Our Friends Beneath the Sands

by Martin Windrow

  13 Rankin, p.33

  14 During the parade Rankin (p.201) took the opportunity to count ranks, and noted that the average company strength was now down from 240 to about 160 men, giving a battalion c.650.

  15 Rankin, pp.208 – 14

  16 ibid, p.200

  17 Fremeaux, RHdA, 2004/2

  18 Harris, p.8; Maxwell, pp.87 – 8; Dunn, Resistance , p.231

  19 Livre d‘Or, p.221

  20 The cook got 8 francs a day, though this presumably included expenses for buying food. (Rankin, pp.29, 118)

  21 ibid, p.31

  22 Hoisington, pp.32 – 3

  23 Porch, Morocco, pp.189 – 90; Turnbull, pp.113 – 14

  24 Garijo (p.28) mentions a major action at the summit of Ras Fourhal above Ain Sfa, where ‘2,000 Beni Rassen [sic] wiped out 100 légionnnaires’. No such action is reported elsewhere, and at this date 100 casualties in a single engagement would have made a sensation. This is noted simply as a reminder of the great caution advisable when consulting Garijo, which contains much good raw material but which, in the French translation from the Spanish, has many unedited inconsistencies.

  25 Bernard, p.161; Porch, Morocco, p.191

  26 Hoisington, p.33; Maurois, pp.136 – 7

  27 Dunn, Resistance, p.233

  28 6e Cie, II/2e RE; 20e Cie, V/2e RE; 21e and 22e Cies, VI/2e RE; 3e and 24e CM/1er RE. (Livre d‘Or, p.217)

  29 Menabha does not appear on Bernard’s 1911 map, the earliest the author has located, but is described in Gov-Gen Jonnart’s report to the war minister as 10km from Talzaza and 4km W of Mougheul. (Jonnart to Picquart, 17 Apr 1908, in Documents diplomatiques/ Affaires du Maroc, 1908/IV, No.234)

  30 Livre d‘Or, pp.217 – 18; Porch, Morocco, pp.192 – 3; Lefèvre, KB, No.118; Jonnart to Picquart (see above). No source seems to identify the rifle coy of 2e RE from among those listed in n(28) above. Porch (Foreign Legion, p.321) mentions that Pierron’s force also had a machine gun – which jammed.

  31 Porch, Morocco, pp.192 – 3

  32 Lefèvre, KB, No.119

  33 ibid; Porch, Morocco, pp.194 – 5, and Foreign Legion, p.323; Livre d‘Or, p.219; Gugliotta and Jauffret, RHdA 1981/1; prisoner reference, Dunn, Resistance, p.234. The fighting on 14 May cost the column only 10 dead and 22 wounded; Moroccan losses for 13 and 14 May were vaguely estimated at c.500.

  34 Porch, Morocco, p.195

  35 Bernard, p.163; Gugliotta and Jauffret, RHdA, 1981/1

  36 The hesitancy of this description of the blockhouse is due to the fact that in 2007 the author’s attempts to explore its remains were frustrated. From the north bank of the Oued Guir the outline of ruins is tantalizingly visible at the top of the abrupt red cliff about 1,000 yards away, but we never managed to get any closer. Maps show no vehicle-crossing for miles up or down the Oued Guir – which seems strange, but is true. While local knowledge of safe fording-places must certainly allow walkers and animals to cross, repeated efforts to drive a 4x4 to the south bank, alternating with recces on foot, all failed. The bed of the Guir is hundreds of yards wide, with a bewildering pattern of surfaces ranging from shingle-bars to mud, and we could not even reach the main water channel along the southern edge. Several slow drives through the town and along the north bank in search of a solution eventually convinced us that – as foreigners with binoculars and cameras – we had probably worn out our welcome in this remote Moroccan Army garrison facing the hostile Algerian frontier.The site of the main French ‘redoubt’ has long disappeared under the modern town, but the remains of the old kasbah still stand in thick vegetation near the riverbank.

  37 Bernard, p.165; Turnbull, pp.81 – 2; Dunn, Resistance, p.235

  38 The message transcripts do not mention specific requests for 80mm fire. The M1877 80mm canon de montagne, système de Bange, had a max effective range of c.2,700yds, about half that of the M1897 75mm canon de campagne, but the blockhouse at Boudenib was well within its reach from the redoubt. Perhaps it was felt to be too imprecise for night-firing so close to French troops.

  39 Signals transcript from Bernard (1911), pp.378 – 87, quoting Lachartier, La colonne du Haut Guir (Paris; Chapelot, 1908) pp.40 – 48.

  40 Bernard, p.169; Gugliotta and Jauffret, RHdA, 1981/1; Porch, Morocco, pp.198 – 9; Dunn, Resistance , p.235

  13. Falling towards Fes

  1 Maxwell, p.100, quoting Harris, The Morocco that Was (no page)

  2 ibid, pp. 89 – 95

  3 Woolman, pp.45 – 50

  4 Maxwell, p.101

  5 Woolman, pp40 – 41; Dunn, JAH, Vol 21 (1980); Porch, Morocco, pp.206 – 211; Maxwell, p.100

  6 Harris, pp.49 – 57

  7 Woolman, p.43; Garijo, pp.38 – 9

  8 Woolman, pp.51 – 52; Harris, pp.89 – 91

  9 Hoisington, p.36; Dunn, Resistance, p.237. Legion units operating on the east bank of the Moulouya in Apr – May 1910 included 11e and 12e Cies, III/1er RE; VI/1er RE; 3e CM/1er RE; 15e Cie, IV/2e RE and 3e CM/2e RE.

  10 Gandelin, RHdA, 1981/1

  11 Porch, Foreign Legion, p.331

  12 KB, No.373

  13 Hoisington, p.36; Maurois, p.144. Before leaving Algeria, Lyautey sprang a last surprise: at the age of 56 he married the aristocratic 38-year-old widow of a Colonel Fourtoul, thus acquiring a suitable hostess for his salon.In 1911 – 12 belated reforms urged by War Minister Messimy finally lifted the status and powers of the CGS from those of a relatively junior functionary to those of a true commander-in-chief in time of war. Galliéni had been offered the post first, but turned it down on grounds of poor health; the difficulties facing the man who accepted it were still immense. (Ralston, pp.331 – 5)

  14 Porch, Morocco, p.211

  15 ibid, pp.213 – 17. Emile Mangin, nicknamed ‘Projecteur’ after a searchlight he had invented, should not be confused with Charles Mangin, who would serve under Lyautey in 1912 – 13 and rise to prominence on the Western Front during the Great War.

  16 Porch, Morocco, pp.218 – 19, 228 – 31

  17 Khorat, En Colonne pp.252 – 3. Groupe Brulard: 1 bn Inf Coloniale, 1 bn Tirs Alg, 1 mixed bn Tirs Alg/Tirs Sénégalais, 2x ptns MGs, 1 bty 75mm, 1 bty 65mm, half-sqn Spahis, c.600 Goumiers Marocains. Groupe Dalbiez: 1 bn Tirs Alg, 1 mixed bn Légion/Zouaves, 1 ptn MGs, 1 bty 75mm, 1 sqn Chass d’Af, ambulance. Groupe Gouraud: 2x bns Inf Colo, 1 bn Tirs Alg, 3x ptns MGs, 1 bty 75mm, 1 sqn Chass d’Af, half-sqn Spahis, ambulance. Khorat does not list 3e CM/2e RE, but Gugliotta and Jauffret (RHdA, 1981/1) place it with Gouraud’s command.

  18 Khorat, En Colonne, pp.246 – 54; Porch, Morocco, pp.228 – 31

  19 The Beni Ouarain were a powerful Berber-speaking tribe, great raisers of horses and rustlers of livestock, who inhabited both banks of the Moulouya. At this date they were still expanding westwards, into the Taza corridor and towards the ‘Tache de Taza’ of the Middle Atlas. (Bernard, pp.25 – 6)

  20 ibid, pp.19 – 20, 28 – 30

  21 This account is based on the article in Képi Blanc, No.169, by personnel of SIHLE, the 1er RE’s historical branch. Gen Toutée’s divisional order of the day dated 25 May 1911 is recorded in Livre d’Or (p.223).

  22 Khorat, En Colonne, pp.98 – 108

  23 ibid, pp.110 – 16; Porch, Morocco, pp.222 – 3; Maxwell, p.103

  24 Porch, Morocco, pp. 234 – 5

  25 Khorat, Scènes, p.267; En Colonne, pp.180 – 91

  26 Khorat, En Colonne, pp.209 – 11, 236

  27 Livre d‘Or, p.224

  28 Khorat, En Colonne, pp. 212 – 13

  29 Ralston, pp.321 – 2, 329

  30 Khorat, Scenes, p.267; Livre d‘Or (p.224) misprints ‘1911’ for 1912.

  31 Hoisington, p.39

  14. The Immaculate Raiment

  1 France, Spain and the Rif, p.55

  2 Khorat, Scènes, pp.269 – 70

  3 The French-built Ville Nouvelle now covers the Dar Debibagh plateau.

  4 Porch (Morocco, p.245) gives 19 French officers and men killed on 17 Apr, 9 European civilians and 43 Jews. K
horat (Scènes, p.270) gives 13 officers, 40 rankers and 13 white civilians, but is unclear as to dates. The Legion bn was apparently VI/2e RE, which was camped along the Meknes – Fes road.

  5 Khorat, Scènes, p.271; Porch, Morocco, pp.243 – 7

  6 Ralston, p.324; Hoisington, p.39; Khorat, Scènes, p.271

  7 Maurois, p.149

  8 Porch, Morocco, p.252

  9 ibid, p.253 ; Maurois, p.156

  10 Khorat, Scènes, pp.272 – 3; Porch, Morocco, pp.254 – 6; Hoisington, p.43; Maurois, p.157. The last attacks on Fes and this sortie together cost 55 French killed and 122 wounded.

  11 Hoisington, p.45

  12 KB No.375; Garros, pp.154 – 5. On 3/4 June 1918, serving on the Western Front as Col Rollet’s regimental sergeant-major in the RMLE, AdjChef Mader would lose an arm after leading an attack at Saint Baudry (see Appendix 1). After the war he became a well-known figure as chief custodian at the Château de Versailles.

  13 Khorat, Scènes, pp.273 – 5; Livre d‘Or, p.224 – 5

  14 The 4e RTA were recruited in Tunisia, but such units did not change title to Tirailleurs Tunisiens until 1921.

  15 La Légion Étrangère, No.8, 30 Nov 1912. This publication was the journal of the Federation of Societies of Former Légionnaires.

  16 In Jan 1913 total Legion strength was recorded as 10,521 men, with 12x rifle bns and 4x mounted coys; so the c.3,500 men of 5x bns and 4x mtd coys in Morocco represented c.33 per cent of the corps (there were then 5x bns in Algeria and only 2x bns still in Indochina). The expanding Colonial corps of Tirailleurs Sénégalais was then three times the size of the Legion (Bergot, in Young, p.205; Garijo, p.99); and see note 21 below. ‘Pierre Khorat’ gives total French Army numbers in Morocco on 1 May 1913 as 54,000 – 31,000 French and 3,500 Legion, 15,000 Algerian, 8,000 Senegalese and 4,500 Tunisian – plus 12,000 Moroccans under command. (Scènes, p.224)

  17 Hoisington, p.52. Subsequently the Rgt de Marche du 2e RE (W.Morocco) comprised I/, then III/ & VI/2e RE, and was commanded successively by LtCol Vandenberg (July 1912), Maj Denis-Laroque (Apr 1913) and LtCol Girodon (July 1913). The Rgt de M du ler RE (E.Morocco) comprised I/, II/ and VI/1er RE, and was commanded by LtCols Tahon (1913) and Théveney (1914). (Clayton, p.231; Bergot, in Young, p.189)

  18 Clayton, pp.89 – 90, 206, 211 – 12, 244 – 54, 262 – 5, 309 – 19. French regular military service was raised to three years in 1913; the same applied to the Tirs Alg, but Tirs Sénég had to serve for four years. New 5e – 9e RTAs were raised in 1914, giving a total of 40 Algerian and Tunisian bns by that August.

  19 Khorat, Scènes, p.274; Hoisington, pp.44 – 5; Maurois, p.160

  20 Khorat, Scènes, pp.275 – 7; Hoisington, p.45; Porch, Morocco, pp.258 – 63; Dunn, Resistance, p.27. El Hiba was a son of Moulay Ma el Ainin, a great spiritual and military sheikh in what is now Mauritania.

  21 Charles Mangin is not to be confused with Emile ‘Searchlight’ Mangin, former chief of the military mission to Moulay Hafid. In 1910 Charles Mangin had published a widely discussed book, La Force Noire, arguing for a major expansion of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais in order to offset the shortfall of Metropolitan French manpower in a coming war (the French birthrate lagged far behind that of Germany). This proposal that black troops be used not only in the colonies but in France itself was then revolutionary, but it was accepted in 1914 – 18; by the Armistice 45 black battalions would be serving on the Western Front, plus 26 in N.Africa and 15 in the Balkans. Mangin would be accused of using them as cannon-fodder in the failed 1917 Chemin des Dames offensive. (Clayton, pp .339 – 40; Fremeaux, RHdA, 2000/1)

  22 Khorat, Scènes, pp.277 – 9; Porch, Morocco, pp.263 – 9; Maxwell, pp.110 – 15; Hoisington, p.48

  23 Khorat, Scènes, pp.295 – 6, and En Colonne, p.133; Porch, Foreign Legion, p.324

  24 Légion Étrangère No.8, 30 Nov 1912. In June 1913, 24e CM/1er RE at Boudenib ‘formed corps’ – i.e. it became an autonomous command independent of its former parent bn VI/1er RE – and was redesignated 3e CM (Livre d‘Or, p.226).The French Army had not yet developed a doctrine for the use of motor vehicles, but commissions had been considering the question since 1896, and in 1908 the first law was passed authorizing an inventory of French private vehicles for requisition in time of war. (Serman and Bertaud, p.545)

  25 Hoisington, p.48

  26 Khorat, Scènes, p.281. Shipped down from Casablanca, Gen Brulard relieved Massoutier on 24 December. Lt Do Huu Vi, one of several sons of a leading Saigon family, to be educated in France, gained a commission à titre etranger from St Cyr in 1906, and qualified as a pilot in 1911. Crash injuries on the Western Front in 1915 ended his flying career, but he returned to active duty; Capt Do Huu Vi was killed near Belloy en Santerre on 9 July 1916, leading 7th Company, II/RMLE – see Appendix 1. (Dutailly, RHdA, 1981/1; and see maibatrieu@hotmail.com)

  27 Pernod and Villatoux, RHdA, 2000/1. In 1909 the War Minister, Gen Brun, had decided a turf war by ordering that both the Engineers and the Artillery should have aircraft. The first flying school and a military inspectorate were established in 1910, and the official organization of the Aéronautique Militaire was authorized in March 1912; this actually preceded by a year the official recognition of the Army use of motor cars. (Serman and Bertaud, p.545)

  28 Hoisington pp.50 – 52; Porch, Morocco, p.298

  29 Hoisington, p.47

  30 Report by Col Lamothe, quoted Maxwell, p.120

  31 Maxwell, p.118

  32 Lyautey, Vers la Maroc, p.285

  33 Khorat, Scènes, p.295; Hoisington, p.56

  34 Hoisington, pp.62 – 3. Moha ou Hammou, Moha ou Said l’Irraoui of the Ait Roboas, and the religious leader Sidi Ali ben el Mekki Amhaouch were the most important figures in the southern Middle Atlas.

  35 Hoisington, p.65; Khorat, Scènes, p.284; Porch, Morocco, p.282

  36 Hoisington, p.58; Porch, Morocco, p.286

  37 Gen Charles Mangin would command a colonial division on the Marne in 1914, an army corps at Verdun in 1916, Sixth Army on the Chemin des Dames in 1917, Tenth Army at ‘Second Marne’ in 1918, and French occupation troops in the Rhineland in 1919. He was nicknamed ‘the Butcher’.

  38 Khorat, Scènes, p.288; Hoisington, p.61; Porch, Morocco, p.284

  39 Harris, p.10; Hoisington, p.37

  40 Harris, p.85; Woolman, p.18

  41 Hart, Qabila, p.36; Garijo, p.54; Harris, p.78

  42 Woolman, p.53

  43 Harris, p.98; Woolman, pp.55 – 9

  44 KB No.473

  45 Livre d‘Or, pp.225 – 6; Khorat, Scènes, pp.297 – 8

  46 Pernot and Villatoux, RHdA, 2000/1

  47 Bernard, pp.20, 25 – 6; KB, No.476

  48 Serman and Bertaud, p.699; Livre d‘Or, p.226; Porch, Morocco, pp.284 – 5

  49 KB, No.473

  50 KB, Nos.473 and 474

  51 Hoisington, pp.66 – 7

  52 Fabre, pp.10 – 11. ‘Chleuchs’, from the name of a Middle Atlas tribal group, became the soldiers’ slang for all Berbers – indeed, Morocco veterans would also use it of the Germans in the First World War. (It is sometimes mistakenly claimed to be an insult equivalent to ‘nigger’, but in conversation with the present author in 2007 a university-educated Middle Atlas Berber used the term with quite unselfconscious pride simply to identify his origins – like ‘Jock’ or ‘Geordie’)

  53 Hoisington, p.82

  54 ibid, pp.70 – 72; Khorat, Scènes, p.299

  55 Maurois, p.183

  15. The Lobster Shell

  1 Livre d‘Or de la Légion Étrangère (1931), p.227

  2 Maurois, pp.184 – 9

  3 Maxwell, pp.125 – 7, 134

  4 Maurois, p.192; Hoisington, p.73

  5 Of just under 42,900 men who served in Legion units during the Great War, about 5,140 claimed to be Germans, Austrians or Turks. Germans who had already earned French naturalization – e.g. Sgt Max Mader – did fight in France. (Bergot, quoting from Livre d‘Or de la RMLE in Young, p.205; Carles, RHdA, 1981/1)
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  6 Hoisington, pp.73, 224 n(73); Turnbull, p.152; Carles, RHdA, 1981/1. In Nov 1915 the Legion had 5 bns in Morocco (I/ and VI/1er RE; II/, III/ and VI/2e RE); 3 bns in France, 1 in Salonika, 2 in Algeria and 2 in Indochina.

  7 Clayton, pp.206 – 207, 212, 248, 263, 274 – 5, 340; Porch, Morocco, p.288; Garijo, pp.80 – 81

  8 Heintz, pp.11, 16

  9 Hoisington, pp.74 – 6; Garijo, pp.67 – 70. Apart from Zaians the warriors were from the Mrabtin, Ait Ichkern and Ait Ischak. Details of French dead vary slightly in sources, but plausible figures are 33 French officers, c.200 French rankers, 218 Tirs Alg, 125 Tirs Sénég and 37 Moroccans. The loss was almost exactly 50 per cent in killed, and 66 per cent in total casualties.

  10 Hoisington, pp.75 – 6; Porch, Morocco, p.288

  11 Hoisington p.80. The GM de Ito (LtCol Dérigoin) then consisted of VI/2e RE, a bn of Tirs Alg and one of Tirs Sénég, 2x sqns of Spahis and 2x gun batteries. (Heintz, p.71)

  12 Heintz, pp.5, 6, 12, 13, 17 – 18, 63

  13 ibid, p.13. On the evening of 15 May 1911, Capt Duriez had tried in vain to drag the corpse of Capt Labordette up from Alouana. On 17 Apr 1917 he would be mortally wounded at the head of the RMLE on the Western Front during the Nivelle Offensive – see Appendix I.

  14 Hoisington, p.81; Heintz, p.73

  15 Heintz, p.13; Hoisington, p.82. The Zaian, Ait Ichkern, Ait Ischak and Ait Bou Haddou.

  16 Hoisington, p.83; Heintz, pp.14, 73 – 4

  17 ‘M.M.’, p.220. A self-styled littérateur who scurried around Europe leaving a trail of unrepaid loans, M.M. organized his transfer from Algeria to Lyon after less than three months, on the pretext of his eagerness to ‘fight the Boches rather than serve with them’. Once in France he promptly deserted over the Italian border. After the war he finally ran out of gullible acquaintances, and committed suicide in Malta.

  18 Garijo, p.77 – 8. The author has been unable to identify the Legion picket; it was presumably a company from III/2e RE, whose war diary was unavailable to Heintz, the author’s main source for this chapter.