The Corps Léger d'Intervention (CLI) ( French for "light intervention corps") was a Pacific War interarm corps of the Far East French Expeditionary Forces commanded by

Général de corps d'armée An army corps general or corps general is a rank held by a General officer who commands an army corps. The rank originates from the French (Revolutionary) System, and is used by a number of countries. Normally, the rank is above the divisional ge ...

Roger Blaizot that used guerrilla warfare against the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

that had occupied

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

since 1941. It was created by General Charles de Gaulle in 1943 and modeled after the British

Chindits The Chindits, officially as Long Range Penetration Groups, were special operations units of the British and Indian armies which saw action in 1943–1944 during the Burma Campaign of World War II. The British Army Brigadier Orde Wingate form ...

Special Forces who fought in the Burma Campaign.

History

Creation

The CLI was created on November 4, 1943 in

Jijel Jijel ( ar, جيجل), the classical Igilgili, is the capital of Jijel Province in north-eastern Algeria. It is flanked by the Mediterranean Sea in the region of Corniche Jijelienne and had a population of 131,513 in 2008. Jijel is the administr ...

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( French Algeria) with 500 volunteer commandos under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Huard. Its purpose was to reinforce the resistance in Japanese occupied French Indochina. Local resistance was led by General Mordant (a.k.a. Narcisse) who came from mainland France in 1941.

SOE introduction

While the commandos trained in Jijel, Commandant de Crevècoeur arrived at

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

, North West

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on November 10, 1943 to introduce the CLI to British

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE)

Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...

's Colin Hercules Mackenzie. The first CLI trainees were sent to Poona (100 km from

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

) for jungle warfare instruction under the British.

Composition

On March 15, 1944 the French Indochina guerrillas numbered 1,349 (993 locals and 356 Europeans) including 242 in Laos (195 locals and 47 Europeans). Following

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...

, 60 SOE

Jedburgh Jedburgh (; gd, Deadard; sco, Jeddart or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the historic county of Roxburghshire, the name of which was randomly chosen for Operation Jedburgh in s ...

members of the French intelligence agency DGER were transferred to Force 136's "French Indochina Country Section" (''Section Indochine Française'').

Training

Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Lacroix, Saint-Cyr 1930-32

Joseph Joffre Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre (12 January 1852 – 3 January 1931) was a French general who served as Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front from the start of World War I until the end of 1916. He is best known for regroupi ...

promotion, was in charge of CLI recruitment and training as Chief of staff in French Algeria. He later returned to French Indochina leading ''Commando Léger N°1'' ("light commando n.1") in operations.

Operations

Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina The Japanese ''coup d'état'' in French Indochina, known as , was a Japanese operation that took place on 9 March 1945, towards the end of World War II. With Japanese forces losing the war and the threat of an Allied invasion of Indochina imm ...

References

Bibliography

*
L'Indochine face au Japon: 1940-1945 : Decoux-de Gaulle, un malentendu fatal
', by Philippe Grandjean, Editions L'Harmattan, 2004

External links

Général Paul Huard, Le Corps Léger d’intervention et l’IndochineAvec le Corps Léger d'Intervention AéroportéPRESENTATION DU C.L.I
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corps Leger d'Intervention Army units and formations of France Regiments of France Military units and formations established in 1943 Military units and formations disestablished in 1946 Special forces of France French Resistance networks and movements