Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What you run into there is that most Maghreb natives were either in the Vichy army or the Free French army. I haven't dug into the FF OB at Bir Hacheim, but it would shock me greatly if it didn't include some Maghreb units, because by the time they were in Italy in corps strength, most of the Gaullistes were Maghreb. Offhand I recall in Italy two Moroccan and one Algerian division, plus four regiments or brigades of Tabours, mountain light infantry (may mean the same as Goumiers, I never learned the precise distinction if any). I think there was one ethnically French brigade in Italy. Certainly much of the Vichy army in the Maghreb was either French colonials or Maghreb units, Tirailleurs Tunisiens and the like. So while I do not know specific examples, it seems to me that there must have been participation from those units (the FF versions) in the Western Desert.
I have recently began exploring the colonial and early independence period of North Africa. I came across a text on the Moroccan Goums and you're correct Doctor J., that other Maghrebi units were used by the French and probably the Axis as well. Not too familiar with this period yet, but I'll post some info soon enough.
To me, the main theaters have been pretty much done to death by now. I mean, it seems like there's a new book out on Midway, Normandy, Italy, El Alamein, and Stalingrad every year.
One theater that seems to get comparatively little attention are the Balkans. Italian invasions, German invasions, contentious politics between Mussolini and Hitler, massive guerilla warfare, minor Axis allies that changed sides, Yalta, and just about anything else you care to name.
It was pretty much a circus that gets less ink. Yet, what if Mussolini had NOT invaded Greece and then required German intervention? What if the Germans were then able to invade Russia three months earlier? How would the stepped-up timetable affected the German campaigns against Leningrad and Moscow? How did Crete affect later German use of fallschirmjagers in achieving breakthrough and exploitation? The list goes on and on. I think the war in that part of Europe practically begs for an authoritative treatment.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
