FOREIGN LEGION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 May 1942, Page 4

FOREIGN LEGION

NEW ZEALANDER’S ADVENTURES

FIVE YEARS' SERVICE.

OPERATIONS AGAINST REBEL TRIBES.

(N.Z.E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, March 3.

Almost five years’ service in the 'Foreign Legion, including four years in action against insurgent tribes in Morocco, is only part of the adventurous experiences of a sergeant in the Second N.Z.E.F. He claims to be the only New Zealander in the Middle East to have fought with France’s romantic colonial force. Since joining the New Zealand Forces he had taken part in the campaigns in Greece, Crete and Libya. life for him has been full of excitement ever since he was old enough to shoulder his responsibilities. A surveyor by profession, he has served in a survey battery of the Royal Artillery. He has also spent three years as a junior officer in the Merchant Service, and visited almost every country in the world. At last, reaching New Zealand, he obtained a position in the State Housing Department, Wellington. But twelve months later war broke out and he offered his services on the first day enlistments were received.

It was early in the depression, in 1930, that he decided to join the Foreign Legion. Twenty-four years of age, he was attracted by promise of adventure and romance. He was soon to discover that life in the Foreign Legion also entailed extreme hardship, discipline and long years spent in one of the most trying climates in the world. From England he crossed to Dunkirk and solemnly signed his contract for a period of five years. There were many others on a similar mission —Belgians, Norwegians, Poles > Czechs, and scores of other nationalities, political refugees fleeing from the clutches of rival parties in power, White Russians and anti-Nazis, with a large sprinking of ne’er-do-wells and adventurers. There were some who were finding an escape from their family troubles, and others, surprisingly few, who were out and out rogues keeping out of the way of justice. There were no Frenchmen. The Foreign Legion is closed to the sons of France. From Dunkirk, where he underwent a very severe medical examination, the new recruit was sent to Tout, an assembly point for future legionnaires on the Franco-German frontier. These men came through from Strasbourg. They were then sent to Marseilles, where they spent ten days until they were sorted into cavalry and infantry, the former bound for Tunis, the latter for Oran.

The New Zealander choose the infantry. From Oran, he was drafted to Sidi Bel Abbis, a training depot often mentioned in stories of the Foreign Legion. Most of his training, however, was done at Saida and latterly at Geryville, known as “the gateway of the desert.” This little outpost, nestling in a mountain pass that led to the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert, provided his first experience of the desert. Months of blistering heat were varied only by chilling Sirocco winds sweeping down from the rocky hills, bringing a deluge of muddy rain.

The next four and a half years were spent on active service in the wild Morocco desert plateaux and rockcovered hills. The Great Ranges of the Grand Atlas and the Lesser Atlas, infested with wildfcMoorish tribes, loomed beyond, and behind that, a vast 3000-mile fertile plain stretched to the Atlantic seaboard. Most of the New Zealander’s service was in the famous 3rd Regiment which had become almost legendary. It was the regiment which had fought to the last man in Mexico at the Battle of the Cameroons. On the anniversary of the battle, April 30, a four-day holiday and feast were observed every year.

Heavy mountain artillery, light tanks and bombing planes were part of the Foreign Legion’s modern equipment. They were fighting against determined and reckless men, all crack marksmen and skilled in desert warfare. Even with ancient Moorish rifles with no sights and using ball and powder, they proved formidable foes. Discipline in the Legion was as severe as any novelist had painted it. For a legionnaire to lose his rifle, or any part of his equipment, it was a crime of great magnitude. It was not discipline, however, that made this army of international adventurers such a redoubtable force. Rather was it the magnificent “esprit-de-corps” of all ranks—from the highest officer down to the legionnaire. Later, the New Zealander transferred to General Staff Intelligence. In all, he took part in eight major engagements and many minor ones during the process of “the pacification of Morocco.” Today, he wears the ribbons of the Croix de Guerre, the Croix de Combat and the Colonial Medal, the last being for over four years’ continuous service in North Africa.