Senegalese Tirailleurs
Encyclopedia
The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army recruited from Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

,
French West Africa
French West Africa
French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...

 and throughout west, central and east Africa, the main province of the French colonial empire
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

. The noun tirailleur
Tirailleur
Tirailleur literally means a shooting skirmisher in French from tir—shot. The term dates back to the Napoleonic period where it was used to designate light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns...

, which translates as "skirmisher", was a designation given by the French Army to indigenous infantry recruited in the various colonies and overseas possessions of the French Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Despite recruitment not being limited to Senegal, these infantry units took on the adjective "sénégalais" since that was where the first black African Tirailleur regiment had been formed. The first Senegalese Tirailleurs were formed in 1857 and served France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in a number of wars, including World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 (providing around 200,000 troops, more than 135,000 of whom fought in Europe and 30,000 of whom were killed) and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Other tirailleur regiments were raised in French North Africa from the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, they were called Tirailleurs algériens or Turcos. Tirailleur regiments were also raised in Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....

, they were called Vietnamese, Tonkinese or Annamites Tirailleurs
Tonkinese Rifles
The Tonkinese Rifles were a corps of Tonkinese light infantrymen raised in 1884 to support the operations of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps...

.

Origins

The Senegalese Tirailleurs were formed in 1857 by Louis Faidherbe
Louis Faidherbe
Louis Léon César Faidherbe was a French general and colonial administrator. He created the Senegalese Tirailleurs when he was governor of Senegal.- Background :...

, governor general of French West Africa, because he lacked manpower supplied from the French mainland to control the territory and meet other requirements of the first phase of colonisation. The formal decree for its formation was signed on 21 July 1857 in Plombières-les-Bains by Napoleon III
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

. Recruitment was later extended to other French colonies in Africa. During its early years the corps included some former slaves bought from West African slave-owners as well as prisoners of war. Subsequent recruitment was either by voluntary enlistment or on occasion by an arbitrary form of conscription.

1870-1914

In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...

 the Senegalese tirailleurs continued to provide the bulk of French garrisons in West and Central Africa. Their overall numbers remained limited. However, in anticipation of the First World War, Colonel Charles Mangin
Charles Mangin
Charles Emmanuel Marie Mangin was a French general during World War I.-Early career:...

 described in his 1910 book La force noire his conception of a greatly expanded French colonial army; whilst Jean Jaurès in his "L’armée nouvelle" expressed France's need to look elsewhere to recruit its armies due to a falling birthrate in mainland France.

A company-sized detachment of tirailleurs sénégalais took part in the conquest of Madagascar (1895), although the bulk of the non-European troops employed in this campaign were Algerian and Haoussa tirailleurs. Regiments of tirailleurs malgache were subsequently recruited in Madagascar, using the Senegalese units as a model.

In 1896 a small expedition consisting mainly of 200 tirailleurs sénégalais was assembled in Loango (French Congo) under Captain Jean-Baptiste Marchand
Jean-Baptiste Marchand
Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand was a French military officer and explorer in Africa. Marchand is best known for commanding the French expeditionary force during the Fashoda Incident...

. This "Marchand Mission" took two years to cross hundreds of miles of unexplored bush until they reached Fashoda on the Nile. Here they encountered British and Egyptian troops under Major-General Kitchener
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...

, who had just destroyed the Mahadi's Dervish
Dervish
A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

 army near Khartoum. While the "Fashoda Incident
Fashoda Incident
The Fashoda Incident was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between Britain and France in Eastern Africa. A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile sought to gain control of the Nile River and thereby force Britain out of Egypt. The British held firm as Britain and France were on...

" raised the possibility of war between France and Britain, tribute was paid to the courage and endurance of Marchand and his Senegalese tirailleurs by both sides.

During the early 1900s the tirailleurs sénégalais saw active service in the French Congo
French Congo
The French Congo was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic...

 and Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

, while continuing to provide garrisons for the French possessions in West and Central Africa. In 1908 two battalions of tirailleurs sénégalais landed at Casablanca to begin nearly twenty years of active service in Morocco by Senegalese units. On 14 July 1913 the 1e regiment de tirailleurs sénégalais paraded their standard at Longchamp, the first occasion upon which Senegalese troops had been seen in metropolitan France. New flags were presented to the 2e, 3e and 4e RTS at the same parade.

World War I

There were 21 battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais (BTS) in the French Army in August 1914, all serving in either West Africa or on active service in Morocco.

With the outbreak of war 37 battalions of French, North African and Senegalese infantry were transferred from Morocco to France. Five Senegalese battalions were soon serving on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

, while others formed part of the reduced French garrison in Morocco. The 5th BTS formed part of a French column which was wiped out near Khenifra on 13 November 1914 with 646 dead. The 10th, 13th, 16th and 21st BTS subsequently saw heavy fighting in Morocco, reinforced by 9,000 additional Senegalese tirailleurs brought up from French West Africa.

In October 1914 five battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais were sent to the Yser river, for the "Battle of Flandres". On the 24th of October one battalion was completely wiped out in Arras (France). All 1200 tirailleurs died. The remaining four battalions were transported to Lo-Reninge near Furnes (Veurne, Belgium). One remained at Lo-Reninge (Belgium), one went to Merkem (Belgium) and two battalions (3rd BTS Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Maroc and 1st BTS Tirailleurs Sénégalais d'Algérie) went to Dixmude (Diksmuide, Belgium) to reinforce the French fusiliers marins. They arrived in Dixmude at two in the afternoon on October the 25th and by the 10th of November 1914, all battalions were destroyed. Only Fourteen Tirailleurs from this battle have a known grave in Potyse (Belgium). All others have disappeared in the muddy planes of Flandres. Actual number of casualties at the battle of Flandres for the Tirailleurs Sénégalais are unknown. Estimates range from 3200 to 4800..

In 1915 seven battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais were amongst the 79,000 French troops sent to the Dardanelles. Total French casualties in this campaign reached 27,000 but the Senegalese and regular Colonial Infantry were noted for the high morale that they maintained in spite of losses that reached two out of three in some units. The Senegalese tirailleurs particularly distinguished themselves in the attack during the initial French landings on the southern shore of the Dardanelles.

A further 93 Senegalese battalions were raised between 1915 and 1918, of which 42 saw service in France itself. The usual practice was to bring together battalions of white Colonial Infantry and African Tirailleurs into mixed regiments de marche. The harsh conditions of trench warfare were a particular source of suffering to the un-acclimatized African soldiers and after 1914/15 the practice was adopted of withdrawing them to the south of France for training and re-equipping each winter. In spite of their heavy losses in almost every major battle of the Western Front the discipline and morale of the "Colonial Corps" remained high throughout the War.

At the 90th anniversary commemorations for the battle of Verdun
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was one of the major battles during the First World War on the Western Front. It was fought between the German and French armies, from 21 February – 18 December 1916, on hilly terrain north of the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in north-eastern France...

, the then president Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...

 made a speech evoking the 72,000 colonial combatants killed during the war, mentioning the "Moroccan infantry, the tirailleurs, from Indochina (Cochinchina, tirailleurs from Annam), the "marsouins" of the infanterie de marine".

Between the World Wars

During the War the much reduced French garrison in Morocco had consisted largely of battalions of Tirailleurs Sénégalais, who were not affected by the divided loyalties of locally recruited troops and who could be more readily spared from service on the Western Front than French troops. On 13 April 1925 the Rif War
Rif War (1920)
The Rif War, also called the Second Moroccan War, was fought between Spain and the Moroccan Rif Berbers.-Rifian forces:...

 spilled over into French Morocco when eight thousand Berber fighters attacked a line of French outposts recently established in disputed territory north of the Ouerghala River. The majority of these posts were held by Senegalese and North African tirailleurs. By 27 April 1925 39 out of 66 posts had fallen and their garrisons massacred, or had been abandoned. Faced with what had become a major war the French increased their forces in Morocco to approximately 100,000 men. West African tirailleurs continued to play a major part in subsequent operations in both the Spanish Protectorate (until 1926) and Southern Morocco (until 1934). In one of many engagements, the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Tirailleurs Sénégalais won 91 citations for bravery during fighting around Ain-Gatar on 22 June 1926.

Second World War

On the eve of World War II five regiments of Senegalese Tirailleurs were stationed in France and a Senegalese brigade in Algeria. This deployment of tirailleurs outside their regions of recruitment and traditional peacetime service arose because the heavy casualties of World War I had reduced the numbers of metropolitan Frenchmen in the military service age group of twenty to twenty-five by more than half.

During the Battle of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...

 the Senegalese and other African tirailleur units served with distinction at Gien, Bourges and Buzancais. German troops indoctrinated with Nazi racial doctrines expressed outrage at having to fight against "inferior" opponents and at Montluzin Senegalese prisoners were executed.

The Senegalese Tirailleurs saw extensive service in Italy and Corsica during 1944, as well as in the liberation of southern France. The 9th DIC (Colonial Infantry Division) included the 4th, 6th and 13th Regiments of Senegalese Tirailleurs during a campaign which took them from Toulon to the Swiss border between August and November 1944.

After 1945

The 24e Regiment de March de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, comprising two battalions, served in the Indochina War between 1946 and 1954. Several independent battalions of
Tirailleurs Sénégalais fought in the same theatre of war. In 1949 there were still nine regiments of Senegalese tirailleurs in the French Army, serving in West Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Indochina.

During the Algerian War the Tirailleurs Sénégalais saw extensive active service from 1954 to 1962, mainly as part of the quadrillage - a grid of occupation detachments intended to protect farms and roads in rural areas. About 12 separate Senegalese units (either three-battalion regiments or single battalions) served in French North Africa between 1954 and 1967, when the last French troops were withdrawn. In 1958-59 the Tirailleur units were in part dissolved, as African personnel transferred to newly formed national armies as the French colonies of West and Central Africa became independent. Substantial numbers of former tirailleurs continued to serve in the French Army but as individual volunteers in integrated Colonial (later Marine) Infantry or Artillery units. The Tirailleurs Sénégalais lost their distinctive historic identity during this process. As an example, the 1er RTS, raised in 1857, became the 61st Marine Infantry Regiment in December 1958. The last Senegalese unit in the French Army was disbanded in 1964.

Uniforms

From 1857 to 1889 the Tirailleurs Sénégalais wore a dark blue zouave
Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War...

 style uniform with yellow braiding (see first photo above). This was replaced by a loose fitting dark blue tunic and trousers worn with a red sash and chechia fez. White trousers were worn in hot weather and a light khaki drill field dress was adopted in 1898. Senegalese units sent to France in 1914 wore a new dark blue uniform introduced in June that year beneath the standard medium blue greatcoats of the French infantry. This changed to sky-blue in 1915 and then the universal dark khaki of French overseas forces the following year. Throughout these changes the distinctive yellow cuff and collar braiding was retained, togther with the fez (worn with a drab cover to reduce visibility).

Until World War II the Tirailleurs Sénégalais continued to wear the khaki uniforms described in either heavy cloth or light drill according to conditions. In subsequent campaigns they wore the same field uniforms as other French units, usually with the dark blue forage cap of the infanterie coloniale. The red fez survived as a parade item until the 1950s.

See also

  • Tirailleurs: history of the Pre-Colonial French and Colonial Tirailleur units (e.g.: Algerian, Senegalese).
  • French colonial troops
  • Pierre Messmer
    Pierre Messmer
    Pierre Joseph Auguste Messmer was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Minister of Armies under Charles de Gaulle from 1960 to 1969 – the longest serving since Étienne François, duc de Choiseul under Louis XV – and then as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1972 to 1974...

  • French colonial flags
    French colonial flags
    Some of the colonies, protectorates and mandates of the French Colonial Empire used distinctive colonial flags. These most commonly had a French Tricolour in the canton....

  • French Colonial Empire
    French colonial empire
    The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

  • List of French possessions and colonies
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