8th Zouaves Regiment

Disembarked at Bordeaux and at Sète between August 7 and August 15, 1914, three battalions (1st, 2nd, and 4th), the 3rd battalion belonging to a marching tirailleur regiment at the corps of the Moroccan Division. On August 20, they were in the region of Mézières - Charleville. The following days, they heard the cannon of Charleroi. The 25th, they crossed the border of Belgium, and that of Sugny, a small Belgian village, they witnessed the burning of the villages of the Meuse and Semois. They welcomed the IX Corps and assumed the rearguard.

They combat engaged at the corps of the Moroccan Division alongside the 4^e RTT, the 7^e RTA as well as the RMLE.

• Unfolding on the Marne
• Yser
• October 1914: the 8th Zouaves took form with the four respective battalions and designated "8".

• In August 1915, the regimental colors were received. The regiment had three colonels throughout the war, lieutenants-colonels Modelon, Auronx and Lagarde. Lieutenant-colonel Modelon earned the regiment two palms and the fourragere with colors of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918. Under the command of colonel Lagarde, the regiment conquered five palms, the fourragre with colors of the Médaille militaire, then the fourragere with colors of the Légion d'honneur. Conferred the Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur to the regimental colors, the 8th Zouaves Regiment was cited seven times at the orders of the armed forces during the course of the war (1914-1918).
• Artois
• September 25 - October 6 : Second Battle of Champagne

• Verdun 1916
• Somme

• Verdun 1917

• Verdun
• Villers-Bretonneux
• Soissons/Crise
• Chemin des Dames
• While only taking part, to life in the sector, the 8th Zouaves was of almost all the grand action offensives of the war, the regiment was able to inscribe on the regimental colors: la Marne, Yser, Artois, Champagne, Somme, Moronvilliers, Verdun, Soissons, July 18 Chemin des Dames.

After 1919, the regiment was in Oran. It dissolved in 1928, the 2nd Zouave replaced the 8th Zouave. The regiment held garrison at Camp de Châlons in 1943. Accordingly, the regiment was motorised, the only regiment of Zouave in Metropole...

• In 1940, the 8th Zouaves, with the 12th Motorised Infantry Division (French: :fr:12e division d'infanterie motorisée) disappeared at Dunkirk.

• Formed a Commando unit in Algeria
• Algeria 1956 - 1962
• At the cease-fire on March 19, 1962 in Algeria, the 8th Zouaves Regiment constituted along with 91 other regiments, the 114 units of the local force through the accords of Evians on March 18, 1962. The 8th Zouaves Regiment formed a local unit force of the Algerian order of battle, the 496°UFL-UFO composed of 10% metropolitan military and 90% Muslim military personnel, while being at the service of the executive provisionary power of Algeria until the independence of Algeria.

The Regimental Color are decorated with:

• Légion d'honneur
• Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with :
  • 7 palms and 1 silver star ,
• Ordre du Mérite Militaire Chérifien.
• Fourragere:
  • Fourragère with colors of Croix de guerre 1914-1918
  • Fourragère with colors of the Médaille militaire.
  • Fourragère with colors of the Légion d'honneur attributed to the regiment on September 3, 1918.

• 
  Fourragere with colors of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918
• 
  Fourragere with colors of the Médaille militaire
• 
  Fourragere with colors of the Légion d'honneur

• Saint-Gond 1914
• Artois 1915
• Champagne 1915
• Les Monts 1917
• Verdun 1917
• Soissonnais 1918
• Vauxaillon 1918