Souvenir Album of the Great European War

The Terrible Turcos—Native Algerians in the French Army

Reading edition

These are not negroes, but men of Berber origin with black beards and tanned faces. They are recruited in Algiers and are called "tirailleurs algieriens." Their headgear is the characteristic fez. The object resembling a football which they carry on the hip is a water bottle.

In the war of 1870 these troops became greatly feared and hated by the Germans, because of their trick of "playing possum" until the enemy passed and then springing up and striking from the rear. They are impetuous fighters, and the difficulty the French generals find in their employment is to hold them back at times when to charge the enemy is foolhardy.

Illustration from Souvenir Album of the Great European War With Pictorial Maps of the Battlegrounds

THE TERRIBLE TURCOS-NATIVE ALGERIANS IN THE FRENCH ARMY