French forces are preparing for a possible ground assault in Mali against al-Qaida-linked rebels who have continued to push south despite of French aerial bombardments. France has put more than 700 soldiers including the legionnaires on the ground in Mali since it began its rapid deployment January 11, 2013 at the request of the Malian government.
Memorial hall inauguration in the 2e REG
In December 2012, an inauguration of the new Memorial hall took place in the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in its base at Saint Christol, southern France.
Hungarian French Foreign Legion Documentary
An interesting Hungarian documentary (2011) about the Foreign Legion in French Guiana. This documentary shows the legionnaires of the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment and their Brasilian colleagues during the Jungle Training course organized by the Legion. Even if you don’t understand the dialogue, there are a lot of good images to see.
Songs and marches of the French Foreign Legion
Singing the songs. An inseparable part of traditions of the Foreign Legion. The first thing you will be learning in the basic training. If you are interested in the songs and marches of the French Foreign Legion, you can visit a new blog page. The page includes a well-ordered list of almost 50 songs and marches of the Foreign Legion. Every song of the list has its own page including a little information, a videoclip and lyrics.
Foreign Legion in French Guiana 2012
French Guiana is an overseas region of France on the North Atlantic coast of South America bordered by Brazil to the east and south and Suriname to the west. There is a French Foreign Legion regiment stationed in French Guiana: the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI). It moved to its current location in French Guiana from Madagascar, Africa, in September 1973. 3e REI is protecting the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guiana Space Centre).
Vaillant 2012: Exercise of the 1re RE
The 1st Foreign Regiment (1er RE) of the French Foreign Legion has passed its Vaillant (Vailant) 2012 military exercise. The 1re RE military training took place at Pourrières in southeastern France, at the end of November.
Merry Christmas – Joyeux Noël 2012!
Merry Christmas – Joyeux Noël 2012 from ForeignLegion.info!
A Christmas video from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) is added. It shows the legionnaires of the Reconnaissance section of the Reconnaissance and Support Company (Compagnie d’éclairage et d’appui, CEA) which celebrate their Noël at their base at Calvi, Corsica and also in Africa.
Decoration the Regimental Flags video
As mentioned before, the regimental flags of the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) of the French Foreign Legion were decorated with a Croix de la valeur militaire avec palme (Cross for Military Valour with palm) by general Bertrand Ract Madoux. The ceremony was performed in Nimes, southern France, where the 2e REI is stationed in the base “Colonel de Chabrières”, on November 19th.
French Foreign Legion recruiting centers page was updated
Pages with addresses and Google Maps positions of the French Foreign Legion recruiting centers were updated. The old simple page had all information and location data mixed together and this caused its extremely slow load time. Moreover, the Street View and Maps images had to be too small. A new navigation structure of the Recruitment centers was created for solving the problem.
Read moreFrench Foreign Legion recruiting centers page was updated
Jubilee: 1er RE has been in Aubagne for 50 years
On December 7, 2012 almost 400 legionnaires celebrated an anniversary of the 1st Foreign Regiment (1er RE). The oldest regiment of the French Foreign Legion has already been stationed in Aubagne (a town in southern France, near Marseille) for 50 years. It moved there from Sidi-bel-Abbès, Algeria in 1962. See the video of the celebration.