FRENCH LEGION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1943, Page 4

FRENCH LEGION

NORWAY, FRANCE, AFRICA. TRADITION FOLLOWED. When the French Foreign Legion was withdrawn from Narvik, the men were given only breathing space in England before crossing the Channel to France, where they fought a number of severe rearguard actions, covering the embarkation of other troops escaping to our shores. Then they were sent to Equatorial Africa, thus in a few weeks going from 'the Arctic to the Equator, eventually reaching Libya across Africa. At Bir Hakeim they wiped off a few scores. They have others to wipe off. Contrary to general supposition, the Foi'eign Legion fighting today has few foreigners in it, perhaps only a quarter come from other countries than France. The men who are facing up to the Germans again in Africa are for the most part from Paris and from Brittany, with the rest representing every province of France and the French colonies overseas. Their leader, General Koenig, is an Alsatian, which means that he has the Alsatian’s usual antipathy for the German. General de Larminat, commander in chief of the Fighting French in Egypt, is one of the young generals, being only 47. He comes from Lorraine, and like General Koenig, he has no love for Germans. Others of the Legion come from Syria, and much of the material being used against Rommel’s men came from that country, following the Palestine campaign. As a French artilleryman said in a recent action, “Now our guns are firing in the right direction again.” Like the Legionaires of Caesar, the men of the French Foreign Legion are great road builders, and North Africa bears many examples of their work. Nothing is impossible for them. They ran a road right up into the Atlas mountains and hewed a pass through solid rock, leaving carved on the side, the proud inscription, “La Legion est passee ici” (the Legion passed here). Even a dead Legionary fights, is one of their tradition, for in many a tight corner their dead have been propped up on parapets as a decoy. Another tradition when fighting Arabs, is that a Legionary never lies down. Officers in this war have experienced difficulty in getting Legionaries to abandon this practice. On the flag of the Foreign Legion, beside the names of many hardfought fights around more than half the globe, is a patriotic motto, but the men of the Legion prefer their own motto, hard and crude, in three words the story of the Legion, “Marche ou Creve”—-March on or Die.