In early September 2022, a group of instructors with the Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte (DLEM) returned from Madagascar, a large island in the Indian Ocean located south-east of Mayotte. In Madagascar, the men provided military training to local soldiers.
2e REP: 5th Company left New Caledonia
After their prescribed deployment that lasted four months, the men of the 5th Company, 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), left New Caledonia. They had served in this special overseas collectivity of France located east of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean, since early June.
PHOTOS: 1re CSPL Platoon Leader badge in the Saharan Desert in 1958
This time I would like to share with you a very rare picture showing a sergeant serving as a platoon leader with the 1st Legion Saharan Motorized Company (1re CSPL) in the Sahara of Eastern Algeria, in the late 1950s. The unit was stationed at Fort Flatters at the time, an old French military post located close to the border with Libya. What’s rare in that picture is the insignia/badge worn by this NCO, above the company one.
Read morePHOTOS: 1re CSPL Platoon Leader badge in the Saharan Desert in 1958
2e REG: 2022 Mission Lynx in Estonia
Legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) are currently deployed to Estonia, a Baltic state in Northern Europe, for four months. They serve there as part of NATO’s Baltic enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) to protect and reassure NATO’s member state of its security.
3e REI: 2022 Fourragere Day
As usual in September, the French Foreign Legion’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) celebrated the regimental holiday, called Fourragere Day. See the nice images of this important event.
PHOTOS: 1er RE Adjudants around 1900
Today is exactly ten years and ten days since the first post was published on this website. This is the reason to share a slightly rarer picture in the PHOTOS series. Thus, here comes one of the rarest ones found in my archive.
2e REP: 2022 Exercise Manticore
Between September 12 and October 10, 2022, the French Army is conducting a large-scale military exercise, called Manticore. It takes place in several departments of south-central France, including Aveyron and Puy-de-Dôme. Among the more than 3,000 soldiers participating in the exercise are legionnaires from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), the only airborne unit of the current French Foreign Legion.
90 years ago: The deadliest accident ever experienced by the Foreign Legion
90 years ago, on September 14, 1932, a disaster occurred in North Africa’s Algeria, home to the French Foreign Legion at the time. A train carrying a detachment of the 1st Foreign Regiment derailed and crashed into a ravine. Dozens of legionnaires were killed in the accident, more than two hundred legionnaires were wounded. Yet, the sad event has almost been forgotten.
Read more90 years ago: The deadliest accident ever experienced by the Foreign Legion
2e REI: 2022 Activities in Djibouti
Since June 2022, a company of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) is deployed to Djibouti, Horn of Africa, to form part of the French garrison there. See some images of the unit’s activities…
45 years ago: The last operational battalion of the Foreign Legion was disbanded
In 1969, the legionnaires deployed to Chad in Central Africa to carry out their first combat action since 1962, when the Algerian War ended. The events in Chad demonstrated that in the new post-colonial era and with a dramatically reduced army, France still needed forces capable of intervening rapidly everywhere around the world. And that the considerable downsizing the Foreign Legion after the war in Algeria was not the best idea. Thus, a new operational force consisting of legionnaires would be created in 1971 and serve until 1977…
Read more45 years ago: The last operational battalion of the Foreign Legion was disbanded
13e DBLE: 2022 Change of Command
At Camp Larzac, home to the 13th Foreign Legion Half Brigade (13e DBLE), a change of command ceremony took place on August 30, 2022. During the ceremony, Colonel Aubry was replaced by Colonel Thomas Riou who became the new commanding officer of the regiment.