uniforms of goums

I would like to know about the uniforms that were worn by the morocan goumiers under french service in late ww2 and Indochina as well.

I know that the stripes of the djellaba varied from goum to goum.

I will apreciate info regarding this subject.

Thanks in advance

Pedro

Hello Pedro - the section on this website dealing with colonial uniforms has a closeup photo of several goumiers in 1943 which illustrates their clothing clearly. The most distinctive feature of their uniform in both WW II and Indochina was of course the djellaba - the long hooded coat based on Moroccan tribal dress. According to the French military history magazine Militaria (issue 177) the djellaba had vertical stripes in brown, black, grey and white. The goumiers were not part of the regular French Army of Africa but nominally came under the command of the Sultan of Morocco and were employed in peacetime as a form of rural armed police. This did not prevent the French Army from making extensive use of the goumiers from 1908 on during the original occupation of Morocco, the Riff War of the 1920s, the Italian Campaign of WWII and finally in Indochina until 1954. As irregular troops, each goum (a company of 161 Moroccan other ranks with three French officers and nine French or indigenous sous-officiers) was largely responsible for its own administration including obtaining its own djellabas from different local sources. Accordingly details such as the width of the stripes, the combination of colours and even the cut of the djellaba might vary from goum to goum - although the photographs in the Miiitaria article indicate that the dress was generally uniform within each unit.

Hope this helps.