Watch dynamic footage from the Foreign Legion’s basic training, provided by an Eastern European recruit from the 2nd Enlisted Volunteer Company (2CEV) of the 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE) – the Legion’s training unit. The video includes scenes from the company’s farm and from Castelnaudary in southern France, where the 4e RE is based, along with a few photos taken during the training.
2e REI: History of the Foreign Legion’s longest-serving regiment
In 2016, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) of the French Foreign Legion commemorated the 175th Anniversary of its activation. The history of the 2e REI started in Algeria, in April 1841, when the French Foreign Legion divided into two parts. Its legionnaires fought in Algeria, Crimea, Italy, Mexico, French Indochina, Madagascar, Morocco, France, Chad, Iraq, ex-Yugoslavia, Ivory Coast, Mali or in the Central African Republic. Currently (2016), the 2e REI is also the largest regiment of the Foreign Legion.
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2e REP: 2016 Change of Command
On July 22, 2016, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), the French Foreign Legion unit based on the island of Corsica, saw the Change of Command ceremony. It took place at Camp Raffalli, the HQ of the 2e REP located near the town of Calvi.
2016: 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Belloy-en-Santerre
On July 4, 2016, the Foreign Legion commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Belloy-en-Santerre. The battle, which occurred on July 4, 1916 near the river Somme in the Picardy region of northern France, was part of the Battle of Somme, the largest battle of the First World War on the Western Front. That day, hundreds of legionnaires were killed within a few hours, including the American poet Alan Seeger.
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Foreign Legion: 2016 Bastille Day Military Parade
On July 14, France celebrates its National Day, Bastille Day. Every year, a military parade takes place on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. The French troops, including legionnaires from the French Foreign Legion, march down the street. In 2016, the Foreign Legion was represented, as usual, by the Foreign Legion Pioneers, being accompanied by the Foreign Legion Music Band. This year, 109 legionnaires from the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13e DBLE) also participated in the parade.
13e DBLE: From Abu Dhabi to France
In June 2016, the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13e DBLE) of the French Foreign Legion left officially Zayed Military City near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It had been stationed there for 5 years, since the summer of 2011. In late June 2016, the 13e DBLE was placed at Camp Larzac, southern France.
13e DBLE: Officially based in France
On June 29, 2016, the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) was officially stationed on French soil for the first time in 76 years. Lieutenant Colonel Guillaume Percie du Sert, the unit’s new commanding officer, received the regimental colors from General Jean-Pierre Bosser, chief of the French Army Staff, during a ceremony at Camp Larzac in the Aveyron department of southern France — the demi-brigade’s new permanent home.
Corsica 2016: Bear Grylls with the real French Foreign Legion
Ed “Bear” Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter, well-known for his Born Survivor/Man vs. Wild survival television series. Bear Grylls is also involved in a TV show titled Escape to the Legion, in which he and other “recruits” took part in basic desert training of a fictional Foreign Legion. But in recent weeks, Bear Grylls met with real legionnaires (paratroopers from the 2e REP) when he made the latest episode of NBC’s Running Wild TV show on the island of Corsica.
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2e REP: Mud REP 2016
On April 30, 2016, legionnaires from the Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), the unit based on the island of Corsica, commemorated the 153rd Anniversary of the Battle of Camerone. Before the Camerone Day, several challenges were conducted by the regiment. Among them, Mud REP.
1er REP: Get a t-shirt with its badge design
55 years ago, in 1961, the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1er REP) of the French Foreign Legion was disbanded at lightning speed by then French president De Gaulle, because of its participation in the Generals’ Putsch of Algiers in late April 1961. To commemorate this famous and strictly disciplined unit, two times annihilated in combat and finally killed by a political decision, I re-designed the badge of 1er REP and published it in our store…
40th Anniversary: 1976 Djibouti helicopter crash
40 years ago, on May 24, 1976, the French Foreign Legion suffered its worst losses in a single incident since the end of the Algerian War in 1962. In the then French Territory of the Afars and the Issas (today’s Djibouti), six of its legionnaires died during a helicopter crash. Nevertheless, the accident will be totally forgotten during next 40 years. On the internet, there is no article in French (still less in English) being concerned with the accident, which still remains the second deadliest incident for the French Foreign Legion since the Algerian War ended…