French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
As mentioned in the previous article, which dealt with the 2024 Bastille Day Parade in Paris, the legionnaires of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) participated in this traditional event. However, they commemorated the French national holiday also abroad.
Read more1er REC: 2024 Bastille Day in Ivory Coast and Bosnia and Herzegovina
Every year, a large military parade is held in Paris to commemorate the 14th of July, France’s national holiday, known in English-speaking countries as Bastille Day. On that day, the French Foreign Legion also takes part in the parade in the capital. However, due to the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, this year’s parade was downsized and did not take place on the famous Champs-Élysées. Read more and see images.
Every year, the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) organizes an exceptional bycycle touring race. This unique event brings together passionate cyclists and supporters from different Foreign Legion regiments, united by a common goal: to support the veterans and wounded of the Legion. See a video.
40 years ago, in late June 1984, one of the largest companies of the then-French Army, CRTRLE, was disbanded. A road building unit comprising legionnaires, it was transformed the following day, July 1, into an engineer regiment, first Foreign Legion regiment to bear this designation. The new regiment quickly distinguished itself during deployments in Chad, Iraq, Cambodia, and the former Yugoslavia.
Read more40 years ago: Foreign Legion’s first engineering regiment was activated
See some nice images of the 2nd Company, 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) from Estonia, Northern Europe, where the legionnaires-paratroopers carried out tasks as part of France’s Mission Lynx.
With the conflict in Ukraine, a long-neglected component of Western armies, artillery, has once again stepped to the fore. It might come as a surprise to many Foreign Legion enthusiasts that a 1920 law allowed the Foreign Legion to establish, along with a cavalry regiment, also a separate artillery regiment. Equally surprising might be the fact that, in 1941, the legionnaires probably served in as many as 11 artillery batteries at the same time. The last of these units were disbanded 80 years ago, in 1944.
Read more80 years ago: Foreign Legion’s last artillery batteries were disbanded
See a new video with Major Gérald. This time, he covers the Boxing Show (Gala de Boxe) competition organized by the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) at the regiment’s Camp Larzac, on June 8, 2024. The event was part of the commemoration of the 1942 Battle of Bir Hakeim and was open to the public.
In late May and early June 2024, the armed forces of Martinique and Guadeloupe, overseas departments of France in the eastern Caribbean Sea, were mobilized as part of the exercise Caraïbes 2024 (Caribbean 2024). The aim of this full-scale exercise was to train teams to intervene effectively in the event of a natural disaster in the French West Indies, where the hurricane season is slowly approaching. The men of the Foreign Legion’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) also participated.
See some images from the military exercise which was organized by the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) in southern France in late May 2024.
Genevieve de Galard, nicknamed The Angel of Dien Bien Phu, passed away last Thursday, on May 30, 2024. She was 99 years old.
75 years ago, in late May 1949, the first airborne unit of the French Foreign Legion was disbanded in Northern Vietnam, during the First Indochina War (1946-54). The Legion paratroopers had conducted operations around Hanoi, as well as in remote, forested areas along the Vietnam-China border. They were the first legionnaires to wear the green beret that was adopted by the entire Legion a decade later.
Read more75 years ago: Foreign Legion’s first airborne unit was disbanded