French Foreign Legion information. An online project dedicated to the famous Foreign Legion.
To be ready for an military operation, combat companies of the French Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) conduct military training on regular basis even in 2019, at military camps in southern France.
Read more2e REI: Military training for regiment’s combat companies in early 2019
In early February 2019, the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG), one of the two French Foreign Legion engineer regiments, has received its first unarmored 4×4 lightweight multipurpose tactical vehicles Masstech T4.
Watch a nice video showing legionnaires of the 2nd Company, 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), the Foreign Legion’s only airborne unit, during their mountain climbing course in the mountains of Corsica in 2018.
43 years ago, in early February 1976, a hostage rescue mission carried out by GIGN + two French Foreign Legion units occurred at Loyada, a small border village in then French Somaliland, today’s Djibouti (Horn of Africa). Their goal was to rescue 31 French children kidnapped by local militants.
37 years ago, on the 3rd February of 1982, a common French military exercise was planned in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa. In the morning, a French Foreign Legion airborne platoon were lined up at a French air base. It was their only 10th day in Africa. They were assigned to carry out a routine training jump over a drop zone located nord-west of the capital. The legionnaires boarded their aircraft and took off…
March or Die… In Algeria on February 1, 1908, a blinding snowstorm overtook a company of the Foreign Legion during their march to a remote military post at the Algeria-Morocco border. Beaten by the severe snowstorm in a semi-desert land, tens of legionnaires died. Many other suffered frostbite and had to be amputated. Though forgotten these days, the disaster has remained one of the most tragic events for the Legion.
Read more111th anniversary: Foreign Legion’s company overtook by a severe snowstorm
Every month, groups of new legionnaires are to join Foreign Legion regiments, after having finished their four-month basic training. In January 2019, such group of 12 fresh legionnaires joining the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) were decorated and became new cavalrymen of the only cavalry regiment of the Foreign Legion.
The French Foreign Legion reminds some important events which occurred during the previous year of 2018. See the new video released by the Legion.
Three years ago, on January 18, 2016, a group of legionnaires were caught by an avalanche during a mountain warfare basic training. The avalanche killed five of them. Nine legionnaires were injured, two of them seriously. One of them died a week later.
Read more3 years already: An avalanche killed six legionnaires in 2016
Between February 9 and March 10, the Foreign Legion Museum in Aubagne (southern France) organizes a temporary exposition called “Legionnaires”. The exposition will show photos of Caroline Thirion, a famous Belgian photographer, dedicated to the legionnaires of the French Foreign Legion.
As a long-existed tradition, all units of the French Foreign Legion organize Christmas challenges before Christmas Eve, the second most important holiday within the Legion. The challenges help to keep unit cohesion, to compare the force of their companies and to provide a little bit of fun for their hard-working men. See images taken during the Christmas challenges in several Legion regiments.