The French Foreign Legion (French: Légion Étrangère) is a unique unit within the French Army established in 1831. It is an elite rapid deployment force originally made up of foreign volunteers serving France.
Initially, the Legion proved to be an effective means for removing some of the more "undesirable" elements of 19th century French society, as its ranks were filled with cut-throats, run-aways, beggars, general criminals and unwanted immigrants. During its early period, the Legionnaire was very poorly trained and given only the most basic of equipment, clothing and food. The unit tended to be badly motivated - as their reasons for joining were desperation and self preservation rather than patriotism, as a Legionnaire would most likely be trying to escape from some grave problem. Living and working conditions were terrible, and their early campaigns were typically bloody affairs. As a result, desertion was traditionally a major problem for the Legion.
The task of forging a rag-tag band of poorly-motivated would-be warriors - from many different cultures - into an effective fighting force proved to be an immensely difficult undertaking. To accomplish this, the Legion quickly developed an incredibly austere code of discipline, far exceeding that of other contemporary units, including those of the regular French army.
It was in Mexico on 30 April1863 that the Legion earned its legendary status. The small infantry patrol led by Capitaine Danjou numbering 62 soldiers and 3 officers was attacked and besieged by over a thousand[link] Mexican infantry and cavalry units organized into 3 battalions, and was forced to make a defense in Hacienda Camarón. Despite the hopelessness of the situation they fought nearly to the last man, with just three soldiers surrendering to the Mexicans on the condition that they could keep their weapons and their flag.
Franco-Prussian War
During the Franco-Prussian War, the Legion attempted to lift the Siege of Paris by breaking through the German lines. They succeeded in re-taking Orléans, but failed to break the siege.
Légionnaires in dress uniform. Note the red epaulettes and the distinctive white kepi. They carry the standard assault rifle, the FAMAS.
The World Wars
In World War I the Legion fought in many critical battles of the war, including the Battle of Verdun. The Legion was highly decorated for its efforts in the war.
The Foreign Legion was heavily involved in World War II, playing a large role in the Middle East and the North African campaign. The 13th Demi-Brigade was deployed in the Battle of Bir Hakeim. Interestingly, part of the Legion was loyal to the Free French movement, yet another part was loyal to the Vichy government. A battle in Syria saw two opposing sides fight against each other in a short engagement, and later on the Vichy Legion joined its Free French brethren.
Indochina
Units of the Legion were deployed in French Indochina and fought in the Franco-Chinese War, and one battalion was the key component in the celebrated defense of the fortress of Tuyen Quang when it was assaulted by Chinese troops many times its number.
Units of the Legion were involved in the defense of Dien Bien Phu during the First Indochina War and lost a large number of their men in the battle. Towards the desperate end of the battle, Legionnaires formed the bulk of the volunteer relief force which were delivered by parachute to the base.
Spanish Emulation
The Spanish Foreign Legion was created in 1920, in emulation of the French one, and had a significant role in Spain's colonial wars in Morocco and in the Spanish Civil War (on the Nationalist side). Unlike in its French model, the number of non-Spanish recruits never exceeded 25%.
Disbanded Unit
The 1st Regiment Etranger Parachutiste was established in 1955 and disbanded in April 1961 as the entire regiment rose against the French government.
Membership
While most of its commissioned officers are French, approximately 10% are former legionnaires who have risen through the ranks. The rest of the Legion is made up of men from a wide variety of nationalities, with French citizens representing 25-35% of the legionnaires. The foreign volunteers are primarily European. Before and during World War II, many Jews from Eastern Europe fled to France and ended up enlisting in the legion. Ironically, after the fall of the Third Reich, Germans (long a major presence in the legion) accounted for roughly sixty percent of the manpower, with many former German troops coming directly from WWIIPOW camps (Bernard B. Fall, a leading expert on French Indochina and author of Street without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, disputes this figure and claims that at most Germans only made up thirty-five percent of the Legion in the post-WWII period). The book Devil's Guard relates a former Waffen-SS member's brutal account of joining the Legion and fighting with fellow former SS against the Vietminh in Indochina. During the mid-1980s the Legion contained large contingents of British and Serbian nationals. Present day has seen a number of recruits from African and Balkan countries.
The Legion's ranks historically tend to be filled with enlistees from countries undergoing some sort of crisis. In recent generations, however, many of those joining have come from middle-class backgrounds in stable prosperous countries such as Britain and the US (and indeed France itself).
Legionnaires can choose to enlist under a pseudonym ("declared identity") and a declared citizenship. This disposition exists in order to allow people who want to turn over a new leaf in their life to enlist. French citizens can enlist under a declared, fictitious, foreign citizenship (generally, a francophone one). After one year, legionnaires can regularize their situation under their true identity.
In the past, the Legion had a reputation for attracting criminals on the run and would-be mercenaries. In recent years, however, admission has been restricted much more severely, and background checks are done on all applicants. Generally speaking, convicted felons are prohibited from joining the service.
After serving in the Legion for three years (out of a five-year initial enlistment), the legionnaire is allowed to apply for French citizenship. Furthermore, a soldier harmed in combat for France is also allowed to apply for French citizenship under a provision known as "Français par le sang versé" ("French by spilled blood").
Composition
Previously, the Legion was not stationed in mainland France except in wartime. Until 1962 the Legion headquarters were stationed in Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Algeria. Nowadays, some units of the legion are in Corsica or overseas possessions, while the rest is in the south of mainland France. Current headquarters are in Aubagne, France, just outside Marseille.
There are nine regiments and one independent sub-unit :
Peter Julien Ortiz (American, later condecorated USMC officer and OSS operative in Occuppied France during WWII)
References in popular culture
The existence of the French Foreign Legion has led to a romantic view that it is a place for a wronged man to leave behind his old life to start a new one, but also that it is full of scoundrels and men escaping justice. This view of the legion is common in literature, and has been used for dramatic effect in many movies, not the least of which are the several versions of Beau Geste.
Music
Édith Piaf
There is a French song made famous by Édith Piaf called "Mon Légionnaire", about a woman's longing for an embittered Legionnaire with whom she had a brief affair and who refused to tell her his name. The song was reprised by Serge Gainsbourg in the 1980's, the male voice singing the lyrics made famous by Piaf giving the song a strong homoerotic undertone. The new version of "Mon Légionnaire" was a hit on French dancefloors, both gay and heterosexual.
Another of Piaf's songs was "Le Fanion de la Légion" (The Flag of the Legion), describing the heroic defence by the garrison in a small Legion outpost attacked by Saharan tribes. Both songs were written by Raymond Asso, a Foreign Legion veteran who was Piaf's lover in the late 1930s.
The Foreign Legion adopted still another Édith Piaf song as their own, "Non, je ne regrette rien" (I regret nothing), during the 1950s when members of the Legion were accused (and not without reason) of atrocities and war crimes during the Algerian War. Today it is still a popular Legion "chant" sung when on parade, adapting it to their unique marching cadence of 88 steps to the minute.
Other
The indie-rock band The Decemberists wrote a song called "The Legionnaire's Lament" on their album Castaways and Cutouts. The song describes the homesickness of a French legionnaire on duty on the Algerian-Morroccan border in the early 1900s, with lines such as "I am on reprieve/ lacking my joie de vivre/ missing my gay Paris/ in this desert dry."
P.C. Wren's 1924 Beau Geste tells the story of three brothers who runaway to the French Foreign Legion.
The chronicle of Richard Halliburton's African flying adventure, The Flying Carpet, includes a description of the members of the Foreign Legion he befriends, plus several riveting anecdotes he hears from some of the older members.
In science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle's [Future History], involving a future soldier of fortune named John Christian Falkenberg, there is a central role to the CoDominiumNavy, which fights on all kinds of planets far away in space, and which had been created out of the French Foreign Legion and still keeps many of its traditions such as the aforementioned "Camerone Day".
Pournelle's fellow SF writer David Drake, the author of the Hammer's Slammers series, also bases his mercenary unit off of the French Foreign Legion. More specifically, the Legion after the Second World War, when most of its members had fled from persecution from the Allied War Crimes Commission.
In an entry into W.E. Johns's Biggles series set in the 1950s, the eponymous hero and his protege Ginger join the Legion as part of an undercover operation trying to unmask a gang of multi-national arms dealers who are instigating war in global conflict zones.
Azam Gill, an ex-Legionnaire from Pakistan, wrote a book regarding his adventures in the legion named Blood Money.
In British comic fantasy author Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the "Klatchian Foreign Legion" parodies the French Foreign Legion (the region of Klatch itself being roughly analogous to the Middle East/North Africa). It is generally regarded as a "place men go to forget", and appears to be very effective in this, as evidenced by its members' frequent failure to recall its name, or in many cases, their own names. It is jokingly described as "Twenty years service and all the sand you can eat."
Science Fiction author William C. Dietz has written a future history where the Legion is now the official armed forces of the "Confederacy", a multi-species political entity. The books to date are: Legion of the Damned, The Final Battle, By Blood Alone, By Force of Arms, For More Than Glory, For Those Who Fell, When All Seems Lost (2007), When Duty Calls (2008). The Legion in Dietz's novels still celebrates Capitaine Danjou and the Battle of Camarón.
Action Writer Matthew Reilly used the French Foreign Legion to exterminate the American Marines and hold the Station until reinforcements come in his book Ice Station.
Autobiography
Ante Gotovina's biography The General, written by Croatian writer Nenad Ivankovic, is mainly about Gotovina's life in the Legion.
Additionally, Legion of the Lost, an autobiography by Jaime Salazar published in 2005, chronicles his experience as an American citizen who joined the legion out of boredom and disenfranchisement from white collar America.
Milorad Ulemek wrote a partially biographical novel, Legionar (Legionnaire), describing his early years in the French Foreign Legion.
Comic strips and books
In the 1960s, the British boys' comic Eagle featured a popular adventure strip called Luck of the Legion, set in the classic period before WWI, of soldiers in blue coats, white kepi covers, white scarves and white (or red) trousers marching across endless desert under the gaze of treacherous Arab warriors.
The long-running British war strip Charley's War spent many weeks telling a side story about the exploits of a Legionaire called "Blue", most of which was based around the Battle of Verdun.
Snoopy, from the Peanuts comic strip, often imagines himself as a member of the Foreign Legion, usually defending or reclaiming Fort Zinderneuf (a reference to Beau Geste).
In a French sci-fi comic Aquablue, the hero, Neo, must defend himself and his people against the Légion, an Earth Special Force which has exactly the same uniform as the Légion Étrangère.
In the manga and animeArea 88, the protagonist, Shin Kazama, was tricked while intoxicated into joining the French Foreign Legion to serve in a mercenary airforce in the fictional Asran Kingdom of North Africa. The office that handled his contracts was located in Paris, France.
Jeremy MacConnor, the main character in the Australian comic Platinum Grit, is depicted wearing a French Foreign Legion hat.
Films and television
Three movie versions of P.C. Wren's Beau Geste were released in 1926, 1939, and 1966. The stories all feature three brothers who hide out in the French Foreign Legion.
Legionnaire, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, depicted the Foreign Legion's battles against Algerian berbers. In the 1990 film Lionheart, Van Damme stars as a Legionnaire who deserts in order to help his sister-in-law and niece after his brother is killed.
The 1939 comedy, The Flying Deuces is one of the most popular films to star the duo Laurel and Hardy. The film begins with the pair joining the Foreign Legion and much of the comedy comes from their experiences. Laurel and Hardy had made an earlier comedy set in the Foreign Legion, Beau Hunks, in 1931.
In the 1952animated cartoonLittle Beau Pepé, Pepé Le Pew tried to join the Foreign Legion and evacuated a desert fort with his stench. The usual chase with a stripe-painted female cat followed.
March or Die (1978), (also known in France as Marche ou Crève) stars Gene Hackman as Colonel Foster, an embittered Legion veteran of the Legion's heroic RMLE who returns to Algeria from the Western Front shortly after the end of WWI. He is ordered to chaperone an archaeological expedition into hostile Arab territory. The film also stars Max Von Sydow, Catherine Deneuve, Terence Hill and Ian Holm.
In Savior, Dennis Quaid is a former Legionnaire who has become a mercenary for the Serbian militia. Before joining the French Foreign Legion, he was Joshua Rose and an U.S. Marine on embassy duty in Paris. His wife and son are killed in a cafe bombing by an Islamic terrorist. In a fit of revenge he storms into a mosque and shoots worshippers. In order to avoid arrest he joins the Foreign Legion. He soons tires of the boredom of peacekeeping and leaves the Legion to become a mercenary.
Beau Travail (1999) by Claire Denis adapts Herman Melville's novel Billy Budd to take place in today's Foreign Legion. While stationed in Djibouti, a sergeant-major feels increasingly threatened by a popular new recruit. The tension inevitably erupts between them, causing irreperable changes. Even though its dreamlike imagery resists explicit explanation of legionnaire life, the film does much to convey the corp's rigorous physical training and the resultant fraternity between the disparate soldiers.
Most recently, the Legion was revealed in a contemporary (July 2005) documentary Escape to the Legion, commissioned by the British television channel, Channel 4. In this four-part series, 11 volunteers with Bear Grylls explored the myths, romanticism and rigours of basic training in the French Foreign Legion.
Of late, the Legion was mentioned in the movie Secondhand Lions as an excuse for the two main characters' disappearance from America for upwards of thirty years.
