This J. D. Newsom story appeared in the 21 December 1926 issue of Adventure. It’s another tale featuring Newsom’s duo of unreformed Legionnaires Mike Curialo and Albert (Berty) Withers. The setting is World War I and several Legionnaires are billeted in Madame Loppard’s farmyard a couple of kilometers from the front-line trenches. Jennings, an American ambulance driver working in the same sector, has an odd infatuation with the Foreign Legion and insists that his two new friends regale him with tales of fighting and life in Africa. Jennings spends freely but this is not enough to win the veteran soldiers over and they try their best to avoid him and at one point “forcefully” remind him his company is not welcome. When word comes down that the Legion will be moving up to the front, Jennings demands they take him with and show him what things are like. Their adamant refusal does not deter the young American and he convinces the Legion commander to order Curialo and Withers to give him a tour of the trenches. So begins Jennings’ tour of hell on earth.
Although there are humorous parts to this story its actually pretty grim. I think Newsom may have been trying to make a point that those who think war is all tales of gallantry and heroism should get a chance to see first hand what goes on in the meat grinder of trench warfare. I also found it exceptionally well written–I was instantly transported to the farmyard in the first page and Newsom’s account of the trenches was also very descriptive. I think this is only the second story featuring Curialo and Withers posted on this blog–the other being “Mumps” which was published in the first issue of 1926. NOTE: The graphic came from elsewhere and not from this story.
He’s back! Good ol’Grit Gregson and his merry lot of Legionnaires gets mixed up in a local tribal dispute and foils the nefarious plans of “Mahmoud the Evil” to seize control of the Ben Hassan tribe. It starts with a simple stroll down the streets of the desert town of Goulais and quickly turns into a camel race, an ambush with rocks and a flash flood. Helping Grit save the day of course is Buck Baxter, the burly American, and Louis Morel, the “excitable” Frenchman (I know, the background on these two is scant and always the same). This two pager appeared in the 30 January 1954 issue of the UK story paper Lion.
Appel: A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion by Joel Adam Struthers. This book is another one that has been out for a while (March 2019). I have the e-book but have not read it yet (another victim of my former infatuation with U.S. Submarines in WWII). Appel is an account of the author’s six years in the 2nd Parachute Regiment (2REP). “Joel Struthers recounts the dangers and demands of military life, from the rigours of recruitment and operational training in the rugged mountains of France, to face-to-face combat in the grasslands of some of Africa’s most troubled nations. Told through the eyes of a soldier, and interspersed with humorous anecdotes, Appel is a fascinating story that debunks myths about the French Foreign Legion and shows it more accurately as a professional arm of the French military.” It covers his time in the Legion during the 1990’s. Foreword by Col. Benoit Desmeulles, former commanding officer of the Legions 2e Régiment Étranger Parachutistes. NOTE: An interesting interview of the author is 
This article came from an encyclopedia set called “The Elite”. Each book of the 10 volume set was basically a bound collection of articles that originally appeared in the UK magazine called “The Elite: Against All Odds” (published by Orbis) which started it’s run in 1985. The set that I found was a distressed public library cast-off with black and white covers along with a soft cover index. I believe the UK version had camouflage covers. The articles were first published in “The Elite” magazine from the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s. Each article covered what they considered an elite military force or a specific battle in which those units fought. Also included for each article were informative side bars, uniform and insignia illustrations and plenty of photographs, graphs and maps. The units covered in these articles were pretty diverse and included German forces from WW2, U. S. Marines, naval action, etc. but there did seem to me to have more articles about the UK units such as their Commandos, Paras, the SAS, Falklands, and Royal Marines. There were several articles that dealt with the Foreign Legion so here is the first. It doesn’t cover much new territory and is a bit dated but it is interesting to read nonetheless. They author was Patrick Turnbull (1908-1986), a very prolific author who’s work appears in dozens of books as well as in several Osprey publications.
