It’s the end of the 12 Days of Christmas and my backwards countdown is done as I present one Kepi Blanc magazine. I was originally going to scan my oldest (1962) issue from my collection, but those are the size of Life Magazines and did not fit on my scanner window. Instead I have the slimmer Number 618 from January 2001. It’s representative of what you will find in the magazine going as far back as the early 1950’s when the magazine became a slick production with their iconic logo and illustrated / photographic cover. Features inside usually include a profile of what the legion is doing around the world, promotions, departures, awards, exercises letters and editorials from commanders, biographies, announcements, veterans organizations and information and (my favorite) historical articles. Older magazines had a jokes and cartoon section while this one has a small crossword puzzle. This issue also had a small section featuring pictures of Foreign Legion insignia but as I scanned the pages I noticed somebody cut out one of the pictures (page 69). What I like the most is the high number of photographs found in each one.
So I hope you enjoy it–scanned copies of Kepi Blanc are very rare. I wish someday that Kepi Blanc Magazine will offer digital back copies of their archive. With such a large number of magazines (859 so far) I think it is an incredible resource that folks would pay money to access. NOTE: Hopefully I don’t get a take-down notice–I thought folks would enjoy looking on the inside of a representative issue of the magazine. Below is the link to the .pdf. A cbr version is here.
Mon Legionnaire 