The most exotic formations of the French army, of course, were the goumiers marocains - auxiliary units, in which mainly Moroccan Berbers living in the Atlas mountains served (the highlanders of the Reef were in the territory controlled by Spain).
Brigadier General Albert Amad, who was then head of the French expeditionary force in Morocco, was the initiator of the recruitment of the Berbers.
The French authorities, already having extensive experience in using "native" military formations, listened to the general's opinion, and in 1908 the first detachments of gumiers were recruited.
There are two versions of the origin of this word. The first asserts that the given name was derived from the Maghreb word "gum" (Maghreb Arabic "gūm", classical Arabic qawm), meaning "family" or "tribe". According to the second, less likely, the word comes from the Maghreb Arabic verb "to stand".
In the French army, this word began to call detachments of 200 people, which, in turn, formed a "tabor" (3-4 "gums"), and three "camps" were called a "group" - that is, we are talking about analogs of a company, battalion and shelf.
At first, the gumiers wore a traditional Berber costume, from which turbans and gray or brown striped cloaks with a hood - djellabe - remained later.
Another feature that distinguished the gumiers from other parts was the curved Moroccan dagger, which became a symbol of their connections.
Later, some combat units created in the territory of French Sudan (Upper Volta and Mali) were also called gumiers, but they did not leave a special trace in history, and therefore, when they talk about gumiers, the fierce Berber mountaineers of Morocco immediately appear.
For three years, the gumiers were mercenaries, since 1911 he became part of the French army, officers of the Algerian battalions of tyrallers and spags became their commanders.
Unlike other "native" formations, the gumiers never became full-fledged soldiers of the regular army. They remained true to their tribal traditions, which more than once terrified not only their opponents, but also the French themselves. It was common practice to cut off the ears, noses, and heads of captives as proof of masculinity and courage. Disciplinary punishments for such misconduct have proven useless. That is why the Gumier units, despite the heavy losses of the French troops, were not used during World War I in Europe, but Moroccan spahi were sometimes mistaken for them. For example, the picture below is often labeled: "Moroccan gumiers in Flanders." But this is exactly the spahi.
This 1915 photograph is signed: "Gumier in France."
And again this is Moroccan spag. Compare it with a real gumier:
But the French authorities willingly used the Berber gums to pacify the recalcitrant tribes, their actions during the Rif War were especially successful (and cruel). The soldiers of the army of the Emir-President Abd al-Krim al-Khattabi did not spare them either, and from 1908 to 1934. in Morocco, more than 12 thousand gumiers (12 583 according to French data) perished out of 22 thousand - more than during World War II.
Moroccan gumiers in Europe during World War II
During World War II, the gumiers nevertheless ended up in Europe. Let us recall that de Gaulle then got two "tabors" (battalions) of these Moroccans. Later, new "camps" and "groups" (regiments) were recruited. At first, they took part in battles against Italian troops in Libya (1940) and German troops in Tunisia (they took part in the capture of Bizerte and the city of Tunis in 1942-1943).
Then the Gumier units were transferred to Italy.
In total, there were four Moroccan groups of gumiers in Italy, numbering about 12 thousand people. They were used for reconnaissance in force, sabotage raids, as well as in battles in areas with difficult terrain, primarily in the mountains.
The fourth camp of gumiers, attached to the First American Infantry Division, took part in the landing operation in Sicily (Operation Husky, July-August 1943). Other formations in September 1943 as part of Operation Vesuvius ended up on the island of Corsica.
Finally, in November 1943, the gumier units were deployed to Italy. They showed themselves very well when crossing the Avrunk Mountains (May 1944), but they were "famous" mainly for their incredible cruelty, and not only towards the Germans, but also towards the civilians of the "liberated" regions.
Marocchinate
In Italy, they still remember numerous cases of murders, robberies, as well as mass rapes of women, even girls (from 11 years old) and teenage boys by the gumiers of the Moroccan regiments. Events 1943-1945 in Italy it is often called guerra al femminile ("war with women"), but this emotional and catchy phrase does not fully describe the events that took place: after all, not only women suffered from the actions of the Moroccans. A more correct (and official) definition of the atrocities of the gumiers is marocchinate.
It got to the point that the fighters of the Italian Resistance, forgetting about the Germans, began to fight with the Gumiers, trying to protect the inhabitants of the surrounding towns and villages from them.
The first cases of rape of Italian women by gumiers date back to December 11, 1943. Already in March 1944, the number of incidents involving Moroccans became such that local residents turned to Charles de Gaulle, who then arrived at the Italian front, with a request to remove them from Italy - this appeal was ignored by de Gaulle. But these were still "flowers". The Italians saw "berries" in May 1944, when, with the active participation of the Gumiers, the region of Monte Cassino, located about 120 km southeast of Rome, was "liberated".
Here the so-called defensive "Gustav's line" passed and bloody battles unfolded.
French general Alphonse Juen (who commanded the expeditionary force of the Fighting France in North Africa, he worked with the Moroccans since the winter of 1916) decided to additionally motivate the gumiers and managed to find the "right words":
“Soldiers! You are not fighting for the freedom of your land. This time I tell you: if you win the battle, you will have the best houses in the world, women and wine. But not a single German should survive! I say this and I will keep my promise. Fifty hours after the victory, you will be absolutely free in your actions. Nobody will punish you later, no matter what you do."
Thus, he actually became an accomplice in numerous crimes of his subordinates, but did not incur any punishment for this. In 1952 Juen was promoted to Marshal of France and, after his death in 1967, was buried in the Paris House of Invalids.
The atrocities of the gumiers began on May 15, 1944. In the small town of Spigno alone, they raped 600 women and killed 800 men who were trying to protect them.
In the cities of Ceccano, Supino, Sgorgola and neighboring cities, 5418 rapes of women and children were recorded (many of them were subjected to violence repeatedly), 29 murders, 517 robberies. Some of the men were castrated.
Even the modern Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Gellain wrote about the gumiers:
"They were savages who recognized strength, loved to dominate."
The official British report of those years dryly states:
“Women, girls, adolescents and children were raped right in the street, men were castrated … American soldiers entered the city just at that time and tried to intervene, but the officers stopped them, saying that they were not there, and that the Moroccans had made us this victory.
American Sergeant McCormick recalled the events of those days:
“We asked our lieutenant Bazik what to do, to which he replied:“I think they are doing what the Italians did with their women in Africa.”
We wanted to add that Italian troops did not enter Morocco, but we were ordered not to intervene."
Many were shocked by the fate of two girls, sisters of 18 and 15 years old: the youngest died after being gang raped, the eldest went mad and was kept in a psychiatric hospital until the end of her life (for 53 years).
Many women were then forced to have an abortion, and even more - were treated for sexually transmitted diseases.
These events are referred to in the novel "Chochara" by Alberto Moravia, later two films were shot: "La ciociara" ("Chochara", sometimes translated as "Woman from Chochara" or "Two women", directed by Vittorio de Sica) and "White Book "(John Houston).
The first of them is better known, having received many international prizes and awards, the main role in it glorified Sophia Loren. In 1961, she received three Best Actress Awards: New York Film Critics Society, David di Donatello (Italian National Film Awards) and Silver Ribbon (Italian National Association of Film Journalists). And in 1962, Lauren received an Oscar for Best Actress (she became the first actress to receive this award for a film not in English), and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) named her Best Foreign Actress.
And this is “the communist Jean-Paul Belmondo, shot by the Germans” (did you recognize the beloved “handsome man” in the USSR?) In the role of Michele Di Libero, the bridegroom of the heroine's daughter Sophia Loren:
Ciociaria is a small area in the Lazio region, whose natives were a mother and daughter, whose fate is told in the novel Moravia and the film by Vittorio de Sica: on their way home from Rome, they stayed overnight in a small town church and were raped by gumieres - "liberators" …
The atrocities of the Moroccan gumiers continued in other regions of Italy. 55-year-old E. Rossi, who lived in the town of Farneta (Tuscany region, about 35 km from the city of Siena), testified at a hearing in the lower house of the Italian Parliament on April 7, 1952:
“I tried to protect my daughters, 18 and 17 years old, but I was stabbed in the stomach. Bleeding, I watched as they were raped. A five-year-old boy, not understanding what was happening, rushed to us. They fired several bullets in the stomach and threw him into a ravine. The child died the next day."
There are many such testimonies, and it is very difficult to read them.
The ugly actions of the Gumiers provoked the outrage of Pope Pius XII, who in June 1944 sent de Gaulle an official protest and a request to send only "Christian troops" to Rome - and received assurances of "heartfelt sympathy" in return. De Gaulle's only attempt to stabilize the situation was an order to increase the number of prostitutes in the places of deployment of African troops, but it was not carried out either: there were no Italians who wanted to voluntarily go to the Moroccans' slaughter.
It is fair to say that some Allied commanders tried to restore order in the territories they controlled. Some rapists were shot at the crime scene or by court order (the exact number of those shot is still unknown). Others were detained and sentenced to forced labor (so French General Alphonse Juen, who "blessed" his subordinates for robberies and violence, did not keep his word).
After the end of the war (August 1, 1947), the government of Italy, which had gone over to the side of the allies, turned to France with a demand to investigate the actions of the Gumiers. The French initially stated that the Italians, "not burdened with morality," by their behavior themselves "provoked" the Muslim Moroccans, but under the influence of numerous evidences they agreed to pay insignificant sums (from 30 to 150 thousand lire) for each citizen of Italy who managed to prove the fact of violence, but not to them personally: reparations were reduced by this amount.
In Italy there is still the National Association of Marocchinate Victims. On October 15, 2011, the president of this association, Emiliano Ciotti, stated:
“From numerous documents collected today, it is known that there have been at least 20,000 reported incidents of violence. This number still does not reflect the truth - medical reports of those years indicate that two-thirds of women who were raped, out of shame or modesty, chose not to report anything to the authorities.
The Association appealed to the international court three times (in 1951, 1993 and 2011), demanding an objective investigation of the events of those years and the payment of adequate compensation to the victims, all these attempts were unsuccessful.
As a result, the inhabitants of the city of Pontecorvo smashed a monument to the "liberating" gumieres, and when a memorial stele in honor of the fallen Moroccans was erected on behalf of France, a pig's head was thrown to it.
Completion of the history of the Moroccan gumiers
The Gumiers continued to fight. Since the end of 1944, they have already fought on the territory of France, and here, of course, they were not allowed to rob and rape. It was noted, for example, their participation in the liberation of Marseille.
At the end of March 1945, one of the Gumier units was the first in the French army to enter Germany from the side of the Siegfried Line.
It is estimated that during the years of World War II, 12 thousand Moroccan gumiers were constantly in the "Free French Forces" (and a total of 22 thousand people took part in the hostilities). According to French data, 1,638 of them were killed (including 166 officers and non-commissioned officers), about 7,500 were wounded.
After the end of the war, the gumiers were returned to Morocco, where they were used for garrison service. From 1948 to 1954 three "groups of Moroccan camps of the Far East" (nine camps) fought in Vietnam, having lost 787 people killed (including 57 officers and non-commissioned officers).
In 1956, after the proclamation of the independence of Morocco, all the units of the gumiers went to the royal service - more than 14 thousand people. Many of them actually became gendarmes, performing duties of maintaining order and "pacification" of the Berber tribes.
