The French Foreign Legion (French: Légion étrangère) is a unique elite unit within the French Army established in 1831. Although also open to French citizens, the legion was created as a unit for foreign volunteers, because foreigners were forbidden to enlist in the French Army after the July Revolution of 1830.
The Legion was primarily used to protect and expand the French colonial empire during the 19th century, but it also fought in all French wars including the Franco-Prussian War and both World Wars.
Considered an anachronism by some, the Foreign Legion has remained an important part of the French Army. It has survived three Republics, one empire, two World Wars, the rise and fall of mass conscript armies, the dismantling of the French colonial empire and, finally, the French loss of the legion's birthplace, Algeria.
History
The French Foreign Legion was created by Louis Philippe, then King of the French, on March 10, 1831. The direct reason was that foreigners were forbidden to serve in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution.[1]
The purpose of the Legion was to remove disruptive elements from society and put them to use fighting the enemies of France. Recruits included failed revolutionaries from the rest of Europe, soldiers from the disbanded foreign regiments, and troublemakers in general, both foreign and French. Algeria was designated as the Legion's home; as the colony was proving to be a very unpopular posting with regular regiments in the French Army, the introduction of the Legion was well received.[citation needed]
In late 1831, the first Legionnaires landed in Algeria, the country that would be the Legion's homeland for 130 years and shape its character. The early years in Algeria were hard for Legionnaires because they were often sent to the worst postings, received the worst assignments and were generally uninterested in the new colony of the French.[2]
The Legion's first service in Algeria came to an end after only four years, since it was needed elsewhere.
The French Foreign Legion is known as an elite military unit whose training focuses not only on traditional military skills but also on its strong esprit de corps. As its men come from different countries with different cultures, this is a widely accepted solution to strengthen them enough to work as a team. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also extremely psychologically stressful.
The French Foreign Legion in Spain
To support Isabella's claim to the Spanish throne against her uncle, the French government decided to send the Legion to Spain. On 28 June 1835, the unit was handed over to the Spanish government. The Legion landed at Tarragona on 17 August with around 4,000 men, and were quickly dubbed Los Argelinos (the Algerians) by locals because of their previous posting.
The Legion's commander immediately dissolved the national battalions to improve the esprit de corps. Later, he also created three squadrons of lancers and an artillery battery from the existing force to increase independence and flexibility.
The Legion was dissolved on 8 December 1838, when it had dropped to only 500 men. The survivors returned to France, many reenlisting in the new Legion along with many of their former Carlist enemies.
Mexico
It was in Mexico on 30 April 1863 that the Legion earned its legendary status. A company led by Capitaine Danjou, numbering 62 soldiers and 3 officers, was escorting a convoy to the besieged city of Puebla when it was attacked and besieged by two thousand members of the Mexican Army,[3] organized in three battalions of infantry and cavalry, numbering 1,200 and 800 respectively. The patrol was forced to make a defence in Hacienda Camarón, and despite the hopelessness of the situation, fought nearly to the last man. When only six survivors remained, out of ammunition, a bayonet charge was conducted in which three of the six were killed. The remaining three were brought before the Mexican general, who allowed them to return to France as an honour guard for the body of Capitaine Danjou. The captain had a wooden hand which was stolen during the battle; it was later returned to the legion and is now kept in a case in the Foreign Legion museum at Aubagne, and paraded annually on Camerone day.Franco-Prussian War
According to French law, the Legion was not to be used within Metropolitan France except in the case of a national invasion, and was consequently not a part of Napoleon III’s Imperial Army that capitulated at Sedan. With the defeat of the Imperial Army, the Second French Empire fell and the Third Republic was created.The new Third Republic was desperately short of trained soldiers in the Franco-Prussian War, so the Legion was ordered to provide a contingent. On 11 October 1870 two provisional battalions disembarked at Toulon, the first time the Legion had been deployed in France itself. They attempted to lift the Siege of Paris by breaking through the German lines. They succeeded in re-taking Orléans, but failed to break the siege.
19th century colonial warfare
During the Third Republic, the Legion played a major role in French colonial expansion. They fought in North Africa (where they established their headquarters at Sidi-Bel-Abbès in Algeria), Benin, Madagascar, Indochina and Taiwan.Sino-French War
World War I
In World War I, the Legion fought in many critical battles of the war, on the Western Front including Artois, Champagne, Somme, Aisne, Verdun (in 1917) and also suffered heavy casualties during 1918. The Legion was also in the Dardanelles and Macedonian front, and the Legion was highly decorated for its efforts. Many young foreigners, including Americans like Fred Zinn, volunteered for the Legion when the war broke out in 1914. There were marked differences between such idealistic volunteers and the hardened mercenaries of the old Legion, making assimilation difficult. As most European countries and the US were drawn into the War, such "duration only" volunteers were generally released from the Legion to join their respective national armies. Citizens of the Central Powers serving with the Legion on the outbreak of war were normally drafted to garrisons in North Africa to avoid problems of divided loyalties.
Between the World Wars
In 1932, the Legion comprised 30,000 men in 6 multi-battalion regiments:
- 1st - Algeria and Syria
- 2d, 3d, and 4th - Morocco
- 5th - Indochina
- 1st Cavalry - Tunisia and Morocco
World War II
The Foreign Legion played a smaller role in World War II, though having a part in the Norwegian, Syrian and North African campaigns. The 13th Demi-Brigade was deployed in the Battle of Bir Hakeim. Reflecting the divided loyalties of the time, part of the Legion joined the Free French movement while another part served the Vichy government. A battle in the Syria-Lebanon campaign of June 1941 saw legionnaire fighting legionnaire as the 13th Demi-Brigade (D.B.L.E.) clashed with the 6th Regiment Etranger d'Infanterie at Damas in Syria. Later, 1,000 of the rank and file of the Vichy Legion unit joined the 13th D.B.L.E. of the Free French forces as a third battalion. Following the war, many former German soldiers joined the Legion to pursue a military career with an elite unit, an option that was no longer possible in Germany. Germans still constitute a strong presence in the Legion.
First Indochina War
Units of the Legion were involved in the defense of Dien Bien Phu during the First Indochina War and lost a large number of men in the battle. Towards the desperate end of the battle, Legionnaires formed the bulk of the volunteer relief force delivered by parachute to the base.
Algerian War
The Legion was heavily engaged in fighting against the National Liberation Front and other, smaller groups in the Algerian War of Independence from 1954 to 1962. Notable operations included the Battle of Algiers and various offensives launched by General Maurice Challe including Operations Oranie and Jumelles.
Post-colonial Africa
In spite of the view on the part of some that the Legion had by 1962 become an anachronism, the Legion found a new role as a rapid intervention force to preserve French interests not only in its former African colonies but in other nations as well. Some notable operations include: the Suez Crisis in 1956; the Chadian-Libyan conflict in 1969-72, 1978-79, and 1983-87; Kolwezi in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 1978; Rwanda in 1990-94; and the Côte d'Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) in 2002 to the present.
The Gulf War
In September 1990, the 2e REI, 6e REG and 1e REC were sent to the Persian Gulf as a part of Opération Daguet. They were a part of the French 6th Light Armoured Division, whose mission was to protect the coalition's left flank.
After a four-week air campaign, coalition forces launched the ground campaign. It quickly penetrated deep into Iraq, with the Legion taking the Al Salman airport, meeting little resistance. The war ended after a hundred hours of fighting on the ground, which resulted in very light casualties for the Legion.
Emulation
Spanish Foreign Legion
The Spanish Foreign Legion was created in 1920, in emulation of the French one, and had a significant role in Spain's colonial wars in Morocco and in the Spanish Civil War on the Nationalist side. Unlike its French model, the number of non-Spanish recruits never exceeded 25%, and most of these were Latin Americans.
KNIL
Though not named "Foreign Legion", the Dutch Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indische Leger (KNIL), or Royal Netherlands-Indian Army (in reference to the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia), was created in 1830, a year before the French legion, and had a similar recruitment policy. It stopped being a foreign legion around 1900 when it began restricting recruitment to Dutch citizens and to peoples of the Dutch East Indies. It was disbanded after the granting of independence to Indonesia in 1949.
Legion membership
While most of the Legion's commissioned officers are French, approximately 10% of them are former Legionnaires who have risen through the ranks. Though open to people of any nationality, most Legionnaires still come from European countries.
Membership of the Legion is a useful guide to political history: specific national representations generally surge whenever a country has a political crisis, and tend to subside once the crisis is over and the flow of recruits dries up. After the First World War, many (Tsarist) Russians joined. Immediately before the Second World War, Czechs, Poles and Jews from Eastern Europe fled to France and ended up enlisting in the Legion. After World War Two, the German presence was particularly strong. Following the break-up of Yugoslavia, there were many Serbian nationals. Also in the 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the changes in the former Warsaw Pact countries, led to an increase in recruitment from Poland and from the former republics of the USSR. Recent years have seen an increasing number of recruits from African and Balkan countries. However, in addition to the fluctuating numbers of political refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants from a wide variety of nations, there has been, since the end of World War Two, a strong core from two nations in particular, Germany and Britain. The Legion appears to have become as much a part of these two nations' culture as a French institution, and a certain stability in recruitment levels has developed; it does not follow the general 'yo-yo' trend as closely. After the fall of the Third Reich, Germans, long a major presence in the legion, are believed to have accounted for roughly sixty percent of its manpower,[citation needed]. After the war, the French administered two zones of Western Germany adjacent to France. In these zones, recruitment offices enabled many former German POWs to join the legion almost immediately after their release from prison camps. However, Bernard B. Fall, a leading expert on French Indochina and the author of the famous accounts Street without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, disputes this figure and claims that Germans made up thirty-five percent of the Legion at most in the post-WWII period. Nevertheless, the image of a German-dominated postwar Foreign Legion is the setting for the well-known novel Devil's Guard, which narrates a former Waffen-SS member's brutal experience of joining the Legion and fighting alongside other former SS against the Vietminh in Indochina. During the late 1980s, the Legion saw a large intake of trained soldiers from the UK. These men had left the British Army following its restructuring and the Legion's parachute unit was a popular destination. At one point, the famous 2eme REP had such a large number of British citizens amongst the ranks that it was a standing joke that the unit was really called '2eme PARA', an reference to the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment of the British Army. While no serious studies have made of the motives for enlistment over the years, the majority in the Legion's ranks were either those transient souls in need of escapism and a regular wage, or refugees from countries undergoing crises. In recent years, however, the improved conditions and professionalism of the Legion have in turn attracted a new kind of 'vocational' recruit, from middle-class backgrounds in stable and prosperous countries, such as the US, Britain and France itself. In the past, the Legion had a reputation for attracting criminals on the run and would-be mercenaries, but in recent years the admissions have been severely restricted and background checks are performed on all applicants. Generally speaking, convicted felons are prohibited from joining the service.
Whereas before Legionnaires could choose to enlist under a pseudonym ("declared identity") and a declared citizenship, today it is obligatory for everyone who applies to change his name. This disposition exists in order to allow people who want to start their lives over to enlist. French citizens can enlist under a declared, fictitious, foreign citizenship (generally, a francophone one, often that of Canada or Monaco). After one year's service, Legionnaires can regularize their situation under their true identity.
After serving in the Legion for three years, a legionnaire may apply for French citizenship[4]. He must be serving under his real name, no longer have problems with the authorities, and must have served with “honour and fidelity” for at least three years. French nationality cannot be granted under a declared identity. Furthermore, a soldier who becomes injured during a battle for France can apply for French citizenship under a provision known as “Français par le sang versé” (”French by spilled blood”).
Ranks and promotions
- Legionnaire
- Caporal (Corporal) - after 2 years of service
- Caporal Chef (Senior Corporal) - 6 years of service
- Sergent (Sergeant) - after 3 years of service
- Sergent Chef (Staff Sergeant) - after 3 years in rank of sergeant and 7 to 14 years of service
- Adjudant (Adjutant) - after 3 years in rank of staff sergeant
- Adjudant Chef (Senior Adjutant) - 4 years as adjutant with at least 14 years in service
- Regimental Sergeant Major - after 4 years in rank of adjutant
- Major - after 14 years - Either after passing the examination or being appointed without the examination.
- officers are seconded from the French Army
- All French Foreign Legion NCOs began their careers as legionnaires with one in four legionnaires joining today becoming an NCO. NCOs count for 25% of the legion today.
Code of Honour
Every Legionnaire must know by heart the "Legionnaire's Code of Honour". The Legionnaires spend many hours learning it, reciting it, and then getting the vocal synchronization together:
- Légionnaire, you are a volunteer serving France with "Honour and Fidelity".
- Every legionnaire is your brother-in-arms, regardless of his nationality, race, or religion. You will demonstrate this by strict solidarity which must always unite members of the same family.
- Respect of traditions, devotion to your leaders, discipline and comradeship are your strengths, courage and loyalty your virtues.
- Proud of your status as legionnaire, you display this in your uniform, which is always impeccable, your behaviour always dignified but modest, your living quarters always clean.
- An elite soldier, you will train rigorously, you will maintain your weapon as your most precious possession, you are constantly concerned with your physical form.
- A mission is sacred, you will carry it out until the end respecting laws, customs of war, international conventions and, if necessary, at the risk of your life. (Changed in November 2000)
- In combat, you will act without passion and without hate, you will respect the vanquished enemy, you will never abandon your dead or wounded, nor surrender your arms.
Composition
Previously, the Légion was not stationed in mainland France except in wartime. Until 1962, the Legion headquarters were located in Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Algeria. Nowadays, some units of the Légion are in Corsica or overseas possessions, while the rest is in the south of mainland France. Current headquarters are in Aubagne, France, just outside Marseille.
There are nine regiments and one independent sub-unit :
- Mainland France
- 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1e REC), based in Orange (armoured troops),
- 1st Foreign Regiment (1e RE), based in Aubagne (legion headquarters),
- 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI), based in Nîmes,
- 4th Foreign Regiment (4e RE), based in Castelnaudary (training);
- 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1e REG), based in Laudun;
- 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG), based in St Christol;
- Corsica
- 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP), based in Calvi, Corsica;
- French Overseas Territories and Overseas Collectives,
- 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI), based in French Guiana,
- Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte (DLEM);
- Africa
- 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13 DBLE), based in Djibouti.
Disbanded unit and attempted coup
- Further information: Generals' Putsch
The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1e Régiment Étranger Parachutiste, 1e REP) was established in 1955 during the Algerian War and disbanded in April 1961 as the entire regiment rose against the French government of Charles de Gaulle (Algiers Putsch), in protest against moves to negotiate an end to the Algerian War.
Following Algerian Independence in 1962, the Legion was reduced in numbers but not disbanded like most other units comprising the Armée d’Afrique: Zouaves, Tirailleurs, Meharistes, Harkis, Goums, Chasseurs d'Afrique and all but one of the Spahi regiments). The intention seems to have been to retain the Foreign Legion as a professional force which could be used for military interventions outside France and not involve the politically unpopular use of French conscripts. The subsequent abolition of conscription in France in 2001 and the creation of an entirely professional army might be expected to put the Legion's long-term future at risk, and indeed when Paris contributed a 2,000-strong contingent to the U.N. force in Lebanon in 2006, it included only 200 Legion engineers.
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