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.
PHOTOS: 3rd “Camerone” Company, 4e REI
Summer holidays are over and thus it’s time to share again some historical pictures of the French Foreign Legion. This time, those related to the pre-WWII 3rd Company, 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment (4e REI). A direct heir to the famous 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, Foreign Regiment that participated in the legendary 1863 Battle of Camerone.
1er REC: First French Army operational unit to receive EBRC Jaguar vehicles
On 23 August 2022, the Foreign Legion’s 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) received officially their first EBRC Jaguar armored vehicles of the new generation. The regiment became the very first operational unit of the French Army to get them.
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2e REP: 5th Company men visited a local tribe in New Caledonia
The 5th Company of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), the only airborne unit of the current French Foreign Legion, has been deployed to New Caledonia since June 2022. In this special overseas collectivity of France located east of Australia, in the Pacific Ocean, the Legion paratroopers carry out several tasks.
Read more2e REP: 5th Company men visited a local tribe in New Caledonia
1er REC: 2022 Operation Daman
In July 2022, Colonel Henri Leinekugel Le Cocq and an important part of his 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) arrived in Lebanon in the Middle East. On the 14th, the colonel took over the command of the 43rd mandate of France’s Force Commander Reserve (FCR). The FCR, consisting of about 700 soldiers, is a main reserve force of the UNIFIL, a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
2e REI, 13e DBLE: 2022 Bastille Day in Nimes, Rodez
While their units are currently deployed to Africa’s Sahel, Ivory Coast or Djibouti, the men of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) and 13th Foreign Legion Half Brigade (13e DBLE), the largest regiments within the French Foreign Legion, participated in military parades in France on the French national holiday.
Read more2e REI, 13e DBLE: 2022 Bastille Day in Nimes, Rodez
60 years ago: A unit helping to install the Foreign Legion in France was created
Following the end of the Algeria War in March 1962, the French Foreign Legion headquarters was forced to leave North Africa for France. Because of that, a new unit had to be formed with a special task: to prepare for the installation of the Foreign Legion in France and Corsica. As a result, a new task force saw its birth 60 years ago, on August 1, 1962.
Read more60 years ago: A unit helping to install the Foreign Legion in France was created
1er RE, 2e REG: 2022 Bastille Day Military Parade in Marseille
See images from Marseille, Southern France, from July 14, 2022, when a Foreign Legion detachment paraded there. It consisted of elements provided by the same two regiments that also took part in the 2022 Bastille Day Military Parade in Paris on the same day: the 1st Foreign Regiment (1er RE) and the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG).
Read more1er RE, 2e REG: 2022 Bastille Day Military Parade in Marseille
1er REG: 2022 Bastille Day in Ivory Coast
Like their comrades from the 2e REG parading in Paris, even the combat engineers from the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) celebrated the French national day – Bastille Day – which took place on July 14. Not only in France, but in West Africa as well, in Ivory Coast.