Bordel militaire de campagne

A BMC in Morocco in the 1920s

Bordels Mobiles de Campagne or Bordel Militaire de Campagne ("Mobile Field Brothels" or "Mobile Military Brothel", both abbreviated to BMC) were mobile brothels used during World War I, World War II and the First Indochina War to supply prostitution services to French soldiers fighting in areas where brothels were unusual, such as at the front line or in isolated garrisons.[1][2] The BMCs were significant drivers towards the creation of prostitution regulations within the French army.

These mobile brothels were, in some cases, officially organised by the army.[3] They consisted of large trailer trucks in which up to ten women would work.[4] The first references to these BMCs were in World War I, and they are noted particularly in the Indochina War and the Algerian War.[5]

Subsequently, only the Foreign Legion still used them and closed the last BMC on French soil, in Guyana, in 1995.[6] The BMC in Djibouti was still operating until 2003.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ World Association of International Studies article Archived 2007-06-12 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on March 10, 2007
  2. ^ The Last Valley Martin Windrow, 2004
  3. ^ Phipps, Catherine (2023). "Between metropole and colony: Bordels militaires de campagne in colonial Morocco and France in the twentieth century". French History. 37 (3): 254–272. doi:10.1093/fh/crad016.
  4. ^ The International Encyclopaedia of Sexuality: Vietnam, retrieved on March 10, 2007
  5. ^ Robin, Marie (2022). "'A Hallowed Institution': The Bordel Militaire de Campagne (Mobile Field Brothels) and the Making of Military Prostitution in France Following World War One". Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal.
  6. ^ editeur (23 July 2014). "Le soldat et la putain". Association nationale des croix de guerre et de la valeur militaire (in French). Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  7. ^ "C'est le bordel à Djibouti" [This is the brothel in Djibouti]. Le Canard enchaîné (in French). 24 September 2003. ISSN 0008-5405.
  8. ^ Kedor, Roman (2016). Todeskampf im tropischen Regenwald (in German). Books on Demand. ISBN 9783739235547.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference canada was invoked but never defined (see the help page).