On August 26, 1944, the Allies held a grand military parade on the Champs Elysées to commemorate the liberation of Paris. But before the Americans put forward a condition: if General de Gaulle wanted the French soldiers to be at the forefront of the parade, then the Free French troops he led must ensure that there were no black officers and men in the queue. This was not easy, as almost two-thirds of the Free French troops led by de Gaulle were recruited from French colonies. But the US side is resolute.
During World War II, about 100,000 African Americans served in the U.S. military. The World War II Museum in New Orleans told visitors in a new exhibition called "The Fight for the Right to Fight" that they had to fight not only the German and Japanese armies, but also the prejudice, discrimination and humiliation at home.
The exhibition includes interviews with 10 African-American veterans. One of them is Rothatch Smith from Alabama. He was conscripted into the 92nd Infantry Division and trained as a hygienist. When he returned home from a military barracks in Georgia to visit relatives, he was often the only black man on the bus. During the trip, he was ordered to sit in the middle of the luggage behind the back seat.
Later, Smith was stationed in southern Italy, tasked with guarding the airport. Many obscure posts far from the battlefield were assigned to black officers and men. But the high casualty rate on the front line has prompted more and more African-Americans to come to the front. Smith was thus assigned to a machine gun squad stationed in northern Italy.
The famous shooter game Battlefield 5 opens with the negro legion of Senegal. The Black Regiment of Senegal was formed as early as 1857. In the early years, the French colonies lacked enough soldiers to organize them to assist in the colony's rule. Some were trafficked by black slaves, and some were recruited or joined voluntarily by locals.
The most typical feature is the cylindrical velvet hat they wear on weekdays. They were drafted by the French to participate in the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, and World War II. They were given Adrian helmets during the First World War.
Regarding the film about the French colonial corps, the more famous one is "Glorious Years". However, unlike the black regiment of Senegal depicted in the game, Glory Years is about the Muslim colonial corps of Morocco. But it doesn't matter if you're black or Muslim. The French army simply and rudely put them into a category, indigenous people. The motives of these foreign soldiers for joining the French army were also different, and some really wanted to fight for France. But there are also many soldiers who go with the idea of eating mixed food and making some money. Because in their African homeland, many people are really poor in their daily lives, and joining the French army can effectively improve the living conditions of him and their families. More importantly, the French drew a big pie for them, telling them that after joining the corps to fight, they could get a pension when they retired. The French army, on the other hand, was holding on to getting some people from these colonies to make up for the shortage of soldiers, and it was better to treat them than not to have a good attitude.
These foreign soldiers are undertrained and poorly armed. And, as shown in the games and movies, they charged with ordinary French soldiers in battle, risking the same danger to fight for France. However, he was discriminated against by the French army. In addition to weapons and ammunition, even food is not fairly supplied. The French army believed that these soldiers from Africa must have poor combat ability, and they arranged some logistics, excavation and other chores on weekdays.
These foreign legions, especially the black soldiers, were treated unfairly by their own people and suffered "special treatment" from the enemy. Ordinary French soldiers were captured and had a chance to survive, while black soldiers, once captured, were summarily executed on the grounds of "inferior peoples" because of nazi racist policies.
One of them, a black soldier named Leopold Senghor, joined the colonial infantry division and was captured during the engagement with the Germans. As he and his comrades were about to be executed by the Germans, they chanted "Long live France, long live black Africans!" This startled the German soldiers, and a French official told the Germans that you, believing yourself to be of the noble Aryan race, had no honor in executing the so-called inferior race. In this way, this group of black soldiers escaped the execution of the German army and was sent to a concentration camp. The black soldier of Sanger survived and became the founding president of the Republic of Senegal after the war.
These soldiers from Africa, at a higher risk than ordinary French soldiers, went to the so-called "homeland" they had never seen before to fight. In World War I, France invested hundreds of Senegalese battalions, they participated in many French battles, and even followed the British to participate in the Gallipoli War. Moreover, the combat performance is extremely outstanding.
Colonial infantry, including the Senegalese Black Corps, paid a great contribution and price for the liberation of France in World War II. In the extremely harsh conditions of the war, some ordinary French soldiers were demoralized, and they also maintained a high morale.
On August 25, 1944, Paris was restored. However, on the eve of liberation, the French army saw that the overall situation had been decided, and sent a large number of foreign soldiers, including black soldiers, back to the colony. They paid with their lives for the liberation of France without receiving the reward they deserved. Even france deliberately suppressed the merits of these colonial soldiers.
The big cakes painted for them before, such as getting pensions and other benefits. In the blink of an eye, it was routined by France. The pension policy given by France is calculated according to the average consumption level of the country where the soldier was born and where he lives.
At a glance, you can see that the consumption level of Senegal in Africa and Paris in France can be the same? And these African colonial soldiers and ordinary French soldiers took the same risks, but even higher.
November 30, 1944. Discontent erupted among the black Senegalese soldiers who had been sent home, and they broke out in a rebellion in the Tiaroye camp on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal. French soldiers guarding the camp opened fire on the blacks, killing 35 black soldiers. The massacre attracted the attention of de Gaulle's provisional government, which quickly adopted safeguard measures and compensated for the arrears of wages, which calmed the discontent of the colonial soldiers.
But after the war, many Frenchmen still believed that these black colonial soldiers were already restless, and thought that these rebellions were planned by the German army to undermine French loyalty in the African colonies.
Later, the Senegalese writer and filmmaker, Uzman Semban, made a film for the massacre of Tia Royer and was banned by France for more than a decade. It was not until 2007 that France reopened the issue. And compensation was given. While the final outcome may have been good, it came too late.