PHOTOS: 2nd Motorized Company GPLEM in Taroudant, Morocco, in 1954

Here is a small set of photos taken in Morocco, North Africa, in 1954. They are showing legionnaires of the 2nd Motorized Company (2e CP) of the Foreign Legion Moroccan Motorized Group (GPLEM) in Taroudant. The photos were provided to our website by Krzysztof Schramm, historian of the A.A.A.L.E. de Pologne veteran association and the author of I regret nothing.

In 1954, the little-known GPLEM was composed of only two motorized companies. The second one was stationed in Taroudant, a real citadel in southern Morocco, defended by almost four miles (6 km) of ramparts with 130 towers and 19 bastions. Just like the other Foreign Legion units at the time of the First Indochina War (1946-1954), also these two companies served as transit units which consisted of rotating personnel. They were receiving officers, NCOs and legionnaires returning from the Far East, as well as fresh legionnaires coming there from Algeria (main instruction center) before their first deployment to the Far East.

Equipped with Jeeps and Dodge WC trucks since the early 1950s, the GPLEM patrolled not only southern Morocco, but also the Algerian region of Tindouf, and the northern part of Mauritania in what was then French West Africa. All these regions bordered with the Sahara and thus the unit’s missions sometimes reminded the old romantic movies about the pre-WWII Legion operating in the sea of sand…

Any pictures from the GPLEM are very rare. So, enjoy them. To enlarge the photos, you can click on them. To see the whole captions, just hover with your mouse over them.