? It's not uncommon knowledge that the Colonial troops were usually the first to be thrown into shitstorm situations. Ypres would be a prime example, they were the first troops who had to deal with the effects of Toxic gas. Many Algerians and Canadians died that day.
I've also got some stories from my Great Grandfather about stuff he saw in the War, but I won't talk about it unless an IE dev gives me the permission.
The Colonial troops at Ypres were there by chance. It's not like the French knew the Germans would launch a gas attack there and purposely placed colonial troops there... Colonial soldiers on the Western front were employed in the same way as the white soldiers, claiming that high command always sent them first into the attacks to get the killed is a preposterous claim. Colonial troops were even viewed as elite soldiers, like the French Colonial corps being a prime example. They may have gotten discrimination from white soldiers, but saying they were specifically chosen for suicide missions is a huge misconception.
That is true, and we can add to that, it's only pure misfortune because most of time, colonial troops were retired from the front during the cold period of winter, because HC was thinking they can't deal with the extreme climat. Of course in a very difficult case, like big german offensive, whatever the climate, all forces were called back.
The fact is that colonial troops, especially those from north africa, were also composed of white peoples, at least "european peoples". My great grand uncle was an european from algeria, and he served in the Tunisian infantrymen (Tirailleurs tunisiens) with alot of other "pieds noirs" from North Africa. And also my great uncle was in the Algerians infantrymen during the WW2, but the comon legend want that these regiments were fully indigenous (which is totaly wrong).
Some others colonial troops, like Zouaves, were mainly (perhaps fully) europeans from metropolitan area (parisians, Bretons, people from the Loire area), but deployed in the colonies.
i don't know what was the feeling of HC about the utilisation of Colonial troops, but they were not always used in first line, as french believed germans were affraid of the colonial troops, so we can guess they were used mainly in offensive phases to add a psychological benefit to the assault and that's maybe why people start to think they were using more than metropolitans as first wave. I think it's not because of their skins colour or their origin, but for their so estimated skill in combat, and we can check it by another story:
The meridional french soldiers were less estimated than any forces, and they had a bad publicity in the french army, High officers sayin that they were only good to received shot in the ass and raise their rifles in the air, calling them "Prussian from the south ("Prussiens du midi" in french). And they were not used in first wave from september 1914 until mid-late 1915 because of this bad publicity that they will retreat. But after the doubts were dissiped by their extrem bravery (they themselves said they have to do 2 times more brave things to be respected) that thing changed (a bit).
So you right, the Colonial troops, from what i read, were not used as first attacking troops because of their origins, especially because French officers though they were very good fighters (so not something you can waste in a very difficult and indecisive war). But that not means Black soldiers or arabic soldiers were estimated at the same level as white soldiers in the human way of course.
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