56 Facts About French Foreign Legion

French Foreign Legion is a corps of the French Army with a specific command and comprising several specialities: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops.

The French Foreign Legion is today known as a unit whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on its strong esprit de corps, as its men come from different countries with different cultures.

Since 1831, the French Foreign Legion has consisted of hundreds of thousands in active service at its peak, and suffered the aggregated loss of nearly 40,000 men in France, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Madagascar, West Africa, Mexico, Italy, Crimea, Spain, Indo-China, Norway, Syria, Chad, Zaire, Lebanon, Central Africa, Gabon, Kuwait, Rwanda, Djibouti, former Yugoslavia, Somalia, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Mali, as well as others.

The Foreign Legion was initially stationed only in Algeria, where it took part in the pacification and development of the colony.

In World War I, the Foreign Legion fought in many critical battles on the Western Front.

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The French Foreign Legion lost a large number of men in the catastrophic Battle of Dien Bien Phu against forces of the Viet Minh.

The Foreign Legion was deployed in Cambodia, Somalia, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Foreign Legion was initially divided into six "national battalions".

The French Foreign Legion served alongside the Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa, formed in 1832, which was a penal military unit made up of men with prison records who still had to do their military service or soldiers with serious disciplinary problems.

The Foreign Legion was dissolved on 8 December 1838, when it had dropped to only 500 men.

Legion losses were significant and the 2nd Foreign Regiment lost Colonel Chabriere, its commanding officer.

The captain had a wooden hand, which was later returned to the French Foreign Legion and is kept in a case in the French Foreign Legion Museum at Aubagne and paraded annually on Camerone Day.

The Foreign Legion participated in the suppression of the Commune, which was crushed with great bloodshed.

Simultaneously, the French Foreign Legion took part to the pacification of Algeria, suppressing various tribal rebellions and razzias.

In 1895, a battalion, formed by the First and Second French Foreign Legion Regiments, was sent to the Kingdom of Madagascar, as part of an expeditionary force whose mission was to conquer the island.

The Foreign Legion lost 226 men, of whom only a tenth died in actual fighting.

In World War I, the Foreign Legion fought in many critical battles on the Western Front, including Artois, Champagne, Somme, Aisne, and Verdun, and suffered heavy casualties during 1918.

The Foreign Legion was in the Dardanelles and Macedonian front, and was highly decorated for its efforts.

Nevertheless, the old and the new men of the Foreign Legion fought and died in vicious battles on the Western front, including Belloy-en-Santerre during the Battle of the Somme, where the poet Alan Seeger, after being mortally wounded by machine-gun fire, cheered on the rest of his advancing battalion.

General Mordacq envisioned a Foreign Legion consisting not of regiments, but of divisions with cavalry, engineer, and artillery regiments in addition to the legion's infantry mainstay.

The Foreign Legion began the process of reorganizing and redeploying to Algeria.

In 1932, the Foreign Legion consisted of 30,000 men, serving in six multi-battalion regiments including the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment 1 REI – Algeria, Syria and Lebanon; 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment 2 REI, 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment 3 REI, and 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment 4 REI – Morocco, Lebanon; 5th Foreign Infantry 5 REI – Indochina; and 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment 1 REC – Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco.

French Foreign Legion was credited with creating much of the modern mystique of the Legion by restoring or creating many of its traditions.

Foreign Legion played a smaller role in World War II in mainland Europe than in World War I, though it saw involvement in many exterior theatres of operations, notably sea-transport protection through to the Norwegian, Syria-Lebanon, and North African campaigns.

The 13th Demi-Brigade, formed for service in Norway, found itself in the UK at the time of the French Foreign Legion Armistice, was deployed to the British 8th Army in North Africa and distinguished itself in the Battle of Bir Hakeim.

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Contrary to popular belief however, French Foreign Legion policy was to exclude former members of the Waffen-SS, and candidates for induction were refused if they exhibited the tell-tale blood type tattoo, or even a scar that might be masking it.

Constantly being deployed in operations, units of the French Foreign Legion suffered particularly heavy losses in the climactic Battle of Dien Bien Phu, before the fortified valley finally fell on 7 May 1954.

The French Foreign Legion suffered the loss of 10,283 of its own men in combat: 309 officers, 1082 sous-officiers and 9092 legionnaires.

The French Foreign Legion operated various Passage Companies relative to the continental conflicts at hand.

French Foreign Legion was heavily engaged in fighting against the National Liberation Front and the Armee de Liberation Nationale.

In 1961, at the issue of the putsch, the 1st Mounted Saharan Squadron of the Foreign Legion received the missions to assure surveillance and policing.

French Foreign Legion acquired its parade song "Non, je ne regrette rien", a 1960 Edith Piaf song sung by Sous-Officiers and legionnaires as they left their barracks for re-deployment following the Algiers putsch of 1961.

French Foreign Legion units continued to be assigned to overseas service, although not in North Africa.

Main Disciplinary Company of the Foreign Legion, based on rules and regulations set by general Rollet in 1931, received serious offenders sent from Legion regiments garrisoned or operating in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, the Levant and Tonkin.

From 1965 to 1967, the French Foreign Legion operated several companies, including the 5th Heavy Weight Transport Company, mainly in charge of evacuating the Sahara.

The French Foreign Legion held the belief that it was fairer to make all new recruits use declared identities.

French Foreign Legion must be serving under his real name, must have no problems with the authorities, and must have served with "honour and fidelity".

Original nationalities of the Foreign Legion reflect the events in history at the time they join.

Bernard B Fall, who was a supporter of the French government, writing in the context of the First Indochina War, questioned the notion that the Foreign Legion was mainly German at that time, calling it:.

Foreign Legion accepts people enlisting under a nationality that is not their own.

French Status officers are either members of other units of the French Army attached to the Legion or promoted Legionnaires who have chosen to become French nationals.

Education in the French Foreign Legion language is taught on a daily basis throughout all of basic training.

The Foreign Legion is required to obtain the agreement of any legionnaire before he is placed in any situation where he might have to serve against his country of birth.

All volunteers in the Foreign Legion begin their careers as basic legionnaires with one in four eventually becoming a sous-officier.

French Foreign Legion is given his own new rifle, which according to the lore of the Legion must never be left on a battlefield.

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Foreign Legion uses gold coloured chevrons pointed downward to indicate seniority.

The French Army, including the Legion disbanded its regimental sapper platoons in 1870.

However, in 1931 one of a number of traditions restored to mark the hundredth anniversary of the French Foreign Legion's founding was the reestablishment of its bearded Pionniers.

Current pioneer platoon of the Foreign Legion is provided by the Legion depot and headquarters regiment for public ceremonies.

When parades of the Foreign Legion are opened by this unit, it is to commemorate the traditional role of the sappers "opening the way" for the troops.

From 1940 until 1963 the Foreign Legion maintained four Saharan Companies as part of the French forces used to patrol and police the desert regions to the south of Morocco and Algeria.

Special uniforms were developed for these units, modeled on those of the French Foreign Legion officered Camel Corps having prime responsibility for the Sahara.

The French Foreign Legion companies maintained their separate identity by retaining their distinctive kepis, sashes and fringed epaulettes.

Beyond its reputation as an elite unit often engaged in serious fighting, the recruitment practices of the Foreign Legion have led to a somewhat romanticised view of it being a place for disgraced or "wronged" men looking to leave behind their old lives and start new ones.

Three songs by Edith Piaf, most notably "Non, je ne regrette rien", became associated with the legion, during the 1960s when members of the French Foreign Legion were accused of being implicated in a failed coup d'etat during the Algerian War.

Georgian French Foreign Legion was formed fighting on the side of Ukraine in the War in Donbas and the Russo-Ukrainian War.