France A French Foreign Legion story

[Peter J]

The French Foreign Legion is an unknown chapter for me, but today I was told a story I would like to share with you guys. An acquaintance of mine told the story of his grandmother's brother, who served in the Legion from 1910-1913 in Morocco. He was also kind enough to lend me a couple of photos for your weiwing pleasure.

Verner Nilsson went down to North Africa in 1910 and served in the Legion for 2 1/2 years, under the name of Verner Nelson. By reading his correspondence to Sweden (I looked through some 30 postcards), it's evident he saw some heavy fighting. In 1913 he had enough and swam out to a Swedish vessel outside Casablanca, which brought him back to Sweden. Once back home, he found God and travelled around the Swedish countryside in his uniform, giving lectures about his years in the Legion. He also wrote a book titled "Two and a half years in the Foreign Legion". I've tried to find something about this book on the web, but still no luck. The uniform was hanging in the attic for many years, but was eventually thrown away along with the book .

The 1st postcard is a wiew of La Casbah d'Isma?l. I tried this on the web as well, but French is a sound I don't comprehend (sorry Chris ). The most fascinating thing is the address, the name and Lkrona, which is short for Landskrona. That surely wouldn't work today.

The 2nd image needs no explaination, but the wording on the back is a killer, "Photo taken on M?rta's brother in the trench"!!!

KR

Peter

[Peter J]

reverse

[Peter J]

2nd image

[Chris Boonzaier]

I cannot find it at the moment, but I think i have a copy of the second photo labeld in German "Canadian dead at Ypres"

[Peter J]

Chris, that's interesting . Please let me know, should you find the book.

KR

Peter