MONUMENT AUX GOUMS MAROCAINS

Located between Vagney and La Bresse, at the Croix des Moinats pass, this monument was erected in memory of the Moroccan goums. Light infantry units composed of native Moroccan troops, they were particularly famous during the Second World War, between 1942 and 1945. Goums and goumiers : Constituted in Morocco in 1908, the goums were initially auxiliary, then regular. Each one brings together the equivalent of an infantry company and a cavalry platoon. It was commanded by a French captain who had three lieutenants and a few non-commissioned officers under his command. The goumiers are volunteers, bound by an act of commitment, whose mission is to ensure the security of the country, to patrol, to make contact with populations, to participate in the settlement of conflicts? The goums in the Vosges: During the winter of 1944-45, in order to bypass the defenses that the Nazi Reich had established in front of Belfort, General de Lattre de Tassigny decided to pass through the Vosges. The goums were entrusted with the mission of finding the weaknesses in the enemy's defenses, which were well established on the Vosges mountains. Fierce fighting began on the Vosges ridge, during which the Moroccan troops were put to the test, due to a "Siberian winter", the lack of supplies and the fierce resistance of the adversaries Despite these difficulties, the goums contributed greatly to the liberation of Belfort and to pushing the Germans out of the Alsace plain. But they paid a heavy price, with 9,200 killed or wounded? moroccan Goums 1939-1945, Jamal Said