Continuing the tale of the colonial troops of the European powers, one cannot but dwell in more detail on the units that were manned by France in its North African colonies. In addition to the well-known Algerian Zouaves, these are also Moroccan gumiers. The history of these military units is associated with the French colonization of Morocco. Once, in the XI-XII centuries. The Almoravids and Almohads - Berber dynasties from Northwest Africa - owned not only the deserts and oases of the Maghreb, but also a significant part of the Iberian Peninsula. Although the Almoravids began their journey south of Morocco, on the territory of modern Senegal and Mauritania, it is Moroccan land that can rightfully be called the territory where the state of this dynasty reached its maximum prosperity.
After the Reconquista, a turning point came and starting from the XV-XVI centuries. the territory of North Africa, including the Moroccan coast, became the object of the colonial interests of the European powers. Initially, Spain and Portugal showed interest in Moroccan ports - the two main rival European maritime powers, especially those located in the immediate vicinity of the North African coast. They managed to conquer the ports of Ceuta, Melilla and Tangier, periodically making raids deep into Morocco.
Then, with the strengthening of their positions in world politics and the transition to the status of colonial powers, the British and French became interested in the territory of Morocco. Since by the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. most of the lands of North-West Africa ended up in the hands of the French, an agreement was concluded between England and France in 1904, according to which Morocco was attributed to the sphere of influence of the French state (in turn, the French abandoned claims to Egypt, which in these years tightly "fell" under the British influence).
Colonization of Morocco and the creation of gumiers
Nevertheless, the French colonization of Morocco came relatively late and had a somewhat different character than in the countries of Tropical Africa or even neighboring Algeria. Most of Morocco fell into the orbit of French influence between 1905-1910. In many ways, this was facilitated by the attempt of Germany, which gained strength during this period and sought to acquire as many strategically important colonies as possible, to establish itself in Morocco, promising the sultan all-round support.
Despite the fact that England, Spain and Italy agreed with France's "special rights" to Moroccan territory, Germany obstructed Paris to the last. So, even Kaiser Wilhelm himself did not fail to visit Morocco. At that time, he hatched plans to expand Germany's influence specifically to the Muslim East, with the aim of establishing and developing allied relations with Ottoman Turkey and trying to spread German influence over the territories inhabited by Arabs.
In an effort to consolidate its position in Morocco, Germany convened an international conference, which lasted from January 15 to April 7, 1906, but only Austria-Hungary took the side of the Kaiser - the rest of the states supported the French position. The Kaiser was forced to retreat because he was not ready for an open confrontation with France and, moreover, with her many allies. Germany's repeated attempt to oust the French from Morocco dates back to 1910-1911. and also ended in failure, despite the fact that the Kaiser even sent a gunboat to the shores of Morocco. On March 30, 1912, the Treaty of Fez was concluded, according to which France established a protectorate over Morocco. Germany also received a small benefit from it - Paris shared with the Kaiser part of the territory of the French Congo, on which the German colony of Cameroon arose (however, the Germans did not take possession of it for long - already in 1918, all the colonial possessions of Germany, which had lost the First World War, were divided between the Entente countries).
The history of the gumier units, which will be discussed in this article, began just between the two Moroccan crises - in 1908. Initially, France introduced troops to Morocco, staffed, among other things, by Algerians, but rather quickly decided to switch to the practice of recruiting auxiliary units from among the local population. As in the case of the Zouaves, the eyes of the French generals fell on the Berber tribes that inhabited the Atlas Mountains. The Berbers, the indigenous inhabitants of the Sahara, preserved their language and special culture, which was not completely destroyed even despite the millennia of Islamization. Morocco still has the largest percentage of the Berber population in comparison with other countries in North Africa - representatives of the Berber tribes make up 40% of the country's population.
The modern name "Berbers", by which we know people who call themselves "amahag" ("free man"), comes from the ancient Greek word meaning "barbarians." Since ancient times, Berber tribes inhabited the territory of modern Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, the northern regions of Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Chad. Linguistically, they belong to the Berber-Libyan subfamily, which is part of the Afrasian linguistic macrofamily, along with the Semitic languages and a number of languages of the peoples of Africa.
Today the Berbers are Sunni Muslims, but many tribes retain obvious vestiges of ancient pre-Islamic beliefs. The territory of Morocco is inhabited by two main groups of Berbers - the Shilla, or Schlech, who live in the south of the country, in the Atlas Mountains, and the Amatzirgs, who inhabit the Rif Mountains in the north of the country. It was the Amatzirgs in the Middle Ages and Modern Times that stood at the origins of the famous Moroccan piracy, raiding Spanish villages on the opposite shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Berbers were traditionally militant, but above all they attracted the attention of the French military command for their high adaptability to the difficult conditions of life in the mountains and deserts of the Maghreb. In addition, the land of Morocco was their native land and recruiting soldiers from among the Berbers, the colonial authorities received excellent scouts, gendarmes, guards who knew all the mountain paths well, how to survive in the desert, the traditions of the tribes with whom they were to fight, etc.
General Albert Amad can rightfully be considered the founding father of the Moroccan gumiers. In 1908, this fifty-two-year-old brigadier general commanded an expeditionary force for the French army in Morocco. It was he who proposed the use of auxiliary units from among the Moroccans and opened the recruitment of Berbers from among the representatives of various tribes inhabiting the territory of Morocco - mainly the Atlas Mountains (since another area of compact Berber residence - the Rif Mountains - was part of Spanish Morocco).
- General Albert Amad.
It should also be noted that although some units formed and served on the territory of Upper Volta and Mali (French Sudan) were also called gumiers, it was the Moroccan gumiers that became the most numerous and famous.
Like other divisions of the colonial forces, the Moroccan gumiers were originally created under the command of French officers seconded from units of the Algerian spahis and riflemen. A little later, the practice of promoting Moroccans to non-commissioned officers began. Formally, the gumiers were subordinate to the king of Morocco, but in fact they performed all the same functions of the French colonial troops and participated in almost all armed conflicts that France waged in 1908-1956. - during the protectorate of Morocco. The duties of the gumiers at the very beginning of their existence included patrolling the territories of Morocco occupied by the French and carrying out reconnaissance against the rebellious tribes. After the official status of military units was given to the Gumiers in 1911, they switched to the same service as other French military units.
The gumiers differed from other units of the French army, including the colonial one, by their greater independence, which manifested itself, among other things, in the presence of special military traditions. The Gumieres retained their traditional Moroccan clothing. Initially, they generally wore tribal costume - most often, turbans and cloaks in blue, but then their uniforms were streamlined, although they retained the key elements of the traditional costume. Moroccan gumiers were instantly recognizable by their turbans and gray striped or brown djellaba (hooded cloak).
National sabers and daggers were also left in service with the gumiers. By the way, it was the curved Moroccan dagger with the letters GMM that became the symbol of the units of the Moroccan gumiers. The organizational structure of the units staffed by Moroccans also had some differences. So, the lower unit was the "gum", equivalent to the French company and numbering up to 200 gumiers. Several "gums" united in a "tabor", which was an analogue of the battalion and was the main tactical unit of the Moroccan gumiers, and already from the "tabors" were formed groups. The divisions of the gumiers were commanded by French officers, but the lower ranks were almost completely recruited from among the representatives of the Berber tribes of Morocco, including the Atlas mountaineers.
The first years of their existence, the gumier units were used in Morocco to protect French interests. They carried a garrison guard duty, were used for quick raids against hostile tribes prone to insurgency. That is, in fact, they carried more gendarme service than the service of the ground forces. During 1908-1920. subdivisions of the gumiers played an important role in the implementation of the policy of "suppression" of the Moroccan tribes.
Reef war
They showed themselves most actively during the famous Rif War. Recall that under the Treaty of Fez of 1912, Morocco fell under the French protectorate, but France allocated a small part of the territory of Northern Morocco (up to 5% of the total area of the country) to Spain - in many ways, thus paying off Madrid for its support. Thus, Spanish Morocco included not only the coastal ports of Ceuta and Melilla, which for centuries were in the sphere of Spain's strategic interests, but also the Rif Mountains.
Most of the population here were freedom-loving and warlike Berber tribes, who were not at all eager to submit to the Spanish protectorate. As a result, several uprisings were raised against Spanish rule in northern Morocco. To strengthen their positions in the protectorate under their control, the Spaniards sent a 140,000-strong army to Morocco under the command of General Manuel Fernandez Silvestre. In 1920-1926. a fierce and bloody war broke out between the Spanish troops and the local Berber population, primarily the inhabitants of the Rif Mountains.
The uprising of the Beni Uragel and Beni Tuzin tribes, which were then joined by other Berber tribes, was led by Abd al-Krim al-Khattabi. By Moroccan standards, he was an educated and active person, formerly a teacher and newspaper editor in Melilla.
- Abd al-Krim
For his anti-colonial activities, he managed to visit a Spanish prison, and in 1919 he fled to his native Rif and there led his native tribe. On the territory of the Rif Mountains, Abd al-Krim and his associates proclaimed the Rif Republic, which became a union of 12 Berber tribes. Abd al-Krim was approved by the president (emir) of the Rif Republic.
The ideology of the Rif Republic was proclaimed Islam, following the canons of which was seen as a means of consolidating the numerous Berber tribes, often at war with each other for centuries, against a common enemy - the European colonialists. Abd al-Krim hatched plans to create a regular reef army by mobilizing 20-30 thousand Berbers into it. However, in reality, the core of the armed forces subordinate to Abd al-Krim consisted of 6-7 thousand Berber militias, but at the best of times up to 80 thousand soldiers joined the army of the Rif Republic. It is significant that even the maximum forces of Abd al-Krim were significantly inferior in numbers to the Spanish expeditionary corps.
At first, the Reef Berbers managed to actively resist the onslaught of the Spanish troops. One of the explanations for this situation was the weakness of combat training and the lack of morale among a significant part of the Spanish soldiers who were called up in the villages of the Iberian Peninsula and were sent against their will to fight in Morocco. Finally, the Spanish soldiers transferred to Morocco found themselves in alien geographic conditions, in the midst of a hostile environment, while the Berbers fought on their own territory. Therefore, even numerical superiority for a long time did not allow the Spaniards to gain the upper hand over the Berbers. By the way, it was the Rif War that prompted the emergence of the Spanish Foreign Legion, which took the model of the organization of the French Foreign Legion as a model.
However, unlike the French Foreign Legion, in the Spanish Legion, only 25% were not Spanish by nationality. 50% of the legion's military were immigrants from Latin America who lived in Spain and joined the legion in search of earnings and military exploits. The command of the legion was entrusted to the young Spanish officer Francisco Franco, one of the most promising military personnel, who, despite his 28 years, had almost a decade of experience in Morocco behind him. After being wounded, at the age of 23, he became the youngest officer in the Spanish army to be awarded the rank of major. It is noteworthy that the first seven years of his African service, Franco served in the units of the "Regulars" - the Spanish light infantry corps, the rank and file of which was recruited precisely from among the Berbers - the inhabitants of Morocco.
By 1924, the Reef Berbers had conquered most of Spanish Morocco. Only the old possessions remained under the control of the metropolis - the ports of Ceuta and Melilla, the capital of the protectorate of Tetouan, Arsila and Larash. Abd al-Krim, inspired by the successes of the Rif Republic, proclaimed himself Sultan of Morocco. It is significant that at the same time he announced that he was not going to encroach on the power and authority of the sultan from the Alawite dynasty Moulay Youssef, who nominally ruled at that time in French Morocco.
Naturally, the victories over the Spanish army could not but push the Reef Berbers to the idea of liberating the rest of the country, which was under French protectorate. Berber militias began to periodically attack French posts and invade territories controlled by France. France entered the Rif War on the side of Spain. The combined Franco-Spanish troops reached the number of 300 thousand people, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the future head of the collaborationist regime during the Nazi occupation of France, was appointed commander. Near the city of Ouarga, French troops inflicted a serious defeat on the Reef Berbers, practically saving the then capital of Morocco, the city of Fez, from the capture of Abd al-Krim by the troops.
The French had incomparably better military training than the Spaniards and possessed modern weapons. In addition, they acted decisively and sharply in the positions of a European power. The use of chemical weapons by the French also played a role. The mustard gas bombs and the landing of 300,000 Franco-Spanish troops did their job. On May 27, 1926, Abd-al-Krim, in order to save his people from final destruction, surrendered to French troops and was exiled to Reunion Island.
All the numerous Spanish prisoners of war who were held captive by the troops of Abd al-Krim were released. The Rif War ended in victory for the Franco-Spanish coalition. Subsequently, however, Abd al-Krim managed to move to Egypt and live a fairly long life (he died only in 1963), continuing to participate in the Arab national liberation movement as a publicist and head of the Committee for the Liberation of the Arab Maghreb (existed until the declaration of independence Morocco in 1956).
The Moroccan gumiers also took a direct part in the Rif war, and after its completion they were quartered in rural settlements to carry out garrison service, more similar in function to the gendarme service. It should be noted that in the process of establishing a French protectorate over Morocco - in the period from 1907 to 1934. - 22 thousand Moroccan gumiers took part in the hostilities. More than 12,000 Moroccan soldiers and non-commissioned officers fell into battle and died of their wounds, fighting for the colonial interests of France against their own tribesmen.
The next serious test for the Moroccan units of the French army was the Second World War, thanks to their participation in which the gumiers gained fame as cruel warriors in European countries that were not familiar with them before. It is significant that before World War II, gumiers, unlike other colonial units of the French armed forces, were practically not used outside Morocco.
On the fronts of World War II
The French military command was forced to mobilize units of colonial troops recruited in the numerous overseas possessions of France - Indochina, West Africa, Madagascar, Algeria and Morocco. The main part of the combat path of the Moroccan gumiers in World War II fell on participation in battles against German and Italian troops in North Africa - Libya and Tunisia, as well as on operations in southern Europe - primarily in Italy.
Four Moroccan groups of gumiers (regiments), with a total strength of 12,000 troops, took part in the hostilities. The gumiers were left with their traditional specializations - reconnaissance and sabotage raids, but they were also sent into battle against Italian and German units in the most difficult areas of the terrain, including in the mountains.
In wartime, each Moroccan group of gumiers consisted of a command-staff "gum" (company) and three "tabors" (battalions), three "gums" in each. In the group of Moroccan tabors (the equivalent of a regiment), there were 3,000 military personnel, including 200 officers and warrant officers. As for the “camp”, its number of “camp” was established at 891 servicemen with four 81-mm mortars in addition to small arms. "Gum", numbering 210 servicemen, was assigned one 60-mm mortar and two light machine guns. As for the national composition of the gumier units, the Moroccans averaged about 77-80% of the total military personnel of each "camp", that is, they were staffed with almost the entire rank and file and a significant part of the non-commissioned officers of the units.
In 1940, the Gumiers fought against the Italians in Libya, but were then withdrawn back to Morocco. In 1942-1943. parts of the gumiers took part in the hostilities in Tunisia, the 4th camp of the Moroccan gumiers took part in the landing of allied troops in Sicily and was assigned to the 1st American infantry division. In September 1943, some of the Gumiers were disembarked to liberate Corsica. In November 1943, gumier units were sent to mainland Italy. In May 1944, it was the gumiers who played the main role in the crossing of the Avrunk mountains, showing themselves as irreplaceable mountain shooters. Unlike other units of the allied forces, the mountains were a native element for the gumiers - after all, many of them were recruited for military service among the Atlas Berbers and knew perfectly well how to behave in the mountains.
At the end of 1944 - beginning of 1945. units of the Moroccan gumiers fought in France against the German troops. On March 20-25, 1945, it was the Gumiers who were the first to enter the territory of Germany proper from the side of the Siegfried Line. After the final victory over Germany, the Gumier units were evacuated to Morocco. In total, 22 thousand men passed through service in the units of the Moroccan gumiers during the Second World War. With a permanent composition of Moroccan units of 12 thousand people, the total losses amounted to 8,018 thousand people, including 1,625 servicemen (including 166 officers) killed and more than 7, 5 thousand - wounded.
With the participation of Moroccan gumiers in hostilities in the European theater of military operations, including in Italy, they associate not only their high combat effectiveness, especially in battles in mountainous areas, but also not always justified cruelty, manifested, among other things, in relation to to the civilian population of the liberated territories. So, many modern European researchers attribute to the Gumiers many cases of rape of Italian and European women in general, some of which were accompanied by subsequent murders.
The most famous and widely covered in modern historical literature is the story of the Allied capture of Monte Cassino in Central Italy in May 1944. The Moroccan gumieres, after the liberation of Monte Cassino from the German troops, according to a number of historians, staged a uniform pogrom in the vicinity, primarily affecting the female population of this territory. So, they say that the gumiers raped all women and girls in the surrounding villages between the ages of 11 and more than 80 years. Even deep old women and very young girls, as well as male adolescents, did not escape rape. In addition, about eight hundred men were killed by the gumiers when they tried to protect their relatives and friends.
Obviously, this behavior of the gumiers is quite plausible, given, firstly, the specifics of the mentality of the native warriors, their generally negative attitude towards the Europeans, all the more who acted for them as defeated opponents. Finally, a small number of French officers in the gumier units also played a role in the low discipline of the Moroccans, especially after the victories over the Italian and German troops. However, the atrocities of the Allied forces in occupied Italy and Germany are most often recalled only by historians who adhere to the concept of "revisionism" in relation to World War II. Although this behavior of the Moroccan gumiers is also mentioned in the novel "Chochara" by the famous Italian writer Alberto Moravia - a communist who can hardly be suspected of trying to discredit the Allied troops during the liberation of Italy.
After the evacuation from Europe, the gumiers continued to be used for garrison service in Morocco, and were also transferred to Indochina, where France fiercely resisted Vietnamese attempts to declare its independence from the mother country. Three "groups of Moroccan camps of the Far East" were formed. In the Indochina War, Moroccan gumiers served primarily in the North Vietnamese province of Tonkin, where they were used for convoying and escorting military vehicles, as well as for carrying out their usual reconnaissance functions. During the colonial war in Indochina, the Moroccan gumiers also suffered significant losses - 787 people died in the hostilities, including 57 officers and warrant officers.
In 1956, the independence of the Kingdom of Morocco from France was proclaimed. In accordance with this fact, the Moroccan units in the service of the French state were transferred under the command of the king. More than 14 thousand Moroccans, who had previously served in the French colonial troops, entered the royal service. The functions of the gumiers in modern Morocco are actually inherited by the royal gendarmerie, which also performs the duties of carrying out garrison service in the countryside and mountainous regions and is engaged in maintaining order and pacifying the tribes.
