Our Friends Beneath the Sands

  4 IV/1er REC continued on active service in Syria until replaced by 1 er Esc in Nov 1926.Operations by the 50,000-strong Army of the Levant continued until July 1927, by which time Sultan al Atrash had been forced over the Transjordan border; he finally fled to Arabia. Syria became a peaceful and, by the 1930s, a coveted posting for the three Legion units forming the core of its permanent garrison. In Oct 1939 the bns then in-country – IV/, I/ and VI/1er REI – became respectively I, II and III bns of the new 6e REI, with an attached Legion artillery battalion.

  Select Bibliography

  BOOKS

  Aage of Denmark, Prince, My Life in the Foreign Legion (London; Eveleigh Nash & Grayson, 1928)

  Ageron, Charles Robert, trans Michael Brett, Modern Algeria – A History from 1830 to the Present (London; Hurst & Company, 1991) anon, Histoire militaire de l’Indochine francaise, des débuts à nos jours (juillet 1930), Tome II (Hanoi-Haiphong; Imprimerie d’Extrême-Orient, 1930)

  Bergot, Erwan, trans Richard Barry, The French Foreign Legion (London; Wyndham Publications/ Tattoo, 1976)

  Bergot, Erwan, La Coloniale – du Rif au Tchad, 1925 – 1980 (Paris; Presses de la Cité, 1987)

  Bernard, Professor Augustin, Les confins Algéro-Marocains (Paris; Émile Larose, 1911)

  Blond, Georges, La Légion Étrangère (Paris; Stock, 1964)

  Brunon, Jean, et al, Livre d’Or de la Légion Étrangère (Paris; Légion Étrangère, 1931)

  Carpeaux, Louis, La chasse aux pirates (Paris; Grasset, 1913)

  Clayton, Anthony, France, Soldiers and Africa (London; Brassey’s, 1988)

  Clerisse, Henry, La guerre du Rif et la Tache de Taza (Paris; G. Desgrandchamps, 1927)

  Cooper, A. R., Douze ans à la Légion Étrangère (Paris; Payot, 1934)

  Cooper, A. R., March or Bust (London; Robert Hale, 1972)

  Crumplin, Michael, Men of Steel – Surgery in the Napoleonic Wars (Shrewsbury; Quiller Press, 2007)

  Danel, Raymond and Jean Cuny, L’Aviation francaise de bombardement et de renseignement 1918 – 1940 (Paris; Docavia/Editions Larivière, 1978) de Lattre de Tassigny, Maréchal Jean (posthumous collected writings), Ne Pas Subir (Paris; Plon, 1984)

  d’Esparbes, Georges, Les Mystères de la Légion Étrangère (Paris: Ernest Flammarion, n.d., c.1912)

  Dorian, Jean-Pierre, Souvenirs du Colonel Maire de la Légion Étrangère (Paris; Albin Michel, n.d., c.1939)

  Dunn, Ross E., Resistance in the Desert – Moroccan Responses to French Imperialism 1881 – 1912 (London; Croom Helm, 1977)

  Fabre, Lieutenant-Colonel, Au Maroc – Le Bataillon au Combat (Paris; Charles-Lavauzelle, 1929)

  Gandini, Jacques, El Moungar – Les combats de la Légion Étrangère dans le Sud-Oranais 1900 – 1903 (Éditions Extrêm Sud, 1999)

  Gandy, Alain, Légion Étrangère Cavalerie – Royal Étranger (Paris; Presse de Cité, 1985)

  Garijo, Francois, trans from Spanish by Jean-Marc Truchet, La Légion et les Spahis dans la conquete du Maroc 1880 – 1934 – La guerre du Rif 1921 – 26 (Guilherand Granges; Éditions La Plume du Temps, 2003)

  Geraghty, Tony, March or Die (London; Grafton Books, 1986)

  Grisot, Général P. A. and Ernest Colombon, La Légion Étrangère de 1831 à 1887 (Paris; Berger-Lerault, 1888)

  Guyader, Raymond et al, La Légion Étrangère 1831/1945 (Musée de l’Uniforme de la Légion Étrangère; Gazette des Uniformes Hors Serie No.6; Paris, 1997)

  Harris, Walter B., France, Spain and the Rif (London; Edward Arnold, 1927)

  Hart, David M., Dadda Atta and his Forty Grandsons – the Socio-Political Organisation of the Ait Atta of Southern Morocco (Wisbech, Cambs; Middle East and North African Studies/ MENAS Press Ltd, 1981)

  Hart, David M., The Ait Atta of Southern Morocco – Daily Life & Recent History

  (Wisbech, Cambs; Middle East and North African Studies/ MENAS Press Ltd, 1984)

  Hart, David M., Qabila – Tribal Profiles and Tribe-State Relations in Morocco and on the Afghanistan – Pakistan Frontier (Amsterdam; Het Spinhuis, 2001)

  ‘Heintz’ – anon, Historique des unités de la Legion Étrangère pendant la guerre de 1914 – Maroc et Orient (Oran; Imprimerie D. Heintz & Fils, 1922)

  Hocquard, Dr C. E., ed. Philippe Papin, Une Campagne au Tonkin (Paris; Hachette, 1892; edited r/p Arléa, 1999)

  Hoisington, William A., Jr, Lyautey and the French Conquest of Morocco (London; Macmillan, 1995)

  Horne, Alistair, The Fall of Paris (London; Reprint Society, 1967)

  Huré, Général R., La Pacification du Maroc (Paris; Berger-Levrault, 1952)

  Huré, Gén R. et al, L’Armée d’Afrique 1830 – 1962 (Paris; Charles-Lavauzelle, 1977)

  Johnstone, Douglas, France and the Dreyfus Affair (Poole; Blandford, 1966)

  Juin, Maréchal Alphonse, Je Suis Soldat (Paris; Conquistador, 1960)

  ‘Khorat, Pierre’ (Major Ibos), En Colonne au Maroc – Rabat, Fez, Méquinez – Impressions d’un Témoin (Paris; Perrin, 1913)

  ‘Khorat, Pierre’, Scènes de la Pacification Marocaine (Paris; Perrin, 1914)

  Khoury, Philip S., Syria and the French Mandate – The Politics of Arab Nationalism 1920 – 45 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987)

  Le Poer, John Patrick, A Modern Legionary (New York; Dutton, 1905)

  Lyautey, Maréchal Hubert, trans. Mrs Aubrey Le Blond, Intimate Letters from Tonquin (London; John Lane The Bodley Head, 1932)

  Lyautey, Maréchal H., Lettres du sud de Madagascar 1900 – 02 (Paris; Armand Colin, 1935)

  ‘M.M.’, Memoirs of the Foreign Legion (London; Martin Secker, 1924)

  Manington, George, A Soldier of the Legion (London; John Murray, 1907)

  Martyn, Frederic, Life in the Legion (London; Everett & Co, 1911)

  Maurois, André, trans. Hamish Miles, Marshal Lyautey (London; John Lane, 1931)

  Maxwell, Gavin, Lords of the Atlas (London; Cassell, 2000)

  McAleavy, Henry, Black Flags in Vietnam (London; George Allen & Unwin, 1968)

  Montaudon, Général, Souvenirs Militaires (Paris; Charles Delagrave, 1900)

  Morel, Lieutenant-Colonel, La Légion Étrangère – Recueil des documents . . . (Paris; Chapelot, 1912)

  Ollier, Edmund (ed), History of the War between France and Germany 1870 – 71 (London; Cassell, 1890)

  van Paassen, Pierre, Days of Our Years (New York; Hillman-Curl, 1939)

  Patry, Léonce, trans and ed. Douglas Fermer, The Reality of War (London; Cassell, 2001)

  Pechkoff, Zinovi, La Légion Étrangère en Maroc (Paris; Marcelle Lesage, 1926; trans. as The Bugle Sounds: Life in the Foreign Legion, New York, D. Appleton, 1926)

  Porch, Douglas, The March to the Marne (London; Cambridge University Press, 1981)

  Porch, Douglas, The Conquest of Morocco (New York; Alfred A. Knopf, 1983)

  Porch, Douglas, The Conquest of the Sahara (London; Jonathan Cape, 1985)

  Porch, Douglas, The French Foreign Legion – A Complete History (London; Macmillan, 1991)

  Price, G. Ward, In Morocco with the Legion (London; Jarrolds, 1934)

  Ralston, David B., The Army of the Republic (Cambridge, MA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1967)

  Rankin, Reginald, In Morocco with General d’Amade (London; Longmans, Green & Co, 1908)

  Rickards, Colin, The Hand of Captain Danjou (Ramsbury, UK; Crowood Press, 2005)

  Robinson, Paul, The White Russian Army in Exile 1920 – 41 (Oxford; Clarendon Press, 2002)

  Rosen, Erwin, In the Foreign Legion (London; Duckworth & Co, 1910)

  Serman, William and Jean-Paul Bertaud, Nouvelle Histoire Militaire de la France 1789 – 1919 (Paris; Fayard, 1998)

  Silbermann, ‘Le Soldat’ (Léon), Souvenirs de Campagne (Paris; Plon-Nourrit, 1910)

  Sylvère, Antoine, Le légionnaire Flutsch (Paris; Plon, 1982)

  Tombs, Robert, The War Against Paris 1871 (London; Cambridge University Press, 1981) – in notes, ‘Tombs’

  Tombs, Robert & Isabelle, That Sweet Enem
y (London; Heinemann, 2006) – in notes,

  ‘Tombs & Tombs’

  Turnbull, Patrick, The Foreign Legion (London; Heinemann, 1964)

  Vanègue, Chef de Bataillon, Les petites unités d’infanterie au Maroc (Paris; Charles-Lavauzelle, 1932)

  Vial, Médecin Capitaine Jean, Le Maroc Héroique (Paris; Hachette, 1938)

  Vuillemin, Henri, La grand aventure des fusils réglementaires francais 1866 – 1936;Gazette des Armes, Hors Série No.2 (Paris; LCV Services, 1996)

  Weygand, Jacques, trans Raymond Jones, Légionnaire (London; Harrap, 1952)

  Windrow, Martin, Uniforms of the French Foreign Legion 1831 – 1981 (Poole, UK; Blandford, 1981)

  Woolman, David S., Rebels in the Rif (London; Oxford University Press, 1969)

  Young, John Robert, with Erwan Begot, The French Foreign Legion (London; Thames & Hudson, 1984)

  JOURNAL ARTICLES

  anon, ‘Alouana . . . Combat sans espoir’ in Képi Blanc (hereafter KB), No.169, May 1961

  anon, ‘Il y a 50 ans au Maroc’ (death of Ch de Bn Deslandes) in KB, No.337, July 1975

  anon, ‘Une figure legendaire – le Légionnaire Haberthur’ in KB, No.373, November 1978

  anon, ‘Une figure legendaire – l’Adjudant-Chef Mader’ in KB, No.375, January 1979

  anon, ‘Le Général Zinovi Pechkoff’ in KB, No.380, June 1979

  anon, ‘L’affaire de Bou Leggou’ in KB, No.393, August 1980

  anon, ‘Historique du 4e REI’ in KB, No.394, September 1980

  anon, ‘Le Bataillon Cazaban’ in KB, No.397, December 1980

  anon, ‘Une faite d’armes en Syrie – Messifré, 17 Septembre 1925’ in KB, No.405, September 1981

  anon, ‘La defense de Rachaya, Syrie, 20 – 25 Novembre 1925’ in KB, No.407, November 1981

  anon, ‘Images de la Légion Étrangère’ in KB, Nos.473 and 474, Octobers and November 1987

  Barreau, Jean, ‘Évolution des Troupes de Marine de 1871 à 1950’ in Revue Historique des Armées (hereafter RHdA), 1983/2

  Callan, Andrew, ‘“This West African Prussia”: The Dahomean Army, 1840s – 90s’ in Military Illustrated Past & Present No.30, November 1990

  Campbell, Gwyn, ‘Labour and the Transport Problem in Imperial Madagascar 1810 – 1895’ in Journal of African History (hereafter JAH), Vol 21 (1980) pp.341 – 6

  ‘Capitaine X’, ‘Admirable conduite d’un Sous-Officier du ler Bataillon du 2e Étranger’ in La Légion Étrangère, No.8, 30 November 1912

  Carles, Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre, ‘Survol de l’histoire du sous-officier de la Légion Étrangère’ in RHdA, 1981/1, Spécial Légion Étrangère

  Choisel, Francois, ‘Du tirage au sort au service universel’ in RHdA, 1981/2

  Cohen, William B., ‘Malaria and French Imperialism’ in JAH, Vol 24 (1983), pp.22 – 36

  Compton, Major T. E., ‘The Pacification of Morocco’ and ‘The Downfall of Abd el Krim’ in Journal of the Royal United Services Institution (hereafter JRUSI) 1923, and Army Quarterly, 1925 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1997)

  Crealock, Major J. North, ‘Algerian Warfare’ in JRUSI, 1876: translated summary of articles by M.Villot in Journal des Sciences Militaires, May – July 1876 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1995)

  Dunn, Ross E., ‘Bu Hamara’s European Connexion [sic] – The Commercial Relations of a Moroccan Warlord’ in JAH, Vol 21, (1980), pp.235 – 52

  Dutailly, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry, ‘Les officiers à titre étanger 1831 – 1939’, in RHdA, 1981/1

  Ellis, Stephen, ‘The Political Elite of Imerina and the Revolt of the Menalamba . . . Madagascar, 1895 – 98’ in JAH, Vol 21 (1980) pp.219 – 34

  Fremeaux, Professor Jacques, ‘Troupes blanches et troupes de couleur’ in RHdA, 2000/1

  Fremeaux, Professor Jacques, ‘Les forces supplétives de l’armée francaise au Maroc 1912 – 1934’ in RHdA, 2004/2

  Gandelin, Adjudant Chef André, ‘Le général Rollet . . .’ in RHdA, 1981/1

  Garros, Lieutenant-Colonel Louis (ed), La Légion, Grandeur et Servitude – Historama Spécial Hors Série No.3 (Saint-Ouen; November 1967)

  Girardet, Professor Raoul, ‘La France à l’heure des débats’ in L’Age d’Or de la France Coloniale, 1871 – 1914 – Historia Spécial (hereafter L’Age d’Or), (Paris; Éditions Tallandier, Sept – Oct 1993)

  Graves, Colonel Galbraith G. E., ‘The Madagascar War’ in The United Service Magazine, 1896 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1997)

  Gugliotta, Georges, and Jean-Charles Jauffret, ‘Des unités de légende – Les compagnies montées 1881 – 1950’, Part 1 in RHdA, 1981/1; Part 2 in RHdA, 1981/2

  Hale, L.A., ‘Convoys in Southern Algeria’, translated summary in JRUSI 1884, of pamphlet by Lt C. Massoutier, Chef de Bureau Arabe de Djelfa, originally pub by Jourdan of Algiers, 1882 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1998)

  Johnson, Marion, ‘Polanyi, Peukert and the Political Economy of Dahomey’ in JAH, Vol 21 (1980) pp.395 – 8

  Kea, R.A., ‘Firearms and Warfare in the Gold Coasts from the 16th to the 19th Centuries’ in JAH, Vol 12 (1971) pp.185 – 213

  Laine, Serge, ‘L’Aviation francaise au Maroc 1911 – 1939’ in RHdA, 1978/4

  Lefèvre, Sergeant, ‘Les carnets du Sergent Lefèvre’, in KB Nos.109 – 22 (May 1956 – Aug 1957)

  Loustaunau-Lacau and Montjean, Capts, ‘Au Maroc francaise en 1925 – Le rétablissement de la situation militaire’ in Revue Militaire Francaise (April – June 1928)

  Marseille, Professor Jacques, ‘Commerce franco-colonial – Une bonne ou une mauvaise affaire?’ in L’Age d’Or (Sept – Oct 1993) pp.96 – 101

  Martin, Professor Jean, ‘Une spectaculaire expansion coloniale’ (pp.18 – 27); and ‘Madagascar – la conquête de l’Ile Rouge’ (pp.70 – 73), in L’Age d’Or (Sept – Oct 1993)

  Meyer, Charles, ‘Pour que l’Indochine soit francaise’ (pp.80 – 91); and ‘Colons et planteurs au Tonkin’ (pp.92 – 4), in L’Age d’Or (Sept – Oct 1993)

  Montagnon, Pierre, ‘La France et le Maghreb – une histoire commune de plus de 150 ans’ in L’Age d’Or (Sept – Oct 1993), pp.28 – 36

  Page, J. D., ‘Slaves and Society in Western Africa c1445 – 1700’ in JAH, Vol 21 (1980) pp.289 – 310

  Pasfield Oliver, Captain S., ‘The Madagascar Expedition of 1895 – 96’, in JRUSI, 1896; translated summary from report of Gen Duchesne, Journal Officiel, 12 – 14 September 1896 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1995)

  Pasfield Oliver, Captain S., ‘Le Soudan Francais and recent French operations on the Upper Niger’ in JRUSI, 1894 (r/p Pallas Armata, 1995)

  Pernot, Francois, and Marie-Catherine Villatoux, ‘L’Aéronautique militaire au Maroc avant 1914’, in RHdA, 2000/1

  Pfirmann, Jean, ‘Les carnets du Sergent Pfirmann’ in KB, Nos.341 – 54, Dec 1975 – Feb 1977

  Richards, W. A., ‘The Import of Firearms into West Africa in the 18th century’ in JAH, Vol 21 (1980) pp.43 – 59

  Sergent, Pierre, ‘Du nouveau sur le combat de Camerone’ in RHdA, 1981/1

  Vauvillier, Francois, ‘Coup de faux dans 1’Anti-Atlas . . .’ in Histoire de Guerre Blindés & Matériel No.78 (Aug – Sept 2007). After Henry Clerisse, Le Sous mystérieux – la dernière étape de la pacification du Maroc (Paris; Édition Mage, 1935)

  Ziegler, Charles, ‘Souvenirs du Rif’ in KB, Nos.232 and 233, Aug – Sept 1966

  Index

  Author’s note: The text, relevant end-notes and photograph captions are fully indexed, but the Appendices only for main subjects such as units and commanding officers.

  Entries prefixed ‘Ait’, and ‘Beni’ or ‘Ouled’, refer to Berber and Arab tribes/clans respectively, unless otherwise identified as placenames. Entries prefixed ‘Bou’, ‘Bu’ and ‘El’ are placenames unless identified as personal titles. North African river courses are indexed under ‘Oued’, or ‘Assif’ in the Berber High Atlas, and ranges of hills and mountains under ‘Djebel’.

  Services, ministries and the National Assembly are prefixed ‘French’. Most general categories of troops (e.g. Alge
rian Skirmishers, etc.) are indexed only to their first and/or few most descriptive references, under ‘French Army’, ‘French Africa Army’, and ‘French Naval and Colonial Troops’; otherwise only specific units are indexed, in numerical order. See under ‘French Foreign Legion’ for general topics; followed by a listing of individual units, divided between pre-1919 and post-1919 organization, and between permanent ‘organic’ units and temporary ‘marching’ units.

  Military ranks given for individuals are the highest mentioned in the text or notes. All grades of general officers are given simply as ‘Gen’, and marshals of France as ‘Mshl’; the rank of major (‘Maj’) is used for chefs de bataillon, chefs d’escadrons and commandants, and warrant officer (‘WO’) for adjudants.

  Specific types of equipment are indexed together under ‘aircraft’, ‘weapons’ and ‘vehicles’.

  A

  Aage, Maj Prince xl; biog note

  Abadla plain

  Abandiolli, Pte

  Abarran

  Abassia, Pte

  Abatucci, Gen

  Abda tribe

  Abd el Aziz, Sultan

  Abd el Kader

  Abd el Krim el Khattabi, Mohammed xxxvii Character of regime; disintegration of confederacy; European contacts; Franco – Spanish negotiations; surrender

  Abd el Krim el Khattabi, Mhamed xxxvii

  Abd el Malek Meheddin

  Abomey

  Achirkane

  Aden

  Adrar

  Adua, Ethiopia

  ‘l’affaire des fiches’

  Afghanistan

  Aflou

  Afrau, Gen Felipe (Span)

  Afrau (place)

  Agadir

  Agaja-Dosu, King

  Agde

  Aguebli, Mohammed

  Ahermoumou

  Ahl Debdou people

  Ahmadou of Segou, Sultan

  Ain Abd el Malek

  Ain Aicha

  Ain ben Khelil, Ain ben Tili

  Ain Bou Aissa

  Ain Chair

  Ain Defali

  Ain el Haout pass

  Ain Leuh

  Ain Maatouf

  Ain Rebbah

  Ain Sefra

  Ain Sfa