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.
20 years ago: Five legionnaires died in basic training
On August 7, 2000, an enlisted volunteer platoon from the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE), the training unit of the French Foreign Legion, had achieved their first month of instruction at a remote farm and were going back to the regimental military base. Nevertheless, one of two military trucks transporting the fresh legionnaires left the road and crashed into a tree.
Read more20 years ago: Five legionnaires died in basic training
Foreign Legion: 2020 Change of Command
As on the 1st of August 2020, a new commander of the French Foreign Legion will be appointed to replace the current one, after his two years of command.
History of a Foreign Legion unit to receive and train recruits in the 1930s and 1940s
In 1933, the Foreign Legion’s 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment, comprising around 8,000 legionnaires, established within its ranks a new unit to reduce the load on its administration. The new formation had to receive, organize and train recruits for the Legion, carry out the discharge procedure for those legionnaires returning to the civilian life, as well as other important tasks…
Read moreHistory of a Foreign Legion unit to receive and train recruits in the 1930s and 1940s
French Foreign Legionnaires in Southeastern Europe during World War I
105 years ago, in late April 1915, the Allied forces consisting of French, British, Australian and New Zealand troops landed in the Gallipoli peninsula in todays Turkey, to open a new theatre of the First World War. Among the landing French troops, there was also a Foreign Legion Battalion with a strength of more than 1,000 legionnaires. The tormented odyssey of forgotten heroes had started…
Read moreFrench Foreign Legionnaires in Southeastern Europe during World War I
French Foreign Legion recruitment for invited candidates only
Since 11 May 2020, Foreign Legion Recruitment ONLY FOR INVITED!
UPDATE OF 11 MAY 2020: Candidates living outside France should send the form once they are present in mainland France.
Read moreFrench Foreign Legion recruitment for invited candidates only
Operation Barkhane: A legionnaire died
On April 23, during Operation Barkhane, a military tanker of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) was struck by an improvised explosive device near Gao in Mali, West Africa. Two legionnaires were seriously imjuried. One of them died a week later, on May 1.
Foreign Legion: 2020 Camerone Day
On April 30, as every year since 1931, the French Foreign Legion celebrated their most important holiday, Camerone Day. That day, all officers and legionnaires of the Foreign Legion commemorate the Battle of Camerone, an action which occurred in Mexico 157 years ago, in 1863.
Knut Flovik Thoresen: Narvik 1940
In early April 2020, Knut Flovik Thoresen, a Norwegian military officer and historian, released his another work dedicated to the Foreign Legion. He decided to map the allied expedition in northern Norway in April-May 1940 and, chiefly, the heroic fighting of the Foreign Legion’s 13th Foreign Legion Half Brigade (13e DBLE), which resulted in first allied victories over German forces in WWII.