9th division d'infanterie coloniale

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9 e division d'infanterie coloniale

Insigne9emDIC.jpg

Badge of the 9th DIC with the anchor as a symbol of the overseas troops and the Lorraine Cross of Free France
active July 1943 to December 1947
Country France
( CFLN , GPRF , Fourth Republic )
Armed forces Armée française de la Liberation ,
Forces armées françaises
Armed forces Armée de terre
Branch of service Colonial - Infantry
( Troupe de Marine )
Type division
Strength 19,300 men (1945)
Origin of the soldiers West Africa , Morocco , France
Wars Second World War ,
Indochina War

The 9 e division d'infantry coloniale (short 9 e DIC , on German 9th Colonial - Infantry - Division ) was a major unit of the Free French Forces in World War II , mainly soldiers from the Colony West Africa and the Protectorate of Morocco included.

Second World War

The division was originally supposed to be created in 1939/40 as part of the French mobilization , but the planned formation under General Pellet did not materialize. On July 15, 1943, after the Allied invasion of North Africa , the large association was created there as part of the Free French forces . At that time it comprised the 4th, 6th and 13th regiments of the Tirailleurs sénégalais (Senegalese rifle infantry) as well as the Colonial Infantry Regiment (RICM) and Colonial Artillery Regiment (RACM) of Morocco.

Even before the division was founded, the regiments had suffered heavy losses: the 4th Senegalese Rifle Regiment had lost over 600 men on April 20, 1943 when the troop transport ship Sidi Bel Abbès was sunk by U 565 off Oran . At the beginning of June, the 13th Regiment lost 35 soldiers in a German air raid on Algiers .

The first in command was General Blaizot , who soon handed over command to General Magnan . The division was subordinate to Army B (later renamed 1st Army under Lattre de Tassigny ).

In October 1943 the division gathered in Mostaganem near Oran and from there crossed to Corsica in April / May 1944 . In June, the division carried the brunt of the Brassard operation , the conquest of Elba from Corsica . The following August, the division was part of Operation Dragoon , the Allied landing on the Côte d'Azur . The division's regiments were responsible, among other things, for conquering Fort d'Artigues in Toulon . Although the soldiers had distinguished themselves in battle, soon after the successful conclusion of the operation, the army blanched ("whitening"); that is, most of the division's African soldiers (around 9,200 men) were replaced by voluntary resistance fighters from the Forces françaises de l'intérieur . Officially, this was justified with the necessary consolidation of internal and external troops and the impending winter war, for which the Africans were not prepared; in addition, imperialist-racist motives presumably played a role (the French leadership did not want the motherland to be liberated by black colonial soldiers). Three “white” colonial regiments ( 6th , 21st and 23rd RIC ) replaced the Senegalese, who were repatriated to their homeland under adverse circumstances.

With the 1st Army , the division, now commanded by Generals Morlière and Salan , advanced through Belfort ( Burgundian Gate ) into Alsace by the end of January , where it was involved in the liberation of Mulhouse and the conquest of Colmar . At the beginning of April troops of the division, now under General Valluy , crossed the Rhine and took Karlsruhe , Rastatt and Baden-Baden .

Indochina

The division was relocated to Indochina by early December 1945 and incorporated into the local expeditionary force (CEFEO) . In Indochina, Hồ Chí Minh , leader of the Việt Minh , had used the power vacuum created by the collapse of Japan three months earlier and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam after the August Revolution . Soon afterwards there was heavy fighting with the incoming British-Indian occupation troops and smaller French units. When it reached Indochina, the 9th DIC was the first numerically strong French association on site with 19,300 men. Together with the 3rd DIC under General Nyo , which arrived in February 1946 , it formed the backbone of the occupation forces and enabled the withdrawal of the 20th British-Indian Infantry Division under General Gracey . In March, they provided a larger part of the soldiers for the French landing operation in North Vietnam ( Opération Bentré ).

After the March 6th Agreement the situation eased, but triggered by the bombing of Haiphong (which was ordered by General Valluy, meanwhile Indochina commander in chief), the Indochina war broke out at the end of the year . Since the military organizational structure turned out to be inefficient in the first year of the war, the 9th DIC virtually ceased to exist at the end of 1947 as a result of restructuring (but without being officially dissolved).

In 1963, a successor unit was created under the name 9e brigade d'infanterie de marine , which still exists as part of the Troupe de marine as a light amphibious tank unit and has also taken over the tradition of the bleue division .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ atf40.fr: Armée de Terre Française 1940 - Division D'infanterie Coloniale (accessed January 2015).
  2. ↑ De L'AOF Aux Bords Du Rhin. 9 ° Division D'infanterie Coloniale - Mémorial à la Gloire de la 9 ° DIC (copy of the division memory book) , p. 7 ff. ( Journal de marche de la 9 ° DIC en opérations )
  3. ↑ stonebooks.com: Free French Divisions (accessed January 2015)
  4. ↑ generals.dk : Blaizot, Roger-Charles-André-Henri (accessed January 2015)
  5. ↑ Le général Magnan, commandant la 9e DIC et pre, mier gouverneur militaire de Toulon libéré. In: AOB 341 July / August 2004 ( troupesdemarine.org PDF).
  6. ↑ Gilles Aubagnac: Le retrait of troupes noires de la 1re armée. in: Revue Historique des Armées. No. 2, 1993, pp. 34-46.
  7. ↑ Le Blanchiment de la 9 ° DIC In: Revue des Troupes coloniales. No. 281, October 1946 ( troupesdemarine-ancredor.org PDF).
  8. ↑ La revue des deux mondes. Issues 1–3, 1970, p. 350.
  9. ↑ Gilbert Bodinier: Le retour de la France en Indochine: 1945-1946. Service historique de l'Armée de terre, 1987, p. 65.
  10. ↑ Axel Rappolt: Leclerc et l'Indochine: 1945-1947. 2007, p. 150.
  11. ↑ www.troupesdemarine.org: 9eme Brigade Légère Blindée de Marine.
    www.defense.gouv.fr: 9e brigade d'infanterie de marine. (accessed January 2015).