This unique tale of historical fiction was written and illustrated by Armand Brigaud and appeared in Blue Book Magazine in August 1936.  Brigaud was born in France but raised near San Francisco and educated in England before his family returned to their native Toulouse.  He apparently joined the Foreign Legion at a young age but that career choice was abruptly curtailed by an influential uncle in the French cavalry.  Brigaud later went to St. Cyr and become a cavalry officer himself–serving in the Chasseur’s D’Afrique, the Spahis, and the Meharistes (Camel Corps).  He fought in several conflicts in North Africa, World War One and lastly against the Riff in the mid-1920′s where he was wounded for the fourteenth and final time.  His service had brought him again to the Foreign Legion as well as exotic postings in Chad and French West Africa.  When his military career pretty much ended he then turned to writing and women.

This story features several real life personalities from French North African Colonial history such as General Laperrine (legendary soldier of the French Meharistes) and Father Foucauld (former cavalry officer turned religious hermit).  It also has a cameo appearance of a certain Lt. Brigaud, a young Mehariste officer who participates in the epic battle between the French led Tuareg tribes and the fanatical Sennussi, Bedouin tribesmen and their Turkish advisers.   This battle, if it happened, would have taken place around 1916/17 which corresponds to the author’s actual transfer from the Western Front to the Sahara and when there actually was serious trouble stirred up by the Turks/Sennussi against the Allies in Egypt, the Sudan and Libya.  Foucauld was murdered by Sennussi assassins in 1916 and Laperrine died in an airplane accident in March of 1920 and the author was undoubtedly present when these pages of history were being written.

But this is a pulp story so the protagonist is actually Captain Tarver, an adventure seeking American of the 1st Regiment of the Foreign Legion seconded to the French Camel Corps.  He is put on a very dangerous mission to convince an influential tribal leader to maintain the Tuareg’s fragile alliance with the French.  This Tuareg chieftain happens to be Raidane, a statuesque Tuareg beauty who leads her tribe like the ablest of warriors.  Laperrine’s mission order to Captain Tarver includes a great caveat: “make love to her if necessary”.  Of course he does.  He also wins the day in the huge showdown between the French/Tuareg allies and the Sennussi.  This was a great story full of splendid details about the Tuareg culture and the Saharan desert.  Maybe it’s not a completely “Foreign Legion” type of tale but it’s close enough.  Brigaud made this one reek of authenticity and also provided seven of his own wonderful pen and ink illustrations which is not something you see very often in the pulps.   (File below is almost 12MB)

A Captain of the Legion

This is the last of the Captain Gallant comics that I have.  It came out in September 1956.  I’m not sure there was any published after issue #4.  This one features several fact pages on the Legion and several short “episodes”:  The Amazing Legion (1 page); The Kind Stranger; Josephine’s Last Date; The Smuggler’s Cove; “Elimination By Appointment” (a non-Legion 2-page mystery); Dancing Danger; The Lost Patrol; Doc Sorebones is a Big Help (a one page non-Legion filler); and two more fact pages entitled The Amazing Legion.  I liked The Lost Patrol the best.  I suppose the quality of this comic may have contributed to it’s doom.  Or maybe it was that cursed logo certifying that the comic meets the criteria to be Approved by the Comics Code Authority’s high standards of morality and good taste.  Some say that kids back then would not pick up comics with that logo because they were not exciting.   I don’t know what really killed the series but I do think that overall the Captain Gallant comic suffered from poor writing and not the best artwork (although the covers were not too bad).  A young fan of the Foreign Legion back in the 1950′s might have cringed when he got to page 35 and read about the Battle of “Calderone”.  You know….the one in Mexico that took place 30 April 1863?  So for good or bad issue 004 is below.  (This comic was found on the Internet Archive).

Captain Gallant 004

• 54mm Vignette of Camerone.  Outstanding work on this diorama showing four legionnaires and an officer, who would likely be Lt. Maudet, in command of the remaining handful of still standing fighters.   Link
• Camerone 2011 Slideshow.  This link takes you to a really inspirational slideshow of last year’s commemoration of Camerone Day held at the Legion headquarters at Aubagne, France.  Be sure to view in full screen.  Link
• Camerone Website.  This link will take you to a nice collection of pictures and text related to the Battle of Camerone.  The maps are very informative.   Link
• Photo of Captain Danjou.  I found the picture below tucked in with other photographs of French military officers on one of the French Archive websites.  It shows a picture of Captain Danjou that I haven’t seen too often.

Today is the 30th of April which is known in the French Foreign Legion as Camerone Day.  It commemorates the epic 1863 battle between 62 Legionnaires and over 2,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry that took place on a small abandoned farm in Veracruz, Mexico.  Enscribed on the monument erected to commemorate the battle are the words:

“They were here less than sixty opposed to a whole army.  Its mass crushed them.  Life rather than bravery departed these French soldiers at Camerone on 30 April 1863.  In memory of them, the motherland has erected this monument.”

So in honor of this day I’ll be making several posts related to the Legion and the campaign in Mexico.  For this first post we should understand the history of the French in Mexico.  There are several interesting accounts (in English) written about this period that are available on Google.  (you can search by the title).  I’ll review them briefly below.

•   With the French in Mexico.  Written by James Frederick Elton in 1869.  Elton joined the French forces in the latter years of the war just as the French forces were hastily departing that country.  It does not mention the battle of Camerone but does provide several other mentions of the Foreign Legion, vivid descriptions of the country and irregular warfare and many illustrations.  With_the_French_in_Mexico

• Maximilian in Mexico.  Written by Percy Falcke Martin and published 1914.  This weighs in at almost 500 written pages.  I didn’t read this entire book but found the parts that I did read to be rather too much on the political and royal intrigue and not enough on the ground campaign.  The book contains many pictures and photographs and there are also good orders of battle listed for the French forces for several of the key years.  Recommended only for the serious minded historian of this period.  (warning…large file)  Maximilian_in_Mexico

• Maximilian in Mexico (Kemper).  Same title as above but written by a German known as J. Kemper and translated by ….  This is only about 120 pages and was written for a younger audience (even I can understand it).  Nothing new in the tale except it covers the same ground as above in less space.  Like the other book, this one is tilted toward the political story vs. the military side.  Maximilian in Mexico by Kemper

• Command Magazine: The French in Mexico.  Finally something a little newer.  This article comes from the outstanding but now defunct Command magazine (ended publication in 2001).  This article is a very good run down on the major battles that transpired during this time including Camerone.  France in Mexico, 1862 to 1867

I hope you enjoy these.  I cleaned the three books from Google up a bit and did an OCR scan on each to help one navigate and search better.

A month ago the Middle School gave my son an assignment to create a 3D-type display of a non-fiction work that he recently read.  He asked me what book he should read and since he likes military subjects (especially weapons) I gave him some suggestions–Blackhawk Down, Killing Lincoln, and some others.  I also gave him my copy of “The Legion of the Damned” because it is a terrific biographic adventure story and best of all–it was a short read at only 240+ pages of large type.  He finally finished the book 5 days before the assignment was due so I then had to help him with putting together the 3D display at the last minute.  We worked together on this over the weekend before the due date.  It was fun for both of us.  Of course, I initially wanted to go “whole-hog” on this (plastic Legion figures, painted middle eastern buildings, etc.) but it had to be something that my son could do.  So I helped him with techniques and ideas and he did the rest.  (O.K. I also helped paint a bit.)  He scored 98%!

For those not familiar with the book “The Legion of the Damned”, it was written by Bennett J. Doty, an American who joined the Foreign Legion shortly after WWI.  It describes his time upon joining–training in Sidi Bel Abbes, fighting in Syria, his desertion and capture and his subsequent imprisonment and ultimate release when enough public attention was brought to bear on his situation (he was originally sentenced to death).  Bennett Doty who joined the Legion as Gilbert Clare deserted when the fighting in Syria had ended and he became disillusioned at being used for endless days of menial labor.  Doty’s story is really incredible.  He was highly decorated for his actions against the Druse rebels.  His account of the fighting at Mousseifre and Soueida is some of the best edge-of-your-seat writing I’ve read in a long time.  I have several articles about Doty as well as a full review of his book coming up in future blog posts.

Just a short post today on an article the appeared in Yank Magazine in December of 1944.  It features Alfred Perrott-White, an amazing English soldier of fortune who joined the French Foreign Legion in 1938 at the ripe age of 39.  He recounts his time in the Legion in his memoir entitled “French Legionnaire”  which was published in 1951.  I read that book last year and was suitably impressed with his story at the time but then I recently came across the following article (Unz.com) about him.  It seems many of the things written about him in these two pages never made it into his book.  Which is a shame–he had an amazing career and probably could have written several books about himself.  Oddly enough I could not find a picture of him so I felt this illustration from his book nicely sums up his life story.  I’ll review his book in a later post (although it is on the far right margin of this blog’s chronological scope).

Yank Magazine_Perrott-White

The interesting thing about Pulp magazines is that there is only one color cover depicting just one of the many stories contained within.  You never really know fully what else to expect until you crack it open and check out the table of contents.  Pulp writers were most often penning shorter tales that would never get front cover treatment.  Publishers had to somehow fill in small gaps in their content, between the longer stories, and having a numbers of smaller items to flesh out the next issue was important.  Such is the case with this short 6-page tale written by Georges Surdez.  It’s simply an interesting discussion between a Major and a Sergeant of the Foreign Legion.  It has a common plot device found in many fictional tales of the Legion: “the commanding officer’s pretty daughter”.   …and when Surdez writes about the Foreign Legion you can be sure that the story will touch on issues of honor and “fidelity”.  The story appeared in Argosy, 18 March 1039.

A Family Council

Side Note:  I’m excited about the end of this month.  I’m going to the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention on the 27th, hopefully adding to my collection of pulps.  Also 30 April is Camerone Day.  I’ll be making several posts on this blog in celebration.

This book was first published in 1895.  The author, James O’Neill, was an American who joined the Foreign Legion in 1887 when he was 27 years old.  In 1890 he shipped off to Tonkin (modern day northern Vietnam).  “Garrison Tales” consists of a series of thirteen short stories that tell of the various events and unique men O’Neill encountered while serving under extreme conditions of a tropical environment.  The book is only 181 pages including a four page introduction.  It’s a very quick read because like many books from this time it has large type and wide margins on each page.  The book is available in various electronic formats from the Internet Archive>>  Link.  …or Google Books>>> Link.  If you want a hard copy you can find it reprinted at LSU Press.

Garrison Tales from Tonquin is not your standard memoir of service in the Foreign Legion.  It’s not even clear if these stories are entirely factual, completely made up or something in between that was perhaps enhanced by the author in order to make them more meaningful in a literary sense.  Take for example the first story entitled “Roebke”.  It’s entirely plausible in a factual sense and it also touches on one of the key facets of service in the Foreign Legion–that one does not ask another Legionnaire about his previous life before the Legion although it may be divulged voluntarily among friends.  In this story the author makes friends with a fellow legionnaire who promises to one day tell him all about his background.  It turns out Roebke is also an Englishman and O’Neill promises that in the case of his friend’s death he will follow the instructions found in Roebke’s wallet that hangs around his neck.  Roebke is later killed but when O’Neill searches his body he only finds a tattoo of a wallet drawn on his chest.  Is the tattoo a fictitious device invented by O’Neill to symbolize something?  Perhaps, the secrets one carries throughout one’s life?  I have no idea.  But then again, a tattoo like that is also something one would expect a Legionnaire to have.  Legionnaires after all are known for their grim sense of fatalistic humor.  (I recall a recent picture of a Legionnaire serving in Afghanistan with a tattoo that says “cut here” with a dotted line traced along the front of his throat.)

I’m not a literary critic so I won’t delve further into what the author was trying to achieve by writing these stories instead of a more straightforward account of his adventure in the Legion.  What is valuable about these stories are the several insights it gives the reader about service in the Foreign Legion and in combat service in Tonkin.  It is also rich in memorable characters such as those found in the Legion.  There are Swiss, Russians, Germans, Belgians, and some burned out Frenchmen.  O’Neill also profiles several Vietnamese he comes across.   Lots of disease and suicides as well.

All in all, Garrison Tales from Tonkin makes for a nice afternoon read.  If one wants to see it as such, this work could come across as almost a prophetic warning to both the French and Americans that nothing good will come out of military adventurism in Vietnam.   I personally would have preferred a narrative similar to what George Mannington or Frederick Martyn wrote about their service in the Legion and fighting in Tonkin.  But it was the intent of O’Neill to become a writer and this was his first and really only popularly published piece.  For further reference I also found some reviews of this book written shortly after it’s publication and these are posted below.

Garrison Tales from Tonquin Book Reviews