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SAGHRO

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How many were they?

What numbers do the sources attribute to the two sides?

What the source says

Colonial militaryFull text consulted

Gérardin, 1987

p. 42-44

The Saghro was held by “a thousand irreducible warriors”. On the French side, two mobile groups (Catroux, Giraud); for 28 February Gérardin details five goums, partisans, three elements of Legion mounted companies and artillery (75 mm mortars, 65 and 80 mm mountain guns, two 75 mm batteries), with no total figure.

Encyclopedic synthesisFull text consulted

Wikipédia (français) — « Bataille de Bougafer »

“12,000 men and women” of the Aït Atta, or “7,000 to 12,000 Moroccans”, against “more than 80,000 men”: a figure followed by the tag “[dubious information]”. The article's order of battle (eleven goums of 250 men, harkas of 4,400 and 2,000 partisans, a few Legion companies, spahis, four squadrons) totals far less.

⚠ Tertiary source; unreferenced figures.

Colonial militaryFull text consulted

Saulay, 1983

p. 58, 60

On 26 February, notables ask for a truce “representing 400 warriors”: a first partial figure for the defenders. After the failure of 28 February, all partisans are dismissed except 1,800; the blockade is entrusted to “regular units brought in haste” and “backed by heavy artillery”.

« des notables Aït Atta, représentant 400 guerriers, demandent au général Giraud une trève de vingt-quatre heures »
Verified quotation

Source pages : Saulay, 1983, p. 58 · Saulay, 1983, p. 60

Academic researchExcerpts consulted

Hart, 1984

p. 180, 182-183

Hart quotes a French estimate: about 800 nuclear families had taken refuge in the Saghro, able to provide “nearly a thousand warriors”; Qaid ʿAli, Assou's son, counts 1,200. According to General Huré, quoted and translated by Hart, about 7,000 people had taken refuge in the Saghro, nearly a thousand of them fighters; the last defenders numbered 490 nuclear families, 2,900 people, with 195 repeating rifles and 174 single-shot rifles.

« These 800 nuclear families could provide nearly a thousand warriors, all well armed and fully provided with ammunition »
Verified quotation

⚠ The French figures come from military reports and Huré's memoirs (1952), read here through Hart's English translation; Qaid ʿAli's are a family testimony collected by Hart. None is a census.

Source pages : Hart, 1984, p. 180 · Hart, 1984, p. 182 · Hart, 1984, p. 183

Comparison grid

Gérardin, 1987Wikipédia (français) — « Bataille de Bougafer »Saulay, 1983Hart, 1984
Aït Atta≈ 1,000 fighters7,000 to 12,000 men and womenno total; 400 fighters represented on 26 February“nearly a thousand” (French estimate); 1,200 (Qaid ʿAli); about 7,000 refugees including nearly 1,000 fighters (Huré)
French forcesno figure (units detailed)“80,000” (dubious per the article)no total; 1,800 partisans kept in Marchtwo groups (Catroux west, Giraud east), partisan harkas, goums, Legion, spahis, four air squadrons
Civiliansfamilies and herds besiegedmen and women counted together“their women, their children, their flocks” (Spillmann)800 nuclear families (French estimate); 490 families, 2,900 people among the last defenders (Hart, n. 52)

Our reading

For the defenders, serious estimates converge on about a thousand fighters: “a thousand warriors” (Gérardin), “nearly a thousand” according to a French estimate quoted by Hart, nearly 1,000 fighters among 7,000 refugees according to General Huré (translated by Hart), 1,200 according to Qaid ʿAli, Assou's son. The besieged population was much larger: 490 families, 2,900 people, among the last defenders of 25 March alone.

The 12,000 “men and women” and the “80,000” attackers put forward by Wikipedia rest on no consulted source; the article itself flags them as doubtful. On the French side, the sources describe two groups (Catroux west, Giraud east) made up mostly of Moroccan auxiliaries (partisan harkas and goums), backed by the Legion, spahis, artillery and aircraft.

Two distinctions remain essential: armed fighters versus the besieged population (families were present), French regulars versus Moroccan auxiliaries, the latter forming most of the assault troops. Hart notes that Aït Atta partisans sometimes replaced the bullets in their cartridges with paper on recognising kinsmen on the other side.

Assisted translation, not validated

Reading a colonial archive

Military reports and colonial literature are indispensable — and situated — sources: they count their own losses precisely, the enemy's rarely; they name their officers, rarely the Aït Atta fighters; they write to justify a policy. Oral traditions and Moroccan historiography ask other questions and have their own memorial uses.

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