100 years ago: A sad campaign in France ended for the Foreign Legion

June 30, 2021 · Posted in france, history, legion

100 years ago, in late June 1871, three battalions of the Foreign Legion landed in Algeria, having returned from the very first deployment of the Legion in metropolitan France. The men spent eight months there and took part in a wretched campaign. However, these weren’t the only foreigners to participate in the then fighting on the French side. Also, the three battalions didn’t represent all units of the Legion that were to partake in the conflict.

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80 years ago: Father of the Legion died

April 16, 2021 · Posted in General Rollet, history, legion

80 years ago, on 16 April 1941, one of the most important persons of the French Foreign Legion passed away. Nicknamed as the “Father of the Legion”, he created a modern institution and widely raised public awareness of his legionnaires. His time at the head of the Foreign Legion was known as the Legion’s golden age. However, the Second World War and his damaged health stopped the enormous work dedicated to the legionnaires and veterans.

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Suppression of the 1947 Malagasy Uprising: Another forgotten campaign of the Legion

November 7, 2020 · Posted in 4re, history, legion, Madagascar

In late March 1947, three months after the regular war started in French Indochina, a bloody rebellion erupted in Madagascar, then a French colony annexed by France (with the predominant help of legionnaires) in 1896. To stop the massacres of French settlers and to restore order on that large island in the Indian Ocean, a battalion of the Foreign Legion left North Africa. Follow the link and learn more about another already forgotten campaign of the Legion, accompanied by 40+ original, still unpublished photos from private archives…

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20 years ago: Five legionnaires died in basic training

August 7, 2020 · Posted in legion

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.

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History of a Foreign Legion unit to receive and train recruits in the 1930s and 1940s

June 30, 2020 · Posted in history, legion

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…

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French Foreign Legionnaires in Southeastern Europe during World War I

May 10, 2020 · Posted in history, legion

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…

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