No Syrian/Lebanese colonial troops in Europe?

[Texas Jäger]

All the French colonial units I can find that served in North Africa, Italy and Western Europe were either North or Sub-Saharan Africans, I cant find any Levantine or Indochinese troops/units. Was there any and I’m just missing them?

[Loïc]

Syria and Lebanon were SDN Mandates an intermediate special status under French protectorate leading both countries to the Independance (proclamed in Lebanon the 22nd november 1943 declaring officially war to Germany the 27th february 1945, Syria did it the previous day)

The Syrian and Lebanese soldiers, serving in the ranks of units in Europe, it was only at individual level as e.g. in the Free French 13rd Engineers Battalion 2e DB or others units, not at all in any specific Levantine special troops/units raised for the Mandate and who became the nucleus of Libanese and Syrian Armies

For Indochinese
first the Empire needed them more in Indochina than in Europe, the Metropolitan authorities had planned to raise from Indochina in 1939 2 or 3 unrealistic expeditionnary Divisions for France and Syria-Lebanon and 100 000 civilian workers more for metropolitan factories

second due to their physical stature and others colonial considerations traditionnally they were not viewed as good fighters and recruits for first line combat units in Europe in both World Wars, a negative opinion of their military values cruelly confirmed in 1940 when even a battalion supposed to be recruited from warlike ethnic group has deeply disappointed in Langson in september 1940 when at the first fight against the Japanese such whole battalion of Thô Tonkinese mountaineers perceveid as the best indigenous soldiers of Indochina runned away quickly leaving the Europeans units...

however Indochinese were better considered for specialized tasks and technical units that allow to recover Europeans combattants soldiers from such units (drivers, nurses, Ordnance, Quatermaster services)

in 1939-1940 in Metropolitan France it existed only a small Indochinese combat unit the half-thousand Indochine 52nd Machine-Gun Colonial Battalion merged at the Mobilisation within a 52nd Machine-Gun Colonial Half-Brigade (20% Indochinese 80% French Pyrenean and southwestern reservists) reduced to a battalion by the campaign the remnants formed a 55e BMIC in june 1940

so as said instead of combat units in France they joined rather Army auxiliaries and services units to not say only civilian labour companies
because actually most numerous were the Indochinese civilian workers mobilised gathered into 73 "companies" of the 5 Indochinese workers "Legions"
as military it existed around 40 following units in 1940
20 Indochinese auxiliaries companies for Quatermaster's Army Field Bakeries
16 Indochinese anti-aircraft machine-gun groups
one company and one Labour Battalion with military status
also some others Indochinese in Ordnance/Artillery services
2 Pioneer Battalions and nurses but for Levant

due to the International wartime situation, the British blockade, Japanese aggression, breakdown of communications between France and Indochina these men had to remain in France after the Armistice throughout the war, gathered into Colonial Military Repatriables Indigenous Militaires Indigènes Coloniaux Rapatriables (MICR) Groupements and companies in southern France,
after the landing in Provence in august 1944 they formed 2 Colonial Labour Battalions of the French Army : 1st Annamite and 3rd Indochinese Colonial Workers Battalions

[wwilson]

Loïc,

Great detail in your comments. Thank you!

[Texas Jäger]

Syria and Lebanon were SDN Mandates an intermediate special status under French protectorate leading both countries to the Independance (proclamed in Lebanon the 22nd november 1943 declaring officially war to Germany the 27th february 1945, Syria did it the previous day)

The Syrian and Lebanese soldiers, serving in the ranks of units in Europe, it was only at individual level as e.g. in the Free French 13rd Engineers Battalion 2e DB or others units, not at all in any specific Levantine special troops/units raised for the Mandate and who became the nucleus of Libanese and Syrian Armies

For Indochinese
first the Empire needed them more in Indochina than in Europe, the Metropolitan authorities had planned to raise from Indochina in 1939 2 or 3 unrealistic expeditionnary Divisions for France and Syria-Lebanon and 100 000 civilian workers more for metropolitan factories

second due to their physical stature and others colonial considerations traditionnally they were not viewed as good fighters and recruits for first line combat units in Europe in both World Wars, a negative opinion of their military values cruelly confirmed in 1940 when even a battalion supposed to be recruited from warlike ethnic group has deeply disappointed in Langson in september 1940 when at the first fight against the Japanese such whole battalion of Thô Tonkinese mountaineers perceveid as the best indigenous soldiers of Indochina runned away quickly leaving the Europeans units...

however Indochinese were better considered for specialized tasks and technical units that allow to recover Europeans combattants soldiers from such units (drivers, nurses, Ordnance, Quatermaster services)

in 1939-1940 in Metropolitan France it existed only a small Indochinese combat unit the half-thousand Indochine 52nd Machine-Gun Colonial Battalion merged at the Mobilisation within a 52nd Machine-Gun Colonial Half-Brigade (20% Indochinese 80% French Pyrenean and southwestern reservists) reduced to a battalion by the campaign the remnants formed a 55e BMIC in june 1940

so as said instead of combat units in France they joined rather Army auxiliaries and services units to not say only civilian labour companies
because actually most numerous were the Indochinese civilian workers mobilised gathered into 73 "companies" of the 5 Indochinese workers "Legions"
as military it existed around 40 following units in 1940
20 Indochinese auxiliaries companies for Quatermaster's Army Field Bakeries
16 Indochinese anti-aircraft machine-gun groups
one company and one Labour Battalion with military status
also some others Indochinese in Ordnance/Artillery services
2 Pioneer Battalions and nurses but for Levant

due to the International wartime situation, the British blockade, Japanese aggression, breakdown of communications between France and Indochina these men had to remain in France after the Armistice throughout the war, gathered into Colonial Military Repatriables Indigenous Militaires Indigènes Coloniaux Rapatriables (MICR) Groupements and companies in southern France,
after the landing in Provence in august 1944 they formed 2 Colonial Labour Battalions of the French Army : 1st Annamite and 3rd Indochinese Colonial Workers Battalions

Thanks for the detailed answer Loïc. So there wasn't any specific units raised for them but they were actively recruited into the French Army, was it just happen stance where they ended up then, like how the French 2nd Armored Division that landed in Normandy happened to have a significant number of Maghrebis? I would assume they (at least generally) ended up in a Divisions designated "Colonial". Like the 9th Colonial Infantry Division that served in NW Europe in 1944-45, did they receive considerable numbers from the Levant? Very specific questions I know but I'm at a dead end with information on this subject, guess I better learn French...

[Loïc]

Levantine recruited, yes, but to be unequivocally and very clear only for the Special Troops of the Levant, Troupes Spéciales du Levant, and only these ones, it is no question to send such troops in others theaters than the territory of the Mandate, nor their inhabitants who are not colonial nor indigenous of the Empire but living in countries under French transitional surpervision trusteeship in the process of accession to Independance, Lebanon and Syria were not new french colonies

Levantine Troops were not "Colonial" nor Indigenous Troops, so the Colonial Divisions have nothing to do with Levantine, these Divisions concerned French citizens and black Africans

If you met Lebanese or Syrian with the French Army in the battlefield abroad in 1942-1945, there were some cases, a few dozen or hundreds maybe scattered among French units, it was only as an individual choice from them, not a all from a collective recruitment, and because they were volunteers to join Free France or serve in the French Army like it happened for the christian-Lebanese soldiers with the 13rd Engineers Battalion of 2e DB or Transport Headquarters companies of 1st and 2nd Free French Division, or e.g. a christian Lebanese and a muslim Syrian dead in the ranks of the 3rd Parachutists Chasseurs Regiment in the Liberation of France and Netherlands in 1944-1945, the Christian Lebanese and Armenians of the Levant having traditionnaly strong links with France

the ~10% of North Africans in the 2e DB came from traditional north africans Artillery units added as Divisional Artillery (40e RANA 64e RAA Groups) when the Division became armored and the 1er RMSM, however this Regiment was largely europeanized becoming the divisional mechanized Recce regiment