French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
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.
See a French Army official video presenting the French contingent of Mission Lynx in Estonia in 2019. Two French Foreign Legion units made part of the contingent and spent four months in the Baltic state. The 3rd Company of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) and a platoon of the 3rd Company, 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG).
In early September 2019, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) of the French Foreign Legion commemorated the 116th anniversary of the famous Battle of El Moungar. The battle occurred at El Moungar, in the Bechar region of western Algeria, on September 2, 1903. That day, a company of the then 2nd Foreign Regiment (2e RE) was attacked by more than 2,000 Berbers.
On July 23, 2019, the 16th stage of the famous Tour de France, an annual three-week bicycle race held in France, started and also finished in Nimes. A city in the Occitanie region of southern France with many Roman Empire monuments. And the garrison town of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI), the longest-serving regiment of the Foreign Legion.
On the 14th July 2019, Foreign Legion regiments participated in ceremonies in their garrison towns to celebrate the French National Day (called Bastille Day in the English-speaking world). See some nice images.
In the morning of June 11, 2019, a senior non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) leaves the regiment and also the French Foreign Legion, after his long 40 years of service spent with this famous institution.
Read more2e REI: He joined the Legion in 1979. He leaves in 2019, after 40 years of service
In late May 1976, an air accident occurred during a military exercise in the then French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (TFAI, today’s Djibouti), a country located in the Horn of Africa. A French Army helicopter crashed. Eight men on board were killed, including six legionnaires from GOLE (Foreign Legion Task Force). Another two legionnaires died later. At the time, the incident became the deadliest accident for the Legion since the end of the Algerian War (1962). It has still remained the second deadliest accident for the Legion since then. Nevertheless, for unknown reasons, the fatal crash has been completely forgotten in France. To remember the victims, see our updated article dedicated to this sad event.
Read moreGOLE: 43rd anniversary of the deadly accident in the Horn of Africa