Landships II

huhncc · Major

French colonial artillery?

James H · Legend

I've only found this tiny reference in L&F Funcken.

	Collar Patch	Numbers	Braid
Field Artillery (mounted)	Scarlet	Sky blue	Sky blue
Foot Artillery	Scarlet	Green	Green
Heavy Artillery	Scarlet	Charcoal grey	Charcoal grey
Mountain Artillery	Scarlet	White	White
Colonial Artillery	Scarlet	Violet	Violet

That's it, I'm afraid. Nothing about organisation, deployment, guns, or anything. The collar patches were on the greatcoat and tunic, with regimental number and the appropriate symbol in the relevant contrasting colour, but there's no info on what the symbols were. Since all French colonial forces (except the Foreign Legion) adopted horizon blue in Europe, it's reasonable to assume that the artillery did so, but whether they remained separate units, I can't say.

Here's a bit more. If you can do a bit of French, these will help:

http://www.witzgilles.com/les_coloniaux_en_1914.htm

http://www.witzgilles.com/les_troupes_coloniales_casernement-1914.htm

http://www.rossignol.free.fr/3racc.htm

This has got some English explanation. It seems that Colonial Infantry and Artillery�comprised Europeans, whilst tirailleurs, spahis, etc were native.
http://home.comcast.net/~markconrad/FR1914.html#COLONIAL

Hope this helps.

-- Edited by James H at 13:20, 2007-09-09

huhncc · Major

Very helpful, thank you!

Trossknecht · Corporal

In the decade or so prior to World War I, the Troupes Coloniales fielded infantry and artillery regiments, as well as medical and administrative services, but neither engineer nor cavalry units.

The infantry regiments were either of the European (r�giments d'infanterie coloniale) or native (r�giments de tirailleurs) variety. The artillery regiments, which were entirely European, contained varied mixtures of field, mountan and garrison (i.e. coast defense or fortress) batteries.

Some of these regiments (both European and native) served overseas. Others (all of which were European) were assigned to the Corps d'Arm�e Coloniale, which served both as a strategic reserve for the French Empire as a whole and, in case of a European war, provided one of the component army corps of the French field army in France, as well as a variety of individual regimetns and brigades.

The Troupes Coloniales should not be confused with the Arm�e d'Afrique, which was raised and stationed in Algeria and Tunisia. Zouaves, spahis and 'turcos' (tirailleurs alg�riens) were part of the Arm�e d'Afrique. All other types of tirailleurs (tirailleurs s�n�galais, malgaches, etc.) were part of the Troupes Coloniales.

-- Edited by Trossknecht at 21:10, 2007-09-12

-- Edited by Trossknecht at 21:15, 2007-09-12