A question for Edmond

11 January 2008, 05:31

D Humbarger

Edmond I have been told that this is the badge of the 3rd corp French foriegn Legion & the 3rd corp was made up of x SS diehards. Educate me please.

11 January 2008, 12:42

Edmond

There are many myths among Anglosaxons related to the Legion, especially the former SS high number in the Legion. Someone has made lotsa bucks with his fictional account of a totally german unit fighting like some german units did in Russia.

After WW2, there were a lot of german origin soldiers enlisting in the Legion but many were already in the Legion because they were anti nazis and joined before WW2. During WW2, the german armistice commission went to check how many German were part of the Legion and claimed them. Most of them were stationed in North Africa , their nationality was changed and they were sent to Indochina, out of reach of the nazis.
Many German had no military past but there was no future in 1945-1946 Germany and they enlisted. There was a very active recruiting office in Germany.
This insigna is the 3eme Bataillon Etranger de Parachutiste created in 1949, operational in 1950 as Airborne instruction unit of the Legion, disappeared in 1955.
It arrived in Indochina when the fight stopped at DBP where the 2nd BEP almost entirely disappeared.
Airbone units of the Legion usually had less German because they were created late.

Above pictures don't show much Legionnaires, another myth is that Legion had the main share of the fighting, that's simply untrue.
The Marine Infantry, Paratroopers and Colonial infantry behaved vaillantly as well.
The french airborne history is born in Indochina.

I live in a region where Legion Veterans chapter is very active and I met a lot of them during my youth and even now. I learned a lot from them, books I read and writers who were former Legionnaires. During OCS, my captain was a former 2eme REP officer ( another myth is that Germans had NCOs and Officers speaking in German, it may happen between two soldiers but the language of command has always been French)

11 January 2008, 19:43

D Humbarger

eme ??

11 January 2008, 20:11

Wink

Doug,

eme is the same as nd in English. In other words 2nd in English is 2eme in French (for deuxieme).

11 January 2008, 20:33

Wink

And while I'm at it, REP stands for Regiment Etranger Parachutistes.

11 January 2008, 21:16

Edmond

Thank you, Wink. I answered in another thread too and I was not aware of my crypted answers.