You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (September 2023)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Bataille de Sidi-Brahim]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Bataille de Sidi-Brahim}} to the talk page.
The encounter was unplanned and poorly commanded by Montagnac, and went badly for the French troops. After a first encounter, the French's numbers were reduced from 450 to 82 chasseurs and hussars against hundreds of Algerians. Cornered, the chasseurs of the carabinier company took refuge in a marabout, from which they repulsed all assaults. After a siege lasting many days, without food or water and short of munitions, they were reduced to cutting up their musket balls in order to keep firing. Emir Abdelkader captured captain adjutant major Dutertre and taken under guard to the front of the marabout to demand the chasseurs' surrender, but instead used his time there to exhort the survivors to fight to the death, for which Abdelkader beheaded him. Abdelkader then demanded that the French bugler (Guillaume Rolland) sound the retreat, but he instead sounded the charge, whilst one chasseur replied to another of Abdelkader's other demands for their surrender with the word, Merde! (Shit). (in reference to Cambronne's answer at Waterloo). When the remaining 80 survivors completely ran out of munitions, they managed to break through the enemy lines with a bayonet charge, but only 16 of them managed to rejoin the French lines (5 of which died some days later). Among the dead was Montagnac himself. The remains of the soldiers killed at Sidi Brahim were gathered at Djemmaa Ghazaouet in the "Tombeau des Braves" then reburied at the Musée des Chasseurs at the old fort in Vincennes in 1965.
Legacy
Propaganda poster about the "battalion of Sidi-Brahim."
The extreme bravery shown by the battalion led to its being nicknamed the battalion of Sidi-Brahim and the battle being written up among its battle honours. However, according to Gilles Manceron, the soldiers "were led in quite an inconsiderate manner" by Colonel de Montagnac "whose writings boast, with no remorse, of several war crimes".[6] The expression "faire Sidi Brahim" became a motto of the Chasseurs (light infantry / mountain battalions). During the First World War, the 7th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins (7°BCA) took a German pass for several days and, lacking munitions, managed to repulse the German attack with stones. There the chasseurs won the nickname "schwarzen Teufel" (black devils), which later became "Blue Devils" (les Diables bleus), which they still use. The insignia of the 7th BCA is still a devil, in a hunting horn (representing the Chasseurs).
External links
Les Zouaves et les Chasseurs a Pied, Duc d'Aumale, Henri d'Orléans - pseudonym - M. Lévy frères - 1859 - 184 pages
Sidi-Brahim - 23, 24, 25 et 26 septembre 1845, Esquisse Historique - Charleville - Imprimerie Nouvelle - 1889 - 58 pages
↑ Garnier, Jacques (2004). Dictionnaire Perrin des guerres et des batailles de l'histoire de France. Perrin. p.37. ISBN9782262008291.
↑ Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist, Volume 8 "the person who commanded at the massacre of Sidi-Brahim, where 400 French troops were put to death" Citation
↑ "A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East" - Spencer C. Tucker Citation
↑ Gilles Manceron, Marianne et les colonies, La découverte, 2003, p.168
Chasseur, a French term for "hunter", is the designation given to certain regiments of French and Belgian light infantry or light cavalry to denote troops trained for rapid action.
The chasseurs alpins are the elite mountain infantry force of the French Army. They are trained to operate in mountainous terrain and in urban warfare.
The structure of the French Army is fixed by Chapter 2 of Title II of Book II of the Third Part of the Code of Defense, notably resulting in the codification of Decree 2000-559 of 21 June 2000.
The 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade is a mountain infantry formation of the French Army. The brigade is subordinated to the 1st Armored Division and specializes in mountain warfare.
The 1st Armored Division is a unit of the French Army formed during World War II that took part in the Liberation of France.
The II Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that existed during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of Kaiserslautern saw a Coalition army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel oppose a Republican French army led by Lazare Hoche. Three days of conflict resulted in a victory by the Prussians and their Electoral Saxon allies as they turned back repeated French attacks. The War of the First Coalition combat was fought near the city of Kaiserslautern in the modern-day state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, which is located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Mannheim.
The armies of the First French Empire and the Austrian Empire fought the Battle of Caldiero from 29 to 31 October 1805 just east of Verona in Italy. Marshal André Masséna led the French Army of Italy while Archduke Charles commanded the Austrian Armee von Italien. Historians variously call the battle a French victory, an Austrian victory, or indecisive. Austrian losses were over 5,500, while the French suffered at least 5,000 casualties. Archduke Charles began a withdrawal from Italy on 1 November. The retreat ended in early December with Archduke Charles's army intact at Kormend in western Hungary. Unfortunately for Austria, by this time, Emperor Napoleon had decisively defeated the Austro-Russian army at the Battle of Austerlitz.
The Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf was a series of engagements during the First World War fought for the control of the Hartmannswillerkopf peak in Alsace in 1914 and 1915. The peak is a pyramidal rocky spur in the Vosges mountains, about 5 km (3.1 mi) north of Thann, standing at 956 m (3,136 ft) and overlooking the Alsace Plain, Rhine valley and the Black Forest in Germany. Hartmanswillerkopf was captured by the French army during the Battle of Mulhouse (7–10, 14–26 August 1914). From the vantage point, Mulhouse and the Mulhouse–Colmar railway could be seen and the French railway from Thann to Cernay and Belfort shielded from German observation.
Paul-Alexis Dubois commanded French divisions during the War of the First Coalition and was killed in action fighting against Habsburg Austria. He enlisted in a French infantry regiment in 1770 and transferred into the cavalry in 1776. Thereafter he served in several different cavalry and infantry regiments. From sous-lieutenant in 1791, he served in the Army of the Moselle and was rapidly promoted to general of brigade by August 1793. After briefly commanding an infantry division in the Army of the Rhine at Wissembourg he switched back to the Army of the Moselle to fight at Kaiserslautern before being wounded at Froeschwiller in December 1793.
The 2nd Parachute Chasseur Regiment or 2e RCP, is one of the most decorated French units of the Second World War, the only land unit awarded the red fourragère in that war, including six citations at the orders of the armed forces. The French Navy 1500-ton class submarine Casabianca also accumulated six citations at the orders of the armed forces and therefore its crewmen were entitled to wear the same fourragère.
Zawiyet Sidi Boumerdassi or Zawiyet Ouled Boumerdès is a zawiya located within Boumerdès Province in Algeria.
The Expedition of the Col des Beni Aïcha in May 1837, during the French conquest of Algeria, pitted the troupes coloniales under Colonel Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg against the troops of Beni Aïcha of the Igawawen.
The First Battle of Boudouaou in 25–26 May 1837, during the French conquest of Algeria, pitted the troupes coloniales under Colonel Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg against the troops of Kabylia of the Igawawen.
Mustapha ibn Muhieddine, known as Emir Mustapha, Sidi Moustafa, Moustafa El Hassani El Djazairi, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion in the mid-19th century with his brother, Emir Abdelkader.
Zawiyet Sidi Amar Cherif, or Zawiyet Sidi Daoud, is a zawiya school located in Boumerdès Province in Algeria.
The First Battle of the Issers in May 1837, during the French conquest of Algeria, pitted the troupes coloniales under General Perrégaux and Colonel Schauenburg against the troops of Kabylia of the Igawawen.
The Battle of the Col des Beni Aïcha (1846) or Battle of Thénia (1846), which broke out on 3 February 1846, was a battle of the French conquest of Algeria between the Algerian rebels, and the France, which was the colonial power in the region since 1830.
Zawiyet Sidi Brahim Boushaki or Zawiyet Thénia is a zawiya of the Rahmaniyya Sufi brotherhood located at Boumerdès Province, in the lower Kabylia region of Algeria.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Kingdom of France 
Emirate of Mascara 
