French Foreign Legion Hastened Its Own End

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 8

French Foreign Legion Hastened Its Own End

[From PETER MICHEIMORE, in London] The French Foreign Legion—the almost legendary fighting force which used to set boys day-dreaming about forts and swarthy sheikhs has hurried its own end. The Legion’s last chance of survival was quashed when two of the tougher regiments—paratroopers and cavalry—backed the Generals’ recent brief revolt in Algeria.

General de Gaulle's policy of self-determination for Algeria—the home of the Legion—had cast doubt on the future of the Legion. Under the French Constitution no Legion unit can be permanently based in metropolitan France, and Algeria is the last big overseas French possession. - There had been suggestions that the Legion could be attached to NATO as an elite roving force armed with nuclear weapons. The paratroopers—and the Legion—know now that the end has come. When regular Army soldiers went to the Legion camp at the coastal town of Zeralda. the legionnaires scornfully kept them out until they had blown up their barracks and supply dumps. "The Legion built this camp and we’re not going to leave anything for anyone else,” said a tall sergeant. The unshakeable spirit of the Legion remains. The chorus of their marching song—“My Homeland is my Regiment”—is still being sung. Officers had led the men into revolt and the men obeyed without question. The cause was wrong and the game was really lost before it started. But loyalty has been the strength of the Legion since it was formed. “We are not interested in

politics,” shouted one legionnaire.

“If we were, we wouldn’t have a Legion. “The Legion is recruited from among victims of political and economic upheavals. - “Every revolution, war or depression brings a new flood of recruits.” The Legion’s men are said to come from 50 nations and their allegiance is with their commanding officers. The officers are French, of course, and serving the French flag, but legionnaires are professional soldiers — mercenaries, as Fidel Castro likes to call them—and they go to battle for the glory of their own regimental flag. Fought To Last Bullet Over the years many a handful of Legionnaires have won world recognition by standing off entire armies, sometimes fighting until the last bullet, the last Legionnaire either dead or too badly wounded to fight on. In 1863, when the French were trying to force Maximilian of Austria on to the throne of Mexico, 63 Legionnaires stood off 2000 Mexicans for nine hours until three of the Legion were left. Almost a century later, six Legionnaires led by a sergeant, dropped from a helicopter into a band of 500 Algerian rebels. They held out for 10 hours and were all killed. The Legion lost 10.000 men in the Indo-Chinese war which ended in 1954. Field-Marshal Lord Alanbrooke was moved almost to poetry on seeing his first Legionnaires in World War 11. “Out of the fast falling light and snowflakes, came a sight I shall never forget.” he wrote. “The grandest assembly of fighting men ever seen, with their heads up as if they owned the world lean hard-looking men, carrying their arms admirably and marching with perfect precision.

“They disappeared into the darkness, leaving me with a thrill and a desire tor such a division of men.”