The year of 2018 has almost passed away and Christmas holidays are here. This September, the ForeignLegion.Info unofficial online project started its seventh year of promoting the famous French Foreign Legion in the English-speaking world. I am glad to see you are still enjoying it. So, what has been already done this year on the website? See the results and future plans for the coming new year.
What was done in 2018?
In December 2017, I posted a list of the page’s should-be-finished tasks for 2018. The list included the desire to create a separate page for all Historical events (done), the detailed historical page dedicated to the 1961 Generals’ Putsch in Algiers (done) or the detailed historical pages for the three foreign parachute regiments, the 1er REP, 2e REP and 3e REP (done).
On the other hand, the Indochina units have not been completed yet. In 2018, twelve historical articles dedicated to twelve Indochina units were added to the six articles already published in 2017. However, historical data of another eight units (composite engineer battalions) of the Legion serving in Indochina left to be published.
Besides, other historical articles were published or completely reworked in 2018.
In January, a new article about the already forgotten tragic event at Forthassa:
1908 Forthassa Disaster
In March, a new article about the complex lineage of the current Foreign Legion:
French Foreign Legion: The Lineage
In May, a fully reworked article about the decisive battle of the war in Indochina:
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Also in May, a fully reworked article about the forgotten tragic event in Djibouti:
GOLE: 1976 Djibouti Helicopter Crash
Once again in May, a fully reworked article about the operation in Kolwezi:
1978 Battle of Kolwezi
The tasks for 2019
What are my plans for the coming new year? What should be done?
In the best scenario, I would like to update (or rework) the rest of historical pages mapping the history of current units or the already dissolved units of the Foreign Legion. They were published a few years ago. Since that time, I have broadened my knowledge of the Legion and its units. Besides, I’ve also collected some nice images to complement those pages. But there are 25+ historical pages waiting to be updated. Because of that, this would be a long-distance run.
There are three main tasks I would like to carry out on the website in 2019.
1) To fully rework the article about the famous 1863 Battle of Camerone
2) To update the article about the 1982 Mont Garbi Accident
3) To fully rework the article about the 6th Foreign Infantry Regiment
In 2019, I also would like to launch a French version of the website (just a beta version for instance). It’s because of the larger publicity in France due to our FB page and also because of my desire to share with the French public some already forgotten events or little-known data from history of the Legion.
A separate historical page for the 2e REG (Engineer Regiment), the youngest regiment of the Legion, should be created too, to celebrate its 20th anniversary (born in 1999).
That’s all. Hope you will find this website and its information always useful, helpful and interesting.
Wish you courage, hope and faith to overcome all of the hurdles you may face in the coming year. Happy holidays to all of you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2019.
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année 2019.