French Foreign Legion
Page 108
106. Martin, Je suis un légionnaire, 295–6.
107. Italian recruits were “small, without energy, dirty, badly dressed,” mediocre soldiers who deserted often. SHAT, 9N 123, 1933.
108. ALE, 7 March 1934 report.
109. ALE, “Etat d'esprit—Propagande communiste et révolutionnaire,” nd.
110. SHAT, 9N 123, “Répartition par nationality's des engagés volontaires en 1934 et 1935.”
111. ALE, “Etat d'esprit,” nd but obviously 1937.
112. ALE, SIL, Rapport Annuel, 1935.
113. ALE, “Etat d'esprit,” nd.
114. ALE, “Etat d'esprit,” 1937.
115. SHAT, 9N 123, 1 April 1938.
116. SHAT, 9N 123, 21 April 1938.
117. ALE, “Rapport annuel sur I'état d'esprit,” 3e REI 1933.
118. SHAT, 9N 123, 1 April 1938.
119. ALE, “Etat d'esprit,” nd, probably 1937.
120. “Les devoirs du légionnaire,” Vert et rouge, no. 9 (1946): 22-4.
121. Cooper, Twelve years, 181, 259.
122. ALE, 5e régiment étranger, nd.
123. SHAT, 9N 123.
124. Liddell Hart, Strange Company, 176-77, 180-1.
125. Murray, Legionnaire, 167.
126. Liddell Hart, Strange Company, 48.
127. Giulio Cesare Silvagni, La peau des mercenaires (Paris: Gallimard, 1954), 305.
CHAPTER 21
1. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 93.
2. Charles Hora, Mon tour du monde en quatre-vingts barouds (Paris: La Pensée Moderne, 1961), 39.
3. SHAT, 7N 2475, 25 September 1939.
4. SHAT, 7N 2475, 13 November 1939.
5. Gustave Bertrand, Enigma ou la plus grand énigme de la guerre, 1939-1945 (Paris: Plon, 1973), 72.
6. Joseph Ratz, La France que je cherchais: Les impressions d'un Russe engagé volontaire en France (Limoges: Imprimerie Bontemps, 1945), 65-66.
7. Szajkowski, Jews, 60.
8. Szajkowski, Jews, 60-1.
9. SHAT, 7N 2475, 8 September 1939.
10. SHAT, 7N 2475, 21 September 1939.
11. ALE, “Note sur les variations d'effectifs de la Légion étrangère depuis 1900,” Service d'information, 8 June 1961. SHAT, 7N 2475, 7 November 1939.
12. SHAT, 7N 2475, 16 September 1939.
13. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 40, 43.
14. SHAT, 34H 319, 39.
15. SHAT, 34N 317.
16. SHAT, 7N 2475, 26 October 1939.
17. SHAT, 7N 2475, December 1939.
18. SHAT, 7N 2475, 17 February 1940.
19. SHAT, 7N 2475, 18 January 1940.
20. G-R Manue, Vu du rang (manuscript, ALE), 10-11. This work was published as Sous la grenade à sept flammes. Comment on a creé un corps d'élite, 1939-1940 (Paris: Sequana, 1941). Page numbers are from the original manuscript.
21. André-Paul Comor, L'Epopée de la 13ème demi-brigade de Légion étrangère, 1940-1945 (Paris: Nouvelles éditions latines, 1988), 29.
22. SHAT, 7N 2475, “Situation des effectifs des Unites de marche de volontaires étrangers à la date du 10 février 1940.”
23. Lapier, La Légion étrangère a Narvik, 30.
24. SHAT, 9N 123, 8 June 1939.
25. Alfred Perrott-White, French Legionnaire (London: John Murray, 1953), 128–9.
26. SHAT, 9N 123, 19 July 1939.
27. SHAT, 7N 2475, 5 October 1939.
28. Szajkowski, Jews, 69-70.
29. A.D. Printer, “Spanish Soldiers in France,” Nation, vol. clv (1943): 489-90. Quoted in Szajkowski, Jews, 101-2.
30. Printer, “Spanish Soldiers in France,” 489-90.
31. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 53, 222-3.
32. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 47.
33. SHAT, 7N 2475, 25 January 1940.
34. Lapie, La Légion étrangère à Narvik, 30.
35. Printer, “Spanish Soldiers,” 489–90.
36. Lapie, La Légion étrangère à Narvik, 34.
37. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 28.
38. Perrott-White, French Legionnaire, 81.
39. Szajkowski, Jews, 64, 74–5.
40. SHAT, 7N 2475, 25 January 1940.
41. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 93–4.
42. Szajkowski, Jews, 64-5.
43. Jacques Ragot, De Gaulle, la Légion, I'Algérie: Souvenirs d'un officier (La Teste: Chez l'auteur, 1984), 50-56.
44. SHAT, 7N 2475, 10 and 13 February 1940.
45. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 47.
46. SHAT, 7N 2475, 22 November 1939.
47. Szajkowski, Jews, 72.
48. SHAT, 7N 2475, 10 November 1939.
49. Manue, Vu du rang, 34-5.
50. SHAT, 34N 317, 11 February 1941.
51. SHAT, 9N 123, 20 April 1940.
52. Manue, Vu du rang, 10.
53. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 28.
54. Szajkowski, Jews, 65.
55. Képi blanc, no. 490 (May 1989), 37.
56. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 119.
57. SHAT, 7N 2475, “Extraits de fiches de renseignements établis après l'armistice par le commandant Jacquot.”
58. Manue, Vu du rang, 12-13, 46.
59. Roger Bruge, Les combattants du 18 juin. Tome I. “Le sang verse” (Paris: Fayard, 1982), 113-14.
60. SHAT, 34N 317, “Journal de marche du sergent François de la 7e cie du 12e R.E.I.,” 29 May.
61. SHAT, 34N 317, “Journal de marche du sergent Francois.”
62. SHAT, 3H 319, report of Chef de bataillon Hermann, 25.
63. SHAT, 34H 319.
64. SHAT, 34N 317, “Journal de marche du sergent François.”
65. SHAT, 34H 319.
66. SHAT, 7N 2475, “Extraits de fiches.”
67. SHAT, 7N 2475, “Extraits de fiches de renseignements.”
68. SHAT, 34N 317, “Journal de marche du sergent François.”
69. SHAT, 7N 2475, “Extraits.”
70. SHAT, 34N 317, “Journal de marche du sergent François.”
71. Manue, Vu du rang, 53.
72. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 164.
73. SHAT, 34N 317, 11 February 1941 report.
CHAPTER 22
1. Some historians believe that Gamelin missed an opportunity to attack in September 1939 while the cream of the Wehrmacht was occupied in Poland and the Siegfried Line was manned by second-echelon German units.
2. Comor, L'Epopée, 40.
3. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 117–18.
4. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 140, 145–6.
5. Comor, L'Epopée, 70–1.
6. SHAT, 34N 318, “Observations faites lors la campagne de Norvège.”
7. SHAT, 34N 318, report of S/c Niederhauser; also that of A/c Mary, 55.
8. Comor, L'Epopée, 85.
9. SHAT, 34N 318, Mary report, 51–2.
10. SHAT, 34N 318, Mary report, 65.
11. Comor, L'Epopée, 95.
12. ALE, “Carnet de route du Lieutenant Gabriel de Sairigné,” unpublished diary, 22 June, 1 July 1940.
13. SHAT, 34N 318.
14. SHAT, 34N 318, Mary report, 56; report of Lieutenant Laborde.
15. Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 1 July.
16. SHAT, 34N 318, Mary report, 66.
17. Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 7–14 July, 25 August.
18. ALE, “Résumé du journal des marches et opérations, 13e DBLE, 20 February, 1940–19 February, 1949,” 47.
19. Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 8 April 1941.
20. ALE, letter of Colonel Barre, 1 October 1981.
21. ALE, “Troupes du Levant. Ordre général no. 14,” 13 July 1941.
22. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 7 June 1941.
23. ALE, “Officiers, Sous-Officiers, Soldats du Levant,” 14 May 1941.
24. Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (London: Barry & Jenkins, 1972), 117–24.
25. Comor, L'Epopée, annex
e 18, “Lègionnaires du Levant!”
26. Comor, L'Epopée, annexe 19, “Je ne suis pas Gaulliste . . . Pourquoi?”, 341.
27. Comor, L'Epopée, 154.
28. ALE, “Récit du Lieutenant Baulens.”
29. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 14 August 1941.
30. ALE, letter of 10 January 1981.
31. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 14 August 1941.
32. ALE, Résumé du journal des marches et opérations, 13e DBLE, 50.
33. Comor, L'Epopée, 161–2.
34. Michel-Christian Davet, La double affaire de Syrie (Paris: 1967), 197.
35. ALE, Barre letter, 10 January 1981.
36. ALE, Barre letter, 10 January 1981.
37. Comor, L'Epopée, 158–62. Officers have told this author that the issue of repatriation was embittered by the fact that the Australians shot many prisoners of the 6e étranger out of hand.
38. ALE, “Troupes du Levant: Ordre Général no. 14,” 13 July 1941.
39. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 27 May 1942.
40. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 6 June.
41. ALE, Résumé du journal des marches et opérations, 13e DBLE, 71–2.
42. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 11 June 1942.
43. Comor, L'Epopée, 202–3.
44. ALE, Résumé, 75.
45. Henri Amouroux, Lagrande histoire des français sous l'occupation, Vol. IV: Le peuple révellé (Paris: Laffont, 1979), 268–69.
46. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 3 June 1943.
CHAPTER 23
1. Michael R. Marrus and Robert O. Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 67–9.
2. OSS report, National Archives, RG 226, no. 2160. Quoted in Szajkowski, Jews, 108.
3. SHAT, IP 2229, 21 October 1942.
4. SHAT, 12P 84, 28 August 1941.
5. Szajkowski, Jews, 94, 98, 102.
6. National Archives, RG59, 85IT, Transah./30 & 27. Quoted in Szajkowski, Jews, 93–4, 98–9.
7. Marrus and Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews, 86, 257.
8. General Maxime Weygand, Mémoires, vol. Ill, “Rappelé au Service” (Paris: Flammarion, 1950), 390–91.
9. SHAT, IP 2229, 26 October 1940 and 28 April 1941.
10. Philip Rosenthal, Il était une fois un légionnaire (Paris: Albin Michel, 1981), 120.
11. Louis Berteil, L'armée de Weygand (Paris: Albatros, 1975), 51–55.
12. SHAT, 1P 2229, 26 October 1940.
13. SHAT, 1P 2229, 21 May 1941.
14. SHAT, 1P 2229, 30 January & 31 March 1942.
15. SHAT, 4H 274, 10 & 14 February 1941.
16. SHAT, 1P 2229, 28 April 1941.
17. SHAT, 1P 2229, 20 April 1941.
18. SHAT, 1P 2229, 10 September 1940.
19. SHAT, 12P 84, 8 September 1941.
20. Paul Carell, Afrika Korps (Paris: J'ai Lu, 1963), 278.
21. SHAT, 12P 84, 8 September 1941.
22. Comor, L'Epopée, 241–2.
23. Robert O. Paxton, Parades and Politics at Vichy: The French Officer Corps under Marshal Pétain (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966), 327.
24. SHAT, 12P 84, 21 July & 22 September 1941.
25. Mercer, The Foreign Legion, 267.
26. Rosenthal, Il était une fois, 118–19.
27. Ragot, De Gaulle, La Légion, l'Algérie, 62–63.
28. Paxton, Parades and Politics, 246.
29. Comor, L'Epopée, 240–1.
30. Rosenthal, Il était une fois, 120.
31. Perrott-White, French Legionnaire, 179.
32. Perrott-White, French Legionnaire, 182–97.
33. SHAT, 12P 82, 8 February 1943.
34. Comor, L'Epopée, 239–45, photo 26 between 256–7, 300–1, 305, 311.
35. Comor, L'Epopée, 251, 245.
36. SHAT, 12P 82, 14 March 1943.
37. SHAT, 12P 83, 10 March 1945.
38. SHAT, 12P 83, 23 November 1944.
39. “Spanish revolutionary propaganda is making itself felt more and more in our ranks,” Tritschler wrote. “It tends to create among these young legionnaires [about to terminate their five years] a feverous atmosphere, a slackness, which translates into individual desertions at a slow but regular pace.” However, the Legion insisted upon maintaining the five-year enlistment: “The formula” Enlisted for the duration of the war' is contrary to the Legion spirit and assimilates him to a reservist,” Tritschler insisted. This statement must be seen as a not-so-veiled criticism of the 13e DBLE, which enlisted recruits for the duration of hostilities, in contrast to the “regular” Legion, and therefore had a more “political” orientation than the “Old Legion.” SHAT, 12P 83, 23 November 1944. Lieutenant Colonel Gaultier of the RMLE admitted in March 1945 that the five-year enlistment contract was a great impediment to enlistment. SHAT, 12P 83, 10 March 1945.
40. SHAT, 12P 82, June 1945. It is possible that this was the result of the rabiot, the practice of deducting time spent in punishment from legal service time, but adding it onto the end of the period of enlistment as a sort of service non compris. Charles Favrel insisted that he had no rabiot to serve when his colonel refused to release him upon the expiration of his contract in March 1943. When he hired a lawyer and threatened to sue his commander, he was immediately transferred to a mounted company, and gained his release only by a personal appeal to the Minister of Defense in Algiers. Favrel, Ci-devant légionnaire, 227–30.
41. Szajkowski, Jews, 172–77.
42. SHAT, 12P 83, 10 March 1945.
43. Comor, L'Epopée, 285–7.
44. Général Jean Compagnon, “La Légion étrangère dans la campagne de Tunisie, 1942–1943,” Revue historique des armées, no. spécial 1981, La Légion étrangère, 1831–1981: 185–216.
45. SHAT, 12P 82, 14 March 1943. Major Louis Rouger who commanded the 1er bataillon of the 1er étranger confessed that training “was not emphasized because of duties,” before being sent to Tunisia. The armament was poor, many trucks had to be abandoned, and the officers, while good, were too few. “Soldiers, good but need discipline, as always in the Légion, to avoid useless casualties.” SHAT, 12P 82, 8 February 1943.
46. SHAT, 12P 82, “Journal de Marche du 3e REI, décembre 1942/avril 1943,” 12. “L'Aventure du Drapeau du 3e Etranger. Tunisie 19 janvier-12 mai 1943.”
47. Général Jean-Pierre Hallo, “Le Régiment de marche de la Légion étrangère, 1943–1945,” Revue historique des armées, no. special 1981, La Légion étrangère: 223
48. Comor, L'Epopée, 246–7.
49. John Ellis, Cassino: The Hollow Victory (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984), 45.
50. Ellis, Cassino, 347.
51. Comor, L'Epopée, 265.
52. Ellis, Cassino, 364.
53. Comor, L'Epopée, 267–9.
54. ALE, de Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 12 January 1945.
55. Comor, L'Epopée, 282.
56. Comor, L'Epopée, 301.
57. Comor, L'Epopée, 300–1.
58. Comor, L'Epopée, 299.
59. SHAT, 12P 83, “Observations sur l'infanterie blindée à la suite des opérations du RMLE en 1944–45.”
60. Lapie, La Légion étrangère a Narvik, 23.
61. De Sairigné, “Carnet de route,” 28 January 1945.
62. SHAT, 12P 82, 3e REI, June 1945.
63. SHAT, 12P 83, 10 March 1945.
CHAPTER 24
1. Tibor Szecsko, Implantation et engagement de la Légion étrangère au Tonkin, 1914–1941 (Montpellier: Doctorat d'université d'histoire, Université Paul Valéry— Montpellier III, September 1987), 131–9, 150–4, 169–73.
2. SHAT, 10H 77, 20 May 1931.
3. Andrée Viollis, Indochine S.O.S. (Paris: Gallimard, 1935), 159.
4. Szecsko, Implantation, 271–8; Viollis, Indochine S.O.S., 146–7, 153. See also Claude Paillat, Dossiers secrets de la France contemporaine, Vol. III, La guerre à l'horizon, 1930–1938 (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1981), Chapters
31, 32, and 34.
5. James P. Harrison, The Endless War: Vietnam's Struggle for Independence (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), Chapter 2.
6. Viollis, Indochine S.O.S., 158–9.
7. Gilbert Bodinier, 1945–1946: he retour de la France en Indochine. Textes et documents (Vincennes: SHAT, 1987), 228.
8. Franchini, Les guerres d'Indochine, vol. I, 153–6.
9. Perrot-White, French Legionnaire, 194.
10. Szecsko, Implantation, 304–16.
11. Franchini, Les guerres d'Indochine, vol. 1,183–8; “La résistance du 5e étranger,” Vert et rouge, no. 10 (1947): 14–25; Colonel Henri Dutailly, “La retraite de Chine: Résistance militaire et comportement du combattant dans une unité isolée,” unpublished conference at the Ecole d'état major, in SHAT, 10H 80. See also SHAT, 10H 79, report of Lieutenant Colonel Quilichini, 1 January 1946, and 12P 82 for the events of the coup of 9 March 1945.
12. Bodinier, 1945–1946, 28, 32–3, 66–9.
13. Harrison, The Endless War, 109.
14. Yves Gras, Histoire de la guerre d'Indochine (Paris: Plon, 1979), 190.
15. Kemencei, Légionnaire en avant!, 155.
16. Lucien Bodard, La guerre d'Indochine: L'enlisement (Paris: Gallimard, 1963), 406–9. 98.
17. Henri Jacquin, Guerre secrète en Indochine (Paris: Olivier Orban, 1979), 197–98.
18. Jacquin, Guerre secreté en Indochine, 201–4.
19. SHAT, 10H 1142, 18 August 1950.
20. SHAT, 10H 1142, October 1950, Carpentier report to prime minister, no date.
21. SHAT, 10H 1142. 3e bureau, FAEO, 14 October 1950.
22. Gras, Histoire de la guerre d'Indochine, 330–1.
23. Kemencei, Légionnaire en avant! 201.
24. Kemencei, Légionnaire en avant!, 205–11.
25. Kemencei, Légionnaire en avant!, 205–11.
26. Liddell Hart, Strange Company, 35.
27. Gras, Histoire de la guerre d'Indochine, 190.
28. Claude Paillat, Dossier secret de l'Indochine (Paris: Presses de la Cité, 1964), 18.
29. Kemencei, Légionnaire en avant!, 142–3, 176, 191, 207.
30. SHAT, 10H 375, 2e REI, 1950. Sergeant Stojkiewitch of the 3e étranger, who was wounded during the Cao Bang retreat, reported that the Viet Minh possessed more grenades than the Legion, the same number of machine guns, but fewer light automatic weapons. 10H 1142.
31. SHAT, 10H 376, 1951.