History of the Foreign Legion                           In 1831, the conquest of Algeria comes to start and claims already many reinforcements. The Legion is created to provide this supplement of troops. It is formed starting from the soldiers of trade without employment after the imperial wars and of the revolutionists of all the countries of Europe which found refuge in France. To facilitate the engagement from abroad who, having had to leave their country precipitately, do not have parts of registry office, the legislator authorizes engagements on simple declaration of identity.                       This provision, simply utility its departure, allows in fact that which wants to seek the lapse of memory to begin a new life in the rows of the Legion. A whole part of the myth of the Legion, and mystery which surrounds the légionary, comes from this "second chance" that the Legion offers to those which accept its rules. The law of March 9, 1831 and its decree of application of March 10, thus contained the two essential principles which always melt the characteristic of the Legion: service on a purely foreign basis and the possibility of being useful under declared identity. CAMERONE April 30 - AUBAGNE   1831 Algeria, cradle of the Legion.   The first légionaries unload in Algeria in August 1831. April 27, 1832, they receive the baptism of fire in front of Square Maison and, with the wire of the engagements, cut the reputation of soldiers valiant and enduring. And at the same time, on the wire of advanced French Army, handling in turn the pickaxe and rifle, they impose a style which will become soon the mark of the Legion, that of the soldier-builder. Their chief-ofœuvre will be to create a city in 1843: Sidi-beautiful-Abbès, head office and capital of the Legion…   1835 Spain and birth of the amalgam.   June 29, 1835, four years after its creation, the foreign Legion is yielded to the Spanish government to support the queen Isabelle II in her fight against the rebellion carlist. Of the 4000 légionaries left behind their officers, 500 survivors only will join France in 1838, after three years of martyrdom. During this countryside, a principle will be applied always into force nowadays: that of the amalgam. Not very satisfied with the system battalions by nationality, the Bernelle General will brew the légionaries in the units, whatever their origins, and will impose French like language of command. The Legion will consequently find there a cohesion which was never contradicted.   1835 The new Legion.   The absence of the légionaries had cruelly been felt in Algeria: December 16, 1835, less than six months after having separated from the first, Louis Philippe decides the creation of a new foreign Legion. Manpower are easily raised and, in 1840, the Legion is divided into two regiments. The new Legion goes on the traces of its elder. Constantine (1837), Djidjelli (1839), Millianah (1840), Zaatcha (1849), Ischeriden (1857) mark the glorious stages of a course which devotes the Legion like the solid troop to fire, rustic and enduring, on which one can count in any circumstance.   1854 Imperial wars.   Without stopping its action in Algeria, the Legion takes part in the campaigns of the Second Empire. It is initially the countryside of the Crimea (1854–1856), with the head office of Sébastopol, then that of Italy (1859), where the Legion is illustrated in Magenta and Solferino. Mexico finally, where the foreign Legion conquers one of its more beautiful claims to fame with the combat of Camerone. The heroic resistance of the company of the Danjou captain in the hacienda of Camerone was adopted like a symbol and a model of behavior to the combat in all the Legion. "Faire Camerone" then became the expression, which one employs always today, who showed what a was the duty when the circumstances of the combat became unfavourable! …   1870 On the French ground for the first time.   In 1870, France is in difficulty vis-a-vis in Prussia. For the first time, and as opposed to what the ordinance of 1831 envisaged, the Legion has to be useful on the continental territory of the country. For the first time also, it incorporates in its rows of the volunteers in particular statute: volunteers for the duration of war (EVDG). This massive surge of recruits does not prevent the Legion, which fights in the rows of the Army of the Loire, from knowing the bitterness of the defeat.   1883 With the conquest of the Empire.   The year 1883 sees the revival of the policy of colonial expansion of France. The government reinforces manpower of the Legion and makes of it the spearhead of its task forces, everywhere where she wants to impose her presence: in Tonkin since 1883, on the island of Formosa in 1885, in Sudan of 1892 to 1893, Dahomey of 1892 to 1894, in Madagascar, of 1895 to 1905, in Morocco of 1900 to 1934. Our military and colonial chiefs appreciate the exceptional value of this troop "of which one can all require". The reputation of the foreign Legion is such as the Gallieni General, indicated to take the command of the task force of Madagascar will formulate this astonishing condition "I require to take along with me 600 men of the foreign Legion in order to be able, if necessary, to die suitably"… But the Legion is not only one fighting troop. In the phase of pacification which succeeds advanced of the French Army, it takes an active part, by the quality and the width of its work of civil engineering, with the development of the colony.   1914 The First World War .   The Legion is withœthe uvre in Morocco when the First World War starts. A tradition, always into force, wants that when France is in war against a country, one asks to the légionaries originating in this country if they or not wish to go to fight against their fellow-citizens. Thus the Lyautey General will keep the French possessions of Morocco, of 1914 to 1918, with légionaries of German extraction. The others will frame the foreign volunteers who, more still than in 1870, commit themselves defending our country. Five regiments of walk made up then, will be joined together in of only, November 11, 1915, because of the severe losses, to form the legendary regiment of walk of the foreign Legion, RMLE. Colonel Rollet, who orders the RMLE after the death of colonel Duriez, killed with the head of his men, will bring back these four years of war the flag more decorated with the French Army with that of the regiment with colonial infantry with Morocco.   1920 Pacification in Morocco and with Raising.   From 1920, the Legion is committed on two theatres: with Raising (Syria and Lebanon), within the framework of a mandate of the Company of the Nations, and in Morocco for the final phase of the pacification of the country. Inlassablement, the légionaries mark the territory of their trace. The most beautiful symbol ofœthe uvre of these soldiers builders will remain surely the tunnel of Foum Zabbel, bored in the granite, on the road of Ziz in Morocco, by the sappers pioneers from 3rd abroad. The current charts always mention it as being "the tunnel of the légionary".   1939-45 Second World War.   It is at the beginning of the Second World War that the Legion will have the largest manpower of all its history, with more than 45 000 men. 11th and 12th REI, the GRD 97, 21st, 22nd and 23rd RMVE (regiments of walk of foreign volunteers) disappear in the storm from 1940. The any young person 13èmeDBLE (half-brigade of foreign Legion) illustrates herself as for it in Norway while taking part in Narvik with the only French victory of the countryside of 1940. She undertakes then one which will carry out it of Bir-Hakeim until the final victory, at the sides of the 1erREC and of the new RMLE.   Whereas the war finishes in Europe, the Japanese attack by surprise, March 9, 1945, the whole of the French garrisons of Indo-China. A epic retirement, carried out with energy by the Alessandri General, allows the 5èmeREI, the regiment of Tonkin, to gather in China, after two months of steps and combat. With more than nine thousand dead, the foreign Legion heavily contributed to the release of Europe but it will not know the rest for as much.   1946 The war of Indo-China.   From 1946, the 2nd REI, the 13th DBLE, the 3èmeREI and the 1st REC unload successively in Indo-China and are reinforced soon by units of a new type: foreign battalions parachutists. In this war where the government does not want to engage the quota, the Legion will be largely put at contribution with manpower which will reach during this time to 30 000 men, including one vast majority of German. De Phu Tong Hoa in Dien Well Phu, the Legion will lose in Indo-China 300 officers including 4 chiefs of body, and more than ten thousand warrant officers and légionaries. This countryside will be most fatal of all the history of the foreign Legion.   1954 Return in Algeria.   Before even as do not cease the hostilities in Indo-China, the first disorders appear in North Africa. The Legion fights first of all in Morocco and in Tunisia, then in Algeria, where it inflicts severe losses with the rebellious bands. In spite of the military results of the operations, Algeria will become Algerian and the légionaries will have to leave this ground on which, a hundred and thirty years earlier, their elder had unloaded. In 1962, the war memorial leaves Sidi-beautiful-Abbès to be brought back to Aubagne. The Legion will seek to create new roots.   1962 Years of transition.   Engaged without slackening with the combat since its creation, the Legion approaches the Sixties in a completely new configuration. With the instar of the remainder of the army, its manpower were largely decreased and its centre of gravity moved on the metropolis. It preserves nevertheless a strong vocation at employment overseas and maintains besides there a presence important, with garrisons in Madagascar then in Guyana, in Djibouti, in French Polynesia and in the archipelago of the Comoros. In these years when fighting is done rare, the légionary will find the occasion to exceed himself while launching out in building sites worthy of his old of Morocco. The 5th RE creates in Polynesia the infrastructures necessary to the French nuclear tests. In Guyana, the 3rd REI achieves exploits to bore the road of the East and to arrange the site of launching of the Guianese space center. In metropolis, 61ème BMGL then the CRTLE works with the construction of tracks in the large military camps of the South of France.   1969 The return to the operations.   The beginning of the Seventies sees a return of the operational activities. The Legion is initially committed in Chad, from 1969 to 1970, and will go back there from 1978 to 1988. In 1978, the full glare of the medias are directed on the intervention of the 2nd REFERENCE MARK in Zaire. The daring airborne operation carried out on Kolwezi makes it possible the regiment to save the European population of the massacre. In 1983, the Legion engages in Beirut, within the framework of the multinational Force of sécurité.(FMSB) In 1991, at the time of the war against Iraq, more than 2500 légionaries take part, with Daguet division, with the victorious operation "Storm of the desert". The 1st REC, the 2nd REI and whole young 6th REG will gain each one there a mention in dispatches. Then, more and more, the operations will multiply, for the Legion as for the remainder of the French Army, within a framework which becomes multinational.   1992 A new framework of employment.   From 1992, the holding actions of peace under the aegis of UNO start. The Legion intervenes in Kampuchea in 1992 and 1993, in Somalia in 1992 then, in 1993, in Ruanda, from July to September 1994, at the time of the "Turquoise" operation. Since 1993, the Légion units followed one another in ex-Yugoslavia in all the postures which the mandates fixed at the French Army imposed to him: Maintenance of peace, re-establishment of peace, interposition, control of crowd, and very recently, collection of weapons: the légionaries adapt to their new missions. But they remain ready to intervene in missions more traditional as it was the case in of 1996 in Bangui, and 1997 in Brazzaville, for operations of protection of French nationals, and always continue to be involved from the point of view of a conflict with high intensity.

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