Tirailleurs

Tirailleurs (sharpshooters), the name given to the infantry regiments of the Armée d'Afrique and the Troupes Coloniales (see France, 6(b)). Originally, the term was applied to indigenous troops used for skirmishing or as scouts, not as infantry of the line. The Armée d'Afrique conscripted them from the local populations of Algeria, Tunisia, and French Morocco; the Troupes Coloniales conscripted them from other French colonies with French subject status. Twenty-one regiments of Tirailleurs Algériens and Tirailleurs Tunisiens took part in the fighting which preceded the fall of France in June 1940, eight fought in the North African campaign, four in the French Expeditionary Corps in the Italian campaign, and five in the French Riviera landings. The Tirailleurs Sénégalais, the generic description for infantry units raised from the populations of French sub-Saharan colonies, also fought in France in 1940 and suffered heavy casualties. They were then used by the Vichy French government and by the Free French, so that they sometimes fought each other (see Gabon and Syrian campaigns, for example). Tirailleurs opposed the Allies at the start of the North African campaign, but then fought with them, and, with de Lattre de Tassigny's First French Army, some took part in the French Riviera landings and the battle for Germany.

Bibliography

Clayton, A. , France, Soldiers and Africa (London, 1988).