The French Foreign Legion - the last option for those desperate to escape the UK

[daftandbarmy]

Et voila! A French Foreign Legion online forum, like Army.ca: http://www.cervens.net/legionbbs123/showthread.php?t=7215


This guy sounds pretty angry. Maybe he'd be happier if his recruits weren't so 'stupid'?


"The basic training is exactly what the name says it is. BASIC !!!!!! VERY BASIC !!!!

Basic training is aimed at changing a person from anywhere in the world, into a basic soldier that is capable of functioning in a Legion regiment. With functioning I mean that he is capable of getting up in the morning and knowing what to do, that he is capable of understanding BASIC orders, and execute basic soldering tasks. THAT IS ALL!!!

After basic training you will be able to maintain your weapon (to clean it and understand if it is malfunctioning), to hopefully be able to shoot with it, in other words to operate safely on a shooting range (something that is not always so obvious). You will be capable of doing some VERY BASIC combat missions (the first missions in your miserable career). Se poster and Se déplacer (remember the little presentations I posted earlier??). For the moment most of you guys don’t even understand the meaning of the two little French words. How are you going do be “big Rambos” if you don’t understand the most BASIC of the BASIC missions?

You will learn about radios, but you will not be any transmissions specialist, you will be a standard stupid (that has everything to learn) legionnaire. You will be able to change the batteries, change the type of antenna, turn on the bloody thing before setting a requested frequency, but THAT IS ALL!!

You will most of all, learn to clean and clean again. Simply because that is one of the most important BASIC MISSIONS!!
You will learn how to do your personal maintenance; that means cleaning your ass and your uniforms, as well as how to put them on and what to wear at a given moment.
You will learn how to run and how to walk for miles. Sure you know already, but you do not know how to do it while keeping your mouth shut and without asking stupid questions.

You will NOT learn much about combat, simply because the group (yes the group, you as an individual has no whatsoever value) is too stupid to understand the simplest basics of infantry operations.

Military life starts with BASIC training and a large majority of the future legionnaires (yourself included) are completely incapable of absorbing more than the simple basics for the first 16 weeks.

Forget the explosives, forget the fancy combat missions, forget all the crap that your miserable little brain has seen on TV.
__________________
LEGIO PATRIA NOSTRA

 

[geo]

Yowze!!!

I like the way this guy talks.
Telling it like it is - mo sugar coating AT ALL.

 

[time expired]

Daftandbarmy,surely the aim of basic trg. in any army.
Did not one of the "leg" Legion infantry units volunteer
to jump into Dien Bien Phu without any prior para trg.
and had a lower accident rate than the regular para units?.
                        Regards

 

[Danjanou]

Time Expired, can't remember off hand if it was a Legion unit or French Colonial Army ( some just as tough as LE back then) or a full unit or a group of volunteers. If I get a chance tonight I'll pull by copy of Hell in a Very Small Place off of the shelf and take a look for you.

As for the Post by the Legion NCo, nice to see that SHARP trainign has not infested La Legion.  8)

 

[Shec]

Here's a well done and comprehensive site by a Canadian who "escaped" to the Legion about 25 years ago:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/foreignlegiondiary/index.html

 

[ex-Sup]

Time Expired, can't remember off hand if it was a Legion unit or French Colonial Army ( some just as tough as LE back then) or a full unit or a group of volunteers. If I get a chance tonight I'll pull by copy of Hell in a Very Small Place off of the shelf and take a look for you.

Actually, I wasn't any full units, just volunteers. Major Cabaribere's entire II/3 REI volunteered, but it was rejected. They weren't sure if they all volunteered, or were "volunteered" by their CO. I guess they were considering it, but then the Major was KIA and they figured without his leadership, there would be too many refusals at the door.
Anyway, from a pool of 1800-2600 candidates, 700 volunteers from various units (infantry, arty, armour, etc.) were dropped.
Danjanou, have you ever read Windrow's "The Last Valley?" I read it after Fall's books, and I find it much more complete. Windrow's is actually a compilation of various sources (Fall, Roy, Rocolle, et al) and has a lot more information (and less discrepancies).

 

[Danjanou]

Actually, I wasn't any full units, just volunteers. Major Cabaribere's entire II/3 REI volunteered, but it was rejected. They weren't sure if they all volunteered, or were "volunteered" by their CO. I guess they were considering it, but then the Major was KIA and they figured without his leadership, there would be too many refusals at the door.
Anyway, from a pool of 1800-2600 candidates, 700 volunteers from various units (infantry, arty, armour, etc.) were dropped.
Danjanou, have you ever read Windrow's "The Last Valley?" I read it after Fall's books, and I find it much more complete. Windrow's is actually a compilation of various sources (Fall, Roy, Rocolle, et al) and has a lot more information (and less discrepancies).

No I haven't but will add it to my ever growing list of must have/read.  8)

You're right re who jumped in as reinforcments, just looked through Fall's book. D9er was hogging the PC until now :-[

 

[ex-Sup]

You're right re who jumped in as reinforcments, just looked through Fall's book.

Just a slight hijack, but we forgot one group of "reinforcements."
They didn't parachute in (that would have been funny as hell though  ), but what about the Mobile Brothels (Bordels Mobiles de Campagne or BMC)? They actually were there before the seige began, but close enough.
Gotta hand it to those French, even in the middle of a war, they make sure their troops have the most important necessities; whores and booze (Vinogel).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordels_Mobiles_de_Campagne
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinogel (how's your French?)

 

[geo]

There was a vast BMC in Saigon known as 'the park of the buffaloes' (a comment on the ladies ???)

in January 1954, a BMC containing Vietnamese and Algerian prostitutes was flown to Dien Bien Phu. Here, the prostitutes became nursing assistants for the French garrison during the siege, though they were sent for 're-education' by the Viet Minh after the French Garrison fell.

 

[geo]

After 2011, there will be no more fighting for Canadians...

Umm... says who ???

1.  we could quite easily find ourselves still in Afghanistan afer 2011... fighting might not be our main and principal mission BUT, there will be fighting there for years/decades to come.  Someone has to train the locals, someone has to ensure the protection of the PRTs, etc, etc, etc.....

There is also tons of other countries where things have gone bad & the UN is looking for someone to go in there...

 

[Blackadder1916]

Every Legionaire I talk to say it was the most exciting thing they have ever done. . .

And you know that many of them?  I don't know that many so I can't make a generalization but it is probably a mixed reaction, some enjoyed their time there and some (one specifically that I met) didn't.  It may be natural to assume that all join for the excitement and to get into "fighting".  A few I met spent their entire time in the LE without a single day of combat.  They may have had an exciting time (at least a very hard physical experience and were well trained) and relished tours outside France but their assignments didn't coincide with the well publicized French interventions that continued the legend of the Legion. 

It may be very common at the moment for legionaires to have combat experience, but it is also common for recently serving Canadians since they are going to the same war (Afghanistan).  While France does have a reputation for taking direct action or using their military much more in areas where they have (or want or wish to continue) a political interest and (using the Legion for this purpose), it has not been a string of continuous military adventures with a soundtrack of "Le Boudin".  So while it may be more likely that one may see "action" with them it is not guaranteed.

As an anecdote, I did meet one ex-legionaire many years ago.  He (like your dreamers) joined because he did not expect there would be any more "action" in the Canadian Army which had recently been very busy fighting in Europe (he had been too young to enlist during the war).  He did end up in Indochina, but he said he didn't see much (hardly any) combat - he wasn't there for Dien Bien Phu.  But he did have one special fondness for the Legion - he learned a trade there - barbering.  That's how I met him; he was my barber when I was in Ottawa in the late 80s.  Damn good barber.  He was glad that he learned that and wasn't dismayed that his fantasies of soldiering didn't work out.

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

Unlocked and cleaned up...keep it on topic or it will be locked again.

Milnet.Ca Staff