Legion Etrangere (1972)

[Badger]

I love this video ...

Chant - "Connaissez-vous ces hommes" (Do you know these men)

Refrain:
Ai O – Ai O – Ai O – OO (bis)

1.
Connaissez-vous ces hommes qui marchent là-bas
Écoutez un peu la chanson de leurs pas
Elle vous dit qu’ils ont martelé bien des routes
Et ça c’est vrai, il n’y a aucun doute
Du Tonkin à Dakar
D’Afrique en Norvège
Dans le sable, le vent et la neige
Gloire à la Légion Étrangère.

2.
Légionnaire de l’Afrique suis tes anciens.
De ton allure magnifique va ton chemin
Tête haute sans tourner les yeux,
L’âme légère et le coeur joyeux
Suis ta route sans peur de tomber
Avec Honneur et Fidélité.

[jonnyc]

Well, it's not "Le Boudin", but I loved it.

[Ovidio]

Makes me get the shivers.......

[jonnyc]

[Surpmil]

The Legion was not a totally new idea. Napoleon had numerous foreign regiments from Dutch to Swiss to Poles, and they served him well. The French kings had Scottish and Irish regiments for centuries before that. The Byzantine emperors had their Varangian Guard of Norsemen and Anglo-Saxons...But the brand recognition, the esprit de corps? That you cannot buy for love or money, and as Napoleon said, "in war the human is to the material as three to one".

The Monument Aux Morts was brought back from Sidi bel Abbes, but the rest of the barracks was demolished with explosives before the French left Algeria. It's a pity they didn't save the gate.



Are the Belgians really bad shots?

[Ovidio]

Napoleon also had an Italian brigade, which was destroyed during the retreat from Russia at the Beresina river, holding up the enemy.