In January 2023, a class of the Saint-Cyr Special Military School (ESM), France’s most prestigious military academy, partook in an exercise in Corsica. There, the future officers trained alongside legionnaires of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), also a prestigious unit within the French Army.
13e DBLE: 2023 Exercise Tallinn Dawn
Before their deployment to Estonia, one of the Baltic states in Northeastern Europe, a company of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) went through an intensive training in Germany, alongside their colleagues from the Queen’s Royal Hussars of the British Army, in January 2023. See the video.
French Foreign Legion: A Soldiers Story
Watch an awesome interview released by POVCAST in late January 2023, with Senior Corporal Johnny Leggett telling his experiences serving in the Foreign Legion, including his training and deployments. Born in Scotland, United Kingdom, Johnny joined the Legion in 1979, when he was 21, and left it after 15 years of service, in 1994.
115 years ago: Foreign Legion’s company decimated by a severe snowstorm
In early February 1908, an unexpected severe snowstorm surprised a Foreign Legion company on the edge of the Sahara, during their march to a remote military post at the Algeria-Morocco border. Within hours, the unmerciful element decimated the unit. Many legionnaires died, others had to undergo amputation of their frozen extremities.
Read more115 years ago: Foreign Legion’s company decimated by a severe snowstorm
13e DBLE: 2023 training at Camp Larzac
See a new video published by the official French Foreign Legion YT channel. It shows legionnaires of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) during a winter training at Camp Larzac, their home base in Southern France.
DOCUMENTS: 1856 1er RLE 1st Foreign Legion Military service certificate
Today, we present another part of the DOCUMENTS series. It’s a rare military service certificate issued more than a hundred years earlier than the previous certificate, in mid-1856, shortly after the end of the Crimean War.
Read moreDOCUMENTS: 1856 1er RLE 1st Foreign Legion Military service certificate
2e REP: Exercise Touraco 2022
In late 2022, a joint military exercise took place in Ivory Coast, a country on the southern coast of West Africa that maintains close ties with France. Legionnaires from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) participated.
2022 Foreign Legion Veterans’ Institution
See a French Army official documentary dedicated to the Foreign Legion Institution for Disabled Veterans (IILE), based in Puyloubier, southern France. The documentary was published on the Army’s official YouTube channel in late 2022.
PHOTOS: 2nd Foreign Regiment’s color guard in the early 1900s
Another part of the PHOTOS series. Today, the article is dedicated to the color guard of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) in Algeria, North Africa, in the early 1900s. Back then, the unit was still known as the 2nd Foreign Regiment (2e Etranger, 2e RE).
Read morePHOTOS: 2nd Foreign Regiment’s color guard in the early 1900s
2022 Legion Christmas nativity scenes
Christmas Eve marks the second most important holiday within the French Foreign Legion, traditionally a pro-Catholic institution. Thus, for that day, legionnaires in all units of the Legion create original nativity scenes and compete to see which one is the nicest and most original. This Legion tradition is unique within the French Army.
Happy New Year 2023
Again a particular year is behind us, this time marked by geopolitical turbulences instead of health restrictions. However, the year of 2022 also marked ten years that have successfully passed since the launch of the FOREIGNLEGION INFO website in September 2012. How many legionnaires got their first info on the Legion here and then proudly completed their five years? Who knows. Nevertheless, I am glad to see that you, the readers, are still enjoying the work that has already been done. Thank you.
Now, with a new year upon us, is a suitable time for another annual review.