4e RE: 2026 Remise de Kepis blancs in Saint-Malo | French Foreign Legion Information

On July 19, 2026, the French Foreign Legion held a White Kepi Ceremony (Remise des Képis blancs) on the ramparts of the historic port city of Saint-Malo, in Brittany, a historical region in the north-west of France. During the ceremony, forty recruits from the 3rd Platoon, 1st Company of Enlisted Volunteers of the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) — the Legion’s training regiment — donned the white kepi for the first time and took the Legion’s traditional oath to serve France “with honor and fidelity.”

The platoon, under the command of Adjudant (Warrant Officer) Onilalaina, presented itself before the regiment’s commanding officer, Colonel Jean-Hugues Delhumeau. Also in attendance was General Nicolas Heuzé, deputy for engagement to the general officer commanding the Western Defense and Security Zone and a former commanding officer of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE), one of the Legion’s most storied units. Saint-Malo’s mayor and a large delegation of Legion veterans also took part; the new legionnaires were later received at city hall. Sailors from the British frigate HMS Portland, docked in port at the time, joined as guests of honor.

The ceremony capped two demanding days of preparation. On July 17 and 18, the recruits completed the traditional White Kepi March, a 62-kilometer (roughly 38-mile) in full gear. The route retraced the steps of officers of the 13e DBLE who, on June 19, 1940, slipped away from occupied France to England by boat from the coastal towns of Erquy and Saint-Jacut, joining what would soon become the Free French Forces.

A separate ceremony marking that escape was held at the memorial stele in Saint-Jacut. It was from this stretch of coast that Lieutenant-Colonel Magrin-Vernerey (later known as General Monclar) and Captains Koenig and Amilakvari set sail, among others. They were all veterans of the 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment (4e REI) who had helped create the 13e DBLE just months earlier, in late February 1940.

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