Free French

[123everton]

What were the casualties (killed and wounded) of the Free French forces during operation Exporter (08/06/41) of Syria and Lebannon?

[padanarm]

None - it was the Allied Forces against the Vichy French. Syria-Lebanon Campaign

[123everton]

Says 1300 at the bottom, how many of those died?
1200 British and Indian casualties, neither of these figures include the number of dead, it only lists 416 Austalian dead out of 1552 overall casualties.

[leggysreturn]

dunno how relevant this is.but im sure i read that at least 40% if not more of the free french were actually african conscripts from senegal and other french african colonies.



it may even have been on answerbank.

[123everton]

They may well have been Leg, British colonial troops were'nt conscripted at the time, Canada later brought it in but with a lot of trouble.
Coincedentally all Algerian and other French troops have had their pensions frozen from the rate due to them at the time of independence, I think they've even been ordered by the courts to rectify it and they refused.

[leggysreturn]

i read here that when paris was to be liberated that the free french and degaulle said they wouldnt let paris be liberated by black soldiesr.the brits and us agreed and helped the frech make up a division or company of french soldiers who werent black.

these poor africans were conscripted to fight hitler the facist racist and then were treated like second class soldiers by all the allies i believe degaulle and churchill and eisenhower agreed that blacks shouldnt be seen as liberators.

shameful.

[123everton]

I had'nt heard that but it would'nt surprise me, the reason for the original question is that I'm wondering how many former Vichy soldiers marched into Paris for the liberation after bearing arms against their own liberators.
There's a film called "Days Of Glory" about the Algerian troops in WW2, it's not bad, not brilliant, but not bad, kills a couple of hours if you're bored.

[jake-the-peg]

The first Free French (who I think were invoved in this) lost 4,000 over the whole war.

2 batallions were foreign Legion and 1North African
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Free_French_D ivision

More details here you might be interested in

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/26989-free-f rench-divisions.html

Also here are the total WWII casulties by nation:

http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/frame5.h tml
Rather interesting to compare UK civillian casulties to mainland civillian casulties

[123everton]

Do you not view it as treason that Vichy forces fired upon their own compatriots seeking to free them from Nazi rule?
I'm not doubting the courage or integrity of thevFree French in this instance, for a change....

[jake-the-peg]

Treason is a term dependant on who is the legitimate government and how you decide who the legitimate government is.

Given the circumstances that's rather moot.

Whoever won would have declared themselves the legitimate government and those who opposed them traitors or terrorists.

If a few people fight for "the enemy" it's treason. If half the country does it's a civil war.

If 99% of the country does it's a revolution.

[123everton]

You have to say though that the idea that some of these troops may have marched into Paris under De Gaulle's flag is abhorrent.

[jake-the-peg]

Yes especially as the qualification was being white

North African troops were banned by the French and the Americans. I believe there was a half hearted protest from the UK who then decided it wasn't worth a row.

White and Vichey OK ; Algerian? no thanks

[123everton]

Yes, the Americans may have had similar problems at times I imagine.
Check out that film "Days Of Glory" it's only a cheapie, it offers an insight (as much as a film can) about the Algerians in the war, that's where I found out about the pension thing.