The French Far East Expeditionary Corps was a colonial expeditionary unit which belonged to the French Army. It was sent to French Indochina in 1945 at the end of World War II. Its name in French was "Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient," or CEFEO. It was created in 1945 to replace the former Far East French Expeditionary Forces. The purpose of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps was to support Saigon-based General Gilbert Sabattier, who was the divisional commander of the Indochina French Forces. It fought in the French Indochina War against the Viet Minh and was disbanded in 1956.
The French Far East Expeditionary Corps consisted of enlisted and volunteer troops from the French Union colonial territories in Maghreb, Africa, Madagascar, Overseas and South-East Asia. The Corps included TirailleursSpahis (sharpshooters) and Goums from France’s Armée d’Afrique. The American government supplied them with military equipment, including artillery. The infantry weapons its troops used were World War II American rifles and submachine gun, such as the M1 Garand rifle, the Browning Automatic Rifle, and the Thompson submachine gun. Most of the non-Caucasian troops came from peasant families.
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