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.
Read moreCorsica 2016: Bear Grylls with the real French Foreign Legion
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…
38th Anniversary of the Battle of Kolwezi
On 17 May 1978, the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) of the French Foreign Legion was put on alert to get involved in an emergency operation in Kolwezi, an important mining center located in the Katanga province of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the second largest country of Africa.
3e REI: Camerone 2016 in French Guiana
On April 30, 2016, legionnaires from the Foreign Legion’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI), the unit based in French Guiana, commemorated the 153rd Anniversary of the Battle of Camerone.
Foreign Legion: Camerone Day 2016
Every year, the French Foreign Legion commemorates the anniversary of the Battle of Camerone, the most famous event in its history. Also in 2016, on April 30, Camerone Day, the officers, NCOs and legionnaires of the Foreign Legion commemorated the 153rd Anniversary of the battle. See Camerone Day videos from several Legion regiments.
2e REI: Infernal Run 2016
On April 15, the fourth Infernal Run event was organized by the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) at Camp de Garrigues near Nimes, its garrison, at the occasion of coming Camerone Day (April 30). Hundreds of legionnaires from 2e REI and other regiments of the French Foreign Legion participated in.