French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
Read a freshly reworked article dedicated to a Foreign Legion airborne battalion that was established in North Africa 70 years ago, in mid-November 1949. The battalion would train legionnaires to take part in the First Indochina War (1946-1954) as paratroopers. Six years later, the unit was redesignated to a regiment, but for a very short time.
Read more70 years ago: A Foreign Legion airborne battalion was established
The 11th of November marks in France the Armistice Day, when the entire nation commemorate the end of hostilities of World War I. As every year, even the French Foreign Legion units commemorated the 101st Armistice Day on November 11, 2019, and remembered the 36,000 legionnaires and foreign volunteers being killed or wounded during the war. See the photos.
See a new article dedicated to a lesser-known Foreign Legion regiment being established in France in early November 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. Its legionnaires took part in the 1940 Battle of France. Unfortunately, the short-living unit suffered heavy casualties and was disbanded in June 1940.
Read more80 years ago: In France, a Foreign Legion regiment was created
In mid-October, around 150 legionnaires of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG), the youngest regiment of the French Foreign Legion, returned from their four-month overseas deployments back to their base at Saint Christol in south-eastern France.
In October 2019, the legionnaires from the 4th Squadron of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) moved to Commando Training National Center (CNEC) at Mont-Louis in southern France to prepare themselves for their next deployment. See images.
In mid-September 2019, the 1st Company of the Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte (DLEM) jumped for the very first time over the Bandrélé beach in Mayotte, an island in the Indian Ocean and an overseas department and region of France.
In early October 2019, the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE), the training center of the French Foreign Legion, organized a traditional half marathon in Castelnaudary, its garrison town in southern France.
In September and October 2019, for four weeks, the legionnaires from the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) of the French Foreign Legion were training in Spain, alongside their comrades-sappers from the Spanish Legion. Both well-known Legions meet together from time to time, to participate in joint exercises, as partners within the NATO alliance.
In mid-September 2019, the Foreign Legion’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) celebrated their regimental holiday, called Fourragere Day. See the nice images of the event organized in French Guiana (South America), where the famous 3e REI has been stationed since the 1970s.
See a freshly reworked article dedicated to history of an exeptional Foreign Legion unit. This unit became the only Foreign Legion regiment to be ever established in the Middle East. To be more precise, in the Levant, which means current Syria and Lebanon. Nicknamed Regiment of the Levant, the unit was born in early October 1939, not long after the Second World War had started. In 1941, its legionnaires took part in the little-known and sad Syria–Lebanon campaign. They faced an invasion of British troops, their former Allies, supported by a small number of French elements fighting within the British Army, including former legionnaires. Because of this campaign, the regiment would be seen as a controversial unit representing the old French Empire of the 19th century, which came to an end in November 1942.
Read more80 years ago: In Syria, a Foreign Legion regiment was born
As every year since 1948, French Foreign Legion paratroopers celebrated the day of Saint Michael the Archangel, their patron. The annual ceremony took place at Camp Raffalli, the regiment’s headquarters located near Calvi, Corsica, on the 29th of September. This day also marks the regimental holiday. See photos.