Chris Boonzaier

The Badges of the Compagnie Portee of the 4th Foreign Legion Infantry Regiment. The Compagnie Portee from the 4th REI badge from about 1950-52... The unit moved to Khénifra in 52 and was called the Compagnie Portee Khénifra wearing the badge with the cogs... from 1955 the Company becaame the 1st Comp Montee of 4 REI... in the end there were 6 Comp Montee in the regiment. Compagnie Portee were a more modern Version of the Montee, initially with Dodge trucks....

"The Law is harsh, but it is the Law" motto on the badge of the Compagnie disciplinaire en Extrême-Orient during the Indochina war... here are the badges for the North African and Far East disciplinary companies.... the North African one was part of 1 RE, then at the end was 2 REI... the Far East one was run by 2 REI.... in 1969 the Section d'epreuve was started in Corte under 2 REI but was disbanded in 1976 after a book was published showing all the dirty laundry...

28 minutes ago, Deutschritter said:

Here we have Rainer Stahel 1925 in the Finnish Zivil-Garde. He also received, besides the liberty cross III. and II class, the Jägerkreuz des Jäger-Bataillons Nr. 27 (Steckorden), the Finnische Erinnerungsmedaille für den Freiheitskrieg 1918 mit Gefechtsspange „Karjalan R.“ (Vapaussodan – Karjalan rintama) and the Bronzenes Kreuz für Verdienste der Zivil-Garde (Verdienstkreuz der Zivilgarde; Suojeluskunta Rautainen ansioristi).

 

 

 

Hello, Chris! I am pretty sure, these two documents are NOT for Rainer Stahel, surely for his younger brother Heinrich (same Regiment), who fell as Leutnant und Führer der 11. Kompane on 31 March 1918. Rainer was in February 1916 already Oberleutnant, he received EK II 1914 and EK I 1915. What do you think?

Hi,

they are indeed his. The documents were issued in 1916 but the awards were earlier. All these XVI Armeekorps from this date were for awards 1914-1915... the Korps only introduced the document at the beginning of 1916. They also have the rank of the person on the date of the award, so Lt in 14-15. ?

A Photograph of Adolph Tada taken in his first year in the legion, updated with later award and places he served in / Visited during his 5 years

This had to follow the one above... a Guy who joined about the same time, also taken prisonner at Dien Bien Phu... The stupid thing is the cover and title....

Ständig am Abgrund by Simon Bornschlegel. "always in the Abyss"

Bornschlegel is no Muzatti (see above). His book is nowhere near as detailed or interesting... he lacks the writing skills and eye for detail. Also captured in Dien Bien Phu, released, returned to algeria to finish his contract.... Thumbs up to him, he makes it very clear noone forced him to join, and he was never mistreated by NCOs or superiors. It has to be said... in the Legion the Officers are usually not that present in the day to day things... if Legionnaires are beaten or abused it is often up the NCOs in the section to set the tone for THAT section.... a Couple of Psycho NCOS and a guy writing a book will have that as his main point... this guy seems not to have had that.

The cover is pretty stupid... 'nuff said. Has nothing to do with the content.

he seems to have had no problems being in the legion... the bad part of his life seems to be after his return to Germany, a series of career and financial missteps and ends up with his wife and grown sons screwing him over and leaving him with empty pockets and hands.

So an interesting view of the legion in the early/mid 50s which could have done without his post legion life.

La ou l'on Meurt... peut-etre

by

Giorgio Adamo Muzatti

This book was a difficult read.... Muzzati has a writing style that best displays a level of French far surpassing the vocabulary of the average Legionnaire. It was difficult but worth it.

It starts off with him leaving Italy, working as a teenager in France, joining the legion, being an over achiever, being a bit of a know it all, being slightly irritating... but in the end you can not help respecting him, especially after the fantastic last half of the book dealing with Dien Bien Phu.

He has a great eye for detail, can tell a great story, and this must be one of the top 10 Legion books out there... Book one ends with his return from Indochina... I have ordered book 2

On 07/07/2021 at 10:40, jimn said:

Hi Chris

Thanks for showing  the Operation Daguet badge..always wondered what this badge looked like when I was collecting Desert Storm medals and could never find out. I really like the mini  (lapel?) badge..is that numbered too?

Are OPEX badges worn with or instead of normal unit badges? I don't know much about French insignia.

Thanks

Jim

Hi, the Opex Badges are not worn, although I have seen guys just put them on for photos on Occasion. The Daguet onr in the left was awarded to all units which took part... so the 2 REI ones are engraved 2REI, the 1 REC engraved 1REC... the small ones are PX purchase pieces, and I think still made today for vets. The round one was, as far as I could find out a Commercial one done by an Artiste named Josette Spiaggia... exactly who commisioned them, I do not know. I bought this one in the 2REI PX as far as I can remember.

Here is another one....

Operation Licorne "Groupement Tactique interarmes No 1 (12th Mandate) Ivory Coast 2006

Obviously 12th Mandate was 2 REI and the badge was based on the regimental one....

On 07/07/2021 at 05:44, Ian said:

Hui Chris,

 

Can you elaborate on why some Legion units were banned from serving in the EFAO please?

There was an incident where a section on Patrol killed a number of Poachers. I heard different versions of the story by different people, but in the end the Company had to return to France to be replaced and a few were arrested.  I am not sure of all the details... back in the early 90s I got the story from 2 different guys in the company, both were pretty different... I think on another occasion some legionnaires on guard entered the presidents Airplane and had a party, drinking all the booze, which did not go down well. Anyway, the REP was persona non grata for a while in Central Africa

Again not an exclusively Legion badge, the EFAO "French operational assistance elements" were in Central Africa up until 1997. Many Legion units were part of it, some Legion units were banned from serving in it ?

Not Exclusively a 2REI, or even Legion badge... the badge for all troops taking part in operation Epervier... the longest running OPEX

The 2nd and 4th Companies were in Cambodia 1992-93... here is the 4th Company badge, 250 of them made, I assume this number is pretty high so probably not handed out... although I am not sure if they handed out random numbers.

OPEX badges are usually given out as a souvenir of deployments.

Usually the design is approved, sometimes not.

Here are the Desert Storm badges. On the left the official Operation Daguet badge. Every unit recieved this badge, with their unit stamped in the back and a number... so 2eREI number 0274.

In the middle a commercial one sold at the 2REI PX, on the right the badge for the Protection Company of the Divisonal Headqurters, a composite unit with 2REI providing a Motorised section. There is the 2REI Horseshoe, the 6th Light armoured div badge, the 1 REC beret badge, this one numbered 104

The BILA (Bataillons d'Infanterie Légère d'Afrique) ... better known under the term "Bat' d'Af'" were the notorious French "African Light Infantary "pena"l Battalions ... too much to write up here, but a Wikipedia Page awaits...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalions_of_Light_Infantry_of_Africa

About the harshest service conditions I can imagine....

Here is a Silver 3rd BILA badge from the late 50s, early 60s... usually the silver are for officers....

Der Herr sandte mie keinen Engel - God did not send me angels

Karel Lutz was born in 1926 so when he joined in 1965 he was already way over the average age. A businessman with a few white collar crimes he joined the legion at what for me must have been the worst possible time... in 1964 Indochine was over, Algeria abandoned.... Lutz landed up in a peacetime legion in Corsica. I can only imagine the legion between 1964 and the early 80s.... there were few operations, most of the time the men were in France or Corsica, except for the static regiments in Guyana, Tahiti and the detachment in Mayotte... Lutz landed up in Corsica with bored, disenchanted and Brutal cadre who were still digesting the loss of Indochina and Algeria, and it was the newbies who became the victim of that frustration. Added to that, at this period the legion had no adventure to offer and many of the recruits were not really as motivated as in other periods... added to that, Lutz does not think much of the men he serves with. The book is limited as he deserted after 2 years... it is still worth a read as his story and opinions are not that much different to how I think it would have been back then.

Finished this one some time ago

Il Y A LA LEGION by Pierre Charton.

Charton served in the Legion fron 1928 to 1954 and was commander at Cao bang during the Indochine war, involved is the disaster on the RC4. The book does not touch on that and concentrates on his time before that... it is not an autobiography or history, but consists on an interesting series of disjointed chapters covering all kinds of areas and people he knew.... If you had sat down in a bar with him for every evening for a couple of weeks and he shot out random interesting Legion stories... this would be it.... Apparently when published in the 70s the Legion was not to happy.... Charton shoots from the hip and was not afraid to slap the occasional holy cow on the behind....

Have been going through my boxes of books digging out the Legion related ones... there are fantastic ones and crap ones... so I thought I would reread them and post them here....

First one from 2004

Abenteuer Fremdenlegion - Der Kampf der Fremdenlegionäre in Vietnam und Algerien by Horst Schluckner

Schluckner should have stuck to Beekeeping or Trainspotting or whatever his normal thing is.... terrible book, full of errors, made up stories and terrible writing.... as on my first attempt... I could not make it past the first 20 pages.... absolute garbage ... terrible book.... I hope for the Engelsdorfer Verlag that this was an error on their part and not standard.... avoid like the plague....

14 hours ago, peter monahan said:

Lovely!  Thanks for this.

There is simply way to much info there... 1200 pages! just spent half an hour scrolling... and I do not even collect in that direction!!!

This is pretty good....

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/626107/2017-03109.pdf

Some souveniers of his time in the 2CSPL and commanding the 1CSPL .... the CSPL or motorised Saharan Companies were old school, hundreds of miles through the Sahara kinda guys... The two Brass plates are factory made but with local artisans adding the badges by beating them out ny hand... both made in Ghadaia, which if you goole and click on Photos shows a very typical Sahara town. I do not have the exact info but it seems he was a Lt in the 2nd CSPL then took command of the 1 CSPL as Captain.... here is him on the right handing over the Company colors when the unit was renamed... and his souvenirs... possibly gifts when he left the respective units...

Again not Otto.... buuuutttt...

This came out of a group of an officer who was in Indochina, but was not a para... but he seems to have liked badges and had numerous he collected along the way.... actually really good quality from the front....

I have managed to add quite a bit to this group... including this.... a Table medal presented to Colonel Gilbert by General commanding the Legion during reunion of ex Regimental commanders in June 1996. I am not sure how many of these were handed out.

Albert Enderli

28.07.1903

28.08.1923- 5 Years

Break in service

03.12.1931 – 10.06.42

15.12.21 – 28.08,1929 – DCRE – 1RE – 2RE – 1REI

14.03.32 – 1 RE

17.02.34 – 5 RE – Tonkin

15.10.37 – 1 RE

14.07.38 – Promoted Legionnaire 1st Class

01.10.39 – 6 RE

30.09.41 – Promoted Caporal

01.01.42 – 1 RE

15.08.42 – Regraded Legionnaire 2^nd Class

01.07.43 – DCRE

05.07.43 - RMLE

03.12.43 – Released from Service

Citation 07.08.1925

Showed much courage in the combat of Bibane 25.05.25. Ignoring all danger and using hand grenades, he attacked entrenched enemy positions from which he was under accurate fire.

Wounded 08.08.1925

Wounded at l’amXXXXXX, stone splinters in the troat.

Awards

Croix de Guerre des TOE 07.08.1925

Medaille Militaire 07.10.1940

Medaille Colonial „Maroc“

Medaille Colonial “Maroc” – 27.07.1934

Carte de Combattant 20.10.1936

Med Commemorative du Levant “Levant 1941”

He served in the mid 20s, left, returned in the early 30s, and was released in 43... Morocco, Algeria, Tonkin, Syria

more

A rare doc, the 6 REI in Syria was on the Vichy side, the bar "Levant 1941" was later forbidden... a very nice doc indeed!!

Apparently with a bit of experiance the hour on the mule could also be used to catnap