The 9th Colonial Infantry Division (french: 9e Division d'Infanterie Coloniale, 9e DIC) was a

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

formation which fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the

War in Vietnam (1945–1946) The War in Vietnam, codenamed Operation Masterdom by the British, and also known as the Southern Resistance War ( vi, Nam Bộ kháng chiến) by the Vietnamese, was a post–World War II armed conflict involving a largely British-Indian and Fr ...

History

A 9th Colonial Infantry Division was being formed in June 1940, but the formation wasn't finished when France surrendered after the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

. After the liberation of French North Africa, the division was created in July 1943 from Colonial units from

French West Africa French West Africa (french: Afrique-Occidentale française, ) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burki ...

and Morocco. Many escapees from France who had reached North Africa via Spain joined the division. But at that time, the 9th DIC was mostly made up of Africans from all the territories of French West Africa. The Divsion saw its first action when it was tasked with the

Invasion of Elba The invasion of Elba, codenamed Operation Brassard, was part of the Italian campaign during the Second World War. The invasion was carried out between 17–19 June 1944 by Free French Forces supported by British and American ships and aircraft. ...

from Corsica on 17 June 1944. This was achieved in 4 days, in particular thanks to the actions of the 2nd battalion of the 13th regiment of Senegalese tirailleurs, commanded by Jean Gilles. The 9th DIC became one of the components of General de Lattre de Tassigny's First French Army and in August 1944, it landed in Southern France. On 27 August 1944, the division liberated Toulon after heavy fighting. The Division the took part in the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers of World War II, Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French R ...

advancing towards the Alsace. During this advance the Division was "whitened" (''blanchichement''), meaning that African soldiers were being replaced by French white volunteers. In 1945, the division took part in the reduction of the

Colmar Pocket The Colmar Pocket (french: Poche de Colmar; de , Brückenkopf Elsass) was the area held in central Alsace, France, by the German Nineteenth Army from November 1944 to February 1945, against the U.S. 6th Army Group (6th AG) during World War II. ...

in January and later in the invasion of Germany, taking

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain on the Murg river, above its junction with the Rhine and has a population of around 50,000 (2011). Rastatt was a ...

and

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

in April.

Composition (1943)

*4th

Senegalese Tirailleurs The Senegalese Tirailleurs (french: Tirailleurs Sénégalais) were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were initially recruited from Senegal, French West Africa and subsequently throughout Western, Central and Eastern Africa: t ...

Regiment *6th

Regiment *13th

Regiment * Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale du Maroc (RICM) *Régiment d'artillerie coloniale du Maroc *Régiment colonial de chasseurs de chars *71e bataillon du génie *2e Groupe du Régiment d’Artillerie Coloniale d'Afrique occidentale (2e RAC-AOF) *3e Groupe du Régiment d’Artillerie Coloniale d’Afrique occidentale (3e RAC-AOF) *25e Bataillon Médical.

Vietnam

In December 1945, the 9th DIC, under the command of General Valluy and part of the

French Far East Expeditionary Corps The French Far East Expeditionary Corps (french: Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient, CEFEO) was a colonial expeditionary force of the French Union Army that was initially formed in French Indochina in 1945 during the Pacific W ...

, was sent to Indochina.
Its task was to restore French rule in Indochina, which was under threat from the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

, which had declared Vietnam independent.
The 9th DIC was disbanded on 1 November 1946, 6 weeks before the outbreak of the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

Sources

* This article is translated from French Wikipedia
9 éme D.I.C

{{French Army Divisions Colonial Infantry Division, 9th Infantry divisions of France French West Africa