Day of the Goum.

This is coolbert:

As you might expect, this one caught my eye and interest right away.

From Forbes Magazine:

"Mixed Media reviews"

"Days of Glory", a movie on DVD, is reviewed.

"From the "Longest Day" to "Saving Private Ryan", movies have paid rich and fairly thorough homage to World War II; still, the French combat drama "Days of Glory", has a new story to tell. In 1943, 130,000 infantry troops [these were Berbers from the High Atlas - - goum] from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia enlisted under the tricolor to help France eject the occupying German. Director Rachid Bouchareb (a Frenchman of Algerian descent depicts one such battalion as they charge German positions from Italy all the way to Alsace. These men show the patriotic nerve of the native-born, but to their French commanders, they're cannon fodder, indigenes [indigenous/"natives"] (a slur, and also the movies's more pointed French title) who don't deserve the privileges - - promotions, timely leave, fresh rations - - of "true" citizens. "Days of Glory" leans on familiar war-flick tropes: an exacting sergeant, band-of-brothers camaraderie, a thwarted romance with a village girl. But the natural, deeply felt performances of the four leads, all of North Africa descent and collective winners for best male performance at Cannes last year, give the movie its humanity and lend force to its quiet outrage . . . It's as exquisitely filmed and gripping a depiction of selfless valor as any put to film."

"trope - - noun - - language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense"

Read my prior blog posts about the goum here and here.

I wonder, any depictions of the mass rape and murder perpertrated by the goum in Italy and Germany both?? Probably NOT!

Well, then I have not seen in any movies depictions of the fire bombing of Hamburg or Dresden for that matter either.

Make no mistake about it, however, the goum WERE hard, determined, skilled fighters of excellent quality. Gave a good account of themselves on the BATTLEFIELD. They DO merit recognition!

This movie sounds like it would be worthwhile seeing. I wonder if translated or in subtitles? At the IMDB web site, I see the goum are shown wearing American style World War Two helmets. This is wrong? They wore the British style helmet?

[the goum were renowned for carrying and wearing a melange' of equipment and uniforms, the French Army so ill-equipped them for combat. Whatever they could scrounge of capture from the Germans or Italians would do!!]

coolbert.

Unique?

This is coolbert: From an informant of mine currently living in Italy - - comments to "Rampage on Cassino" and the actions of the goum.

[thanks here to Buti]

Curzio Malaparte followed the Allied troops from Naples and reported how Italian women in Naples valued black Americans more than whites and were not reluctant to bring them home as "fiancès". Malaparte further chronicles an incident with the Moroccans (goumiers) in the French army before the Allied troops marched on Rome:

"When news of the goumiers' arrival spread throught the district, all the peasants fled, crossing themselves...and a number of monks immediately hurried forward from the neighbouring monasteries to convert the goumiers ...they had orders to baptize all the Moroccans because the Pope did not want Turks in Rome. The Holy Father had in fact sent a radio message to the Allied Command in which he expressed his desire that the Moroccan Division should be halted at the gates of the Eternal City".

[the term Turk is used to describe in a generic manner any Muslim, regardless of nationality. The goums of course were not Turks, but Morroccans.]

It was not black American troops, but Muslims in the French Army that he feared. The reason "why the Pope didn't want Turks in Rome" was that "there were three thousand women refugees in the papal villa". "It has devolved upon me, said General Guillaume (the French general), to throw a cordon of sentries round the outer walls of the papal villa so as to prevent the goumiers from going in to pay their addresses to the Pope's wives".

[it seems the goum not only committed rape, pillage, and murder on the slopes of Cassino, but intended to do the same on the grounds of the Vatican?? Seek out the refugee women and have a repitition of what previously transpired? As for converting the goum and baptizing them, well, forget it!!]

Curzio Malaparte was a person perhaps uniquely suited to report events as they occurred. Was first in the 1920's an ardent fascist, then ran afoul of the Mussolini regime, later rehabilitated by Count Ciano himself [the son-in-law of the Duce'], ended up his life as a communist!!??

[Malaparte was certainly a man of varied political beliefs. Did not see the democratic, Christian, capitalist institutions of the western world as AS HAVING answers for the problems of the common man? Saw either fascism or communism as viable alternatives.]

Wrote extensively as a journalist and author. Authored several books during the war years. Again, was perhaps uniquely qualified in the manner with which he reported the war.

"From November 1943 to March 1946 he was attached to the American High Command in Italy as an Italian Liaison Officer."

"Malaparte extends the great fresco of European society he began in 'Kaputt'. There the scene was Eastern Europe, here it is Italy during the years from 1943 to 1945; instead of Germans, the invaders are the American armed forces. In all the literature that derives from the Second World War, there is no other book [this is 'The Skin'] that so brilliantly or so woundingly present triumphant American innocence against the background of the European experience of destruction and moral collapse."

Again, thank you Buti!

coolbert.

Goum.

This is coolbert:

“the best preparation for being a soldier is poverty” - - Napoleon.

“he goes by the name of Turk, and he is very good with a knife!” - - Tom Hagen - - “The Godfather I”.

Reading over the George Duncan web sites on atrocities of World War Two, this particular entry caught my attention. [from part III. Germany and Italy.]

"RAMPAGE ON MONTE CASSINO"

"Monte Cassino fell to the Allies on May 18, 1944 . . . The next night thousands of French Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian and Senegalese troops, attached to the French Expeditionary Corps, swarmed over the slopes of the hills surrounding Monte Cassino and in the villages of Ciociaria and Esperia, which is in the region of Lazio, raped every woman and girl that came within their sight. Over 2,000 women, ranging in age from 11 years to 86 years suffered at the hands of these gang-raping soldiers as village after village was entered. Menfolk who tried to protect their wives and daughters were murdered without mercy, around 800 of them died . . . Most of the dwellings in the villages were destroyed and everything of value was stolen. Later in the war, these same troops raped around 500 women in the Black Forrest town of Freudenstadt, on April 17, 1945, after its capture. In Stuttgart, colonial French troops, mostly African, but under the command of General Eisenhower, rounded up around 2,000 women and herded them into the underground subways to be raped. In one week more women were raped in Stuttgart than in the whole of France during the four year German occupation."

Several comments here.

It may very well these instances of mass rape by “African troops” are what Pope Pius XII had in mind when he requested of General Mark Clark that American black troops NOT be allowed to enter Rome in June of 1944. Cassino had been captured just that spring, and it was not until June 6 that Rome was liberated by Operation Diadem, spearheaded by the U.S. 85th and 88th Divisions, fighting side by side. Word of what had occurred in the aftermath of the capture of Cassino probably by that time had gotten back to Pius.

As to the actual mayhem itself, I would make a guess this was probably mostly the work of the goum.

The goum.

French Morrocan troops from the High Atlas mountains of north Africa. Berbers? Units of goum, [goumiers in French], officered by Frenchmen, sent specifically to fight in the rough mountainous terrain of Italy.

French officer, side-by-side with his goum charges.



Very skilled, tough, able fighters. Renowned for their ability to move quietly in mountainous terrain, and doing so at night!! Also renowned for their ability with a knife. Troops receiving a pay bonus for the number of enemy soldiers killed. Bringing back EARS of dead German soldiers as evidence of their prowess on the battlefield.

"Two companies of Goums...were stationed next to our CP, and these had sent out two raiding parties the same night... Mostly mountain men from Morocco, these silent, quick-moving raiders were excellent at night raids, and in surprise attacks . . . Part of the Goums' success lay in their silence as they moved forward, and in their highly perfected art of camouflage. One anecdote ran that one warrior had so successfully camouflaged himself all day in full sight of the Germans that a German officer had wandered over to what he thought was a bush, and had urinated on the motionless head of the Moroccan soldier who bore the trial well, but who marked that particular officer down for special attention that night. Goums did not take any prisoners, and it was well-known to the Germans and Italians what befell anyone who ran afoul of those Moroccans."

Strangely attired and odd looking troops, uniform consisting of a long wool robe and a British style helmet. Poorly equipped, armed with a melange’ of weapons, quite often captured from the German!

Goum wearing the British style helmet. Goum, French units, did not wear the “Adrian” helmet.



"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."

Goum dressed in the typical jellaba, giving the distinctive appearance.



"The companies lacked most of the clothing, equipment and weapons necessary for warfare. Several raids had remedied that. Inspection of their clothing revealed a good many German articles of clothing under their conventional brown and white vertical striped robes. Their rifles were mixed German and Italian, with a few old French rifles firing clips of four. Mess equipment, and a good deal of the food was also of enemy origin, as were the knives, pistols, blankets and toilet articles."

But able fighters who gave a good account of themselves in the mountains of Italy. Simple mountain village folks to whom poverty and hardship were a normal way of life. [all outsiders to the remote mountain villages of the High Atlas are called arrumi’ by the locals. A corruption of the word Rome or Roman!!! An indication of the remote and primitive existence persons in the High Atlas lead!]

"during Operation Diadem . . . 'Here the Goums more than proved their value as light, highly mobile, mountain troops who could penetrate the most vertical terrain in fighting order and with a minimum of logistical requirements.'"

To the goum, rape and pillage would have been seen as a normal extension of the war effort! Concepts such as “war crimes” and “atrocities” being foreign to them!

Indeed, it is suggested that the goum raped and pillaged their way through the entire Italian campaign! Taking advantage of a situation as they saw fit!

"exceptional numbers of Moroccans were executed—many without trial—for allegedly murdering, raping, and pillaging their way across the Italian countryside. The French authorities sought to defuse the problem by importing numbers of Berber women to serve as 'camp followers' in rear areas set aside exclusively for the Goumiers. According to Italian sources, more than 7,000 people were raped by Goumiers. The victims, later known in Italy as Marocchinate, included women, children and men, including some priests. The mayor of Esperia (a comune in the Province of Frosinone), reported that in his town, 700 women out of 2,500 inhabitants were raped and that some had died as a result. In northern Latium and southern Tuscany, it is alleged that the Goumiers raped and occasionally killed women and young men after the Germans retreated, including members of partisan formations [friendlies]."

[crimes of this nature and magnitude are NOT the result of sexual lust go amok. Importing Berber women to serve the goum sexually would have not done any good. These crimes were the result of an abuse of all-consuming and absolute power gone crazy. "We can do what we want and we will", was the attitude!!]

Go here to see more photos of goum soldiers.

[please note that many of the goum sport beards. Within their culture, a male lacking a beard is unmanly. American SF troops in Afghanistan also allowed their beards to grow, so as to fit-in better with the Islamic culture!!]

Go here to see a French web site on "Les GoumsMoracains".

HE GOES BY THE NAME OF GOUM, AND HE IS VERY GOOD WITH A KNIFE!!

Yes, that, and much more.

coolbert.