What I’m Reading – Voices of the Foreign Legion

Voices of the Foreign Legion by Adrian Gilbert (2017) – A clear-eyed view of the legendary fighting corps from the men who have been part of the Legion Etrangere.

The movies have offered a romantic image of the French Foreign Legion.  Men escaping their past or looking for adventure who enlist to serve in distant lands.  The banter is usually cheery and devil may care.  Costumed in the iconic white kepi, it usually all looks rather fun.

The stories told here in the words of legionnaires from their journals, letters, books, and interviews offer a very different view.  Yes, men enlist for many reasons and bring many secrets with them.  The life of a recruit lacks anything and everything that might be considered romantic or fun.  The lives of the seasoned veterans make no promises to be any better.

The Legion was created for two reasons.  First, French law forbade that citizens conscripted into the military serving outside France.  Second, France had a colonial empire that needed defending.  So they created a legion of volunteers from many nations (including France) to fight in places like Algeria, Djibouti, and Indo-China.

And fight the Legion has.

There are parts of the legend that are true.  The bravery, endurance and on the field of combat discipline of this military corps can stand beside any other on the planet.  Equally true is the violence and lack of traditional military discipline away from battle.  They are compromises that the Foreign Legion has made to create the unit that was needed in its time and place.

What really stood out for me is the uncompromised honesty about their beloved Legion from the legionnaires.  They are critical of mistakes and of institutional shortcomings.  But they have found something to devote themselves too in this sometimes dysfunctional brotherhood as well.  Stories of the hellish training, the brutal internal disciplines, even leaders that they believed to be mentally ill.  Through it all, they found something, unlike anything they had known before.  The reader may not understand why someone would choose to live this life, but you can not help but feel the passion and devotion of those who have served France for over a century.

There was one small disappointment for me.  The cover of the book offers this title: “Voices of The Foreign Legion – The History of the World’s Most Famous Fighting Corps” while the title page reads: “Voices of The Foreign Legion – The French Foreign Legion in Its Own Words”.  The book is absolutely the second title.  While there are a couple quick touches of the history and context surrounding the battles described, you will be left with a gaping hole in so far as the history of the Legion.  An opening chapter that provided the origin story of the unit and some further development of the socio-political history surrounding the Legion would make this book truly complete.

As it stands, it is still a stirring, disturbing and brutally honest look at one of the early elite military units.

Rating – **** Recommended