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The 4th Colonial Infantry Division (4e Division d’Infanterie Coloniale, 4e DIC) was a unit of the French Army which saw combat in the Battle of France during World War II. It played a major part in fighting along the Somme River but was ultimately largely destroyed during the German Fall Rot operation in June 1940.
By the end of World War II, the Free French unit counted 273 certified victories, 37 non-certified victories, and 45 damaged aircraft with 869 fights and 42 dead. [39] On 31 May 1945, Normandie-Niemen squadrons were directed to Moscow by the Soviet authorities, who decided to allow them to return to France with their aircraft as a reward. [40]
The precise meaning of the terms "colonial troops", "colonial army", marine troops or "troops of the French colonies" has changed several times since the 18th century: During the 18th and early 19th centuries "marine infantry" was the title used to identify French troops stationed permanently in France's various overseas territories.
The Colonial Army Corps, originally the Army Corps of Colonial Troops, is a unit of the French Army established by decree on June 11, 1901. It was composed of units from the Colonial Troops stationed in mainland France.
The Thiaroye massacre [a] was a massacre of black African soldiers serving in French West Africa, committed by the French Army on the morning of 1 December 1944 near Dakar, French Senegal. Those killed were members of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais , and were veterans of the 1940 Battle of France who had been recently liberated from prison camps ...
After the Americans landed in Algiers in 1942 during Operation Torch, the colonial troops of the French Army of Africa, until then under the orders of the pro-Nazi republic of Vichy. General Charles De Gaulle , head of the French government in exile , drew on this military personnel to create the CEF (Corp Expeditionnaire Français).
The regular French troops consisted of four battalions of the 6th Foreign Infantry Regiment 6 e REI (according to Dentz, these were the best troops available to the Vichy French command) and three battalions of the 24th Colonial Infantry Regiment (French regulars enlisted for overseas service).
Until World War II, artillery or mechanized units rarely had indigenous troops although the Italian colonial army maintained a number of Eritrean, Somali, and Libyan mule artillery batteries, and there were locally-recruited mountain batteries in the Indian Army. The relative lack of up-to-date weaponry and training put colonial troops at an ...