French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
In early February 1976, two French Foreign Legion units participated in their very first anti-terrorist mission to rescue 31 French children kidnapped by Pan-Somali militants in the Horn of Africa. Although it was such an exceptional operation for them, the legionnaires did well.
Read more45 years ago: The very first anti-terrorist mission for the Foreign Legion
39 years ago, in early February 1982, a common French military exercise had to take place in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa. A French Foreign Legion airborne platoon was to participate. The Legion paratroopers were ordered to carry out a routine training jump over a drop zone located nord-west of the capital. They boarded their aircraft and took off…
Read more39th Anniversary: A Foreign Legion airborne platoon perished in Djibouti in February 1982
Between November 2 and December 12, 2020, yearly joint military manoeuvres called Wessex Storm take place on Salisbury Plain in Wessex, southern England. The six-week manoeuvres have to confirm the skills and readiness of the 2 PARA Battlegroup, the British Army’s leading response force, assigned to the 16 Air Assault Brigade. During the 2020 Wessex Storm exercise, a company of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) and a US Army platoon have been included into the British battlegroup.
In late September 2020, a regimental challenge was organized as usual at Calvi in Corsica by the Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP). The challenge is a traditional part of the festivities in commemoration of Saint Michael the Archangel (the patron of all French paratroopers) whose feast falls on September 29. This day also marks the 2e REP’s holiday.
On September 29, 2020, Lieutenant Colonel Zlatko Sabljic, director of the Home of Legionnaire (a veteran retirement home in Auriol, southern France) has passed away. A famous figure, he spent 38 years in the French Foreign Legion and 8 years with legionnaires-veterans.
In mid-September 2020, for the very first time, the legionnaires from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) conducted an experimental assault landing exercise with the new European modern four-engine military transport aircraft, Airbus A400M. See photos + video.
In the second week of September, a large military exercise Vent d’Automne (Autumn Wind) was conducted by the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) in Corsica, their homeland. Three companies participated.
See three video showing the legionnaires from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) while being trained in Corsica in June 2020.
See a nice video published by the Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP). The video presents the initial parachute training for the fresh legionnaires who had finished their four-month basic instruction at Catelnaudary and arrived at the regiment.
On May 18, 1978, in Corsica, legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) were alerted and a few hours later, they took off in direction of then Zaire in Central Africa. The next day, May 19, they jumped over Kolwezi, a mining center in the south of the country. The legionnaires would rescue over 2,000 Europeans captured and held by local rebels…
In January 2020, several companies of the Foreign Legion’s 2e REP arrived in Africa’s Sahel region to reinforce French troops in their fight against local terrorist groups. Between these paratroopers, a legionnaire from South Africa.