Hodgepodge for July 2016

Well the month of July was pretty slow going for this blog–having skipped several weeks of posting for most of June as well.  I did find one article and several collections of photographs related to the Foreign Legion this month…

1. A Canadian in the French Foreign Legion.  An older article on the Foreign Legion found on the website VICE describing the misadventure of Dave from Ottawa.  After you read the article be sure to read the comments posted at the bottom that blow huge holes in the story.

2. Flickr Albums.  I go to Flickr frequently–quite often just to browse and enjoy looking at pictures and graphics.  Using the German word “fremdenlegion” and the French “Légion Etrangère”, I was able to find some interesting pictures that had previously escaped my attention.  Here is a list of albums you might enjoy viewing.

Indochine – Juillet 1951 à Octobre 1954.  Link. 95 photos taken during the Indochina War, provided by Bernard Majza.  From the description: “Photos taken during the Indochina war, people being represented are for most of 76/3 regiment of the Foreign Legion. July 1951 to October 1954.”  This is quite a nice collection of pictures depicting legionnaires in their bush hats and odd mixes of American, British, and French uniforms and equipment.  I wish they were a bit higher resolution and without the watermark but, oh, well.

Olivier Falcoz – Albums.  From this page you can see the collected work of former legionnaire Olivier Falcoz.  Towards the bottom are four picture collections devoted to the Foreign Legion. Le Centre d’Entraînement en Forêt Equatoriale (CEFE), Ivory Coast, Former Yugoslavia, Djibouti 13 DBLE.

University of Caen.  A small album depicting some events related to a visit to North Africa (Algeria) by a certain M. Noullens whom I take to be an Ambassador or similar government official.  A couple of good pictures of the Foreign Legion and colonial troops in review.

Légion Etrangère en Algerie.  Here is another small album of Legionnaires in Algeria (and Djibouti) provided by Wulf Lammerer.

La Légion Etrangère 1936-1942.  This is the best photo album I found on Flickr since I came across that of Fremdenlegionär Leutener.  It was posted by Marc Bruyneel and shows 72 pictures of his father in the Foreign Legion.  His father was Belgian and served in the Legion from 1936 to 1942 when he left and joined those forces gathering to liberate Europe from the Germans.