Battlefields and Soldiers of my Family and my Tribe Soldiers: Rest in Peace and Clemency

Initially published 11 – 10 – 2018 – Version Française: Fes ★ Verdun ★ Monte Cassino ★ Diên Biên Phu

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Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Direction connection with the Veteran Environment:

Members of my American and Moroccan Families were enlisted in the Navy and the Army since 1900 to the present.

Melvin Hermsmeyer, a Member of my Family and heritage in America, was a Naval Dental Officer during the Second World War on the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.  He was launched his Navy Career as Naval ROTC in Nebraska and the V-12 Navy College Training Program that was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II.  

On the Veterans Day, I honor and address for Mel Hermesmeyer along with the Members of my Moroccan Veteran family and for the rest of all the Veterans a prayer for their resting in peace in the beatitude of the Eden and the Clemency of the Great Creator, Amen.

In fact my Maternal Grand-Father was a Captain in the French Colonial Army, the famous Elite of the Tabors Tirailleurs Marocains, distinguished Moroccan Tabors during the First World War and the Second World War in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany. 

In addition, two of my Maternal Uncles were respectively in Monte Cassino in Italy during the Second World War and in Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu [Chiến dịch Điện Biên Phủ – Mar 13, 1954 – May 7, 1954] during the French presence in Vietnam.

North Morocco ★ France – Verdun ★ Italy – Monte Cassino ★ Indochina – Diên Biên Phu

Battlefields for Soldiers of My Own Family and my Own Tribe

As I continue to work in the promotion of France [with a critical sense] here and everywhere else where I am, since France is part of my own history and that of my close ancestors:

Rahma wa Ghofrane fi Firdousse Naim, Men of great value were consumed by these useless wars including my own members of my family, my tribe, my city and my country of birth to speak only of those I have known and known directly and who carried me in their arms and hugged me in their arms as they carried their guns, either a single bullet Moukhala bi Daka wahda or 5 bullets, Kmassiya.

They walked the same ground, fought against the invisible and continued their lives fighting the ghosts of these same invisible to others while they knew who to answer to, it was those who despite themselves had become by fate and the fury of the fights, become their next-door neighbors in martial memory, comrades in the trenches and their comrades in the rocks of the mountains like their comrades in the jungle and the forests and the waves of the oceans, neighbors who were never going to move from their deep memory. Those who were taken hostage by the dense vegetation or by the hollow mountains and gutted by the bombardments, which swallowed them up never to return them.

Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci, volunteer and quoted on the Verdun Golden Book

Corporal Abderrahman Ben Ali decorated at the Battle for Rome and the Battle of Monte  Cassino in Italy

Sergeant Mohamed El Fetnassi, last fight in the Battle of  Diên Biên Phu , Vietnam

The Ait Youssi and the Ait  Seghrouchen at the gates of Fez

Our Berber and Amazigh tribes, first of my own ancestral family were at the gate of Fez when Moulay Hafid fought his brother Moulay Abdelazziz. These same tribes were engaged by the Makhzen, against the Makhzen and for the defense of the Makhzen during the time of uncertainty of Morocco falling under the yoke of the European imperialists, first France and Spain who presented themselves as the protectors of the throne by playing on the rivalry between Fes and Marrakech and the two brothers who have become rivals for the control of central power, namely Moulay Abdelazziz and Moulay Hafid.

In reality, these tribes were fighting for the preservation of the power of the Sultan and against foreign interventions and schemes in which they identified a challenge to their tribal existence and a threat to their traditional existence.

These same tribes could take power but their loyalty to the Alaouite Regime as such prevented them and they were promised AMANE TAM, a notion that the Kings of Morocco respected since the advent of the Idrissides and their alliances with the Berbers of the Region of Zerhoun, from Sefrou, Fes and Mekness and Marrakech and south of the Sahara including Mauretania, the cradle of the Moors.

It is this AMANE TAM that the Intelligence Services of the French Armies had understood the social and spiritual scope and used it wisely to rally the Chiefs of the Berber Tribes to the Cause of the Protective Modernization of the New French Administration conveyed by Marshal Lyautey first and his other front generals fighting against the Berber and Regional resistance in Morocco.

Fifth Column of the Glaoui and French Protectorat in Morocco

Madani Glaoui, the Big Brother of Thami El Glaoui in southern Morocco was also the beneficiary of AMANE TAM granted by Moulay Hassan Premier and who started the rise to power of the Glaoua in Moroccan History before and during the French Protectorate in Morocco. Lyautey confirmed this Protection of Glaoua by decorating Madani Glaoui, despite his first nationalist upheavals and his support for Moulay Abdelaziz. Read more a French version on the Glaoui Rise to Power

Lyautey having understood the challenge and the strategic importance of the Glaoua tribe in the pacification of the South and the roads to the Sahara and south-eastern Morocco, he opted for the integration of the Glaoua tribe under the tutelage of the young Madani’s brother, Thami Glaoui who was notably designated later installed in Marrakech by the administration of the French Protectorate as the Pasha and the defender of France in the South of Morocco.

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The Great War of 14-18 – A hundred years later

Said El Mansour Cherkaoui 11 – 11 – 2018

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★★ The Great War of 1914-18 One hundred years later ★★

This article is a testimony and a tribute honoring the memory of all those on both sides of the trenches and barricades and those of all nationalities who served their military commitment with dignity and honor and loyalty during the First and Second World War and all the conflicts and confrontations that have bled in Africa and the rest of the world for which we pray that their souls finally rest in peace in the bliss of eternal Eden.

This writing is transcribed to mark 100 years of the commitment of our GrandPa in the Moroccan Tabors. Likewise to present the military destiny of my Berber maternal family such as my two uncles wounded on the fronts of Monte Cassino and Dien Bien Phu who all come from naturally fighting tribes, the battles for them was like going fishing or hunting, a way of living with. …. Read more on this

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“On the French front and that of the Orient, Moroccan skirmishers and spahis play a major role during numerous offensives, making them combatants recognized for their bravery and their loyalty to France.  Several great feats of arms are due to them, in particular the retaking of Fort Douaumont, near Verdun, in October 1916.

Moroccan Tirailleurs of 1914: The Great War of 1914-18 One Hundred Years Later

Having proven himself as a Great Warrior in the resistance of the Eastern Region and Taza – Guercif, joined the encirclement of Fes by the Confederations of Ait Youssi and Seghrouchen

Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci of the Moroccan Tabors – At the end of the Great War, appointed as Caïd of the Doukkala Region – Morocco

★ My Grand Father Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci of the Moroccan Tabors Leading the surviving soldiers of this Fighters ★

Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci in the Foreground of the Parade of the Commemoration of the Armistice of the First World War of 1914

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Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci was injured in the head by shrapnel at trenches in Chantilly.

In the front row to the right of the parade is Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci of the Moroccan Tabors of the Great War 1914-18. The followers are the suviving Soldiers who were under his command. This photo of Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci was taken during the Celebration of the Armistice in Paris in 1924-25 with the survivors of all the French Armies having fought in this war.

For all the Veterans, I address a prayer for  their resting in peace in the beatitude of the Eden and the clemency of the Great Creator, Amen.

A Direct Member of my Maternal Ancestral Family 

★★★★★ Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci ★★★★★ 

Captain Driss Ben Abdellah Guerci, was part of the Moroccan Tabors at Chantilly and Verdun.  His name is listed in the Golden Book of Verdun given his combat prowess under the orders of Marshal Pétain.  A narration of the accounts of the deadly clashes coupled with acts of bravery and sacrifice of the troops of the Moroccan Tabors / also designated as worthy by one of the combatants who trained in Morocco and had identified himself in the spirit and the soul of these Moroccan fighters who gave their lives to a country who in reality, the major part of their contingents did not even know where geographically it was located and physically where it existed. They did not know either why this Great War had broken out and the reason for its persistence in human tearing and suffering without national borders.

The Moroccan Tabors also did not know the origin of their adversaries, nor their reasons for fighting the French Army, all that was present in their minds was the devotion to their direct military leaders and to this notion of the France as support for the King left behind in Morocco, which has become distant in their memories as in their daily experience, now nourished by the fire and blood of the hills of the Marne and the trenches of this war without face or soul and which cut through all social and religious affiliation and national to impose an esprit de corps and a solidarity of fights without fault:

Marshal June: The Moroccan Brigade at the Battle of the Marne – 6th Army – September 6, 1914

Marshal June: The Moroccan Brigade at the Battle of the Marne – 6th Army – September 6, 1914

 As a battle begins on which the fate of the country depends, it is important to remind everyone that the time is no longer to look back; every effort must be made to attack and drive back the enemy. A troop that can no longer advance must, at all costs, keep the conquered ground and be killed on the spot rather than retreat. Under the current circumstances, no failure can be tolerated. ” 

The two regiments of the so-called “native hunters on foot” brigade, formed under the designation of “Moroccan auxiliary troops” came from the tabors, the first elements of the Royal Army, which Sultan Mouley Hafid had sought to form in Fez. after dethroning his younger brother Abd el-Aziz. All of these forces had been entrusted to a French military mission for its supervision and training. This mission was led by Colonel Mangin, who should not be confused with his namesake of the same rank, already famous in Morocco as the winner of El-Hiba in Sidi ben Othman and the liberator of Marrakech in 1912.Source: August 1914 – Operating in Morocco, the Brigade of Indigenous Troops to which Lieutenant June belongs, is called to France. …Keep reading …

These tabors had been employed around Fez, under the control of the French supervisory mission, to collect taxes from the Guich tribes (Guich tribes exempt from the payment of tax (tertib) on condition of responding to any order of mobilization on simple appeal of the sovereign.)). These had, as one can imagine, very badly received the collectors. For some time, in fact, Moulay Hafid, who had serious money worries, was not sorry to see that the subsidy promised by our government from the opening of negotiations relating to the conclusion of a French protectorate treaty, was taking time. to be formalized. Also, Mr. Gaillard, our consular agent in Fez, tired of repeating that the delay was attributable to the French Parliament, ended up suggesting to the sultan the idea of ​​a temporary tax levied on the Guich tribes, who had magnificent harvests that year. It was unfortunately to make cheap of an old right of immemorial foundation, and the collectors (column Brémond) who did not have the light hand, were accomodated with rifle shots, so that the country was soon put on fire and in blood.

It would have been better, without question, to grant our financial assistance without further discussion, but this way of proceeding had not yet become part of our habits. The result was the return of General Moinier’s column, recalled at great expense from the Atlantic coast, from Chaouïa and the region of Rabat, to bring order to the region of Fez.

In addition to the reactions of the Guich tribes, this region was also disturbed by the arrival of Berbers from the surrounding mountains, invincibly attracted by this disorder. We also had to reckon with the more or less disguised hostility of the tabors of the Royal Army to training, long subjected to unrestrained anti-French propaganda, directed by the Palace and the bourgeois elements of the population, to obstruct the signing of the protectorate treaty. Actively maintained by the prostitutes of the district of Moulay Abd Allah (reserved district of Fez within the walls of the imperial city), this propaganda had succeeded in provoking, in 1912, an insurrection of the tabors who massacred some of their executives.

The timely arrival of the Moinier column and its installation at the Dar Debibagh camp, overlooking the city of Fez, had restored order and enabled the rioters to regain control. These had then been reorganized by Colonel Pellé under the name of Moroccan auxiliary troops. We had formed 5 battalions, two in operations in Taza with Gouraud and three under the command of General Henrys to operate among the Zoïans, in the Middle Atlas, after having reinforced their supervision. This consisted of French officers and Algerian Tunisian and Moroccan non-commissioned officers, the latter following a special hierarchy: Khalifa or Caïd mia (centurions) having the rank of officer in the Moroccan royal army; mokhadem (non-commissioned officer) and maoun (corporal). Source: August 1914 – Operating in Morocco, the Brigade of Indigenous Troops to which Lieutenant June belongs, is called to France. …Keep reading …

The Moroccan Brigade, the last element of infantry to the south of the Army of Paris, was to cover the movement by going from Saint-Mesmes to Villeroy, then to Neufmontiers, under the protection of the vanguard (2nd regiment of native hunters walk). On September 5, therefore, it was only a question of setting to work in view of the decisive action envisaged for the following day. …. Keep reading….

Of the 5,000 fighters it had at the Marne, there were barely 700 left, counting the officers and men of the services. It was then dissolved, its two regiments merged into one of two small battalions of which Commander Poeymirau was the leader. This one was going, a few weeks later, by receiving his fifth stripe, to begin the brilliant career of the first regiment of Moroccan Tirailleurs, worthy heir of the first tabor of the Royal Army of Sultan Moulay Hafid, the only Moroccan regiment to wear on its flag the inscription of the victory of the Marne.Marshal June of the French Academy: THE MOROCCAN BRIGADE AT THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE ★ THE MOROCCAN BRIGADE FROM SEPTEMBER 1 ^to  17, 1914 ★ SENLIS, SEPTEMBER 1 AND 2, 1914

On December 10, M. Millerand, Minister of War, in transmitting to General Lyautey a special report from General Maunoury praising the Moroccan auxiliary troops, joined his congratulations to those of the commander of the Sixth Army and expressed himself thus: Disciplined in fire as in manoeuvre, ardent in attack, tenacious in defending their positions to the point of sacrifice, withstanding the rigors of the northern climate beyond all anticipation, they give indisputable proof of their warlike value. Such qualities place them definitely on the same rank as our best troops in Africa and make them worthy of fighting alongside French troops. ” Marshal June of the French Academy: THE MOROCCAN BRIGADE AT THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE ★ THE MOROCCAN BRIGADE FROM SEPTEMBER 1 ^TO  17, 1914★SENLIS, SEPTEMBER 1 AND 2, 1914

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My trusty 425 couldn’t help saying in passing:

-Ya Khouïa chouf hadak zouave. Meskine, ya latif (Oh! my brother, look at this unfortunate Zouave. What misfortune!).

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Said El Mansour Cherkaoui 11 – 11 – 2018

At the start of the Great War, the French army needed soldiers. She wants to involve Morocco, under French protectorate since 1912. For Resident General Lyautey, this is a strategic challenge: Morocco has not yet been fully pacified, it needs to maintain a military force on square. Who are the men sent to fight in France in 1914? 

1914 – 1918 One Hundred Years Already

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Abdelkebir Khattabi of the Rif was the other Hero this time of the armed struggle for the independence of Morocco against the Spanish occupants (Silvestre, Primo de Rivera and Franco) and their allies (Lyautey and Pétain), he also deposed the weapons in the face of the massacre of his tribes by chemical and gas bombs and also he was offered AMAN TAM.

One of the descendants of this line of military engagement with the former adversary was Meziane son of Nador who joined the Spanish Military Academy in 1913 (the only Moroccan to become a General in the Spanish Army and the only Moroccan to have had the rank of Marshal in the Moroccan Army) is the most famous of these Moroccan soldiers having respected the AMAN TAM which was granted to his Father, Tribal Chief of the Ben Ensar of the Rif. Ameziane had even fought Adelkrim Khattabi and that alongside the Spanish troops.

In the same perspective concerning the rallying of the Berber tribes to the European occupier, the Personal Guard of Franco and that until his death was entirely made up of Moroccans who had fought with him and against him in the Rif, the allied tribes of Abdelkrim Khattabi .

This shows how loyalty to AMANE TAM can lead to blindness but not to ignorance.

Ultimately, these Berber fighters who fought for the safeguard of the Makhzen Alaouite regime and the independence of Morocco, even if they were not strong in geography or in geo-political strategy, they knew very well what was happening in the World of their entourage and the one who wanted to engage them and that for a just cause and it is the same ones who joined the French and Spanish Armies as Loyal defenders of the integrity of their personality, their words given and the brave reputation of their tribes and also in some cases as a response to the appeals of the Moroccan Kings whose help and commitment they sought.

The latest in this line of feats of arms was the call launched by Sidi Mohamed V for Moroccans to join the French Armies to liberate Europe from Nazism.

The Members of my Family both during the War of 1914 or that of the 1940s and that of Vietnam responded to these conditions and knew what they were doing in all conscience.

Morocco Direct Involvement at the Great First World War, the Spanish and French Colonial Wars, the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War and the Indochina War

From Ouled – Sons of Ait Youssi, Ouled – Sons of Guerci de l’Atlas to Ouled – Son of Beni Sbai and Ouled – Son Fetnassa to Doukkala

Morocco and the Wars of the Twentieth Century (World War I, World War II and the Indochina War)

The Members of My Family were “voluntary” recruits lent by their parents as a pledge of loyalty to France. They belonged to families of notables, warlords and nobles and therefore had no need to join the French Army for pay; which is why they had chosen to fight the Enemy of France and knew what was happening and had devoted their lives for such a purpose.

Wounded in the right hand on the Monte Cassino mountain in Italy: My Uncle Abderrahman Ben Sidi Ali ben Moumen.

The legend mixed with our Family History wants that my Uncle Abderrahman descended from a line of Fakihs (Savant Theologian and Man Devoted to Prayer and to the Safeguarding of the Muslim Religion in Morocco). My ancestors are buried in the region of Had Ouled Frej, one of whom is considered a Marabout / Saint with his own lodge and brotherhood as well as followers of his own orientation, the Tarika.

According to the warrior practice of our Berber tribes, it seems that my Uncle’s Father had written a Talisman and had put it in a gold case in order to maintain the validity and effectiveness of his writing during the crossing of the seas and the oceans.  This Traditional Talisman was called “Tbared”.  Tbared was sort of a name derived from the designation “cooling” which symbolizes the cooling and neutralization of the Baroud / the powder filling the bullets and projectiles. Thus, the effect and the reason was to protect my Uncle Abderrahman from the shots of other soldiers, whether from his own unit or from the adversary on the battlefields. Unfortunately, in the heat of the battles where she was decorated,

My Uncle was explaining how his hand caught a bullet / projectile that was going straight to his head and he was not wearing a helmet, only turbans. Since then, he could no longer move 3 of the fingers of his right hand. My Uncle Abderrahman said that thanks to the Baraka of our ancestors, he saw the ball coming towards him so he was climbing the rocks of Monte-Cassino and he added, which did not prevent him from continuing his walk with the rest of his unit to Rome. Despite his injury, he must subsequently be assigned to the supervision of soldiers from Chaouia, Abda and Doukkala, soldiers who shared the same regional, cultural framework and the same solidarity since they used the same jargon and the same tribal traditions.

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Monte-Cassino One of the Battle by my Maternal Uncle where he said that it was the place for Moroccans, French and Americans to build mutual respect based on Fraternity in Combat as in the Recovery of the Wounded and Burring the Deaths

Ironically, Cassino’s hellish no-man’s land was dominated by a towering hill that had served as a bastion of religious tranquility for nearly 1,500 years. The heights of Monte Cassino, which rose about 1,600 feet above the valley, commanded the city to the west. The mountain was crowned by the Abbey of Monte Cassino, whose gleaming travertine walls, 10 feet thick, could be seen by troops miles away.

In the winter of 1944, the abbey occupied the most strategically valuable real estate in Italy. Despite its military potential, the magnificent monastery’s seven acres were considered off-limits to Allied and Axis forces. Both sides adhered to an interim policy, subject to military necessity, of preserving artistic and cultural sites in Italy.

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To block the Allied road to Rome, Kesselring ordered the construction of a seemingly impregnable defensive position. It stretched 100 miles from the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west to the Adriatic Sea in the east. Named the Gustav Line, the fortified network bristled with thousands of artillery pieces, mortars, machine gun nests, bunkers and minefields. The fieldwork, arranged in several mutually supporting lines to maintain a defense in depth, was an impressive display of German military genius.

Perhaps most importantly, Kesselring had 20 divisions at its disposal which included infantry, panzer, panzergrenadier and airborne units. Although many units were reinforced with foreign conscripts, Kesselring’s forces possessed a hard core of German veterans who were fiercely determined to keep the Allies out of the homeland.

As the Allied High Command planned to break through the Gustav Line, they hoped that the worst of the terrain could simply be circumvented. Largely due to Churchill’s prompting, the Allies planned a full-scale amphibious landing at Anzio, well behind German lines. Coupled with a direct thrust on the German positions by Clark’s main body of troops, it was hoped that the Anzio landings would quickly detach the German defenders from the Gustav Line.

American and French colonial troops advance cautiously through a village destroyed by the Luftwaffe. French Goumiers, largely from Morocco and Algeria, were experienced mountain fighters.

American and French colonial troops / Moroccan – Algerian – Tunisian – Senegal advanced cautiously through a village destroyed by the Luftwaffe. 

French Goumiers, largely from Morocco and Algeria, were experienced mountain fighters.

In preparation for the landing, Alexander and Clark sketched out an operation against enemy positions opposite the Fifth Army. Rather than directly assaulting Cassino and the formidable heights behind the town, the Allied forces would execute a broad pincer movement designed to envelop the position. North of the town, General Alphonse Juin’s French expeditionary force pushed into the mountains before heading south behind the town and the abbey. On the left, the British X Corps would cross the Garigliano River and seize the heights beyond. South of Cassino, the US 36th Division would attack across the Rapido and attack the German center.

Late in the evening of January 11, 1944, June’s troops moved into their assault positions. The fiery Frenchman, an experienced veteran and skilled tactician, led a colorful corps of colonial troops renowned for their impetuous ferocity. Drawn primarily from French possessions in North Africa, the troops of the French Expeditionary Force were considered ill-disciplined but well suited to the rigors of mountain fighting. The Goumiers were descendants of a fierce martial tradition in Arab and Berber culture, and they waged war on their own terms.

Battle of Monte Cassino – Monte Cassino in Ruin

The bombing of Cassino Monastery and town, May 1944, by Peter McIntryre, an official Second World War artist. (Wikimedia Commons/Archives New Zealand)

Lieutenant Mehdi El Mezouari El Glaoui, the son of Pasha Thami El Mezouari El Glaoui met death on Mount Cassino amid a loss of allied forces amounting to 65,000 soldiers who fell in this battlefield which later many considered the capture of Monte Cassino as a battle that was not necessary given the number of human losses caused on both sides of the combatants and in the Italian civilian population.

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View of the rebuilt Monte Cassino Abbey. (Wikimedia Commons)

The bombing of Cassino Monastery and town, May 1944, by Peter McIntryre, an official Second World War artist. (Wikimedia Commons/Archives New Zealand)

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Translated by Said El Mansour Cherkaoui from this Source: Joshua Shepherd : Battle for Monte Cassino: Hell on a Mountaintop – The Battle of Monte Cassino reached a crescendo in May 1944 as the Allies desperately sought to carry the position held by crack German paratroopers .

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★ Indochina ★ Vietnam ★ Diên Biên Phu ★

 My Second Uncle Mohammed Fetnassi ould Caid volantaire on the shores of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu.

@  Said El Mansour Cherkaoui  ★ 12/11/2020

Said El Mansour Cherkaoui – Said El Mansour Cherkaoui – All Rights Reserved 11/11/2018 – Text, Analysis and Photos by Lyautey and History of Morocco