laststandonzombieisland

Some 75 years ago.

Sometime between 29 March and 18 April 1951, in French Indochina. Two wildly different irregulars were both on their way out in French colonial service.

A Moroccan Goumier of the 17e Tabor and a barefoot Thai (also seen as Tai or T’ai) partisan of the regiment-sized 1er Groupement Mobile de Partisans Thaïs (GMPT 1) observe the village of Chieng Nuoi opposite the Nam Na River in the Lai Chau province in the far northwest of what is now Vietnam.

While we have often covered the Goum units– who suffered more than 8,000 casualties fighting in Europe during WWII and had 26 unit citations to prove it– and nine tabors (1er, 2e, 3e, 5e, 8e, 9e, 10e, 11e, and 17e) would go on to fight in Indochina, noted in their performance in the battles RC4 and at Diên Biên Phu (they would leave no less than 4,120 Moroccans behind in Southeast Asian soil, including 611 still listed as MIA), the French Thai partisans have been neglected in our pages.

The mountainous and mist-shrouded Lai Chau province, then as now, has a significant Thai minority, making up just under half of the population. It is from this 600,000-strong minority that the French recruited, starting in 1948 with the help of the local clan leader, Deo Van Long, president of the Tai Federation, for both integration into standing units and fully separate irregular outfits. The latter included two companies of ethnic Thai Blancs (Tai Don), the three-company strong Groupement Wième (with CSM 431, 432, and 434 under WIÈME group), the above-mentioned GMPT 1, and three battalions of Thai auxiliaries (BT1, BT2, and BT3), amounting to roughly 30-40 very light companies depending on the time frame in addition to those serving in non-ethnic Thai units.

Each company was typically made up of about 60-70 men under the command of an ethnic Thai (reserve) officer, generally a trusted chau doan (canton chief) who could speak French, with individual partisans earning 20 Indochina trade piastres per day (equivalent to a bit less than $1 USD at the time). Said Thai officer had, as an advisor, a French soldier, typically an NCO cross-trained as a radio operator.

Uniforms were, well, irregular, with a mix of black civilian attire augmented by assorted web gear with the occasional beret or canvas Chapeau de Brousse (bush hat).

By January 1953, there were nearly 10,000 ethic Thais officially under French command in the Autonomous Zone of the Northwest (ZANO)– which even awarded its own military decorations. More than half of these (6,088) were rank and file in regular units (283 non-commissioned officers, 5,805 enlisted men), the remainder (2,964) constituted auxiliary/partisan units (44 officers, 11 non-commissioned officers, 2,909 enlisted men).

By November 1953, the GMPT counted some 3,200 of these partisans, advised by 62 Europeans, and were prized as rearguards, scouts, and in counter-guerrilla operations.

They fought at Diên Biên Phu down to the bitter last moments, and many of the partisans never came home from that cursed place.

Once the Communist North took over Lai Chau province, and the ZANO ceased to exist, those associated with the partisans lost their oxygen privileges and, if they could, fled to the south with many, Deo Van Long included, eventually winding up in metropolitan France, where they spent their final days. His sons killed while leading partisan units during the war, the old Van Long passed the leadership of his clan to his daughter.

Those left behind fought a guerrilla war against the NVA for several years, aided by a few French burnouts who fell in love with the people and their cause.