. The Senegalese Tirailleurs (French: Tirailleurs Sénégalais) were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army. They were initially recruited from Saint-Louis, Senegal, the initial colonial capital city of French West Africa and subsequently throughout Western, Central and Eastern Africa: the main sub-Saharan regions of the French colonial empire.[1] The noun tirailleur, which translates variously as ‘skirmisher’, ‘rifleman’, or ‘sharpshooter’, was a designation given by the French Army to indigenous infantry recruited in the various colonies and overseas possessions of the French Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries.[2]
Despite recruitment not being limited to Senegal and including regiments from French Soudan (contemporary Mali), these infantry units took on the adjective sénégalais since that was where the first black African Tirailleur regiment had been formed. The first Senegalese Tirailleurs were formed in 1857 and by the 1930s, men from territories like Chad and Gabon also comprised parts of the corps. These African soldiers served France in a number of wars, including World War I (providing around 200,000 troops, more than 135,000 of whom fought in Europe and 30,000 of whom were killed[[3]]
(Senegalese Tirailleurs - Wikipedia)) and World War II (recruiting 179,000 troops, 40,000 deployed to Western Europe). Other tirailleur regiments were raised in French North Africa from the Arab and Berber populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco;[4] collectively they were called tirailleurs nord-africains or Turcos. Tirailleur regiments were also raised in Indochina; they were called Vietnamese, Tonkinese or Annamites Tirailleurs. 
On the eve of the Second World War, five regiments of Tirailleurs Sénégalais were stationed in France in addition to a brigade based in Algeria. The 2e division coloniale sénégalaise was permanently deployed in the south of France due to the potential threat from Italy. It was also reasoned the climate was more suitable for African soldiers.[27] This deployment of Tirailleurs, outside of their regions of recruitment and traditional peacetime service, arose because of the heavy casualties of the First World War. This had affected the number of metropolitan Frenchmen in the military service age group of twenty to twenty-five by more than half.[28] Up to 200,000 tirailleurs were active during the war, which constituted about nine percent of the French forces.[29]
During the Battle of France, the Senegalese and other African tirailleur units served with distinction at Gien, Bourges, and Buzancais. German troops, indoctrinated with Nazi racial doctrines, expressed outrage at having fought against “inferior” opponents.[30] Along with other war crimes of the Wehrmacht, German forces massacred captured tirailleurs on multiple occasions during the 1940 campaign. The first incident occurred on 24 May 1940, when fifty wounded soldiers of the 24e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais were executed by Wehrmacht troops after having held up the German advance for two days at Aubigny.[31] More massacres followed the German crossing of the Somme from 5 June onward. On June 5, at Hangest-sur-Somme, a number of tirailleurs were executed after surrendering. One French officer recounted: “The enemy then appears, furious, beside himself, ready to finish us off all together. An extremely engaged intervention by a German officer prevents the troops from executing the European officers, but there was no indigenous man alive anymore after a few moments.”[32]
Between 7 and 10 June the 16e and 24e Régiments de Tirailleurs Sénégalais, part of the 4e Division d’Infanterie Coloniale, fought a series of battles along the Somme at Angivilliers, Lieuvilliers, and Erquinvillers. A large portion of the division became encircled during the course of the action. On the night of 9 June near Erquinvillers the Germans repeated the practice of separating white and black prisoners: “The Europeans . . . had to sit in front of a ravine under the barrels of machine guns while about fifty surviving Tirailleurs were led to a nearby place and shot with a machine gun. We, the officers, were able to confirm this later when we were led onto trucks that drove us toward captivity.”[32] On 9 June, the 24e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais launched a successful counterattack at Erquinvilliers, breaking the German encirclement and allowing part of the 4e Division to escape.[33] On taking each of the towns, German troops executed captured black soldiers, killing between 150 and 500.[32] On 11 June, roughly 74 Senegalese tirailleurs and white officers of the 4e Division d’Infanterie Coloniale were executed near Cressonsacq in the Bois d’Eraine massacre.[33]
One of the best-recorded incidents, photographed by the German perpetrators, was the Chasselay massacre which took place on 19 June 1940 near Lyon. Soldiers of the 25e Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais surrendered to the German troops in this area after exhausting their ammunition. Following the surrender, some fifty tirailleurs were separated from their white officers and ordered to stand in an open field, where they were machinegunned by German tanks.[34] The tanks then drove back and forth over the bodies of the dead tirailleurs to ensure there would be no survivors.[35] On the same day, a further 14 tirailleurs were executed at Sillé-le-Guillaume.[35]
German troops were also responsible for non-lethal abuses of Senegalese tirailleurs. In many cases, German soldiers tortured captured black soldiers, and often refused to bury the bodies of colonial troops. It was common for captured tirailleurs to be denied food, water and medicine by their German captors.[36]
The Senegalese Tirailleurs saw extensive service in West Africa, Italy, and Corsica. During 1944, they assisted in the liberation of southern France. The 9th DIC (Colonial Infantry Division) included the 4th, 6th, and 13th Regiments of Senegalese Tirailleurs, and fought from Toulon to the Swiss border between August and November 1944.
After the Liberation of France, the Tirailleurs concluded their service in Europe. They were replaced by newly recruited French volunteers,[37] on the order of Charles de Gaulle. This process became known as blanchiment.[29] Faced with U.S. restrictions on the size of the French forces, de Gaulle chose to incorporate the various partisan groups within the structure of the official army.[38] The complicated process of discharge and repatriation of the Tirailleurs, coupled with the refusal of France to pay wage arrears due to released prisoners of war, led to several incidents of violence. The most notable of these was the Thiaroye massacre, in 1944, during which the French killed between 35 and 300 (sources vary) Tirailleurs.[29] Though the Tirailleurs Sénégalais had been promised that in recognition of their service they would become equal citizens of France, this pledge was not kept following the end of hostilities.[29] .
This is a very rare, early example of a French Model 1907/15 straight pull military rifle produced by the MAS factory. It has a very low serial number “4” indicating it was probably one of the first test or prototype rifle manufactured. This model is patterned somewhat after the original Model 1902 and 1907 rifles but in a manual, straight pull type design vs. a bolt action design. They were only produced for a very short time and then France developed the Model 1917 semi-automatic rifles. The left side of the receiver is engraved “MA. S. 1907,” followed by No. 4". It has a very long 31 inch barrel with a fully machined action and internal parts with a machined sliding action cover. The rifle is loaded through the top of the receiver via a stripper clip. The interesting aspect is that it has a non-rotating bolt head that is pinned into a bolt carrier. There is a set of spring loaded, opposing locking lugs, mounted on the side of the bolt head. There is also a matching set of spring loaded locking lugs mounted in the receiver/barrel extension. When the rifle is fired, the complete bolt/bolt carrier and barrel slide rearward approximately 4 inches (which is why the barrel is so long) and when the bolt carrier/bolt locks into the rear of the receiver, the barrel is released and slides forward. Then, when the bolt carrier is released, it (along with the bolt) moves forward, stripes a round from the magazine and chambers it in the barrel. During this forward movement, the locking lugs in the bolt head actually retract inward, and the locking lugs in the receiver move outward which allows the blot to lock in place in the rear of the barrel. A very unique design that was probably very complicated to manufacture, explaining why you don’t see very many of these rifles. It has a fixed front sight and a military style tangent rear sight mounted on top of the receiver. The graduations for the rear sight are actually marked on top of the receiver ring on the left side. It has a full length one piece stock and handguard. The right rear side of the buttstock is stamped with single “Crown/R” proof over a circular cartouche from the MAS factory. The cartouche is stamped “MA” in the center surrounded by “MA/G/S.A” and dated “1907” at the bottom. Below that cartouche is serial number “4”. 