I am reading: Inside the Foreign Legion, by John Parker.
Another logical step in the study of what happened after the war with some Germans.
Many German soldiers that were captured and imprisoned in France were give the opportunity to be spared by signing on with the Legion.
There is a quote in here that might be of interest:
"Colonel Raspeguy who was to support, two battalions of legionnaires in an attack against Viet positions with his para's. At a given signal the legionnaires emerged from the trenches en masse. They advanced , on line, step by step, as though a drum was out the time, like a loud death march under a heavy, overcast sky. The legionnaires kept advancing at the same pace, bolt upright, without lengthening or shortening their stride. They did not even turn around when one of their number fell beside them." "With their submachine-guns under their arms, stopping now and then to fire a well aimed burst, they went on step by step, a blank expression on their faces. There were quite a lot of Germans among them; they were the ones who set the pace."
It then goes on to finish the engagement. But remarkable, it backs up by reading from earlier when I new of the Germans who served there. As a matter of a fact the Legion was 42 % German in make up in the mid to late 20's. When the WW2 started some Germans who could leave the legion returned to Germany others simply went in to internment till the end of the war.
For a the Legion this book is something, I have always know of them, but never to this extent. What a fine force the French created.
