20mm.

Fatman

Hi Neil how are you sir :-)

There were some native chaps ( Berber) helping/fighting with Popski's Private Army in the Nafusa (?) mountains in Cyrenaica……….

Major Easy had Tewfik ( and his wicked curved dagger) to help him too……

to reply to Richard Baber

about the Lebaneses/Syrians , i don't agree with the "irregular" term . They were not "french" colonial troops , as the Syria Lebanon was not a French Colony but a League of Nations mandate .

But they were organized as the french army units, uniformed, trained, under unified command . In theory, they were Syrian or Lebanese troops .

about the Goumiers :
if they were "irregulars" ( non permanent ) troops in the early years of XXth century , they soon became permanent "police" force , of the "sovereign state" of Morocco .
They were no more "irregulars" than the Moroccan Spahis or Tirailleurs , even if they were ( in theory ) under the nominal rule of the Morocco Sultan .

about the picture , it's a propaganda picture, and there is a lot of "propaganda" and not a lot of history in the use of pictures :

you can found in some WW2 Free French Propaganda some ( a lot of ? ) historical non sense …

Lou I`ll think you`ll find Levante was a French protectorate (colony) otherwise why else would they be there in 1941?? The Armistice Commission oversaw the French military government, it was under Vichy control, hence a colony of France – at least that is my understanding of the term? Orders of battle for the Armee d` Levante list tribal levy (who must be by description Irregulars!)

Goumier were still raised from tribal levy even in 1940, many 100s (if not 1,000s) were employed on short term "contracts", they were not regimented or trained as regular troops (hence irregulars)?

Read the books i suggested, at least two of which were published in 1945 in Paris.
Les djich dans la campagne de tunisie by Soulie is just about Goumier in Tunisia written by an officer of native affairs who commanded a Tabor in active service.
Mountian Warriors (Moroccan Goums in WW2) by Edward Bimberg
ISBN 978-0-8117-3461-5
Covers the whole war after the Allies arrived In Morocco/Algeria through to the Rhine.

To dismiss someone elses opinion just because you have you own view, isn`t being a historian, its being blinkered.

I refer to "colonial" as an administrative term, not a political one …
OoB for the Armée du Levant list all non colonial units ( Ie all units who are not Regular French Empire ones ) as irrégulars .
But if you give a look to the organisation, there was a Military school in Homs , who instructed the lebaneses and syrians officers and NCO, and in the official texts before june 1940, those troops were refered as "troupes speciales du levant" .
They were raised on "geographical/tribal" bases , but nothing different than with the Spahis or the Tirailleurs …

and the organisation and uniform was on French bases .

About the Goum, they were organized , under unified command, and trained for mountain warfare , so irregulars ?

BTW, about the goums, if you have no problem with french , give a look at this : PDF link
the introduction, the main document is a list of references of declassified documents …

définitive( for the moment :o) ) and short work on the subject … by historians …

I have no issues with understanding the French language, I have visited the Troupes de Marine museum in Frejus several times to do do research over the years.

I think we are just arguing over semantics, to me any non-uniformed soldier is an irregular.

Goums (and troupes speciales du levant) are very un-military, hence to my mind irregulars………..

We will have agree to disagree on the terminology. :-)

a police force is not, in my mind, irrégular … and they are uniformed … :o)

but it's just a terminology term …

for me, irregulars are the partisans as seen in France … ( with no unified military command ) :o)