The Moroccan Goumiers () were indigenous Moroccan soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa, between 1908 and 1956. While nominally in the service of the Sultan of Morocco, they served under French officers, including a period as part of the Free French Forces.
Employed initially as tribal irregulars, then in regular contingents, the goumiers were employed extensively during the French occupation of Morocco from 1908 to the early 1930s. They then served in North Africa, Italy, and France during World War II between 1942 and 1945. During this period 4 Moroccan tabor groups (groupes de tabors marocains – GTM) were created, each comprising 3 tabors (battalions), and each tabor comprising 3 or 4 goums (companies). Goumiers subsequently served in Indochina from 1946 to 1954.
Etymology
The term goum designated a company of goumiers. It originates from gūm, the equivalent in the Arabic of the Maghreb of Classical Arabic qawm, designating "tribe" or "people". The term also refers to mounted contingents of Arab or Berber horsemen employed by tribal leaders during North African campaigns.Définition de GOUMIER – CNRTL
The term tabor is originally a Turkish designation of tabur making reference to a battalion or by the intermediary Arab ṭābūr, also originally a Turkish designation.Définition de TABOR – CNRTL
The word originated in the Maghrebi Arabic word Koum (قوم), which means "people". The non-specific designation "goumi" (French version "goumier") was used to circumvent tribal distinctions and enable volunteers from different regions to serve together in mixed units for a "common" cause. The president of Egypt Jamal Abdel Nasser also used the same designation (koum or koumia) to build the new United Arab Republic.
In French military terminology, a goum was a unit of 200 auxiliaries. Three or four goums made up a tabor. An engine or groupe was composed of three tabors. A goum in this case was the equivalent of a company in regular military units and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a battalion. A tabor was the largest permanent goumier unit.
In addition to colonial campaigns during the first half of the 20th century, goumiers were employed as auxiliaries by the French Army in Italy during World War II. These irregular infantry came from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco where they were recruited from the indigenous Berber tribes.Bimberg, Edward L. The Moroccan Goums: Tribal Warriors in a Modern War
Origins The designation of "goumiers" was originally given to tribal irregulars employed as allies by the French Army in southern Algeria.Montagon, pp. 94 & 197. These mounted auxiliaries operated under their own tribal leadership and were entirely distinct from the regular Muslim cavalry (Spahi) and infantry (Tirailleur) regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique. After 1870 the Algerian goums were replaced by the permanent indigenous corps.Montagon, p. 94.
Subsequently, tribal police auxiliaries serving with the French gendarmerie in the settled areas of Morocco were also known as goumiers.
Morocco, 1908–1934
Algerian goumiers were employed during the initial stages of the French intervention in Morocco, commencing in 1908. After their terms of enlistment expired, the Algerians returned to their homeland, but the advantages of indigenous irregulars were such that they were replaced by Moroccan levies. Retaining the designation of goumiers, the Moroccans served in detachments under French officers, and initially mostly Algerian NCOs, both of whom were usually seconded from the Spahis and Tirailleurs. Moroccan sous-officers were in due course appointed.
These semi-permanently employed Moroccan goumiers were initially raised as six separate detachments of local militia by General Albert D'Amade in 1908, to patrol recently-occupied areas. Goumiers also served as scouts and in support of regular French troops, and in 1911 they became permanent units.Jacques Augarde, page 10 "La longue route des tabors", éditions France Empire, 1983 ()
Nominally, the goumiers were under the control of the Sultan of Morocco, but in practice, they formed an extension of the French Army and subsequently fought for France in third countries (see below). However, their biggest involvement was in Morocco itself during the period of French "pacification". As noted below, the goum units had the formal status of local police, though they fought and served as an integral part of the French Army of Africa. This had initially been a political subterfuge, since following the Algeciras Conference of 1906, France had undertaken not to recruit regular Moroccan troops while the Sultan remained nominal ruler of the country. With the outbreak of World War I this restraint was lifted and the French enlisted large numbers of regular Moroccan tirailleurs, spahis and artillerymen. The goumiers had however proven so valuable as auxiliaries that they continued their dual roles as tribal police and combat troops.
Initially, the Moroccan Goums wore tribal dress with only blue cloaks as uniform items, but as they achieved permanent status they adopted the distinctive brown and grey striped jellaba (a hooded Moroccan cloak) that was to remain their trademark throughout their history with the French Army. Their normal headdress was a turban. Goums included both infantry and cavalry elements. Their traditional and favoured weapons were sabres or elongated daggers.
An equivalent force known as the Mehal-La Jalifiana was raised in Spanish Morocco using France's goumiers as a model.
World War I
The Moroccan Goumiers did not see service outside Morocco during the First World War, although the term was sometimes used for detachments of Algerian spahi irregulars employed in Flanders in late 1914. Their existence did, however, enable General Hubert Lyautey to withdraw a substantial portion of the regular French military forces from Morocco for service on the Western Front.
Between the world wars
By 1924 twenty-seven Goum units were in the French service. They comprised mixed detachments of about three-quarters infantry and one-quarter cavalry. Together with partisan tribal irregulars the goumiers numbered about 10,000 men. French officers and NCOs continued to be seconded from regular units. Remaining separate from the regular Moroccan regiments of the French Armée d'Afrique, the Goumiers gave valuable service during the Rif Wars of the 1920s. They subsequently became a form of gendarmerie, keeping order in rural districts of Morocco.
In the latter half of the 1930s, there were roughly 50 Goums. The organization of a Moroccan Goum was as follows:
Three infantry platoons (sections), each with an FM light machine gun. One cavalry platoon. One machine gun group. One mule train with 25 animals.
The manpower strength of a Goum during this period was 161 Moroccan Goumiers and 10 French officers and NCOs.
World War II
Four Moroccan groups (regimental-sized units, about 12,000 men in total) served with the Allied forces during World War II. They specialised in night raiding operations, and fought against the forces of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during 1942–1945. Goumier units were also used to man the front lines in mountainous and other rough terrain areas, freeing regular Allied infantry units to operate along more profitable axes of advance.
North Africa 1939–1942 In 1939 there were 57 regular Goums in Morocco, numbered 1 to 57. Sixteen Goums were deployed along the southern border and the rest were used as mobilizing Goums, being broken up to provide trained cadres for 64 new Auxiliary Goums (Goums de Marche). These were numbered 100 + the number of the mobilizing Goum (i.e. the 107e Goum de Marche was mobilized with cadres from the 7e Goum). A second and third series of Goums de Marche, with numbers in the 200s and 300s respectively, were raised in 1940.
A Goum de Marche had three infantry platoons, each composed of 26 goumiers, 4 Moroccan NCOs, and 1 French NCO. It was divided into three groups, two with an FM light machine gun, and one with three VB rifle grenadiers. The goumiers were normally armed with Berthier rifles. The infantry platoons were supported by a machine gun platoon with two 8mm machine guns, typically the Hotchkiss mle 1914. An 11-man cavalry group was attached for reconnaissance. Supplies were carried by mule train.
The Goums were grouped together into Groupements de Goums, of four Goums each. These groupements, which were roughly battalion-sized, added a command platoon with an ER 17 radio set, and a weapons platoon, with two 81mm mortars and a 37mm TRP mle 1916 infantry gun. In 1939 the possibility of combining the first 8 Groupements into a brigade was considered, but ultimately not pursued.
By June of 1940, the authorized strength of a Groupement was 12 officers, 30 NCOs, and 800 Goumiers, with 188 horses and mules, one light vehicle, and two trucks. Sixteen groups were formed by the time of the June 1940 armistice. The 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th Groupements were grouped together in June 1940 to form the 1st Group of Moroccan Auxiliaries (French: 1er Groupe de Supplétifs Marocains – G.S.M.), which was sent to southern Tunisia to reinforce the Mareth Line against an invasion from Italian Libya. These groups saw combat against Italian forces between 10 and 25 June.
After the armistice of 1940, the Goums were returned to Morocco. To evade strict German limits on how many troops France could maintain in North Africa, the Goumiers were described as having Gendarmerie-type functions, such as maintenance of public order and the surveillance of frontiers, while maintaining military armament, organization, and discipline.Gaujac, p. 68
Tunisia, 1942–43 The 1st GSM (Groupe de Supplétifs Marocains) fought on the Tunisian front as part of the Moroccan March Division from December 1942, and was joined by the 2nd GSM in January 1943.
The 15th Army Group commander, British General Harold Alexander considered the French Moroccan Goumiers as "great fighters" and gave them to the allies to help them to take Bizerte and Tunis.
Reorganization
After the Tunisia Campaign, the French organized two additional groups and retitled the groups as Groupes de Tabors Marocains (G.T.M.). Meanwhile, the Goums were reorganized and received new arms and equipment, as part of the allied rearmament of the Army of Liberation.
Each Goum was divided into three combat sections (platoons), each composed of two FM (light machine gun) groups and one assault group. The command group included a group of mounted scouts, a machine gun group, a 60mm mortar, an anti-tank squad equipped with bazookas, and a mule train. Each Goum consisted of 209 Moroccan soldiers, 12 French NCOs, and 2 French officers. Authorized armament included 9 FM light machine guns, 2 machine guns, 1 mortar, 4 bazookas, 21 submachine guns, and 9 rifle grenade launchers. Communications equipment included one SCR-284 radio and four SCR-536 radios. For transportation, the Goum was authorized 28 mules, 14 horses, 1 jeep and one 2.5 ton truck.
A Tabor consisted of three Goums plus a Command and Weapons Goum (Goum de Commandement et d'Engins de Tabor, GCE). The GCE included a command group, a cavalry platoon with 3 FMs, a mortar section with four 81mm mortars, a transmissions group, and a logistics group (groupe du train) which included a mule train and medical personnel. The Command Goum consisted of 174 Moroccans, 11 French NCOs and 7 French officers. Communications equipment included one SCR-195 radio and four SCR-284s. Transportation was provided by 70 horses, 40 mules, 4 jeeps and four 2.5 ton trucks.