French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
While the vast majority of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) has been currently deployed to Mali in West Africa since this February for at least four months, there are two squadrons which remain in France, at the regiment’s Camp Carpiagne near Marseille.
Read more1er REC: Activities for 3rd ESC and ECL in France in June 2020
Adjudant Franc from the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC), the only cavalry regiment of the French Foreign Legion, is currently deployed to Mali (West Africa). He and his men operate within Operation Barkhane, a French counter-terrorism operation in the Sahel region of Africa. Having passed 16 years with the Foreign Legion, he is now a respected platoon leader.
Read more1er REC: Legionnaire heading an armored platoon during Operation Barkhane in Mali
On May 8, 2020, a ceremony took place at Camp Carpiagne in southern France to bid a final farewell to the two legionnaires of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) who were killed in Mali.
Read more1er REC: Bidding a final farewell to two legionnaires killed in Mali in May 2020
On April 23, during Operation Barkhane, a military tanker of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) was struck by an improvised explosive device near Gao in Mali, West Africa. Two legionnaires were seriously imjuried. One of them died a week later, on May 1.
In March 2020, a three-week military operation to search and neutralize terrorist elements took place in the three-border area of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Two Foreign Legion task forces were involved in the operation in this deserted land.
On 4 March 2020, during anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane in Mali (West Africa), a reconnaissance group of the 2nd Squadron, 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) got contact with two armed terrorist group members and neutralized them. The action was captured by reporters from Paris Match, a popular French newspaper. See video.
Read more1er REC: Neutralisation of two terrorists during Operation Barkhane in Mali
Like the other regiments of the French Foreign Legion, even the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) are to be largely deployed overseas this year.
In December 2019, the legionnaires of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) participated in a three-day Exercise Raider Fury alongside U.S. Marines, at Camp Carpiagne (France), the garrison of the 1er REC. See videos.
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
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.
In October 2019, the legionnaires from the 4th Squadron of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) moved to Commando Training National Center (CNEC) at Mont-Louis in southern France to prepare themselves for their next deployment. See images.