L'armee Cherifienne (Morocco)

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Sorry about the quality but you get the idea

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Amazing! Do you know the period of the pictures?

Abadu wrote:Amazing! Do you know the period of the pictures?

The French got into Morocco around 1905, and campaigned there pretty continuously since then. From 1905 to about 1914 it was big enough news to make the commericial b&w postcards you see above. Notice several show French advisors with the sultan's troops. The colored photos could be anytime from 1910 to even the 1950s. I think the ceremonial guard uniform stayed pretty much the same.

For the Riff War of the 1920s I haven't noticed nearly the same amount of commercial postcards being produced.

Great photos Sean,i believe the soldiers with the diamonds on their headgear are members of the Sultans bodyguard called the "Black Guard" , now the Royal Guard.This was the only nominally independent Moroccan unit the French allowed to exist.

Anyone know if during WW2 the red uniform was retained or was a colonial style khaki uniform worn?

I haven't been able to find any WW2 era "Black Guard " photos.

Ranjit.

I think Gen. George Patton, whose troops occupied Vichy Morocco in 1942, left a description of the sultan's guard in a letter to his wife. Perhaps check Carlo D'Este's biography.

Patton apparently did well in handling diplomatic relations with the French in Morocco, contrary to what might his popular image might suggest. He was actually quite the francophile, and in regard to the sultan's guard, he had an eye for colorful semi-barbaric soldiery that fit his romantic character.

Yes - didn't the film "Patton" have an early scene when the cavalry of the Sultan's Guard, splendid in red, ride in review past the general? It certainly set the tone for his love of military glory.

Part of the actual Moroccan Royal (formerly Sultan's) Guard was apparently used for this part of the shot-on-location film - which certainly made for more authenticity than employing extras on a back lot in Hollywood. A minor niggle, only noted by small minded pedants such as myself was that the Royal Guard officers wore the peaked caps of their post independence uniform and not the kepis of the French Protectorate era.

Borrowing or renting exotic foreign cavalry for appropriate epic scenes seems to have been a fairly common Hollywood practice in the 1950s and 60s (when both epic films and horse cavalry were more common than now). I think that the Spanish cavalry (especially Franco's Moorish Guard) were dressed up in period clothing to charge across sandy wastes in "El Cid", "Solomon and Sheba" and "The Ten Commandments". I might be wrong about the last named though - Pharaoh's army were mostly chariot mounted.

buistR wrote:Yes - didn't the film "Patton" have an early scene when the cavalry of the Sultan's Guard, splendid in red, ride in review past the general? It certainly set the tone for his love of military glory.

Part of the actual Moroccan Royal (formerly Sultan's) Guard was apparently used for this part of the shot-on-location film - which certainly made for more authenticity than employing extras on a back lot in Hollywood. A minor niggle, only noted by small minded pedants such as myself was that the Royal Guard officers wore the peaked caps of their post independence uniform and not the kepis of the French Protectorate era.

Borrowing or renting exotic foreign cavalry for appropriate epic scenes seems to have been a fairly common Hollywood practice in the 1950s and 60s (when both epic films and horse cavalry were more common than now). I think that the Spanish cavalry (especially Franco's Moorish Guard) were dressed up in period clothing to charge across sandy wastes in "El Cid", "Solomon and Sheba" and "The Ten Commandments". I might be wrong about the last named though - Pharaoh's army were mostly chariot mounted.

Correct. A very memorable scene along with introductory speech, and the movie depiction of the "Slapping incident". George C Scott did an AMAZING job playing Patton.