Sixty-five Legionnaires against three battalions of Mexican troops. When the last five Legionnaires standing ran out of ammunition, they fixed bayonets and charged the Mexican lines rather than surrender.
When I was a kid we had a couple of French "exchange students" stay with us one summer, Antoine and his sister, Marie-Cecile. A few years later I opened Time Magazine and saw a picture of Antoine, now a Foreign Legionairre, holding a machinegun on a rebel in the Congo, as he and his troops evacuated French citizens from the middle of a revolution. Antoine's family had a very strong military tradition. I lost touch, but at one point he was military attache to Washington.
Iloved them as the French government throws them into everything strange and I got to work with them in them during the First Gulf War on the left flank.
My favourite story is still the Foreign Legionaiires going to prison after the failed Algerian Coup, where they were threatening to do a para drop on Paris.
Standing in the trucks singing the then popular pop tune of Edith Piaf "'Non, je ne regrette rien'"
Which doesn't come up to an entire protestant army spontaneously singing the hymn "God is a Mighty Fortress " the night before the battle of Lutzen, but it's still cool.
When I was a kid we had a couple of French "exchange students" stay with us one summer, Antoine and his sister, Marie-Cecile. A few years later I opened Time Magazine and saw a picture of Antoine, now a Foreign Legionairre, holding a machinegun on a rebel in the Congo, as he and his troops evacuated French citizens from the middle of a revolution. Antoine's family had a very strong military tradition. I lost touch, but at one point he was military attache to Washington.
ReplyDeleteIloved them as the French government throws them into everything strange and I got to work with them in them during the First Gulf War on the left flank.
ReplyDeleteThey might not use the phrase 'Semper Fi', but it applies just the same.
ReplyDeleteOorah.
My favourite story is still the Foreign Legionaiires going to prison after the failed Algerian Coup, where they were threatening to do a para drop on Paris.
ReplyDeleteStanding in the trucks singing the then popular pop tune of Edith Piaf "'Non, je ne regrette rien'"
Which doesn't come up to an entire protestant army spontaneously singing the hymn "God is a Mighty Fortress " the night before the battle of Lutzen, but it's still cool.
Anon,
ReplyDeleteI heard that what they actually sang was "Le Boudin".
Piaf recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" in English, and it is effing HOT!
ReplyDelete