Tonkinese Rifles
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The Tonkinese Rifles (''
tirailleur A tirailleur (), in the Napoleonic era, was a type of light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns. Later, the term "''tirailleur''" was used by the French Army as a designation for indigenous infantry recruited in the French ...
s tonkinois'') were a
corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...
of Tonkinese light infantrymen raised in 1884 to support the operations of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps. Led by French officers seconded from the
marine infantry Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...
, Tonkinese riflemen fought in several engagements against the Chinese during the
Sino-French War The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...
and took part in expeditions against Vietnamese insurgents during the subsequent French
Pacification of Tonkin The Pacification of Tonkin (1886–1896) was a slow and ultimately successful military and political campaign undertaken by the French colonial empire, French Empire in the northern portion of Tonkin (modern-day north Vietnam) to re-establish order ...
. The French also organized similar units of indigenous riflemen from Annam and Cambodia. All three categories of indigenous soldiers were known in Vietnam as Lính tập.


Background

During the campaigns of Francis Garnier in Tonkin in 1873 the French raised irregular units of Tonkinese militiamen, many of them Christians who felt little loyalty to the brutal regime of Tự Đức. These units existed for only a few weeks, and were disbanded when the French withdrew from Tonkin in the spring of 1874, but the experiment demonstrated the potential for the recruitment of auxiliary soldiers in Tonkin. The employment of Vietnamese auxiliaries on a regular basis was pioneered in Cochinchina, where the French formed a regiment of Annamese riflemen in 1879 (variously referred to as ''tirailleurs annamites'', ''tirailleurs saigonais'' or ''tirailleurs cochinchinois''). Between 1883 and 1885 the French were heavily engaged in Tonkin against the Black Flag Army and Vietnamese and Chinese forces. The successive commanders of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps all made use of Tonkinese auxiliaries in one form or another. The establishment of regular regiments of ''tirailleurs tonkinois'' in 1884 was preceded by experiments with native auxiliaries in Tonkin by General Bouët and Admiral Courbet in the second half of 1883. The French employed several hundred Yellow Flags as auxiliaries against the Black Flag Army in the battles of August 1883. The Yellow Flags, under the command of a Greek adventurer named Georges Vlavianos who had taken part in Francis Garnier's Tonkin campaign in 1873, fought competently enough in a skirmishing role in the
Battle of Phủ Hoài The Battle of Phu Hoai (15 August 1883) was an indecisive engagement between the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army during the early months of the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886). The battle took place during the period of ...
(15 August 1883) and the Battle of Palan (1 September 1883), but were paid off shortly after the latter engagement because of their undisciplined behaviour. The French expeditionary column commanded by Admiral Amédée Courbet in the Sơn Tây Campaign included four companies of Annamese riflemen from Cochinchina, each attached to a marine infantry battalion. It also included a separate unit of 800 Tonkinese auxiliaries, already called ''tirailleurs tonkinois'', under the command of ''chef de bataillon'' Bertaux-Levillain. Many of these Tonkinese auxiliaries were men who had fought with Vlavianos in the autumn battles, who managed to re-enlist in French service after the Yellow Flag battalion was disbanded. Courbet was unable to give these Tonkinese auxiliaries French company captains, and they played little part in the fighting at Phu Sa on 14 December and Son Tay on 16 December. The Annamese riflemen, by contrast, fighting under the command of French officers, distinguished themselves at the capture of the Phu Sa entrenchments. General Charles-Théodore Millot, who succeeded Admiral Courbet as commander of the Tonkin expeditionary corps in February 1884, was a firm believer in the utility of native auxiliaries. Millot believed that if native formations were given a sufficient number of French officers and NCOs, they would be far more effective in action and less prone to the indiscipline shown by the Yellow Flags. To test his theory, he organised Bertaux-Levillain's Tonkinese auxiliaries into regular companies, each under the command of a marine infantry captain. Several companies of Tonkinese riflemen took part in the Bắc Ninh Campaign (March 1884) and the Hưng Hóa expedition (April 1884), and in May 1884 the expeditionary corps included 1,500 Tonkinese auxiliaries.


Establishment and organization

Encouraged by the performance of his Tonkinese auxiliaries in the campaigns of March and April 1884, Millot decided to formalise their status by creating two regiments of Tonkinese ''tirailleurs'', each of 3,000 men, organised into three battalions of four 250-man companies and led by experienced marine infantry officers. This model had been used several years earlier in Cochinchina for the Annamese Rifle Regiment. By a decree of 12 May 1884, Millot established the 1st and 2nd Tonkinese Rifle Regiments. The two regiments were commanded respectively by Lieutenant-Colonel de Maussion and Lieutenant-Colonel Berger, two veteran officers who had distinguished themselves in Bouët and Courbet's campaigns, and their six constituent battalions were commanded by ''chefs de bataillon'' Tonnot, Jorna de Lacale, Lafont, Merlaud, Pelletier and Pizon. Due to an initial shortage of qualified marine infantry officers the two regiments were not constituted at their full strength immediately. For some months they included only nine companies, organised into two battalions. However, recruitment continued throughout the summer of 1884 and by 30 October both regiments had reached their full strength of 3,000 men. One expedient adopted by General Millot to speed recruitment was to make use of deserters from the Black Flag Army. Several hundred Black Flag soldiers surrendered in July 1884, in the wake of the French capture of
Hưng Hóa Thành Hưng Hóa was a fort and settlement in present-day Phú Thọ Province, northern Vietnam.''Tradition, Revolution, and Market Economy in a North ...'' Hy V. Luong - 2010 - Page 37 " ... route of attack and counterattack between the French- ...
and Tuyên Quang, and offered their services to the French. General Millot allowed them to join one of the Tonkinese Rifle regiments as a separate company, and they were sent to an isolated French post on the Day River and placed under the command of a sympathetic French marine infantry officer, Lieutenant Bohin. Many French officers were appalled at Millot's willingness to trust the Black Flags, and Bohin was henceforth christened ''le condamné à mort''. In fact the Black Flags responded well to his kind treatment and for several months gave good service, taking part in a number of sweeps against Vietnamese insurgents and bandits. However, during the night of 25 December 1884 they deserted ''en masse'' with their weapons, uniforms and equipment and made off towards the Black River. They killed a Tonkinese sergeant to prevent him from giving the alarm, but left Bohin sleeping peacefully in his bed. It seems likely that, impressed by the advance of the Chinese armies in Tonkin, they had lost faith in a French victory and decided to rejoin the Black Flag Army, then taking part in the
Siege of Tuyên Quang The siege of Tuyên Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). A French garrison of 630 men, including two companies of th ...
. Millot's unfortunate experiment was not repeated by his successor General Brière de l'Isle, and no further attempts were made by the French to integrate Black Flag soldiers into the Tonkinese rifle regiments. A third Tonkinese Rifle regiment was established by General de Courcy, by a decree of 28 July 1885, and a fourth by General Warnet, by a decree of 19 February 1886.


Active service, Sino-French War

The 8th Company, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (Captain Dia, Lieutenant Goullet) formed part of the French column that captured Tuyen Quang on 2 June 1884. The company also took part in Duchesne's expedition to relieve Tuyên Quang in November 1884, seeing action at the
Battle of Yu Oc The Battle of Yu Oc (19 November 1884) was a French victory during the Sino-French War. The battle was fought to relieve the French garrison of Tuyên Quang, under siege by the Tang Jingsong's Yunnan Army and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army. The ...
. Thereafter, as part of the Tuyên Quang garrison, it fought with distinction alongside two companies of the
French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...
in the
Siege of Tuyên Quang The siege of Tuyên Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). A French garrison of 630 men, including two companies of th ...
(November 1884 to March 1885). The 12th Company, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (Captain Bouchet, Lieutenants Delmotte and Bataille) was engaged at Bắc Lệ (23 and 24 June 1884) and at the Battle of Lam (6 October 1884) during the
Kep Campaign Kep or KEP may refer to: Kep Australia * Kep Track Cambodia * Kep Province ** Kep District *** Krong Kep (town) * Kep National Park Vietnam * Kép, Vietnam ** Kép Railway Station * Kep Campaign, Sino-French War (1884–1885) Ot ...
. Lieutenant Bataille was seriously wounded during the engagement at Lam and his men, leaderless, fell back before an advancing Chinese column. Their retreat left a serious gap in the centre of the French line, which was only filled by the fortuitous arrival of a line infantry company. Later in the battle the French counterattacked, and Bataille's Tonkinese took part in the final advance. The 1st Company, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (Captain de Beauquesne) took part in the Battle of Núi Bop (4 January 1885). The 1st Battalion, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (''chef de bataillon'' Jorna de Lacale) and the 1st Battalion, 2nd Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (''chef de bataillon'' Tonnot) took part in the Lạng Sơn Campaign (February 1885). Tonnot's battalion was heavily engaged at the Battle of Bac Vie (12 February 1885). The 1st Company, 2nd Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (Captain Geil) was engaged at the Battle of Đồng Đăng (23 February 1885). The 7th Company, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment (Captain Granier, 2nd Lieutenant Donnat) scouted the Chinese trenches at the start of the
Battle of Hòa Mộc The Battle of Hòa Mộc (2 March 1885) was the most fiercely fought action of the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885). At heavy cost, Colonel Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps defeated forces of the Black Flag ...
(2 March 1885), suffering heavy casualties from the initial Chinese volley. 2nd Lieutenant Donnat was wounded in this engagement. Lieutenant Fayn's platoon of Captain Dufoulon's 1st Company, 1st Tonkinese Rifle Regiment, 50 men strong, routed a force of 400 Chinese, Vietnamese and Muong bandits at Thai That near Sơn Tây on 18 April 1885. The engagement took place four days after a ceasefire between the French and Chinese armies in Tonkin had come into effect in consequence of the conclusion of preliminaries of peace between France and China on 4 April. The prowess displayed by the Tonkinese riflemen on this occasion was given wide publicity by the French military authorities, and commemorated by General Brière de l'Isle in an order of the day issued on 26 April.


Subsequent history 1890–1945

During the 1890s and early 1900s the Indo-Chinese ''tirailleurs'' saw on-going service against pirates and bandits within the boundaries of present-day Vietnam. Because of unwarranted doubts about their reliability the Tonkinese units were normally accompanied by detachments of French Colonial Infantry or Foreign Legionaires. A fifth regiment of Tonkinese Rifles (5th R.T.T.) was raised in 1902 but was disbanded in 1908. On the outbreak of World War I many of the French officers and non-commissioned officers of the ''tirailleurs tonkinois'' and ''tirailleurs annamite'' were recalled to France. One battalion of Tonkinese riflemen (6th B.T.I.) subsequently saw service on the Western Front near Verdun. In 1915 a battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Tonkinese Rifles (3rd R.T.T.) was sent to China to garrison the
French Concession The Shanghai French Concession; ; Shanghainese pronunciation: ''Zånhae Fah Tsuka'', group=lower-alpha was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943, which progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries ...
in Shanghai. The ''tirailleurs'' remaining in Indo-China saw service in 1917 in putting down a mutiny of the ''Garde Indignene'' (native gendarmerie) in Thai Nguyen. In August 1918 three companies of ''tirailleurs tonkinois'' formed part of a battalion of French Colonial Infantry sent to Siberia as part of the Allied intervention following the Russian Revolution. The four regiments of Tonkinese Rifles continued in existence between the two World Wars, seeing active service in Indochina, Syria (1920–21), Morocco (1925–26) and in the frontier clashes with Thailand (1940–41). Part of the 4th R.T.T. stationed at
Yên Bái Yên Bái () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Yên Bái Province, in the north-east region of Vietnam. The city borders Yên Bình District and Trấn Yên District. The city is a settlement along the banks of the Red River, approxi ...
mutinied on 9 February 1930 but were suppressed by loyal troops from the same unit. All six of the Tonkinese and Annamite Rifle regiments were disbanded following the Japanese coup of 9 March 1945 against the French colonial administration of Indochina. Although large numbers of Vietnamese served with French Union Forces during the subsequent French Indochina War of 1946–54, they were incorporated in other units and the Indochinese ''tirailleur'' regiments were not re-established. The last Indochinese unit in the French Army was the Far East Commando (''Le Commando d'Extreme-Orient''), which numbered about 200 Vietnamese,
Montagnards Montagnard (''of the mountain'' or ''mountain dweller'') may refer to: *Montagnard (French Revolution), members of The Mountain (''La Montagne''), a political group during the French Revolution (1790s) ** Montagnard (1848 revolution), members of th ...
,
Khmers The Khmer people ( km, ជនជាតិខ្មែរ, ) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Cambodia. They comprise over 90% of Cambodia's population of 17 million.
and Nùngs and saw active service in Algeria from 1956 until disbandment in June 1960.


Uniforms

Until World War I the Tonkinese Rifle regiments wore uniforms closely modeled on indigenous dress (see photographs above). These included a flat ''
salacco Salakót is a traditional lightweight headgear from the Philippines that is commonly used during pre-colonial era up to the present day, used for protection against the sun and rain. Every ethnolinguistic group in the archipelago has their ow ...
'' headdress of varnished bamboo, red
sash A sash is a large and usually colorful ribbon or band of material worn around the body, either draping from one shoulder to the opposing hip and back up, or else running around the waist. The sash around the waist may be worn in daily attire, bu ...
es and head-scarves. The loose fitting tunics and trousers were usually of blue/black cotton, although a khaki version was adopted for field dress after 1900. The ''tirailleurs annamite'' wore the same uniform, with minor differences of insignia and with additional white clothing for summer wear. In 1912 a conical version of the ''salacco'' with a spiked top was adopted by all tirailleur units. This was worn until replaced by a
pith helmet The pith helmet, also known as the safari helmet, salacot, sola topee, sun helmet, topee, and topi) is a lightweight cloth-covered helmet made of sholapith. The pith helmet originates from the Spanish military adaptation of the native '' salako ...
in 1931. During the same period the tirailleur uniforms were modified to conform with the standard khaki drill of the French Colonial Infantry, and the distinctive indigenous features disappeared.Rives pages 53-54 and 79-92


See also

*
French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French Colonial Empire", that exist ...
*
French colonial flags Some of the colonies, protectorates and mandates of the French Colonial Empire used distinctive colonial flags. These most commonly had a French Tricolour in the canton. As well as the flags of individual colonies, the governors-general of Fre ...
*
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, ...
* List of French possessions and colonies * Tirailleurs indochinois


Notes


References

* * * Huard, L., ''La guerre du Tonkin'' (Paris, 1887) * Lecomte, J., ''Lang-Son: combats, retraite et négociations'' (Paris, 1895) * Lecomte, J., ''La vie militaire au Tonkin'' (Paris, 1893) * Lecomte, J., ''Le guet-apens de Bac-Lé'' (Paris, 1890) * Mounier-Kuhn, A., ''Les services de santé militaires français pendant la conquête du Tonkin et de l’Annam (1882–1896)'' (Paris, 2005) * Nicolas, V., ''Livre d'or de l'infanterie de la marine'' (Paris, 1891) * Thomazi, A., ''Histoire militaire de l’Indochine française'' (Hanoi, 1931) * Thomazi, A., ''La conquête de l'Indochine'' (Paris, 1934) {{Military forces in Vietnamese history until 1945 Tonkin campaign Sino-French War Indigenous counterinsurgency forces Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations of France in World War II Military of Vichy France Conflicts in 1884 Conflicts in 1885 1884 in France 1885 in France 1884 in China 1885 in China 1884 in Vietnam 1885 in Vietnam