The 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment (4e REI) was an infantry unit of the French Foreign Legion. It was formed in Morocco, North Africa, in late 1920 and given the nickname the “Regiment of Morocco.” The 4e REI’s units participated in the pacification of the country and the Rif War. The regiment was inactivated in late 1940. During World War II, its flag was entrusted to the Legion’s 4th Demi-Brigade, which served in Senegal and Tunisia.
Reconstituted in 1946, the 4e REI units participated in the Madagascar campaign (1947-51), the Indochina War (1949), operations in Morocco (1955-56), and the Algerian War (1957-62). In 1964, the regiment was disbanded. In 1980, its number, history, and traditions were taken over by the training regiment of the Legion in Castelnaudary.
La version française de cet article: 4e Régiment Etranger d’Infanterie
Background
Faced with attacks on its nationals and raids conducted by Moroccan rebels in the French Algerian-Moroccan borderlands, France decided to intervene in Morocco in 1907. Legionnaires were an important force among the intervention troops. The pacification of the country began. In 1912, Morocco became a French protectorate.
During World War I (1914-18), several battalions and mounted companies of the Foreign Legion criss-crossed Morocco to defend the already pacified territories. This task was difficult because the Moroccan rebels, armed by foreigners, were encouraged by the departure of a large number of French troops for the European theater.
After the end of the terrible war, these battalions and mounted companies, exhausted by heavy fighting and a lack of men, became independent and continued the pacification of Morocco. Nevertheless, with a significant influx of foreign volunteers from Europe, which had been ravaged by the recent conflict, and in light of France’s upcoming geopolitical challenges, the suggestion was made to reorganize and expand the considerably reduced Foreign Legion. Therefore, between late 1920 and early 1921, the two original regiments from Algeria, fully exhausted by the needs of war, were reconstituted; at the same time, three new regiments were activated in Morocco and Tunisia.
Creation of the 4th Foreign Regiment
The 4th Foreign Regiment (4e Régiment Etranger, 4e RE) was created on November 15, 1920, by a September 30 decision of the War Ministry to reunite the various autonomous battalions of the Legion remaining in Morocco during and after World War I. One of the mounted companies was also attached to the new regiment.
Nicknamed the “Regiment of Morocco” and stationed in Meknes, in the north of the country, it comprised 78 officers, 197 non-commissioned officers, and 3,384 legionnaires, for a total of 3,659 men. (For comparison, in the 2020s, a Foreign Legion infantry regiment consists of about 1,300 men.)
A few months later, in early 1921, the regiment was replaced in Meknes by the newly reconstituted 2nd Foreign Regiment (2e RE), which re-admitted to its ranks the 4th Battalion 4e RE (in fact, its former 6th Battalion). The 4e RE headquarters thus moved to Marrakech, some 300 miles (about 500 km) southwest.
Composition of the 4e RE in November 1920
- HQ and HQ Company (CHR) in Meknes
- 1st Battalion (ex-1st Battalion, 1er RE) in Benni Mellal: Major Lambert
- 2nd Battalion (ex-2nd Battalion, 1er RE) in Marrakech: Major Astraud
- 3rd Battalion (ex-6th Battalion, 1er RE) in Bou Denib: Major de Corta
- 4th Battalion (ex-6th Battalion, 2e RE) in Meknes and Ain Leuh: ??N/A??
- 1st Mounted Company (ex-1st Mounted Company, 1er RE) in Bou Denib: ??N/A??
4th Foreign Regiment in the Levant, 1921–1926
In 1920, a mandate established by the League of Nations allowed France to administer Syria and Lebanon in the Levant (a vast region in the Middle East). These countries belonged to the former Ottoman Empire and were occupied after World War I.
To participate in the pacification of these territories previously unknown to the legionnaires, a new 4th Battalion 4e RE was organized in February 1921 in Algeria’s Saïda, for decades the main garrison of the 2nd Foreign Regiment. The battalion, commanded by Major Salvat, landed in the Levant a month later. In September, it was reinforced there by Major Goepfert and his 5th Battalion, a unit also organized in Saïda and attached to the same regiment.
These two little-known autonomous battalions were assigned to the 4th Foreign Regiment only for administrative reasons and would never get to know Morocco. Each consisted of three infantry companies and a mule-mounted company. In late 1924, the 4th Battalion returned to Algeria to be disbanded after almost four years of maintaining order, conducting patrols, and building roads, bridges, and military posts in Syria. Back in Algeria, its men formed the 7th Battalion 1er REI to take part in operations in Morocco from 1925.
The 5th Battalion remained in the Levant to bring honor to the regiment and the Legion during the Druze Revolt (1925-27), especially during the Battle of Messifre in September 1925. After the revolt ended, the battalion left its original regiment and became the 8th Battalion 1er REI, with its companies spread across Syria and Lebanon. To learn more, see The Foreign Legion in Syria and Lebanon: 1921 – 1939.
Pacification of Morocco, 1921–1934
Meanwhile, in Morocco, the three battalions of the 4th Foreign Regiment continued the pacification of the country, operating in the western part of the Middle Atlas range. Simultaneously, the Mounted Company maintained order, supplied outposts, and escorted convoys in the Bou Denib region in eastern Morocco.
To liberate new territories, the battalions became part of the so-called mobile groups, regiment-sized combined-arms task forces. Legionnaires spent long weeks in columns before returning to their garrisons for a brief rest. Known as soldiers and builders, they also helped construct outposts, blockhouses, roads, and bridges. During the cold Moroccan winters, the men stayed at their (forward) posts.
In June 1922, due to a decree prescribing the official formation of the 1er REC (Legion’s cavalry regiment), the designation of the Foreign Legion infantry regiments changed. The 4e RE became the 4e REI (Infantry).
On November 11 of that year, the regiment received its flag.
From 1925 to 1926, two 4e REI battalions (1st and 2nd) participated in the Rif War in the north of Morocco, north of the town of Taza. In 1921, the Berber tribes of the Rif Mountains rose in revolt against the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco (set up in 1912 by the Franco-Spanish convention). After a period of neutrality, France joined Spain in late 1924 to fight the Riffians and their leader, Abd El Krim. The enemy was well-organized, well-armed, and very combative. However, finally, in late May 1926, the Franco-Spanish alliance forced the Riffians into capitulation. Several battalions of different French Foreign Legion regiments took part in that war alongside the Spanish Legion.
For the heroism of its men, the 2nd Battalion 4e REI earned a citation (was mentioned in dispatches) at the Army level – the highest possible citation. The Mounted Company was also involved in the war, in 1925, and distingushed itself at Rihana.
On August 24, 1926, an element of military engineering appeared within the 4e REI: the Company of Sappers-Pioneers (CSP). The sappers-pioneers were occupied mostly with building roads, like that from Marrakech to Ouarzazate, through the Tizi n’Tichka pass. It was an extraordinary work nearly 140 miles (220 km) long.
From 1927 onward, the legionnaires of the 4e Etranger operated in the south of the country. They took an active part in the penetration and occupation of the rest of the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountain ranges. Based in Marrakech, Ouarzazate, and Agadir, the three battalions crossed the unknown zone toward Mauritania and the Sahara. The Mounted Company, based at Kerrando (near Ksar Es Souk) at the time, in eastern Morocco, protected the military convoys supplying the outposts in what was then still a dangerous Tafilalt region, located south of the High Atlas. In addition to these tasks, 4e REI units continued to build new roads, posts, blockhouses, and airfields in order to speed up the transport of supplies and troops and thus accelerate the pacification of the country.
In April 1931, in Sidi Bel Abbes (then-headquarters of the Foreign Legion in Algeria), a 4e REI detachment participated in celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Legion. The 4e REI legionnaires were distinguished there by their red kepis, worn only by that regiment at the time.
The year 1932 marked the resumption of the French offensive. Therefore, apart from infantry, cavalry, and engineers, a new army component completed the regiment: the Provisional Battery, an artillery unit formed on May 15, 1932. Stationed in Ouarzazate, the Battery was equipped with four French 75 mm field guns, M1897, transported by trucks.
In February 1933, the legionnaires of all five Legion regiments based in French North Africa took part in the hard fights in the Djebel Sagho (including the 1933 Battle of Bou Gafer), a massif located in the eastern part of the Anti-Atlas range in southwestern Morocco. It served as the last refuge for the unyielding Berber tribes. The Provisional Battery 4e REI participated, as did the 1st and 3rd Battalions.
From June to September, the last major operations conducted by French foot infantry against Moroccan dissidents took place: the conquest of the Djebel Baddou. This mountain in the High Atlas was occupied by diehard insurgent elements that had broken the encirclement at Bou Gafer. The battalions of the already regrouped 4th Foreign Regiment were involved, as was the Battery.
In the meantime, on April 15, 1933, the Mounted Company 4e REI was partly motorized and became the Automobile Mounted Company (CMA/4), commanded by Captain Gaultier, the future head of the Legion. In the extreme south of Morocco in early 1934, the unit participated in the Anti-Atlas campaign alongside other Foreign Legion motorized units. This campaign saw the first fully motorized operation of the French Army, led by Colonel Trinquet. The 4e REI’s CSP and Battery supported it. The remarkable and rapid operation successfully concluded, in March, the 27 years of France’s pacification of Morocco, in which the Foreign Legion had participated since the very beginning.
In Morocco and the Levant, between 1920 and 1934, the 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment suffered six officers, 23 NCOs, and 192 corporals and legionnaires killed.
4th Foreign Regiment in Morocco, 1934–1940
The period from mid-1934 to mid-1939, marked by total peace throughout Morocco, was devoted to construction tasks, instruction, maneuvers, patrol tours, and the modernization of the regiment’s units and barracks. Five years without any struggle for legionnaires was a very rare epoch.
In the south, the CMA/4 split into two parts. One built the post of Foum El Hassan (its new garrison), while the other helped build the post of Tindouf, located in the westernmost tip of Algeria near the border with Mauritania. A detachment of the company still rotated there (until 1940) to maintain order in the region and carry out patrols as far as Fort Trinquet in neighboring Mauritania in French West Africa. A very unique mission for a Legion unit at the time.
As for the CSP, it transformed into a large road-building company that produced almost 60 miles (100 km) of roads every year. At times, as many as 1,000 civilian workers were under its wing.
The 4e REI men also proved their skills during the transformation of the port of Agadir and the irrigation of the Souss Valley.
A ski resort for the regiment was established at Oukaimeden in the Atlas Mountains. It provided training to a new mountain warfare platoon of deep reconnaissance troops (Eclaireurs-Skieurs, scout skiers).
Composition of the 4e RE in 1935
- HQ and HQ Company (CHR): Marrakech
- 1st Battalion: Marrakech
- 2nd Battalion: Ouarzazate
- 3rd Battalion: Agadir
- Automobile Mounted Company (CMA): Foum El Hassan
- Company of Sappers-Pioneers (CSP): Marrakech
- Provisional Battery: Ouarzazate
However, the peaceful time wouldn’t last. In September 1939, war broke out in Europe, and mobilization began. The CSP was dissolved. Detachments were formed within the battalions to be deployed to Europe. Nearly 500 legionnaires from the 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment constituted, in metropolitan France, the embryo of the two new regiments: the 11e REI and 12e REI. Three companies of 4e REI volunteers helped form the 13th Demi-brigade for the Norwegian campaign. Finally, two detachments left North Africa to reinforce the 5e REI in Indochina and the 6e REI in Syria and Lebanon.
In Morocco, the sufficiently reduced 4e REI continued carrying out its missions. Its artillerymen, who had been redesignated as the Motorized Battery in late 1939, moved to Port Lyautey (present-day Kenitra) to defend the Atlantic coast. They were reinforced by another two artillery batteries assigned to the 4e REI.
Unfortunately, Germany’s victory in the 1940 Battle of France resulted in a partial German occupation of the country and a policy of collaboration adopted by the new French government. What followed was a significant reorganization and reduction of the French Army, including the Foreign Legion and the regiment itself. By November 15, 1940, the 4e REI, now under Lieutenant Colonel Gentis, had ceased to exist 20 years to the day of its activation.
Still based in Marrakech, the 4e Etranger became a new 2e REI on the next day. It was reinforced with elements from the latter unit, administratively disbanded on the same date. The legionnaires from the 1st Battalion would wear the number “4” on their arm patch to keep the traditions of the “Regiment of Morocco.”
4e DBLE in Senegal, 1941–1943
In mid-1941, the little-known Syria–Lebanon campaign took place in France’s Levant between the ultimately victorious British invading forces and the French defenders, including the Legion’s 6e REI. To make room for the surviving legionnaires returning from the Levant to serve in North Africa, a two-battalion demi-brigade was organized in Algeria and sent to reinforce French troops in Senegal in French West Africa (AOF). This country had already seen a failed British landing attempt and was expecting another one.
Activated on August 16, 1941, the new unit landed in Senegal later that month and soon became the 4th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (4e Demi-brigade de Légion étrangère, 4e DBLE). Lieutenant Colonel Auguste Gentis, the last commanding officer of the 4e REI, took command. The demi-brigade even received the old flag of the same regiment and was considered its heir. With the HQ and 2nd Battalion based in Saint-Louis (then-capital of both AOF and Senegal) and the 1st Battalion in Dakar-Bango, the 4e DBLE was occupied mostly with the development of its installations, instruction, and maneuvers.
To avoid the lethargy and monotony of service in relatively calm Senegal, and to strengthen the cohesion of the troops, walking bush tours of two to three weeks in length were organized for platoons in this desert territory with a climate beyond endurance.
Meanwhile, the Company of Sappers Pioneers (organized in Morocco within the new 2e REI) completed the 4e DBLE in September. A slightly mystical unit, barely known, with its detachments based in Kéllé, Rosso, and even Mauritania, in Nouakchott, the CSP was tasked in particular with improving the imperial road connecting Algeria and Senegal.
At the beginning of November 1942, a successful Allied invasion (Operation Torch) took place in French North Africa. It turned around the political situation and the course of the war. French troops in Africa would resume the fight with German forces. Therefore, in March 1943, the 4th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade left Senegal for Morocco.
1er REIM in Tunisia, 1943
After joining the Allies, the French troops in North Africa were ready to participate in the Allied campaign in (French) Tunisia against the Axis forces – Germans and Italians – stationed in Africa. Their remnants had retreated there after their defeat in Egypt in October 1942.
Back from Senegal in North Africa, the 4e DBLE spent four weeks in Morocco before being transported by train to Tunisia. On the spot, it merged with a 1er REI battalion to form a new unit: the 1st Foreign Infantry Operational Regiment (1er REI de Marche, 1er REIM), an analog to the U.S. regiment combat team. The new provisional unit remained under now-Colonel Gentis and kept the regimental colors of the 4e REI.
The 1er REIM men participated in the Tunisian campaign alongside their comrades from the 3e REIM. The legionnaires were involved in heavy fights in the Djebel Mansour, Djebel Rhian, and Djebel Alliliga, in Sidi Abd El Kerim, and, above all, in the plain of Pont de Fahs (trans. Bridge-of-Fahs), as well as in the Djebel Oust and Djebel Zaghouan, where the Italians and Germans eventually surrendered en masse. By May 13, all Axis forces in Tunisia had been defeated; the path to the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 was open.
As of May 30, the regiment was disbanded. During its six-week existence in Tunisia, filled with heroic fighting, the 1er REIM earned a citation at the Army level and a new battle honor emblazoned on the 4e REI’s flag: Djebel Zaghouan 1943.
As for the 1er REIM men, they would form, in July, half of the legendary RMLE, a Foreign Legion unit that played an important role in the Liberation of France from 1944 to 1945.
4e DBLEM in Morocco, 1946–1948
To guarantee the presence of France, and the Foreign Legion in particular, in Morocco following World War II, the “Regiment of Morocco” was officially reconstituted in Fez on May 16, 1946, initially with one battalion (1st), under Lieutenant Colonel Félix Laparra. Nevertheless, soon afterward, France’s situation in French Indochina in Southeast Asia had deteriorated; troops had slowly been returning to their former colonial territories abandoned after the March 1945 Japanese occupation. The French now faced the communist-led Viet Minh independence movement of Ho Chi Minh and several minor insurgent groups.
As a result, there was a shortage of men to form an entire three-battalion regiment in North Africa. Thus, on September 16, 1946, the new 4e REI transformed into the 4th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade of Morocco (4e DBLEM), reminiscent of the Senegal era.
The new demi-brigade consisted of two battalions. In October, it was reinforced by a mule-mounted company – the last of its kind within the Foreign Legion and the French Army. The company was stationed in Khenifra. Later, it moved to Ksar Es Souk (present-day Errachidia).
The main activities of the 4e DBLEM men were road construction work, camp renovation, training, maneuvers, and patrol tours.
In June 1947, the second battalion in Meknes (based in the Quartier Bournazel, which would later be renamed Quartier Bissey, in honor of Lt. Col. Bissey) left Morocco to become the first Foreign Legion unit to land in Madagascar after 42 years. Its task was to suppress an ongoing revolt and restore order on that French-controlled island in the Indian Ocean. The mission was accomplished. To learn more, see the Foreign Legion in Madagascar 1947–1951.
In November 1947, in Morocco’s El Hajeb, a new 2nd Battalion was organized.
In 1948, each of the two battalions selected a company to help constitute, in Algeria, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion (2e BEP).
4e REI in Morocco, 1948-1954
The activation of the 3rd Battalion in Meknes in October 1948 led to the transformation of the demi-brigade on October 16, 1948. It became the new 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Bablon.
In the meantime, the ongoing war in Indochina was demanding new reinforcements. Almost every month, a detachment of 4e REI legionnaires left Africa for the Far East. Also, the number of enlisted volunteers increased dramatically in response to the significant losses France had suffered there. To relieve the Legion’s motherhouse in Algeria of a difficult task, instruction groups began to appear among Foreign Legion units in North Africa, including the 4e REI, to provide basic training to recruits.
In June 1949, the entire 2nd Battalion 4e REI was ordered to deploy to Indochina. Redesignated as the 5th Battalion, it was stationed in the Loc Binh sector of Tonkin (the title for Northern Vietnam back then). Its legionnaires patrolled the border with China and the roads connecting the sector with the Tonkinese Delta. In November 1949, the battalion became the 2nd Battalion of the new 5e REI.
Meanwhile, in Morocco, the 3rd Battalion was retitled and became the new 2nd Battalion 4e REI.
At the time, like the other Legion units in North Africa, the regiment served as a reservoir of men, a depot. Those who returned from the prescribed two-year stay in Indochina rotated there with those who were designated to deploy.
A number of non-commissioned officers and legionnaires who returned from the Far East spent their three-month end-of-campaign furlough (an extended leave) in the 4e REI’s holiday resort in Rabat. Due to the permanent lack of cadre, they were often assigned to supervise the regiment’s training companies. The training of young recruits by Indochina veterans was supplemented with military maneuvers and patrols carried out to maintain order in the region.
In Ksar Es Souk in late December 1949, the regiment’s 8th Mounted Company, the last of its kind, was dissolved. On January 1, 1950, it became the 4e REI’s Motorized Company, Compagnie Portée.
The year 1950 saw a great decrease in the regiment’s strength due to the conflict in Indochina. This caused a new dissolution of the 4e REI, which took place on May 31, 1951. Only two battalions remained. In Morocco, the 1st Battalion was formed by merging the two vastly reduced original battalions. Stationed in the Quartier Bissey in Meknes, it kept the 4e REI’s flag and traditions as a formant corps unit (that is to say, an autonomous unit, administratively considered a regiment). The I/4REI was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Jules Gaucher, a popular officer.
The other battalion, the 4th (ex-2nd), also a formant corps unit, served in Madagascar until late December 1951. The next month, it returned to Morocco and was stationed in the Caserne Fontanel in Fez. Like its sister unit in Meknes, it maintained order in the region, provided instruction for young recruits, and was engaged in construction work of all kinds.
Not long afterward, in March 1952, the French protectorate of Morocco witnessed the first insurgent actions after 18 peaceful years.
The same month, the Motorized Company (also relatively autonomous at the time) left Ksar Es Souk and returned to Khenifra, its former garrison, to help calm tensions in that somewhat troubled region.
In mid-1954, the First Indochina War was over. Following are statistics that might prove of interest: The 4th Battalion 4e REI in Fez dispatched that year, to the Far East, five officers, 70 non-commissioned officers, and 830 legionnaires. The battalion itself comprised about 650 men, including officers and NCOs.
However, with the end of the war in Indochina, the situation in French North Africa significantly worsened. Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco were affected by insurgency. In the Medina of Fez (the oldest walled part of the city) in late 1954, the two 4e REI independent battalions conducted Operation Kepi Blanc (White Kepi) to restore order. The times had changed.
4e REI in Morocco, 1955-1957
As of March 1, 1955, the 4e REI was reconstituted as a regular regiment, with the two battalions losing their autonomy to date. Colonel Gustave Borreill, a former officer with the 4e DBLE in Senegal, took command. The 4th Battalion under Major Torquat regained its old number “2” from 1947. At the same time, the 2nd Motorized Company was organized in Ksar Es Souk and occupied the old camp of its sister company. The instruction of young recruits was terminated.
The 4e Etranger once again became a combat regiment. Its units were quickly dispatched to Casablanca, Meknes, Khenifra, and, particularly, Oued Zem, where a savage massacre of European inhabitants had occurred in August 1955. The 4e REI restored order in all these rebellious sectors. Military operations continued until late December, especially in the north, in the Rif Mountains (Second Rif War). The regiment fully participated. Staff Sergeant Kolsch, three senior corporals, a corporal, and 10 legionnaires of the regiment were killed in operations in the second half of 1955.
Nevertheless, the political situation changed unexpectedly quickly. In early March 1956, Morocco gained its independence, which surprised many (not only) in the military. In late June, the 4e REI units were sent to the Algerian-Moroccan border in eastern Morocco, as far as Bouarfa and Figuig. These posts were lost in a desert area. There, the men spent a very hot summer alongside their comrades from the 2e REC. Many legionnaires saw that mission as their punishment from the new Moroccan government. Another four senior corporals and corporals, as well as a legionnaire, died following independence between April and early July 1956.
By late October, the 4e REI units had returned to their garrisons. On November 16, 1956, the regiment was significantly reorganized to become a modern motorized infantry unit. The two battalions were dissolved and replaced by two groups of motorized companies, known as GCP (groupements des compagnies portées). These were, in fact, a type of motorized light armored infantry battalion, each consisting of motorized companies equipped with U.S. Dodge 4×4 and 6×6 trucks, M8 Greyhound armored cars, and Jeeps. The two old battalions formed GCP 1, which consisted of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th Motorized Companies.
The new regiment incorporated into its ranks the GPLEM (Moroccan Motorized Group), a Legion unit also disbanded to that date. This group formed the 4e REI’s GCP 2, comprising the 4th and 5th Motorized Companies.
The 4e REI, along with the 2e REI (motorized a month earlier), became the first fully motorized infantry regiments of the Foreign Legion.
Nevertheless, the situation in Morocco naturally required French troops to leave the country. While the two semi-autonomous companies of the ex-GPLEM moved to Mauritania, the rest of the 4e REI was headed to Algeria, where a regular conflict had already erupted.
On March 18, 1957, the 3rd Motorized Company under Captain Gay was the last unit of the “Regiment of Morocco” to leave its land of origin. It was also the last unit of the Foreign Legion to leave the country where so many of its officers, NCOs, and legionnaires had died during the long and challenging 27-year pacification. The Legion left behind 50 years of sacrifice and hard work. A page in its history was turned…
4e REI in Algeria, 1957
As mentioned earlier, the year 1954 marked not only the end of the war in Indochina but also the beginning of hostilities in French North Africa, in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. While Morocco and Tunisia became independent in early 1956, the situation in Algeria was much more complicated. It was not a protectorate or colony. It was an integral part of France, a regular French department established in 1848. The northern fertile part of Algeria was inhabited by hundreds of thousands of settlers of European origin, including the French, Italians, and Spaniards whose families had lived there for many decades. For that reason, the French didn’t want to give up this land.
The main anti-French insurgency was represented mostly by the National Liberation Front (FLN) and its armed branch, the ALN. The rebels conducted guerrilla warfare and attacked, in groups up to company strength, the French representatives (both indigenous and European) and French military convoys, depots, and smaller posts. In addition, they raided pro-French indigenous communities and French-owned plants and farms and, as a warning, killed the innocent civilians living or working there. In response, the French authorities launched an anti-insurgent policy and military operations across Algeria, although they had never officially declared war. By 1957, the situation in the country was already very serious.
The reorganized 4e REI moved toward Constantinois, a cultural and historical region of the Maghreb, located in northeastern Algeria. The HQ was installed in Tebessa near the Tunisian border. The companies were scattered across a large territory. Two were stationed around Biskra, about 180 miles (290 km) southwest of Tebessa, while another two were based to the south, at Bir El Ater, some 55 miles (90 km) distant, and Negrine (90 miles or 145 km).
Colonel Maurice Lemeunier succeeded Colonel Borreill. In the Legion from 1934, Lemeunier was among the first elements of the reconstituted 4e REI in May 1946 and served as its second-in-command from 1950-1951. He then commanded the 13e DBLE during the decisive 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Indochina and was imprisoned by the Viet Minh.
The GCP 1 companies participated in the operations against fellagas (the local rebels’ nickname). The operations focused mainly on enemy supply trains, which regularly crossed the border to their camps in neighboring Tunisia. Clashes, various reconnaissance, protection, or liaison missions, and the construction of posts and camps followed one another.
In the meantime, following a rule prescribed for all Legion infantry and cavalry regiments, Harkis were attached to the regiment. These were local pro-French Muslim Arabs serving in a harka, usually a horse-mounted group, led by Legion cadres. They provided reconnaissance and patrolled the assigned sector.
GCP 2 4e REI in Mauritania, 1957–1958
The ex-GPLEM companies, transformed into the GCP 2 under Major Darmuzai, were headquartered at Fort Trinquet and Fort Gouraud in northern Mauritania. This territory was quite familiar to the group’s 4th Motorized Company, which had patrolled it as far back as the 1930s, when the unit still served as the 4e REI’s Compagnie Montée Automobile, CMA/4.
In Mauritania, the GCP 2 formed part of a Franco-Spanish coalition to fight Moroccan and local tribe militias from the Saharan Liberation Army in Spanish Sahara (present-day Western Sahara), then a Spanish territory south of Morocco and west of Mauritania. The new Kingdom of Morocco claimed it as an integral part.
Because of the vast distance from the regimental HQ and differences in the theaters of operation and the particular missions, the GCP 2 4e REI became, on August 1, 1957, an independent Foreign Legion unit assigned to the French Mauritania military command. In October, Major Mattei took over the group.
In early 1958, the unit took part in the successful battles (Operation Ecouvillon, also known as Operation Ouragan) during the Infi War in the Spanish Sahara. As in the Rif War in the 1920s, the French legionnaires fought alongside their colleagues from the Spanish Legion.
After that, the GCP 2 under Major Mattei left the bases in Mauritania and, losing its autonomy, rejoined the rest of the regiment in Algeria in April 1958 as the last Foreign Legion unit to enter the Algerian War. In Mauritania, the group suffered three killed legionnaires.
4e REI in Algeria, 1958–1962
Meanwhile, in early January 1958, the 4e REI received a new regimental flag. It replaced the old one, which had witnessed over 30 years of the regiment’s glory.
In 1958, a “border war” began on the Morice Line, a fenced, barbed-wired, electrified, mined, and constantly monitored defensive line running along the border between Algeria and Tunisia. The order was given to neutralize all rebel groups willing to cross it. Several Legion units, including the 4e REI, were involved in this mission.
With the regimental HQ based at Bir El Ater, south of Tebessa, since late March 1958, the companies were carrying out day and night patrols along the electrified line and chasing the fellagas alongside squadrons of the 1er REC.
Around that time, the GCPs were renamed as EMT (Etat-Major Tactique). This can be translated as Tactical Staff or Tactical HQ, a French equivalent to the U.S. designation Combat Command used at that time. Like the GCPs, EMTs remained semi-independent task forces whose companies could be interchangeable from time to time based on operational needs. This was something impossible in the old battalions.
In August 1959, the 4e REI left Bir El Ater and moved to the north of Algeria. It settled in a territory between Bône, La Calle, Lamy, and Guelma and stayed there until 1962, keeping to the same tasks: guarding the border and chasing the rebels.
In February 1962, the regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Michel Vadot was regrouped in the Negrine sector. Shortly afterward, on March 19, 1962, the Évian Accords treaty ended the Algerian War. In early July, France recognized Algeria’s independence.
During the Algerian conflict, the 4e REI lost three officers, eight non-commissioned officers, and 60 legionnaires.
4e REI in Algeria, 1962–1964
Following independence, the regiment moved farther south to spread across eastern Algeria’s Sahara, between Touggourt, Ouargla, Ghardaria, Hassi Messaoud, El Golea, and Fort Flatters. The legionnaires guarded French gas and oil fields, protected convoys, conducted exercises and patrols, and renovated their posts, camps, and bases.
In February 1963, the 1st Motorized Company was disbanded. It was followed three months later by the 3rd, at the time the most isolated Legion unit. (It guarded gas fields at In Amenas, deep in the Sahara near the Libyan border.) The two units were replaced by the 2e CSPL and 3e CSPL Saharan companies based in Laghouat, which merged with the regiment in early April. In late September, the 5th Company was disbanded in Hassi Messaoud.
From October to December, the 4e REI gained the large Saharan territories in southwestern Algeria, then-stronghold of the 2e REI. The companies were stationed in Colomb Béchar, Adrar, Amguid, and In Salah, with the regimental HQ based in Reggane, the center of France’s first nuclear weapons testing site at that time. A few months later, the already reduced regiment (with the 3rd Company disbanded in mid-January 1964) was hit by a vast reorganization of the French Army in independent Algeria. A final ceremony took place in Reggane on April 24. Thereafter, on April 30, 1964, the 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment under Colonel Jacques Brulé was officially disbanded in Aubagne, France. This was the definitive disappearance of the 4e REI from African soil.
As was the case in 1940, the legionnaires of the disbanded 4e Etranger merged with the 2e REI, forming its three-company EMT 2 under Major Duclos. Meanwhile, the regimental music band (recreated in 1962) was transferred to the 2e REP. The flag was deposited in the Legion’s Hall of Honor in Aubagne. It would not be withdrawn until September 1977, when it was handed over to the newly created Foreign Legion Training Regiment (RILE) in Castelnaudary. In June 1980, the latter became the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) after having adopted the number, insignia, history, and traditions of the former Régiment du Maroc. The legend continues…
4th Foreign Infantry Regiment 1920–1964: Addditional Image & Document Gallery
4e REI: Commanding Officers
| PERIOD | COMMANDER | |
|---|---|---|
| 4e RE | 1920-1922 | Lcl MAUREL Lucien |
| 4e REI | 1922-1926 | Col MAUREL Lucien |
| 4e REI | 1926-1927 | Lcl POURAILLY Olympe |
| 4e REI | 1927 | Col POUPILLIER Edmond |
| 4e REI | 1927-1928 | Lcl POURAILLY Olympe |
| 4e REI | 1928-1933 | Col MATHIEU Joseph |
| 4e REI | 1933-1934 | Col CONTE Etienne |
| 4e REI | 1935 | Col GELY |
| 4e REI | 1935-1936 | Col CONTE Etienne |
| 4e REI | 1936-1940 | Col LORILLARD Paul |
| 4e REI | 1940 | Lcl GENTIS Auguste |
| 4e DBLE | 1941-1943 | Col GENTIS Auguste |
| 1er REIM | 1943 | Col GENTIS Auguste |
| 4e REI | 1946 | Lcl LAPARRA Félix |
| 4e DBLE | 1946-1948 | Lcl LAPARRA Félix |
| 4e DBLE | 1948 | Lcl BABLON Gabriel |
| 4e REI | 1948-1950 | Lcl BABLON Gabriel |
| 4e REI | 1950-1951 | Lcl RABERIN Jean |
| 4e REI | 1951 | Lcl SOURD |
| 4e REI | 1955-1957 | Col BORREILL Gustave |
| 4e REI | 1957-1959 | Col LEMEUNIER Maurice |
| 4e REI | 1959-1961 | Lcl GEORGEON Etienne |
| 4e REI | 1961-1962 | Lcl VADOT Michel |
| 4e REI | 1962-1964 | Lcl BRULE Jacques |
———
My special thanks belong to Krzysztof Schramm, for sharing his rare photos and documents with our readers.
———
Main information sources:
Képi blanc magazines
Légion Etrangère magazines
Foreign Legion annual bulletins (1950s, 1960s)
P. Cart-Tanneur + Tibor Szecsko: Le 4ème Etranger (Editions B.I.P., 1987)
J. Brunon, G.-R. Manue, P. Carles: Le Livre d’Or de la Légion Etrangère (Charles-Lavauzelle, 1976)
de Collectif: Historique des unités de la Légion étrangère pendant la guerre 1914-1918 (Maroc et Orient) (D. Heintz & Fils, 1922)
Alain Gandy: La Légion en Algérie (Presses de la Cité, 1992)
Martin Windrow: Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France’s Colonial Conquests (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2011)
Pierre Dufour: Génie-Légion (Lavauzelle, 2000)
Diego Falcone: Ma vie racontée… (An Italian in the Foreign Legion 1946-58; Paris, 2011)
Memorial Gen Web (Fr)
Fanion Vert et Rouge (Fr)
Wikipedia.org
———
You can support this website at any time through our store. Thank you.
EU-based readers can visit our EU-based shop, to avoid import charges.
—
See other Foreign Legion’s disbanded regiments:
1st Foreign Parachute Regiment
2nd Foreign Cavalry Regiment
3rd Foreign Parachute Regiment
4th Foreign Infantry Regiment
5th Foreign Regiment
6th Foreign Infantry Regiment
Foreign Regiments Joint Depot
12th Foreign Infantry Regiment
—
The page was updated on: April 30, 2024