Mountain Warriors (book review)

Mountain Warriors

Moroccan Goums in WWII

By Edward L. Bimberg

Stackpole Books, PaperBack, 194 pages

ISBN 978-0-8117-3461-5 

Stackpole Books seem to have a business reprinting limited run or older, now out-of-print works. This particular book was first published in 1999 in hardback and is now quite expensive to get.

Regular readers of this blog will know I have a weakness for all things French and have done a fair amount of reading into the history of the French Protectorate in Morocco. I have also read quite a bit about the pacificacation period up into the mid-1930s, what happened during the early months of WW2 through the Vichy period and finally Operation Torch and the battles for Tunisia. So this book was right in my wheelhouse.

The author served in a anti-aircraft battalion during WW2 and first encountered Goumier in Corsica in January 1944, from this encounter grew his interest in those wild mountain men who fought for France from Tunisia to the final days of the war. This book is the results of his research and observations.

The book has six chapters plus some apendices and neatly covers what is after all a small group of soldiers and their part in a very big World War.

The first chapter covers the early years and formation of the Goums by the French as they tried to pacify the hostile tribes in Morocco, whilst I already knew a fair bit about this period it was an interesting read. This chapter covers the entire period from 1907 right up to the French surrender in 1940 and French attempts to hide equipment and personel from German and Italian armistice inspectors; this included large numbers of Goumier who continued to train in secret during the period 1941-42.

Next we jump to WW2 and much to the Germans surprise trained Goums took an active part in the fighting in Tunisia and once that was over GTMs (Groupe de Tabors Marocains) took part in the invasion of Sicily and Corsica.

The third chapter covers Italy and the hellish mountain fighting in which the tough Goumier proved up to the task and carried out amazing advances and attacks over the toughest terrain, gaining praise and respect from both ally and enemy! Goumier also took part in the invasion and conquest of Elba during this time. It was during their time in Italy that rumours and accusations about looting and rape began to surface and even the Pope demanded their withdrawal out of Europe! The French were quick to punish offenders and clamp down on the wild Moroccans but it tarnished their reputation forever.

After Italy and lots of political wrangling the Goumier next saw service in Southern France, initially due to trouble in Italy it was decided they should be kept out of cities, but this was quickly and quietly ignored by the French command and Goumiers took part in the bitter street fighting for Marseilles. Later they fought in the French Alps, then the Vosges and Alsace. Finally the German border, crossing the Rhine and through Germany to the Danube.

There is a short chapter about the post-war, wars of independence - Indo-China & Algeria. The apendices give some basic uniform and unit information.

Overall a good book on a little written about subject, though the author does become a little obsessed by the French commander - Lattre de Tassigny, but only because he was in overall command of the French forces including the GTMs. 

There are quite a few interesting game ideas to be gleaned from the text, I`m certainly toying with the idea of a game or two.

If I have one major criticism which did detract from the book as a whole it was some howling spelling errors, most obviously caused by whatever spellchecker the author used and not picked up in the proof reading - just awful 😡