The Groupement de commandos mixtes aéroportés () commonly referred as just GCMA, was the "Action Service" of the

Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or ...

(SDECE), the France counterintelligence service agency, which was active during the Cold War. The GCMA's origins lay in the British - U.S - French joint

Operation Jedburgh Operation Jedburgh was a clandestine operation during World War II in which three-man teams of operatives of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Free French Bureau Central de Renseigne ...

in France in 1944.

History

Commando Nord Viet-Nam (1951-1954)

The North Vietnam Commandos (''Commando Nord Viet-Nam'') were units similar to the GCMA. They were created in 1951 and remained in service until 1954. Each commando was made of local volunteers called "

partisan Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Ital ...

s" (from the

anti-communism Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

and pro-French Tho, Nung and

Hmong people The Hmong people ( RPA: , CHV: ''Hmôngz'', Nyiakeng Puachue: , Pahawh Hmong: , , zh, c=苗族蒙人) are an indigenous group in East Asia and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. Th ...

(also known as the Mèo), minorities) as well as "returned"

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...

and was commanded by a young French

Non-commissioned officer A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is an enlisted rank, enlisted leader, petty officer, or in some cases warrant officer, who does not hold a Commission (document), commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority b ...

(units were named after them) with an assistant (''adjoint''), most of them were detached from GCMA units. Since former ''Viet Minh'' regulars were part of the troops, occasional betrayal happened. A famous case is Commando Nord Viet-Nam N°24 "Vandenberghe" ( ''des Tigres Noirs'', lit. "the Black Tigers") whose leader, Adjudant-Chef Roger Vandenberghe (24, former '' 6e Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale'' a.k.a. ''6e RIC''), was murdered in his sleep by Sous-Lieutenant Nguien Tinh Khoi - the former Commander of the ''Viet-Minh'' 308th Brigade 36th Regiment's Assault Unit, who had been captured by the French during the 1951 Battle of the Day River.Report on Commando Nord Vietnam N°24 "Vandenberghe" in July 1951
French Defense Ministry

Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés

The GCMA was active in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

(

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, including both the ...

) and

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

during 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, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...

. They were deployed as an airborne commando forces unit that specialized in combat patrols with style commando, counterinsurgency, long-range penetration, and special reconnaissance.

Groupement Mixte d'Intervention

The GCMA name changed in the mid-1950s to be replaced with ''Groupement Mixte d'Intervention'' or GMI ("Mixed Intervention Group") as it was no more an airborne unit.

Groupement Léger d'Intervention

During the

Algerian War The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

that broke out shortly after the end of the Indochina War, the SDECE created in 1955 a new unit inspired by the Vietnamese experience. The GMI became the ''Groupement Léger d'Intervention'' or GLI ("Light Intervention Group") involving loyalist Muslims fighting with the French against the FLN rebels.

Operations

Special operations include: * Operation Toulouse (1953) * Operation Condor (1954) (a.k.a. Operation D, "D" is for ''desperado'')

Notable commanders

Roger Trinquier Roger Trinquier (20 March 1908 – 11 January 1986) was a French Army officer during World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War, serving mainly in airborne and special forces units. He was also a counter-insurgency theorist, ma ...

- director *

Paul Aussaresses Paul Aussaresses (; 7 November 1918 – 3 December 2013) was a French Army general, who fought during World War II, the First Indochina War and Algerian War. His actions during the Algerian War—and later defense of those actions—caused conside ...

* Jean Sassi (1953–1955) * General Vang Pao GCMA-

, ("Meo Maquis") Indochina Wars leader of

, and later

Royal Lao Army The Royal Lao Army (; – ARL), also designated by its anglicized title RLA, was the land component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Kingdom of Laos during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and the Laotian C ...

Major General

References

Video archives

Official video by the French Ministry of Defense (Operation D, 1954)

External links

Archive photographs of Commando Nord Vietnam n°24 "Vandenberghe" aka "Black Tigers" (July 1951)
French Ministry of Defense *GCMA/GMI: A French Experience in Counterinsurgency during the French Indochina War, Philippe Pottier {{DEFAULTSORT:Groupement De Commandos Mixtes Aeroportes Special forces of France