FOREIGN LEGION IN COMBAT - COTE d-IVOIRE

I just found out what outfit from the Legion it was that was present with us on the battlefield in Ivory Coast, 2002.


2eme REGIMENT ETRANGER PARACHUTIST (2nd Regiment, Foreign Legion Paratroopers) FIRE FIGHT FOOTAGE, IVORY COAST, 2003:

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CAMERONE DAY - 30 APRIL 1863

The Battle of Camarón occurred on 30 April 1863, between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican army. In this battle the French Foreign Legion made its legend. A small infantry patrol led by Captain Jean Danjou, Lt. Maudet and Lt. Vilain, numbering 62 soldiers and 3 officers was attacked and besieged by a force that may have eventually reached 2,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry. Danjou's small company was forced to make a defensive stand at the nearby Hacienda Camarón, an inn protected by a 3-metre-high-wall.

His plan was to occupy Mexican forces to prevent attacks against the critical supply convoy it was his mission to defend. While the Legionnaires prepared to defend the inn, the Mexican commander, Colonel Milan, demanded Danjou and soldiers surrender, noting the Mexican Army's numeric superiority. Danjou replied: "We have munitions. We will not surrender." He then swore to fight to the death, an oath which was seconded by the men.

Around 11 a.m. the Mexicans were increased in size by the arrival of 1,200 infantry. The Hacienda took fire but the French had lost all water early in the morning when pack mule were lost during the retreat.






At noon, Captain Danjou was shot in the chest and died; his soldiers continued fighting despite overwhelming odds under the command of an inspired 2nd Lt. Vilain, who held for four hours before falling during an assault.

At 5 p.m only 12 Légionnaires remain around 2nd Lt. Maudet. Soon after, with ammunition exhausted, the last of Danjou's soldiers, numbering only five under the command of Lt. Maudet, desperately mounted a bayonet charge.






Two men died outright, while the rest continued the assault. The tiny group was surrounded and beaten to the earth.

The Mexican commander Colonel Milan managed to prevent his men from ripping the surviving legionnaires to pieces. When the last two survivors were asked to surrender, they insisted that Mexican soldiers allow them safe passage home, to keep their arms, and to escort the body of Captain Danjou. To that, the Mexican commander commented, "What can I refuse to such men? No, these are not men, they are devils," and, out of respect, agreed to these terms.

Thanks to the heroic stand of the Foreign Legion in Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz, the French supply convoy made it safely to Puebla. The Mexicans failed to relieve the siege and the city fell on May 17.

"Camerone Day" is the most important day for the Legion Etranger, for it best represents the fighting spirit of these men. The wooden prosthetic hand of Capitaine Danjou is brought out for display and veneration in special ceremonies at the Legion headquarters at Aubagne, France. That day officers prepare the coffee for their men to celebrate the one they didn't have time to drink before the battle.

After hearing of the battle, French Emperor Napoleon III had the name Camerone embroidered onto the flag of the Foreign Legion.

In 1892, a monument was dedicated to the Foreign Legion at the site of the battle. It reads:


ILS FURENT ICI MOINS DE SOIXANTE
OPPOSÉS A TOUTE UNE ARMÉE
SA MASSE LES ÉCRASA
LA VIE PLUTOT QUE LE COURAGE
ABANDONNA CES SOLDATS FRANÇAIS
LE 30 AVRIL 1863
A LEUR MEMOIRE LA PATRIE ELEVA CE MONUMENT*


They were less than sixty opposite here a whole army. The masses crushed them rather. Their life, rather than courage, gave up these French soldiers on April 30, 1863. In their memory the fatherland raised this monument.


French Foreign Legionnaires during the French intervention in Mexico (1862-1867)


To this day, Mexican soldiers, present arms when they pass this monument.



The French Foreign Legion still possesses the wooden hand of Captain Danjou, its most sacred relic.



"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon


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THE ONLY WOMAN TO EVER SERVE IN THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION

Susan Travers - Adjutant-Chef, Legion Etranger; Legion d'Honneur, Medaille Militaire, Croix de Guerre.


Early life

Travers was born in Southern England, the daughter of a Royal Navy admiral, but grew up in the south of France, where she was a semi-professional tennis player.
Early war

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Travers joined the French Red Cross as a nurse, but later became an ambulance driver with the French Expeditionary Force in Finland. With the German invasion of Denmark and Norway, she retreated from Denmark through to Finland. She then escaped by ship to Iceland and returned from there to England where she joined General De Gaulle's Free French forces.

By 1941, she was the chauffeur for a medical officer of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion, during the Syrian campaign in which Vichy French legionnaires fought Free French legionnaires. She was nicknamed "La Miss" by the legionnaires. She then traveled to North Africa via Dahomey and the Congo. During that journey, she had a brief affair with Georgian nobleman and Foreign Legion officer Dimitri Amilakhvari. She was then assigned as driver to Colonel Marie-Pierre Koenig and also became his lover.


Bir Hakeim

In late May 1942,

Attached to the 8th Army and despatched to hold the desolate desert fort of Bir Hakeim in Libya in 1942, Koenig's forces were almost pounded to dust by Rommel's Afrika Korps in what became one of the greatest sieges in the history of the Western Desert campaign

With Stuka planes, Panzer tanks and heavy artillery at their disposal, the Germans expected to take the fort in 15 minutes. In what became a symbol of resistance across the world, the Free French held it for 15 days.

The Luftwaffe flew 1,400 sorties against the defences of Bir Hakeim, whilst four German/Italian divisions attacked on the ground. During the bombing, a piece of shrapnel tore a hole in Koenig's car and Travers (with the assistance of a Vietnamese driver) carried the part to a field workshop where mechanics fixed it.

Refusing to leave her lover's side when all female personnel were ordered to escape, Susan stayed on in Bir Hakeim, the only woman among more than 3,500 men. Her fellow soldiers dug her into a coffin-sized hole in the desert floor, where she lay in temperatures of 51C for more than 15 days, listening to the cries of the dying and wounded.

When all water, food and ammunition had run out, Koenig decided to lead a breakout through the minefields and three concentric rings of German tanks.

On 10 June, Travers drove Koenig's staff car during the retreat. The retreating column ran into minefields and German machine gun fire. Koenig ordered Travers to drive at the front of the column. Travers stated: "He said, 'We have to get in front. If we go the rest will follow.' It is a delightful feeling, going as fast as you can in the dark. My main concern was that the engine would stall."

At 10:30, on 11 June, the column entered British lines. Travers' vehicle had been hit by eleven bullets, with a shock absorber destroyed, and the brakes were unserviceable. Her affair with Koenig ended after this battle, when he returned to his wife.




General Marie-Pierre Koenig - "She was exceptionally brave."



The rest of World War II

Travers went on to serve in Italy, France, and Germany, where she respectively drove an ambulance, lorry, and a self-propelled anti-tank gun. Later in the war, she was wounded when she drove over a mine.


Post-war

After the war she was formally enrolled in the Légion Étrangère, as an Adjutant-Chef (chief adjutant; similar to a warrant officer, often same responsibilities as the lieutenant). Travers served in Vietnam, during the First Indochina War. She married Adjutant-Chef Nicolas Schlegelmilch, who had fought at Bir Hakeim with the 13th Demi-Brigade, and they had two sons. In retirement, they lived on the outskirts of Paris.

Image courtesy Jim Hackworth ProArtShirts.Com

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A REMARKABLE COINCIDENCE . . .

. . . all the more remarkable because I don't BELIEVE in coincidences . . .

Monday night, driving down the Great American Highway in a brand new Dodge Charger, just passed a sign that tells me I'm on a remnant of the historic Route 66 somewhere northern Illinois, Elvis on the satellite radio singing Unchained Melody, when suddenly my phone rings. It's Kleck, the mad German bombmaker I haven't laid eyes on in about twenty years.

"What are you doing?"

"Me? I'm driving down the Great American Highway, Elvis is on the radio. What are YOU doing?"

"I've been an FBI agent for the past twelve years."

This is EXCELLENT news of course because now we can finally get to the bottom of these annoying rumors about where's the President's brain? "How the hell did you find me, Kleck?"

"Well, I was hanging out around the old hacienda wondering what our old friend Thane was up to, so I googled him up and up pops this wild STORMBRINGER site, and I read "retired Special Forces career NCO (1st SFG, 3d SFG, 10th SFG). I served with honor on five continents . . ." and then there's a story about the Legion, and I think, "This is wild and wierd and wonderful enough, this has GOT to be The Critter . . ."

I'm thinking he must also have seen that post about Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, because we used to sing Warren Zevon songs while we were standing in formation, and of course we used to call our platoon The Legion because we had an international flavor and we all considered ourselves mercenaries in training.

". . . and your nom de plume . . ."

"uh, that's nom de GUERRE, buddy . . ."

"hmmm, yeah, that seems a little more apropos . . . "

"Yeah, nom de plume is for some kind of Count of Monte Crisco dude with a big white feather sticking out of his big floppy musketeer hat or something . . ."

"Yeah, when you think about it, nom de guerre makes more sense."

Then I started running into these annoying toll booths they have all over the Northland like some kind of national disease, and I had to abort the call.

Good talking to you again, buddy - glad we finally made link up. We'll talk again sometime soon. In the meantime, this post is dedicated to you my buddy Kleck.

Blue Skies . . . now I've got to break contact and get on to my paying job . . .

THE LEGION

SITREP: I've been on the road this entire weekend, trading paint all up & down the I-95. Sometimes I have Internet, other times I don't - as a result Blog STORMBRINGER suffers. Things will return to normalcy . . . possibly . . . maybe . . . perhaps . . .
LINNANE SENDS

In the meantime here's some coolness on the Legion Etranger (French Foreign Legion):



No shortage of good stuff on the web about this honorable outfit. Check out the Diary of a Legionnaire.

I was in a combat situation where the Legion was present: Cote d'Ivoire, 2004. It was no big deal and anyway I don't do 'war stories' but I will say this: they were a welcome sight. I give them "Respect."


An FAFN rebel has been caught by French Foreign Legion troops while attacking locals for food and other goods needed for the war effort - Cote d'Ivoire, 2004.