Celebrated in novels and movies for generations, the French Foreign Legion is one of the world’s best-known military forces. In Legion of Strangers, Charles Mercer has written an enthralling history of this organization, each chapter highlighting either a particular campaign or the details of daily life.
The Legion was formed almost as an afterthought by King Louis Philippe in 1831, with the aim of collecting some of the many exiles in France who had fled violent political and dynastic squabbles in Italy, Austria and Spain, and sending them abroad to serve the interests of empire:
During the first year of his reign he saw one of those opportunities to kill two birds with one stone when a Belgian adventurer who called himself the Baron Böegard made him a proposal. Böegard offered to enlist the fractious exiles who brawled through the streets of Paris in a “Légion Étrangère” and lead them to North Africa to aid the French forces there. Wishing to rid Paris of the troublesome exiles and wanting to offset the losses of French soldiers in North Africa, Louis Philippe required little urging to accept the plan. Thereby he added one more to the long list of mercenary units which had served France.Although the Legion has been sensationally romanticized in such novels as Beau Geste, there is, understandably, much in the basic character of the organization that makes this an almost inevitable temptation. Take, for example, the extraordinary mix of men and motives that created the unique spirit of the Legion:
All manner of men have been attracted to the Legion for all manner of reasons. It is impossible to find a craft, trade, profession, or way of life that has not been represented among the wearers of its white kepi. Members of royalty and a great variety of nobility have served in the Legion. On occasion the professional musicians in its ranks could have formed an outstanding symphony orchestra…A Spanish bishop, serving as a private, used to play the organ in the chapel at Sidi-bel-Abbès; drink had been his undoing, and he had to be well lubricated with alcohol in order to play effectively…at least one American millionaire enlisted as a private during World War I. Once, a general, reviewing a regiment in Syria, was struck by the military bearing of one private. He asked what his occupation had been before enlisting. “I was a general, mon Général,” replied the private who had been a major general in the White Russian Army…Prince Aage of Denmark…served as a captain in the Legion for many years…Although the Legion is most closely associated in the public mind with North Africa, legionnaires fought in Spain, Vietnam, West Africa and in some of the biggest European battles of World War I. The most sacred relic of the Legion, in fact, is the wooden hand of Captain Jean Danjou, whose small force fought to the last man in Mexico against overwhelming odds during the revolution against the Emperor Maximilian.
This is a book that I have read and reread over many years, and while there are others that no doubt provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date history (Legion of Strangers was published in 1964), Mercer’s narrative is one of the most fascinating because of his focus on certain inherently interesting episodes (the ghastly march into the Sahara by a column of 300 French and native tirailleur troops and their running fight with Tuareg tribesmen; the war in the Kingdom of Dahomey which pitted legionnaires against the king’s “Amazon” warriors ; the bloody Rif War in Morocco that ultimately resulted in as many as 100,000 dead; the courageous but futile efforts in Vietnam). Unfortunately, I believe the book is now out of print, but it is well worth searching out.
I share the general fascination with the Legion. Legion memoirs, like military memoirs generally, are a mixed bag. One of the best I think is "Legionnaire" by Simon Murray, an Englishman who served in Algeria in the early 60s. It has I think recently been republished.
ReplyDeleteI haven't come across this book though so will add it to my Paco list.
Thanks Paco, sounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteI must put in a plug for a Michael Glover book: An Improvised War which details the little-known campaign in Ethiopia during WW2 which drew on sundry adventurous characters from the armies of the UK and Australia (including the redoubtable Laurens van der Post, and an Australian who went on to become - many years later - my father-in-law).
By in effect "evicting" the Italians from Ethiopia they made it possible for Haile Selassie to regain control.
They were a rag-tag bunch of characters who went in with very limited resources, but achieved a result which the Legion would have admired and identified with.
Thanks, guys. Those sound like good recommendations.
ReplyDeleteBlogstop, I'll have to look out for that. I've always been interested in that particular theatre of the war as my grandfather served in the Abassynian campaign and was mentioned in dispatches as well as temporarily enjoying the title of "Court Physician to her Imperial Majesty the Dowager Empress of Ethiopia". Although something of a sideshow, its very uncoventional nature meant that it produced figures such as Slim and Wingate who put the lessons learned there to good effect elsewhere.
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