French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
On Monday, 25 November 2019, two helicopters of the French Army crashed in Mali (West Africa), during anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane. The crash cost lives of 13 soldiers, including a French Foreign legionnaire from the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG).
Read moreOperation Barkhane: 13 French soldiers died, including a legionnaire
See a fully reworked article dealing with the history of a forgotten Foreign Legion engineer task force, the only engineer battalion-sized unit of the Legion that has ever been established in North Africa (no, the short-lived 12th Pioneer Battalion from 1939 wasn’t in fact a Foreign Legion formation). Organized by a half of the then 3e REI, the legionnaires of this important unit were tasked with the urgent transfer of the Legion’s Motherhouse from Algeria and its installation in France and Corsica, after the end of the Algerian War in 1962.
Read more55 years ago: An important Foreign Legion engineer task force was disbanded
In October-November 2019, a company from the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI), a company from the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and two squadrons of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) moved to military camps to participate in an intensive training before their overseas deployment. See images.
Read more2e REI + 1er REG + 1er REC: Training before deployment
Read a freshly reworked article dedicated to a Foreign Legion airborne battalion that was established in North Africa 70 years ago, in mid-November 1949. The battalion would train legionnaires to take part in the First Indochina War (1946-1954) as paratroopers. Six years later, the unit was redesignated to a regiment, but for a very short time.
Read more70 years ago: A Foreign Legion airborne battalion was established
The 11th of November marks in France the Armistice Day, when the entire nation commemorate the end of hostilities of World War I. As every year, even the French Foreign Legion units commemorated the 101st Armistice Day on November 11, 2019, and remembered the 36,000 legionnaires and foreign volunteers being killed or wounded during the war. See the photos.
See a new article dedicated to a lesser-known Foreign Legion regiment being established in France in early November 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. Its legionnaires took part in the 1940 Battle of France. Unfortunately, the short-living unit suffered heavy casualties and was disbanded in June 1940.
Read more80 years ago: In France, a Foreign Legion regiment was created
In mid-October, around 150 legionnaires of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG), the youngest regiment of the French Foreign Legion, returned from their four-month overseas deployments back to their base at Saint Christol in south-eastern France.