French Foreign Legion Information

Alan Seeger: The American Poet in the French Foreign Legion

July 3, 2026 · Posted in 2rei, history, wwi

In northern France on July 4, 1916 — American Independence Day — a tall, twenty-eight-year-old Harvard graduate rose from a wheat field near the village of Belloy-en-Santerre and charged a line of German machine guns. He was not French, and his country was not yet at war. He was Alan Seeger, member of the French Foreign Legion, and within minutes he would be dead on the ground he had chosen to defend two years earlier. Today he is remembered as one of the most famous foreign volunteers ever to serve in the ranks of the Legion. A poet whose life, and whose death, became a symbol of the Franco-American bond forged in the trenches of the Great War.

2e REP: 2026 Summer Exhibition in Calvi

July 1, 2026 · Posted in 2rep, events

From June 29 to August 28, 2026, the Citadel of Calvi in Corsica will once again host its annual public exhibition dedicated to the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP).

13e DBLE: 84th Anniversary of Bir Hakeim

June 24, 2026 · Posted in 13dble

In mid-June 2026, the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE), a regiment-sized infantry unit of the French Foreign Legion, held three days of celebrations at Camp Larzac in southern France to mark the 84th anniversary of the 1942 Battle of Bir Hakeim.

PHOTOS: 5e RMP’s Heavy Equipment Company in Tahiti in 1971

June 20, 2026 · Posted in 5re, history, photos, polynesia

The latest part in our series on interesting photographs. This time we head to the South Pacific — Tahiti, French Polynesia — for a set of photographs taken in Polynesia’s capital, Papeete, in 1971. They show the Heavy Equipment Company of the 5th Pacific Mixed Regiment (5e RMP) and some of its vehicles and heavy construction equipment.

2e REG: Mountain Specialists Sharpen Skills in the Alps

June 16, 2026 · Posted in 2reg

In early June 2026, the Mountain Engagement Support Platoon (SAEM) of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG), stationed in Saint-Christol in southeastern France, conducted a week-long mountain exercise in the Banon area, near the regiment’s home base at Quartier Maréchal Koenig.

2e REI: 2026 Training Alongside NATO Allies at Camp des Garrigues

June 10, 2026 · Posted in 2rei

From May 4 to 20, 2026, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI), stationed in Nîmes in southern France, conducted three weeks of intensive field training at Camp des Garrigues, a large military training area located near the regiment’s garrison town.

5e RE: 2026 DIO Training in Malawi

June 4, 2026 · Posted in 5re

From May 10 to 22, 2026, an operational training detachment (DIO) of the 5th Foreign Regiment (5e RE), based on the French overseas island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, provided military training to members of the Malawi Defence Force.

80 Years Ago: Disciplinary Unit Was Born

June 2, 2026 · Posted in history, indochina

80 years ago, in early June 1946, a new Foreign Legion disciplinary unit was established in French Indochina. Stationed on a remote island off the coast of Vietnam, the unit’s mission was to reform ill-disciplined legionnaires who had been deployed to the Far East to fight in the First Indochina War (1946–1954), and whose offenses were too serious to be handled through standard disciplinary measures at the regimental, battalion, or company level.

4e RE: 2026 Remise de Kepi blanc in Toulouse

May 28, 2026 · Posted in 4re

On May 18, 2026, a White Kepi Ceremony (Remise de Képi blanc) of the French Foreign Legion took place in Toulouse, a major city in southwestern France. New legionnaires from the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE), the Legion’s training regiment, donned the iconic White kepi for the first time at Place du Capitole, the city’s main square.

50 Years Ago: Deadly Accident in Africa

May 24, 2026 · Posted in 2rei, djibouti, gole, history

50 years ago, on May 24, 1976, a helicopter transporting Foreign Legion elements crashed during a military exercise in the Horn of Africa. Six legionnaires died immediately; another two died from their injuries later. At the time, this was the deadliest day for the Legion since the end of the Algerian War in 1962. Although largely forgotten today, even in France, this sad event and its victims should be remembered.

PHOTOS: A Legionnaire’s Photographs from My Tho, French Indochina, 1947–1949

May 22, 2026 · Posted in history, indochina, photos

This is a new part in our PHOTOS series. Once again, we turn to French Indochina — this time to southern Vietnam in the late 1940s. The photographs presented here were shared with us by a French reader whose grandfather, Emile Louis André, served there with the Foreign Legion. His granddaughter, Ms. Alcina Machado, provided some basic details about his service, while the rest had to be researched or pieced together from the photographs themselves. She also shared a few lines about her grandfather’s life, giving us a glimpse into the personal story of one of the tens of thousands of legionnaires who were deployed to the First Indochina War (1946–1954).