Photographs from 1908 – Casablanca Incursion

Just a quick post today to share some pictures recently posted to the French digital archives at Gallica.  These show events and troops related to the 1907-1908 French incursion into Morocco and subsequent battles and maneuvers against rebel tribesmen further inland.  A great account of this episode was written by Reginald Rankin–a war correspondent at the time.  It is called In Morocco with General D’Amade and can be found at the Internet Archive here or you can download a copy I just added to the Library page.  In sort, several railroad workers (French, Spanish, and Italian) were massacred by Moroccans because their railroad expansion crossed a certain burial ground.  This attack and other provocations resulted in a very harsh response by France to include bombardment of the city of Casablanca and subsequent landing of troops that would eventually stay in Morocco until 1956.  These mostly show the action in 1908 and were recorded by a newly formed French press agency (L‘agence Rol). The picture above is my favorite showing two Legionnaires, probably wounded, being evacuated by expedient mule ambulance.