kunsho Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Hi, by fortune I received today this nice estate of a young Caporal (Walter HERBERT, born 1938), member of the 2e REP and probably before also of the 1er REP. I received this estate direct from his sister (he died in cause of an accident in 1966). He was engaged in the Algeria campaign and his parachutist badge is numbered 75254 (the early Drago model). Unfortunately, unfortunately there was no little bittle picture of him findable... My question is now: is there any possibility to research him? Thank you for any information! Regards, Matthias What you see is all what is left from him... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Boonzaier Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 What a fantastic group!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran Posted November 4, 2009 Share Posted November 4, 2009 (edited) Very nice group indeed ! And quite a record in combat - six mentions and five wounds + médaille militaire to a caporal !. The CERTIFICAT DE BONNE CONDUITE is very appealing, never saw that type before. The BLACK beret makes me wonder at what time the green beret became regulation for Foreign Legion units. Any answer to that ? In my time it was either the kaki bonnet de police (or the "green and red cock's crest" for NCO's & officers) or the white képi for the rank and file. Regards Veteran Edited November 4, 2009 by Veteran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kunsho Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share Posted November 4, 2009 ... The BLACK beret makes me wonder at what time the green beret became regulation for Foreign Legion units. Any answer to that ? In my time it was either the kaki bonnet de police (or the "green and red cock's crest" for NCO's & officers) or the white képi for the rank and file. ... Sorry, do not even think about the BLACK beret, in real colors it is a dark green one...the photo is only a quick shot with very poor lighting :-) excuse me for that Matthias ...still waiting for research tips... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 Thank you very much for this answer. Now that you mention it I think I can guess the dark greenish colour of the beret. Makes better sense to me. A very, very nice group. Congratulations Veteran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TacHel Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 WOW! Five wound stars? 6 stars on the CVM! With the fourragères, jump wings, certificates, épaulettes... Awesome set!! Congrats!!:cheers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul L Murphy Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 In terms of research tips, bad news I'm afraid. The Legion records are all held by them and they will not release any information. Basically you need to rely on published sources and hope that he is mentioned by name in one of them (which seldom happens). The more documents you have the more you can build up a picture of which unit he was in at what date and thereby build up a picture of his service. With what you have it will be very difficult to do this since you do not know the date when he transferred from the 1 REP to 2 REP. Despite this it is a lovely group. It is very unusual to see so many citations to one man for Algeria, he must have been in continuous action in razzias in order to get so many. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veteran Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 (edited) Paul is absolutly right. Each legionnaire's story is his own, that is the basic understanding when he joins and the Legion is true to its word... even after the contract(s) is(are) completed. The rule is "we don't know who you are talking about". The only exception is with the carreers of French regular officers attached to the Legion. Which is the case of most Foreign Legion officers. They will usually have also served with other units within the Armed Forces. There records can be found at the Service Historique de l'Armée in Vincennes, near Paris. There are very rare exceptions. I have the records of an Spaniard who was an officer and ended his carreer as a general after he received French citizenship. He then was considered to be a Regular Army officer. There is also the case of this New-Zeelander who was a Lieutenant-Colonel with the Regiment de Marche de la Légion étrangère during the First World War. Veteran Edited November 5, 2009 by Veteran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camerone54 Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 ...still waiting for research tips... You can do research through his sister... let her write to: COMMANDEMENT DE LA LEGION ETRANGERE Bureau des anciens de la Légion étrangère Quartier Viénot - B.P. 21 355 13 784 AUBAGNE CEDEX joining a proof that she is the sister (Intern. Birth Certificate) and she´ll get an overview of his records after some weeks... Very nice group indeed. But the number of the brevet and the matricule don´t fit... Schöne Grüße Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kunsho Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 (edited) You can do research through his sister... let her write to: joining a proof that she is the sister (Intern. Birth Certificate) and she´ll get an overview of his records after some weeks... Very nice group indeed. But the number of the brevet and the matricule don´t fit... Schöne Grüße Lars, thank you very much for this information. This could be a way....(I will send you a PM in the next days).. I already had a suspicion that the para brevet is an earlier conferred one, because I have learned from this link that the brevet is dating around 1953 and Walter Herbert joined the Legion likely in 1958....BUT this is the brevet which was sewn (all of the shown badges/medals were originally sewn on his beret) on his beret...so I assume this brevet has its own story.... Matthias Edited November 17, 2009 by kunsho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camerone54 Posted November 18, 2009 Share Posted November 18, 2009 Hi Matthias, that Para-Brevet listing should be correct. Mr. Janssen uses the same sources I do. I have the same problem with a grouping of a legionnaire that definately engaged in 1955 but has a brevet numbered 5x.xxx. Unfortunately like in your case, there exists no para-certificate which could give the answer to this. Let me go after that and I will see if I can find out something about your numbered brevet too. But there also should be hint about the brevet number in the answer from the BALE, which the sister could get. Best regards Lars Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kunsho Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 ...and now, two years later, Cpl. Walter Herbert gets a face: The one in the middle (with the beer in his hand) is Walter Herbert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kunsho Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 "hooray!" ...I forgot to say... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WRANGEL Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 It is always nice to give a face to a name and reverse is true too (putting a name on a face). Did Walter Herbert's sister succeed getting informations on her brother from the Foreign Legion Administration ? I have the problem, but from the other side of the Rhine, my grandfather was in the Wehrmacht (GFP) and my father in the HJ, but I have a hard time finding their military records. Cheers Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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