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Very tall WW2 Arab soldier in Paris


Vincennes
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This weekend I bought 2 WW2 photo scrapbooks of a soldier stationed in the motor pool of the 262nd General Hospital in Panama. The vast majority of the photos are of Panama but he includes a few that he apparently got from friends stationed elsewhere. This is one of those photos.

 

Under the photo in the scrapbook is written: "Bob Hubbard in France". On the back of the photo is written: "Some Arabs we cornered down town. Note that tall bastard on the left".

 

I thought this was a good photo to illustrate the uniforms of the Arab soldiers. Anybody know what country they represented? On the building in the background can be read "Hotel de la Marne".

 

Paul

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Bonsoir,

 

According to the DI (a Koumia, traditional knife) worn by the soldier between the two GI's, these arabs goumiers soldiers are from Maroco and assigned to the Goum maraocain mixte (GMM). A Goum is a 200 men strength unit not far from a company organization. Hidden as a police unit after the 1940 defeat, 4 Groups and more than 10 companies were trained by general Guillaume. Since 1943, led by french officers, they fought from Italy to Germany.

Hope my two cents could help you

Cheers

Valery

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  • 1 month later...
Manchu Warrior

There is actually a movie that tells the story of the North Africans who fought for France during WWII. The name of the movie is "Days of Glory." The movie did less then $400,000 at the US box office so it not very well known. I found the movie when I was in Best Buy looking for a war movie that I had never seen and I picked this one because it was cheap. I did not even know what it was about until I started to watch it. At first I was disappointed when I realized it was not an American movie and I honestly thought that I had wasted my money. That is until I actually sat and watched the movie. I will have to say I was pleasantly surprised because it is a well made war movie that tells a very interesting WWII story that not many people, including myself, know about. So, I would recommend this movie to anyone that enjoys a good war movie. thumbsup.gif

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