The Foreign Legion Pioneer Company (Compagnie de Pionniers de la Légion Etrangère, CPLE) was a Legion military engineering unit created to serve in France. It was officially activated in Aubagne, within the 1st Foreign Regiment (1er RE), on March 1, 1968. Even before that, on February 1, the company’s initial detachment was formed. Two weeks later, about sixty officers and legionnaires left Aubagne for the Canjuers plateau in the Var Department of southeastern France, north of Draguignan, under their future commander, Captain Doussau, and his deputy, Lieutenant Barellon. Notably, many of these men were former members of the recently inactivated 2e REI.
In 1962, after the Algerian War ended and as French forces prepared to redeploy from North Africa to Europe, a decision was taken to establish a new large training area in France, intended primarily for armored cavalry. A stony, sparsely vegetated expanse, the future Canjuers range covered 86,500 acres (35,000 hectares) and stretched 22 miles (35 kilometers). There, the men of the CPLE would help create what would become the largest live-fire military training range in Western Europe.
In March 1968, the Legion company was joined at Canjuers by the 2nd Company 5th Engineer Regiment (a regular Army unit), and the two units worked side by side.
Work began under difficult conditions: cold, rain, mud, and isolation. The legionnaires’ first priority was to build a solid base camp to replace the initial tent city of 88 large military tents. About fifteen FILLOD prefabricated buildings were erected, even as the construction sites expanded. In just a few months – through September 1968 – the CPLE pioneers at Camp Canjuers achieved the following results:
- 11 acres (43,000 m2) of land cleared of trees and bushes
- 2,472,000 ft3 (70,000 m3) of earth moved
- 42,000 ft3 (1,200 m3) of concrete poured
- 73,500 ft3 (2,100 m3) of construction aggregate extracted
To carry out this work, the company’s GMC dump trucks logged roughly 12,500 miles (20,000 km). In addition, miles of trenches were dug for the sewer system, and numerous drains and culverts were installed.
As personnel and equipment reinforcements arrived, the Legion Pioneer Company expanded. Under Captain Doussau, it reached a strength of 196 men: 6 officers, 31 NCOs, and 159 (senior) corporals and legionnaires. The company was organized into six platoons: a command platoon, a machine and vehicle maintenance platoon, a demolition platoon, an engineering and masonry platoon, and two earthworks platoons. It was equipped with roughly one hundred pieces of heavy equipment and vehicles.
On April 29, 1968 – on the eve of Camerone Day, commemorating the famous 1863 battle in Mexico – the CPLE received its fanion (banner) from Colonel Chenel, then commanding officer of the 1er RE.
Two years later, on April 29, 1970, the CPLE’s newly designed badge was issued to the legionnaires. Its design was based on the original insignia of the Sapper-Pioneer Company (CSP) of the 1st Foreign Regiment, which served in North Africa in the 1920s and 1930s.
Through late 1970, the Legion company contributed to construction of the camp’s housing area (55 buildings), a water supply system, an electrical network with 2,500 kW of installed power, and a treatment plant. It also worked on the Auveine small-arms range and the Clos Magnan mortar range.
In early January 1971, the company left the 1er RE and was incorporated into the newly created 61st Engineer-Legion Mixed Battalion (61e BMGL), losing its separate designation in the process.
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Main information & images sources:
Képi blanc magazines
1969 Foreign Legion bulletin
Pierre Dufour: Génie-Légion (Lavauzelle, 2000)
Wikipedia.org
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L’article en français : CPLE : Compagnie de Pionniers de la Légion Etrangère
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Related articles:
3e BMLE: 3rd Foreign Legion Task Force
15th Engineer Maintenance Company
2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment: The origins
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The page was updated on: January 10, 2026