Inside the Foreign Legion: The Sensational Story of the World's Toughest Army

INSIDE THE

FOREIGN LEGION

INSIDE THE

FOREIGN LEGION THE SENSATIONAL STORY OF THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST ARMY

JOHN PARKER

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© 1998 John Parker First published in 1998 by Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Limited 5 Windmill Street London WIP IHF The moral right of the author has been asserted A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0 7499 1856 X Edited by John Malam Designed by Paul Saunders Typeset by Phoenix Phorosetting, Chatham, Kent Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham PLC, Chatham, Kent

CONTENTS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Acknowledgements Foreword by Brigadier A. Hunter-Choat, aBE Maps Prologue: First impressions 1831: legio Patria Nostra 1863: Camerone, Mexico 1870: France; 1883: Indo-China; 1894: Dahomey Misty-eyed recruits A deserter's story 1914-1918: the 'Magic of Baraka' The war that nearly ended the legion Post-war reformation All-American hero From Selfridges to Algeria 1940: Arctic bound 1941-1942: legion against legion 1945-1954: Indo-China, the final ignominy 1954: Algeria grows restless 1957-1961: Algerian rebellion Punishments, legion style 1962: Algerian independence 1970: Goodbye Algeria 1970s: Djibouti 1978: Kolwezi incident, Zaire Changing times 1982: lebanon erupts 1983: Bad days in Chad; 1987: French Guyana

vii ix xi 1

8 14 23 35 43 53 64 76

88 93 104 119 132 152 163 173 183 192 201 216 223 230 238

CONTENTS

24 19805: The hard times persist 25 1991: The Gulf War; 1993: Bosnia; 1997: Republic of Congo Appendix: I Foreign legion Regiments II Career prospects Bibliography Index

249 260 271 273 275 277

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed to this book by way of long and detailed interviews with the author amounting to some 118 hours on tape, as well as making available their own memorabilia, photographs, personal diaries, private memoirs and archives. Although documentary research provides the basis for the story of the French Foreign Legion in its early years, the author was fortunate to have the benefit ofmuch previously unpublished material provided by Mr Jim Worden, an accredited historian of the Foreign Legion, who was for many years secretaireglniralofthe Association

AmicaledesAnciens Combattants de fa Ugion Btrangm de Grande-Bretagne (the Foreign Legion Association of Great Britain) and who very kindly made available his own archives, notes and accounts written and collated over the last thirty years. Otherwise, principle sources were men who have served between five and twenty-one years in the Legion, and, as will be evident from the text, personal recall was relied upon for the running narrative for the last sixy years of its history, beginning with John Yeowell who joined in 1938 through to those whose service ended in 1997: frank, intriguing and fascinating recollections, encompassing not only the men's service in the Legion, but explanations as to why they joined, and stayed. Therea&er, most became members ofthe British Veterans Association, of which John Yeowell was a founder member. The anonymity that the Foreign Legion affords all its volunteers is respected here, and some contributors remain unidentified or have been given fictitious names for the purpose of this account. The author wishes to record his sincere thanks to all of them, and particularly to Brigadier Tony Hunter-Choat aBE, former President and now Secretary General of the Association, who also read this manuscript prior to publication; John Duckmanton who succeeded him as President; John Yeowell, Robert Wilson, Kevin John Maunder, Paul James, Phil Meason, Michael Nisbet and Tadeusz Michniewicz.

vii

FOREWORD by Brigadier A. Hunter-Choat,OBE

In a speech made in 1981, at the 150th anniversary of the formation of the French Foreign Legion, the speaker remarked that it took the Legion to create Algeria, but it took Algeria to create the Legion. It goes further than that. Legionnaires for the past 167 years have been formed and indelibly marked by their experiences in the Legion, while the Legion has gained its strength and strength of character from the disparate wealth of its individual members. The Legion is, and has always been, unique. Not simply because it is an officially recognized and employed mercenary force, but because of the marvellous and skilful balance of national and individual characteristics, blended together to produce Monsieur Llgionnaire. Throughout its long, hard, often brutal, always bloody history, the Legion has gathered to it all those of like character and forged them with the hammer of discipline on the anvil of combat into the world's most famous fighting force. This forging and developing is a never-ending process, and the Legion changes with changing times. The early wars in Algeria, Morocco and Spain, the debilitating souldestroying Mexican campaign in the late 19th century, the blood and mud ofWorld War I, the Rif campaigns, World War II from Narvik to Alsace, the fearsome battles throughout Indo-China, the drawn-out Algerian 'war' and its demoralizing conclusion, and the plethora of worldwide operations since, many still ongoing, have all been part of the formative process and need to be understood if one is to fathom what is a legionnaire. John Parker describes them well and takes the reader beyond dry history into the battles themselves, and into the legionnaires' reactions to them. Their reactions are usually total disdain! He then leads us into that which the book set out to achieve, and ix

INSIDE THE FOREIGN LEGION

that which I doubted could be achieved - an understanding of what the British and Irish (those the French loosely callies anglais) see as the Legion and what it has made of them. And achieve it he does, admirably. Over recent years there have been two outstanding histories ofthe Legion (Tony Geraghty's March or Die, and Douglas Porch's The Frmch Foreign Legion) but John Parker breaks new ground with his superb research into long gone legionnaires; and interviews with the living - from John Yeowell who joined in 1938, to Arthur, who has only just left. Their stories are fascinating, fun and revealing. They reveal that since its formation in 1831, although the Legion has changed and developed, the essential character of the legionnaire remains unchanged. The physical changes to the Legion have been enormous; the size has fluctuated from as high as 34,000 in Indo-China, to 26,000 in Algeria to 8,200 today; from four or five nationalities at the beginning to 121 today. Modernization, rationalization, downsizing, sophistication - it's all there, but ask the legionnaire what he feels about it, what he feels about his 'country' - Legio Patria Nostra - and you will get the same answers over the years. And what do these answers tell the reader? Has the Legion changed in essence? No, of course it hasn't, and it cannot afford to, other than in appearances. All the faerors that have given the Legion its strength and made it the fighting force par excellence it undoubtedly is, are still there in abundance. And the faeror which has the greatest influence on the character of the Legion is the character of each and every legionnaire.

Tony Hunter-Choat former 1167798 Sergent Choat 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment

x

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