Notable people who served in the Foreign Legion. The following is a list of legionnaires who have gained fame or notoriety inside or outside of the legion.
Notable people who served in the Foreign Legion. The following is a list of legionnaires who have gained fame or notoriety inside or outside of the legion.
The French Foreign Legion is a corps of the French Army that consists of several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army. It formed part of the Armée d’Afrique, the French Army's units associated with France's colonial project in Northern Africa, until the end of the Algerian war in 1962.
The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was a climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War that took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954. It was fought between the French Union's colonial Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist revolutionaries. The United States was officially not a party to the war, but it was secretly involved by providing financial and material aid to the French Union, which included CIA contracted American personnel participating in the battle. The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union similarly provided vital support to the Viet Minh, including most of their artillery and ammunition.
Geneviève de Galard is a French nurse who was dubbed l'ange de Dien Bien Phu during the French war in Indochina by the press in Hanoi, although in the camp she was known simply as Geneviève.
Henri Eugène Navarre was a French Army general. He fought during World War I, World War II and was the seventh and final commander of French Far East Expeditionary Corps during the First Indochina War. Navarre was in overall command during the decisive French defeat at the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.
The Battle of Camarón which occurred over ten hours on 30 April 1863 between the Foreign Legion of the French Army and the Mexican Army, is regarded as a defining moment in the Foreign Legion's history.
Pierre Schoendoerffer was a French film director, a screenwriter, a writer, a war reporter, a war cameraman, a renowned First Indochina War veteran, a cinema academician. He was president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts for 2001 and for 2007.
Diên Biên Phu is a French 1992 epic war film written and directed by French veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer. With its huge budget, all-star cast, and realistic war scenes produced with the cooperation of both the French and Vietnamese armed forces, Dîen Bîen Phu is regarded by many as one of the more important war movies produced in French filmmaking history. It portrays the 55-day siege of Dien Bien Phu (1954), the last battle by the French Union's colonial army in the First Indochina War during the final days of French Indochina, which was soon after divided into North and South Vietnam. This was a prelude to the Second Indochina War, known in the United States as the Vietnam War.
The 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion, was created in 1940 and was the main unit of the 1st Free French Division, Free French Forces (FFL). From the coast of Norway to Bir Hakeim, to Africa then the Alsace, while passing by Syria and Italy, the 13th Demi-Brigade would be part of most of the major campaigns of the French Army during the Second World War.
Jules Gaucher was a French Army officer noted for his command of Foreign Legion troops in Indochina. Described as a "burly, hard-drinking veteran of years of jungle fighting, with a nose like an axe-blade and a mouth like its cut", Gaucher was a popular commander among the Legion, known as 'the Old Man' to his troops. He was killed at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
The French Far East Expeditionary Corps was a colonial expeditionary force of the French Union Army that was initially formed in French Indochina in 1945 during the Pacific War. The CEFEO later fought and lost in the First Indochina War against the Viet Minh rebels.
Pierre Paul Jeanpierre was a soldier in the French Army, a French Resistance fighter and senior officer of the French Foreign Legion.
This is a list of units and commands that took part in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu during the First Indochina War, with the major commands that took part in operations.
The 18th César Awards ceremony, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, honoured the best French films of 1992 and took place on 8 March 1993 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The ceremony was chaired by Marcello Mastroianni and hosted by Frédéric Mitterrand. Savage Nights won the award for Best Film.
The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment was an airborne regiment of the Foreign Legion in the French Army which dated its origins to 1948. The regiment fought in the First Indochina War as the three-time reconstituted 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion, the Suez Crisis and Algerian War, but was dissolved along with the 10th Parachute Division and 25th Parachute Division following the generals' putsch against part of the French government in 1961.
Events from the year 1954 in France.
Operation Mouette was an operation in 1953 by the French Army in Northern Vietnam during the First Indochina War. It was launched on October 15 in an attempt to locate and destroy Viet-Minh Chu Luc troops operating under the command of Võ Nguyên Giáp around the area of Phu Nho Quan, south of the Red River Delta. Following the establishment of a French camp in the area, various troops were dispatched to engage the Viet-Minh forces. The operation was ended and the French withdrew by November 7, claiming approximately 1,000 enemy combatants killed, twice as many wounded, and 181 captured as well as a substantial quantity of weapons and ammunition.
Philippe Louis Edmé Marie François Erulin was a senior officer in the French Army. He came from a family of renowned officers and military traditions.
The 1st Foreign Parachute Heavy Mortar Company was an ephemeral airborne forces heavy mortar of the Foreign Legion which fought during the First Indochina War at the corps of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps.
The 3rd Foreign Parachute Battalion was parachute battalion of the Foreign Legion formed based on the Parachute Instruction Company (C.I.P) of the 7th combat company of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment.
The 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion was a parachute battalion of the Foreign Legion in the French Army initially composed of volunteers of the 4th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion.