Fighting the Talebans, French touch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4rAzYcRbQs&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXMALh4ilQs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OldzXXTUg-k&feature=related

You can screw with the French govt. but lay off the French soldiers. When in Paris at the time of the World Cup,( before 9/11) I saw the military on the streets preparing to respond to terrorists and they were trim, hard and look like the U.S. Marines. These guys can kick ass and in Afghanistan, recently did just that.

Jakkals
I learned this song when 11. It was mandatory for all the pupils in France.
O Sari Mares,

"I'll see You again, good ol Transval................"

That makes me shiver. fine memories surface.
Thanks Jakkals

Edmond -

I note that while folks safe here on the internet are busy taking cheap shots and badmouthing everything French, 10 more of your soldiers were killed by ambush in Af'stan day before yesterday. My condolences and appreciation to your nation for your help there.

AC

I met a lot of French military at my last trip to the sand box a few months ago.

Nice guys, no bullshit, very capable troopers, I wouldn't want their goverment right now, but then again mine's not so great right now either. Especially with Osama Binladin Huseein Obama running for office.

Two weeks ago in the same area http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=LxFS2FPIhvA

http://www.defense.gouv.fr/defense/webtv/la_vie_du_mini...e_d_hommage_national


http://www.elysee.fr/webtv/index.php?intHomeMinisterId=...nnelId=3∫VideoId=690

Edmond -

Sorry to ask this here, but curiosity demands it. Based on the texts to whcih you obviously have immediate full access, with which Bureau are you associated? 2nd, 10th?

Sorry if this sounds like morbid curiosity, however, when I heard this, my immediate reaction was that these men would have been from the Foreign Legion units of the French Army rather than regular army units. I'm no expert on French Insignia so the pics don't tell me much more on this. Does anyone know, not that it matters greatly, its still a shitty thing to happen in a part of the world with some seriously shitty inhabitants. Not likely to get any less shitty in view of the recent unrest in Pakistan.
May they RIP.
Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
Edmond -

Sorry to ask this here, but curiosity demands it. Based on the texts to whcih you obviously have immediate full access, with which Bureau are you associated? 2nd, 10th?

I think I live in a real Republic, there are available sources everywhere, from official governement sites to newspapers sites.

We have real investigation journalists here and anyone with a functional brain is able to connect the dots.

I do have friends with some interesting positions but you know, those real intel people don't tell you anything.

One of my friends of 25 years only admitted recently he had been working as a spy, he just retired, I always thought he was one and he never told me anything really interesting.

my only real link with MoD is my Firearms Manufacturer/Dealer Licence.

quote:

Originally posted by Shinzo:
Sorry if this sounds like morbid curiosity, however, when I heard this, my immediate reaction was that these men would have been from the Foreign Legion units of the French Army rather than regular army units. I'm no expert on French Insignia so the pics don't tell me much more on this. Does anyone know, not that it matters greatly, its still a shitty thing to happen in a part of the world with some seriously shitty inhabitants. Not likely to get any less shitty in view of the recent unrest in Pakistan.
May they RIP.
Steve

it is a typical trait of Anglosaxons and especially Americans to see French Foreign Legion everywhere.
Since 1830, the Legion has accounted for 5 % to 12 % of the total French Armed Forces.
They are now at the lower count.

Another point is half the Legion is French, sometimes declared as Belgians or Swiss hence the famous song, Le Boudin.

The only Legionnaire killed during this action is the medic who was with the Paratroopers because he knew well the region and wxas a medic.
I'll cut and paste the informations I posted in the Political Forum.

A group of 100 French, ANA and US SF were ending a patrol at high altitude and making a RECO, no UAV available, when a group of 100 Talibans opened fire.
8 french paratroopers of the 8th RPIMA and one medic of the 2nd REP were instantly killed, a dozen of soldiers including the CO were wounded.

Sergent-chef DEVEZ Sébastien,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef BUIL Damien,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef GREGOIRE Nicolas,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe CHASSAING Kevin,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe GAILLET Damien,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe LEPAHUN Julien.8eme RPIMa
1ère classe RIVIERE Anthony,8eme RPIMa
1ère classe TAANI Alexis,8eme RPIMa
Caporal-chef PENON Rodolphe, 2eme REP


Firefight last for hours during the night until morning, fire support came from two Apache and two A10 and partly from two Caracal used for MEDEVAC.

30 Talibans killed (their leader presumably among them), 30 talibans wounded according to available informations.


With the known informations and reports, it appears that there was no friendly fire, when French have been wounded by shrapnells or bursting rocks, it is because the A10s cleaned up very close to them and the French thank those A10 pilots because the talibans were so close that it was close quarter combat in some areas.

Because of this, the F15 could not do anything.

The AC-130 shot one 40 mm and 4 105 mm rounds.

More than 1000 30mm rounds have been used by the A10 (according to reports 1340 rounds)

Two OH 58 opened fire on nearby taliban positions to block reinforcements to reach the main combat zone.

The taliban fire was so intense that the US MEDEVAC helicopters did not want to approach the zone, only when the two Caracal reached the zone, they supported briefly the attacked troops and brought one medic and 10 troopers to secure a landing zone in the combat zone plus ammunition.

The Caracal made a few rotations to bring a total of 2 metric tons of small arms ammunitions and grenades plus 81 mm mortars and mortar rounds.

There was a double ambush at the same time near the ridgeline and near the hamlet where the vehicles had stopped to allow a recon on the ridgeline, that's the reasons troops had no more access to their ammo in the vehicles plus the fact that the French were entrapped and the ANA platoon was unable to move under the taliban fire.

The ridgeline patrol, 31 men, faced a well prepared group of approximately 60 talibans including many sharpshooters who were very accurate and selected their targets after identifying them, squad leaders, platoon leader, sharpshooters, radio.

The Medic, Corporal PENON (2eme REP) was shot at least twice. Despite the fireball he went once in the open, received a first bullet, pulled a wounded behind a small wall of stone and went back for a second wounded soldier and took care of him when he was shot to death.

Thanks Edmund, for the clarification. I confess to suffering from the misapprehension that it was always the Legion who got shunted off to the hotspots to do the French Armie's dirty work. I guess I've read too many romantic novels, sorry for the unworthy thoughts. The appellation REP for the Legion's parachute regiment I'm familiar with (hope thats correct), could you elaborate on what RPIMa stands for?
Steve

Here is a small article I had written.

The RPIMa, Regiments Parachutistes d'Infanterie de Marine inherited the traditions of the BPC, Bataillons Parachutistes Coloniaux, then RPC Regiments Parachutistes Coloniaux.

They wear the anchor in their Airborne insignia since they inherited the old tradition of Troupes de Marine (French Marines) due to oversea missions when they were created during the Indochina war.

Master Sergeant Duclos was the first French soldier to execute a military jump on November 17, 1915.

A project is launched to create airborne combat groups in 1917 but the Italian will make the first real combat jump in 1918.

In 1935, Captain Geille of the French Air Force was trained in Moscow by the Soviet Airborne School and created the Avignon-Pujaut Paratroopers Schools then two combat units called Groupes d’Infanterie de l’Air.

In September 1940, General de Gaulle created the 1ere Compagnie d’Infanterie de l’Air transformed into Compagnie de Chasseurs Parachutistes in October 1941.

These units fought in Creta and Cyrenaique in June 1942 with its brothers in arms, the British SAS.

2 French SAS units were created and existed independently of the other French Airborne units until 1945. They were part of the SAS Brigade.

The 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes was created in May 1943 from the 601 GIA. as well as the 3ème and 4ème Bataillons d'Infanterie de l'Air.

The 2eme and 3eme Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes were created in July 1944.

During the D Day the BIA fought in Normandy and Britanny, the SAS in Britanny and Loire region, the 1er Regiment Parachutiste de Choc in Provence .

The first allied soldier to touch the French territory was a French SAS in Britanny on June 5th, Captain Pierre Marienne, the first allied soldier killed in action in France was the Corporal Emile Bouétard of the 4th Bataillon d’Infanterie de l’Air in Britanny.

Many units were created after WW2, starting with the Bataillon de Parachutistes Coloniaux (BPC) in Vannes-Meucon. Metropolitan Paratroopers, Colonial Paratroopers and much later Bataillons Etrangers de Parachutistes (BEP, French Foreign Legion) coexisted until 1954, a Bataillon Parachutiste Viet Nam was created (BPVN).

Between 1945 and 1954, 150 different airborne operations took place in Indochina, 5 of them being major operations against the Viet Minh strongholds and areas of concentration.

All the battalions became regiments between 1954 and 1956, except the Commandos de l'Air (Air Force)

in Algeria, paratroopers were the best counter insurgency units of the French Army. For the first time in history, they used the helicopters for Air Assault and Fire Support.

In 1956, the 2eme Regiment de Parachutiste Coloniaux jumped on the Suez Canal.

The French Army regrouped all the Army Airborne units into two parachute divisions in 1956, the 10th parachute division (10e Division Parachutiste, 10e DP) under the command of General Jacques Massu and the 25th Parachute Division (25e Division Parachutiste, 25e DP) under the command of General Sauvagnac.

The Commandos de l'Air were kept under command of the Air Force.

In the aftermath of the Algiers putsch, both divisions were disbanded and their regiments merged into the Light Intervention Division (Division Légère d'Intervention).

This division became the 11th Parachute Division (11e Division Parachutiste, 11e DP) in 1971.

In the aftemath of the Cold War, the French Army reorganised and the 11e DP become the 11th Parachute Brigade in 1999.

French Airborne units have merged with non airborne troops like Alpine troops or special forces units into COS, Commandements des Operations Speciales (equivalent of US SOCOM) in order to face new threats of today's world.

in the pictures above, one platoon wears dark blue hepis with golden epaulettes, they are the men of the Regiment de Marche du Tchad created in Koufra by Leclerc (Philippe de Hauteclocque).

They belong to the Troupes de Marine, the kepi bears the anchor.

One soldier of the RMT driving a VAB was killed and 3 soldiers of the RMT were wounded during the fight.

This is the non official site of Troupes de Marines, an excellent site http://www.troupesdemarine.org/

Another sad piece of history http://www.troupesdemarine.org/outils/multimedia/cote_ivoire/se_souvenir.mpeg

Videos , pictures, songs http://www.troupesdemarine.org/outils/multimedia/index.htm

Many thanks Edmond, the information is appreciated.
Steve

You're welcome,. Happy you guys enjoy discovering France.

Pictures from this site,http://www.helicopassion.com/fr/02/wbl210.htm

taken by Stéphane FORT

Video http://www.defense.gouv.fr/ema/layout/set/popup/content/view/full/101204

The chief of staff of the French Army visiting troops at FOB Warehouse and FOB Tora

Interesting and impressive, thanks for sharing.

The majority of these photos look like pictures of training or PR shots. As an ex-serving soldier the subjects all look very clean.

It is great though for you to share them I don't know how many nations are now helping in Afghanistan but it is probably in the dozens. Here in Oz of course we only see footage of our own soldiers when there are just as many other countries with their sons and husbands doing the same thing.

Again thx.

You posted some fine photos, Edmond. Thank you for sharing them.

You are welcome, guys. Happy you find them interesting.

Merci, Edmond, Merci beau coup.
Thanks to the French for the contributions they have made, for the efforts of their brave soldiers. And allow me to here add a bit to this subject. We all know about the French and the battle of Dien Bien Phu but in addition to Dien Bien Phu the French fought a number of other memorable battles in Indo China, battles such as Ninh Binh which most have never heard of. During this battle, the French positions in and around Ninh Binh were being overrun. A battalion of hastily gathered Vietnamese reinforcements from the nearby village of Nam Dinh were thrown into the battle. One company of this battalion was headed by the French C-in-C’s only child, Lt Bernard de Lattre. Lt de Lattre was ordered to hold at all costs a French fort situated on a crag overlooking Ninh Binh, In spite of intense small arms fire and mortar shelling, de Lattre’s company held on, but when dawn broke, young de Lattre and two of his senior NCO’s lay dead on the crag.
My point here is this; before the French involvement in the Indo Chinese war ended, twenty more sons of French marshals and generals were to die in combat as officers in the French military, and another twenty two would die in the fighting in Algeria. I have never know of the sons of US Generals or politicians to be front line involved with the exceptions of a couple of pilots such as John McCain whose father was an Admiral.
So, the contributions from the French are wide spread and cover a broad spectrum of French society. I think we should keep this in mind always.
And for anyone wanting to read and know more about the subject, check out the works of Bernard Fall, especially “Street Without Joy†and “Hell in a Very Small Place†or “A Savage War of Peace†by Alastair Horne. We should all wish to know more.

quote:

Originally posted by TrapperP:
I have never know of the sons of US Generals or politicians to be front line involved with the exceptions of a couple of pilots such as John McCain whose father was an Admiral.

In fact TrapperP there may be more than you realize. Most of us remember that Quentin Roosevelt (son of President Teddy Roosevelt) was killed in combat in WWI. Most of us also know that another TR son, Teddy Roosevelt Jr., forced the high command to allow him to wade ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day with the 4th Infantry Division. He had been 1st Infantry in North Africa and Sicily.

My father, who was 1st Infanty Division for the whole duration of WWII and on the front as often as any of the men in that Division, was all during that time the son of a regular Army Colonel. My cousin, who was in the line during the first Gulf War, is the son of US Army Major General (my uncle). That same uncle, also the son of a US Army Colonel, was Green Beret in Vietnam and a Purple Heart recipient. These are just some examples that come to mind but I am sure a little research would show many more than just the Roosevelts and my own family.

You're welcome.

It seems we do not really know how to say thank you to our bravest soldiers.



Master Corporal Fabien BRUN, sharpshooter and long distance shooting specialist received the gold National Defence medal with bronze star on November, 11th.

During 3 ambushes that can be compared to the one that was so deadly for the French last August, despite being himself under intense fire, he endangered himself moving to positions from where his well honed skills allowed him to suppress enemy shooters who were pinning down allied forces with accurate fire.

He should have received the Military Cross (croix de la Valeur Militaire) in my opinion.

During two of these ambushes, the pinned down platoons were US units.

Sharpshooters are seldom decorated for this type of action in french forces.

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:

quote:

Originally posted by TrapperP:
I have never know of the sons of US Generals or politicians to be front line involved with the exceptions of a couple of pilots such as John McCain whose father was an Admiral.

In fact TrapperP there may be more than you realize. Most of us remember that Quentin Roosevelt (son of President Teddy Roosevelt) was killed in combat in WWI. Most of us also know that another TR son, Teddy Roosevelt Jr., forced the high command to allow him to wade ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day with the 4th Infantry Division. He had been 1st Infantry in North Africa and Sicily.

My father, who was 1st Infanty Division for the whole duration of WWII and on the front as often as any of the men in that Division, was all during that time the son of a regular Army Colonel. My cousin, who was in the line during the first Gulf War, is the son of US Army Major General (my uncle). That same uncle, also the son of a US Army Colonel, was Green Beret in Vietnam and a Purple Heart recipient. These are just some examples that come to mind but I am sure a little research would show many more than just the Roosevelts and my own family.

I should have been more concise with my prior post and stated a time frame, the Viet Nam era being one I am personally more familar with. I certainly had no intention of slighting those the had served, far from that. I'll try and be more careful in future posts, and thanks for pointing it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:

quote:

Originally posted by TrapperP:
I have never know of the sons of US Generals or politicians to be front line involved with the exceptions of a couple of pilots such as John McCain whose father was an Admiral.

In fact TrapperP there may be more than you realize. Most of us remember that Quentin Roosevelt (son of President Teddy Roosevelt) was killed in combat in WWI. Most of us also know that another TR son, Teddy Roosevelt Jr., forced the high command to allow him to wade ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day with the 4th Infantry Division. He had been 1st Infantry in North Africa and Sicily.

My father, who was 1st Infanty Division for the whole duration of WWII and on the front as often as any of the men in that Division, was during all that time the son of a regular Army Colonel. My cousin, who was in the line during the first Gulf War, is the son of US Army Major General (my uncle). That same uncle, also the son of a US Army Colonel, was Green Beret in Vietnam and a Purple Heart recipient. These are just some examples that come to mind but I am sure a little research would show many more than just the Roosevelts and my own family.

There were of course some instances where command would not let soldiers serve on the front in the interests of leaving a commander's decisions neutral with respect to putting family in danger. Eisenhower's son was refused combat positions during WWII because command didn't want this to be on the Supreme Commander's mind. During the Korean War he did get a combat assignment (when Eisenhower was President) but was quickly re-assigned for the same reason. So sometimes volunteering still wasn't enough when higher ups don't want to take the heat for the combat death of a son.