Armée d’Afrique Video

I stumbled on this video on You Tube today.  It’s a great little historical video (24 minutes) about the Armée d’Afrique with lots of good footage of Free French Forces fighting in WWII.  This video must have been made in the late 1940’s or early 50’s as evidenced by the equipment.  The video sequence shows the Zouaves first as they parade along a promenade in what appears to be the city of Algiers.  The narrator discusses the history of this force and there are some decent depictions of the older Zouave uniforms worn before WWI.  Next is the Algerian Tirailleurs (Turcos), the mounted Spahis, and the modern Chasseurs d’Afrique riding by in their M8 Greyhounds and M3 Stewarts Tanks.     Finally we have a nice segment of the Foreign Legion (at 7:50) as they march by in this parade as well as at their barracks in Sidi Bel Abbes and finally showing them busting rocks in the bled.  We then see the Companie Saharien mounted on their camels.  After this the video moves onto the Armée d’Afrique fighting as part of the Free French forces in Africa, France, Italy and finally Germany.  Absent were the Infanterie Legere d’Afrique (African Light Infantry) which were the French penal battalions known as the “Joyeaux”.  This video is a great run down of the historical contributions of this fine fighting force.