21st RIMa - Grips and Holds

Born of the 1900 law on the reorganisation of the Colonial Troops, the 21st RIMa is today a sprightly centenarian based in Fréjus on the shores of the Mediterranean. Its rich and long history makes it one of the most prestigious regiments of the arm. Carrying on the traditions of the 2nd Colonial Infantry Regiment of the garrison, the 21st RIC was created on 17 January 1901 in Paris. A brief posting to Morocco allowed it to justify its colonial vocation, but it was during the Great War that it first tasted glory. It took part in every battle. Its four citations in army orders and its four battle honours — "Champagne 1915", "La Somme 1916", "L'Aisne 1917" and "Reims 1918" — bear witness to the heroism of its marsouins. After the feats of arms of the 1940 campaign and the trials of the occupation, the 21st RIC was reborn within General de Lattre de Tassigny's 1st Army. The battle of the Alsace potash mines, Colmar, Leimersheim, Rastatt — all became new titles to glory. Shortly afterwards, the regiment discovered the rice paddies of Indochina, then the djebels of Algeria, where it became, on 1 December 1958, the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment. Having formed the core of the 31st Brigade in Lebanon in the early 1980s, then serving within the 6th DLB, in 2007 the 21st RIMa joined the 6th Light Armoured Brigade. Over the past twenty-five years, it has acquired an extraordinary depth of experience across every operational theatre in the world: Lebanon, Chad and Central Africa, the Middle East during the Gulf crisis, the former Yugoslavia — Bosnia and Kosovo — and today Ivory Coast. A young and dynamic regiment, resolutely oriented towards the future, the 21st RIMa can be committed on the Central European theatre, deployed overseas or tasked with public service missions in metropolitan France. It is also the guardian of the traditions of the Marine Troops. Equipped with the latest-generation materiel and functional facilities, the 21st RIMa offers the men and women who serve in its ranks a "trade of adventure" in the finest tradition of the Marine Troops.