Tirailleur - Uniforms

Uniforms

Until 1914 the Algerian and Tunisian tirailleurs wore zouave style uniforms of light blue with yellow braiding. White turbans, red fezs and sashes were worn with both this "tenue orientale" and with a white service dress of similar loose cut. The West African and Madagascan tirailleurs wore a dark blue parade dress with red sash and fez while the Indochinese regiments wore an indigenous style of blue, white or khaki uniform with a flat "salacco" headdress. Khaki had been widely worn as a hot-weather field dress in the years before the outbreak of World War I and thereafter became the norm. The North African tirailleurs however resumed their colourful full dress uniforms between 1927 and 1939 to assist recruitment.