The latest part in our series on interesting photographs presents an exceptionally rare collection depicting members of the first officially established Saharan unit of the French Foreign Legion, spanning from mid-1939 to the weeks following the Allied landings in North Africa in late 1942. These images include the only publicly known photographs of a Foreign Legion Saharan unit taken before the Second World War.

The men shown in the photographs served in the 1st Foreign Legion Saharan Motorized Battery (1re BSPL), one of the Foreign Legion artillery batteries. This little-known unit was based in Ouargla, the administrative center of the Oasis Territory, which comprised the eastern desert regions of French Algeria. No official archival records exist about the BSPL, and the few references in specialist literature are fragmentary and often inaccurate.

The 1re BSPL was originally established as the Saharan Motorized Battery (BSP) in Ouargla on July 1, 1938, a year earlier than usually stated in published works. Assigned to the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment (1er REI; now 1er RE), it was the first Foreign Legion unit to officially bear the title “Saharan”. The battery was equipped with Model 1897 French 75mm field guns and tasked with reinforcing Algeria’s border with Libya, which at the time was occupied by Italy, a close ally of Nazi Germany. In addition, the battery had trucks and assisted French authorities and military formations in the vast desert area with the transportation of personnel, cargo, and equipment. By mid-1939, the BSP/1er REI was commanded by Captain Ardassenoff, an officer of Russian origin.

In 1939, the BSP was joined by Legionnaire Marcel Berger – in reality Dr. Otto Bruck, a Jewish dentist from Germany and the source of the exceptionally rare photographs presented here. Otto Bruck was born in Germany in 1907. In the late 1930s, due to increasing persecution by the Nazi regime, he decided to leave the country. On the advice of his cousin, he moved to Paris and joined the Foreign Legion at the beginning of November 1938. From France, he was transferred to Sidi Bel Abbès in northwestern Algeria, then the Legion’s main headquarters. From there he was sent to Saïda, where Otto Bruck completed the standard four-month basic training in April 1939. The following month, he was assigned to the BSP in Ouargla.

Dr. Bruck, alias Legionnaire Berger, remained at this remote Saharan post without interruption until the end of 1942. According to his military records, however, on October 1, 1939, he was reassigned to the newly created Oasis Territory Automobile Transport Company (CATTO), a truck-equipped unit tasked with transportation duties across the territory. Apart from its date of formation and the fact that it was formally commanded by the same Captain Ardassenoff, no other records or evidence about the CATTO survive. However, there is evidence that at the end of 1939 a new transport platoon serving the territorial headquarters appeared in Ouargla under Second Lieutenant Lebrun, equipped with trucks similar to those used by the BSP – Ford trucks, and Russian vehicles from the Spanish Civil War. It is possible that this platoon was the mysterious CATTO, probably formed by separating the transport detachment from the BSP.

It is also certain that a Legion Saharan unit continued to operate in Ouargla under the same commander as in mid-1939. In early November 1940, the Foreign Legion Saharan Motorized Battery (BSPL) was officially established in that town. This represented the formal separation of the Saharan Battery from the 1er REI, supporting the view that the original BSP/1er REI had never been disbanded and had remained active in Ouargla. This was not unique – on the same date, in the western Algerian Sahara, an automobile company of the same regiment became the Legion’s second Saharan unit, the CSPL (Saharan Motorized Company, later 1re CSPL).

Thus, on November 1, 1940, Otto Bruck officially became a member of the newly created BSPL, still under Captain Ardassenoff’s command. These changes were part of the reorganization of the French army following its defeat in the Battle of France in May–June 1940, when French forces failed to halt advancing German mechanized units. France was forced to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany, surrendering part of its mainland territory to occupation. French North Africa, however, retained a relatively autonomous existence, including its Legion units. A constant reminder of the new conditions was the presence of German and Italian “commissions” that regularly inspected French garrisons to ensure the armistice terms were observed.

In March 1941, the BSPL’s name was changed for administrative reasons. With the creation of a second Legion Saharan battery at the desert fortress of Fort Flatters, the Ouargla unit officially became the 1re BSPL. At that time its headquarters were located in a large former hospital building. It is possible that the unit had been based there for some time, though records are lacking.

Notably, Dr. Otto Bruck’s photographs show no artillery pieces, a striking absence for an artillery unit. A likely explanation is that he had been serving in the truck transport detachment since 1939. As confirmed by other photographs published in the second part of this article, Otto Bruck remained in the transport detachment until the end of his service in the 1re BSPL.

In November 1942, Allied forces landed in French Morocco and Algeria and secured the allegiance of the French North African command and its armed forces. Together, they began the Tunisian campaign in early 1943, aimed at liberating the third French North African territory, then occupied by remnants of German and Italian forces under Field Marshal Rommel. The 1re BSPL, with Otto Bruck, participated in the campaign as a support unit, along with the 2e BSPL and CSPL. The photographs end around mid-December 1942, depicting the 1re BSPL’s last parade in Ouargla before joining the Tunisian campaign.

At the end of 1943, Otto Bruck left the Foreign Legion after five years of service. Due to his Jewish background, his German citizenship had been revoked by the Nazis, leaving him officially stateless. Possibly for this reason, or because France still considered him a German national (and thus a citizen of an enemy state), he was assigned to a Foreign Worker Group (Groupement de travailleurs étrangers, GTE) in Colomb-Béchar, western Algeria. These Groups, operating since 1939, employed foreign nationals in France who were not serving in military units, using them as labor for strategically important projects. For the record, legionnaires were often detached to GTE groups in North Africa as cadres.

In a GTE document from mid-November 1943, Otto Bruck is listed as a travailleur étranger (foreign worker) and “former legionnaire.” The same document records his release from the GTE in order to join the British military labor units, the Pioneer Corps. The former Legionnaire Berger volunteered for the Corps to continue the fight against Hitler. With the 338th Company Pioneer Corps, based in North Africa, he took part in the Allies’ Italian campaign in 1944. Surprisingly, British records indicate that this company included a significant number of former legionnaires.

During leave in mid-1944, Otto Bruck visited Ouargla once more. By then, the 1re BSPL had been disbanded at the end of 1943. The garrison was now home to a detachment of the aforementioned CSPL. By coincidence – or perhaps due to his enduring connection with the Sahara – the CSPL was commanded by Captain Ardassenoff, who had taken over the motorized company immediately after the dissolution of his 1re BSPL.

Dr. Otto Bruck remained in British service in North Africa and Italy until June 1946. He then returned to France, where he resumed his original profession as a dentist for a time. Eventually, in the late 1940s, he emigrated to the United States, where he died in 1994.

We are indebted to his son, Richard Brook, who documents his family’s history in the excellent Bruck Family blog, for sharing these extremely rare and truly unique photographs with our website. Though not always of perfect technical quality, they provide invaluable visual documentation of one of the most obscure units in the history of the Foreign Legion.

 
Click on the images to enlarge them:

—

Related posts:
PHOTOS: Foreign Legion Saharan Battery from 1939 to 1942 – II. Part
PHOTOS: Lieutenant Mafteiu and Algerian Mounted Company in the early 1930s
PHOTOS: 1938 Camerone Day in Syria
Foreign Legion Saharan Motorized Companies in North Africa