"Spanish veterans of the liberation of Paris" Topic
7 Posts
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GurKhan | 01 Apr 2020 8:21 a.m. PST |
This was a new story to me: link Rafael Gómez Nieto, who has died aged 99 from the coronavirus, was a Spanish Civil War veteran who joined a predominantly-Spanish company of a French armoured division, and went on to take part in the liberation of Paris: "One hundred and forty-six of the company's 160 men were Spanish and, despite serving in the French army and under a French commanding officer, they were permitted to stitch the red, yellow and purple flag of Spain's second republic on to their uniforms. They were also allowed to paint the flag on their vehicles, which rolled into Paris emblazoned with names such as Guernica and Don Quichotte (Don Quixote). Spanish was the common language within the company and all had fought during the liberation of French north Africa." RIP. |
79thPA | 01 Apr 2020 8:24 a.m. PST |
One of those interesting little footnotes of history. |
Legion 4 | 01 Apr 2020 8:27 a.m. PST |
Yes very much so ! RIP Soldier … |
robert piepenbrink | 01 Apr 2020 9:51 a.m. PST |
Evidently the FFL recruited heavily among Republican refugees. You also find them at Dien Bien Phu--and staying with the Viet Minh afterward. There were some newspaper articles when the last of them left in the 1960's. |
Fanch du Leon | 02 Apr 2020 7:51 a.m. PST |
They were called LA NUEVE, because they formed the 9th co, Régiment de Marche du Tchad (RMT). They were the first to enter Paris in August 1944 with 3 Shermans from the 501th RCC (régiment de chars de combats). They were 160 when they landed in Normandy, 16 one year later at Berchtesgaden (35 KIA, 96 WIA, 35 dead or missing). link |
Legion 4 | 02 Apr 2020 7:59 a.m. PST |
Good intel Fanch ! Also the FFL would get a number of it's members from some nations that lost a war or went thru a "change" of gov't. |
Mark 1 | 03 Apr 2020 5:21 p.m. PST |
It is easy to get confused when we use the abbreviation "FFL". To wit:
…the FFL recruited heavily among Republican refugees. and: … the FFL would get a number of it's members from some nations that lost a war… RP's reference is not clear to me. But to my interpretation both he and L4 are referring to the Foreign Legion. In French usage, FFL is the "Forces Francaises Libres", the forces organized by De Gaulle which fought with the British through mid-1943. link After the end of the Tunisian campaign the FFL was merged with the Armee d'Afrique in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. The combined force then became the Armee Francaise de la Liberation. This is pretty clearly where the gentleman in question was serving. In Leclerc's 2eme Division Blinde (2nd Armored Division) of l'Armee Francaise de la Liberation. An interesting story. If correct that he was 99 at his passing, he was a VERY young man when he was in the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War! Shame to see the old soldier lost to the pandemic. -Mark (aka: Mk 1) |
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