Army of Africa (France)

[1] These battalions' bases were thereby providing a framework that could be expanded in the event of general mobilisation, and which were physically located closer to the geographical threat of Germany.

[2] In addition to the corps listed above, the Army of Africa included technical and support branches - notably artillery, engineers and train.

Stationed permanently in North Africa these comprised a mixture of French and indigenous personnel that varied according to recruitment availability.

[6] Officers of all branches of the Army of Africa were predominantly French Europeans, though a certain number of commissioned positions up to and including the rank of captain were reserved for Muslim personnel in the spahis and tirailleurs.

Algerian tirailleur regiments were to be made up of roughly 50% "Frenchmen of North African stock" (i.e. Arab and Berber Muslims) and an equivalent number of French volunteers and conscripts, largely drawn from the European settler community.

Growing tensions within mixed units as the war continued, plus the threat of rebel FLN reprisals against Muslim volunteers, largely nullified this attempted reform.

In addition to the above, units or individuals from the mainland French Army were sometimes posted to service in North Africa, as were detachments of the Gendarmerie and the Tirailleurs Senegalais.

At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the Army of Africa in Algeria and Tunisia comprised nine regiments of Algerian Tirailleurs, four of zouaves, six of chasseurs d'Afrique, four of spahis and two of the Foreign Legion.

[a] On 22 April 1915 the first German use of chlorine gas on the Western Front was directed against the positions at Ypres occupied by the 45th Infantry Division (France), consisting of zouaves and Algerian tirailleurs.

General Maxime Weygand was however able to maintain and train a further 60,000 men in French North Africa disguised as auxiliary police, "provisional conscripts" and "unarmed workers".

North African units subsequently played a major role in the liberation of Corsica (September – October 1943) and the Italian Campaign (1943–44) in the French Expeditionary Corps.

[25] With Moroccan and Tunisian independence in 1956, the Muslim personnel of the tirailleur and spahi units recruited in both countries were incorporated into their new national armies.

Even the latter units were however distinguished by details such as sashes, white kepi covers and (for the chasseurs) fezzes which made them stand out from the remainder of the French Army.

The adoption of khaki uniforms, unlike the rest of the army who wore horizon blue was decided upon early during the First World War.