The French Foreign Legion

The French Foreign Legion

What attracts men from 136 different nations to embrace the harsh military code of an army that requires them to lay down their lives for a country not their own, if ordered to do so by politicians whose language many of them hardly speak?

Douglas Boydâ€™s history of the Legion answers that question, with fifteen historic photographs and eleven battle/campaign maps.

Founded in 1831 to fight Franceâ€™s colonial wars without spilling French blood, this mysterious army is today a world-class fighting force. Training is so tough that five recruits out of six are rejected, never to wear the coveted white kepi.

This is a world where fact exceeds the wildest fiction: men fighting literally to the last bullet at CamarÃ³n in Mexico in 1863; cooks and clerks with no parachute training volunteering to be dropped into beleaguered Dien Bien Phu in 1954 with the intention of dying beside their comrades; the paras who mutinied in Algeria to bring down the government of France; the heroes who dropped on Kolwezi to rescue thousands of European hostages.

Praise for Douglas Boyd

'A tight and fascinating history of the nearly two centuries of the Legion's activities.' - Brig Anthony Hunter-Choat, the UK's senior ex-legionnaire

Perhaps the greatest praise of the book is the fact that legionnaires liked this history of their incredible army so much that they elected author Douglas Boyd an honorary ex-legionnaire.

RAF Russian linguist, international businessman, music impresario, BBC Television Producer/Director, Douglas Boyd has been writing full-time since setting up home in a medieval farmhouse in south-west France thirty-five years ago. His published fiction and non-fiction, translated into many languages, includes three novels set against a Legion background: The Eagle and the Snake, The Truth and the Lies, The Honour and the Glory.

Country	USA
Author	Douglas Boyd
Binding	Kindle Edition
Format	Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct
Label	Endeavour Press
Manufacturer	Endeavour Press
NumberOfPages	458
PublicationDate	2015-11-23
Publisher	Endeavour Press
ReleaseDate	2015-11-23
Studio	Endeavour Press

The French Foreign Legion

Praise for Douglas Boyd

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