Book Review - The French Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force

• Author: Major James S. Eicher
• Pages: 05

1998] BOOK REVIEWS 239

THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION:

A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE LEGENDARY FIGHTING FORCE1

REVIEWED BY MAJOR JAMES S. EICHER2

The French Foreign Legion! The mere name echoes like a rifle-shot, evoking stark images of leather-faced mercenaries, mysterious castaways from the humdrum of ordinary life, spurned lovers, disenfranchised sons, and yes, the occasional fugitive from justice. We have seen them in the movies, marching across endless desert sands and defending hopelessly remote outposts for which the names and locations have all but faded from memory. But what is the truth behind the French Foreign Legion?

I first heard of the Legion as a young boy. My Father and I have always shared a love of history, and I recall him once saying to me, "The Foreign Legion is probably the toughest, most disciplined outfit on earth." So, while recently browsing through a local bookstore, something caught my eye: Douglas Porch's 636 page The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force (hereinafter The Legion). The book's length was somewhat imposing, but I was immediately taken in by its thirty-two pages of photographs and numerous campaign maps.

Professor Douglas Porch, of The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina, brings impressive credentials to The Legion, having previously authored four other books relating to French military history.3 This background, combined with Porch's obvious affection for his topic and "several summers [of] combing archives in France for undiscovered [Legion] documents, diaries and memoirs"4 (where Porch apparently often visited his parents-in-law), resulted in a truly extraordinary book.

In his Preface to The Legion, Porch explains, "This study does not pretend to be an exhaustive history of the Legion-that would be quite impossible!"5 He continues, "I believe that there is room for a book on the Legion that links its combat performance to its recruitment, training, rituals, and special social environment."6 The Legion is not just a dry recitation of battle dates and crusty campaigns; it is masterfully written history. It is also a psychological study and a social analysis, as well as a solid critique of Legion training techniques and battle strategies. This is quite an undertaking-one which Porch handles brilliantly.

While a seemingly distant concept today, foreigners fighting in other nations' armies was not unusual in years' past. Two well-known examples from our own Revolutionary War are the Hessians, who fought for the British, and Lafayette, who fought for the colonialists. Indeed, the entire military fabric of late medieval and renaissance Europe largely rested on the shoulders of mercenary (and often foreign) troops. To this day, Swiss mercenaries continue to guard the Pope. However, Article 13 of the post-revolutionary July 1789 French Charter decreed, "No foreign troop can be admitted into the service of the State, except under a [special] law."7

When the 1830 revolutionary movements began, many young men from other European countries flocked to France, hoping to find refuge in the spiritual...