The French Customs Service was part of the military until the armistice in 1940. Connected to the elite regiment of Chasseurs a Pied, the Customs Service still holds the hunting horn of the Chasseurs in their logo.
 |
| Beret badge, 1st Model |
During the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War, the
brigades of Customs Officers (Douaniers) were used to form marksmen units and
to track enemy units trying to infiltrate French lines.
During WW1, due to their knowledge of the areas and their experience in human tracking, they were part of Corps Francs (small units which were tasked to operate behind German lines to collect intelligence and perform sabotages on enemy targets). The red stripe on their uniforms is a remaining of the decoration of one of their officers, Capitaine Cutsaert during the Napoleonic wars.
.png) |
| Beret badge, 2nd Model |
The military customs service fought in the early part of the
Second World War but was disbanded on June 22, 1940 after the French defeat and
was never reconstituted as a military service.
The most plausible reason was the downsizing of the French
Military due to the 1940 armistice. Nonetheless small units of customs men from
customs posts in French Indochina fought against the Japanese as guerilla units
until the end of the war.
| Douaniers in Marseille, after the armistice in 1940, with gunboat in the background |
No comments:
Post a Comment