Inside the French Foreign Legion: Adventures with the World's Most Famous Fighting Force
()
About this ebook
Unique among the world's fighting forces, the Legion remains one of its most mysterious, as well. Open to volunteers from around the world (men from some 150 countries fill its ranks), the Legion boasts an illustrious and exciting military history stretching from Europe to Africa and Latin America, from Vietnam and Algeria to Afghanistan; features a notoriously difficult selection and training process, accepting only 10 percent of applicants; and has traditionally required soldiers to enlist under assumed names. Soldiers swear allegiance not to France, but to the Legion, which has been romanticized in literature, song, and action movies as a place for men to prove their mettle or start their lives over. In this colorful, highly readable book, a blend of firsthand experience and interviews with former legionnaires, Nick Valldejuli gives an insider's perspective on what it means - and what it takes - to be a Légionnaire.
Valldejuli, an English-born American who spent two years in the Legion, lifts the veil on who legionnaires are, what they do, where they serve, why they joined, and why they’re willing to die for France, which for most is a foreign country. Stories move from Algeria in the 1960s and the Balkans in the 1990s to more recent French operations in Afghanistan and former colonies in Africa. Drawing on his own experiences as well as those of members from various countries over the past fifty years (including several girlfriends of soldiers), his stories highlight the Legion’s intense camaraderie and its members’ fierce loyalty to this unique unit, in addition to the extreme mental and physical demands made of them, and the sacrifices of their families back home.
Related to Inside the French Foreign Legion
Related ebooks
An Infantry Officer with the Eighth Army: The Personal Experiences of an Infantry Officer During the Eighth Army’s Campaign Through Africa and Sicily Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMessenger of Death: Captain Nolan & The Charge of the Light Brigade Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of General William T. Sherman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoalition Warfare: An Uneasy Accord Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom Mons To Ypres With General French; A Personal Narrative [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5French Generals of the Great War: Leading the Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Hussar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1918: The Year of Victories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Power and the Glory: Royal Navy Fleet Reviews from Earliest Times to 2005 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWaterloo 1815: Captain Mercer's Journal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeven Firefights in Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pegahmagabow: Life-Long Warrior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe War of Lost Opportunities Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Paratrooper Generals: Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and the American Airborne from D-Day through Normandy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTacitus on Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarch On Paris And The Battle Of The Marne 1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPershing's Lieutenants: American Military Leadership in World War I Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wellington & Napoleon: Clash of Arms Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Soldier At Heart: From Private to General Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrick: Tank Hero of Arras: The Making of an Extraordinary Soldier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritain at War 1939 to 1945: What Was Life Like During the War? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Mons To The First Battle Of Ypres [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe British Field Marshals, 1736-1997: A Biographical Dictionary Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hamilton & Gallipoli: British Command in an Age of Military Transformation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVictoria Crosses on the Western Front, 31st July 1917–6th November 1917: Third Ypres 1917 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Battle on 42nd Street: War in Crete and the Anzacs' bloody last stand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEagle Day: The Battle of Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of the Peloponnesian War: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Inside the French Foreign Legion
0 ratings0 reviews