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Re: Goumier TOE Platoon Organization and what should box look like
A Goum (Auxilliary, police, militia) originally of around 200 tribesmen plus french officers, about 50 cavalry and 150 infantry, first raised in 1908 as a more permanent replacement for irregulars raised on an ad hoc basis.
presumably the organisation 50/150 cavalry/infantry remained the same thoughout this era...
After this it gets much more complicated the French in WW2 North Africa raised large numbers apparantly in secrecy ...
But there are Orbats for various forces but the organisation and arms of the platoons would doubtless have altered dramatically depending on circumstances...
Assuming that there were still around 200 men in a Goum in 1943...
You could divide this into 3/4 platoons?
each made up of 2 sections(4 half sections) plus support recon elements and HQ...
Around 40 men would be more in line with French organisation as I understand it...
1/2 section leaders would be NCOs* as would section and platoon leaders...
*NCO here refers to anything above the rank of private.
MMgs require more then 3 or 4 crew (6-8?)and would require some mules for transport as well, as would the other support weapons... 2mmgs, 1 mortar etc could easily take up an entire platoons worth of men...
The best source of info is likely gallica an online french library for example for 1914-18:
but you have to know what your looking for and that can be quite a problem in itself...
As far as sets go the first (WW2)should be infantry with nothing bigger then an LMG FM24/Bar and a secound with Heavy weapons and support, MMG, Mortar mule etc...
as I think it would be a popular subject it really requires more than a sprue of a dozen or so figures...
Re: Goumier TOE Platoon Organization and what should box look like
Hello everyone,
As far as I can tell the 1943/45 Goum was a bit more modern than the 2 half sections cited above.
It had a command section with a support group armed with a 60mm mortar and a bakooka team
3 x rifle sections that had 3 FM 24/29 each and 2 VB tromblons. That would mean a classical group of 12 goumiers with a LMG group and 1 Thompson SMG for the NCO.
You still hab the mounted platoon with 38 men in 2 x 13 men groups, a eclaireur escouade of 7 and a commande element of 5. Each cavalry group had a VB tromblon.
A HMG section of 12 with 2 x Browning M1919 or in some cases still the Hotchkiss M14 and a mule team that, if anything in line with french practice with 12 men, under NCO command.
Can't find any trace of the BAR in official Tableaux d'Effectifs et Dotations for the Goums but it doesn't mean there were absent, but certainly not in place of the FM 24/29.
Official dotation for a Goum was from 1943, 9 FM 24/29, 8 VB TRamblons, 21 Thompson SMG, 1 60mm mortar, either M35 Brandt or US M2, a bazooka and of course M17 enfield rifles but mainly after the 1944 italian campaign,