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French Foreign Legion’s 13th Demi-Brigade Fought in World War II
During World War II, the French Foreign Legion’s 13th Demi-Brigade lived up to the celebrated outfit’s blood and guts reputation. But its members got little recognition in the end.
By John W. Osborn Jr. It is doubtful that any other military unit had a more peripatetic journey through World War II than the 13th Demi-Brigade of the French Foreign Legion (13th DBLE). The Legionnaires fought from the frozen fjords of Norway, around Africa, in the searing deserts of the Middle East, in the mountains of Italy, in France and finally during the grim push into Germany. Along the way, they fought just about every kind of enemy thrown at them -- and on a couple of occasions each other. Formed originally to fight the Russians, the unit included the only woman Legionnaire ever and was commanded by a czarist prince out of Beau Geste.
Although the Legion’s only winter experience in over 100 years was its brief participation in the 1918-19 intervention in Russia, the French government nevertheless decided to create a Legion formation to help Finland in its 1939-40 Winter War with Russia. Formed on March 27, 1940, the brigade had an initial strength of 55 officers, 210 noncommissioned officers and 1,984 men -- with Spanish Loyalists fleeing General Francisco Franco’s victorious Nationalists constituting the largest national bloc at around 25 percent -- and was commanded by Colonel Raoul Magrin-Vernerey, who had been wounded 17 times in World War I and had served in the Legion since 1924.
Finland had by then capitulated, but in April France decided to send the DBLE as part of the Allied expeditionary force to oppose the German invasion of Norway. After cursory winter training at Larzac in south-central France, where a quarter of its personnel was peeled off to augment new units, the 13th DBLE was loaded aboard at Brest with the objective of seizing the far northern port of Narvik from the Germans’ grip.
The German commander at Narvik’s response was: “The Foreign Legion? Those international thugs. The British should be ashamed to use them against us.” As for single-minded Legionnaire commander Magrin-Vernerey, he did not give a damn what the Germans thought or even the reason he was being sent: “What is my aim? To take Narvik. For the Norwegians? The phosphates? The anchovies? I haven’t the slightest idea. But I shall take Narvik.”
The DBLE landed seven miles north of Narvik on May 6, to begin a slow, deadly drive on the town. Norway “was an eerie, silent war, where gunfire echoed with a hollow sound against the snow-capped mountains,” described Geoffrey Bocca in La Légion!: The French Foreign Legion and the Men Who Made It Glorious. Blizzards drove temperatures down to 60 degrees below zero. One Legionnaire shrugged it off with “snow is like sand, but cold.” French Corporal Charles Favrel had a rather different reaction when he found a Spaniard frozen to death, eyes open, still in his firing position. Favrel would soon have the even grimmer experience of leading to the firing squad and helping to execute for desertion two brothers from Luxembourg.
The demi-brigade made a second landing south of Narvik on May 28. For five hours the men were pinned down by artillery and machine gun fire until Magrin-Vernerey came ashore, grabbed a submachine gun and led the charge up the slopes. Outnumbered 3-to-1, the 1,500 Legionnaires drove the Germans out of Narvik.
This first Allied land victory of World War II proved to be worth absolutely nothing. Though the Legionnaires were driving the Germans 10 miles to the Swedish border, France was collapsing. The Allies were ordered out of Norway. The Legion evacuated June 7, having lost seven officers, five NCOs and 55 men. In an innovative touch, the rear guard left uniformed dummies in their positions to cover their pullout. By the time the 13th landed at Brest, France had surrendered. Some Legionnaires considered discontinuing the fighting until Magrin-Vernerey shot dead a regular lieutenant who asked him to stop fighting. The Legionnaires then took heed and boarded a channel ferry to England with their leader. Magrin-Vernerey knew how to make a point in as few words as possible.
There, the demi-brigade split: 31 officers and 636 men elected to return to North Africa, and Magrin-Vernerey, 28 officers and 900 men signed up with Charles de Gaulle’s Free French -- for six months. “I knew I had enough in the paychest to keep the men going for six months,” explained Magrin-Vernerey, who thereafter fought under the nom de guerre of Monclar to protect his family in France.
Six months turned into five years. Sent to win French West Africa for de Gaulle, the 13th DBLE was prevented from landing at Dakar, Senegal, in September by fierce Vichy shelling of the invasion fleet. By December, however, the Legionnaires were marching unopposed into Gabon and the Cameroons. They were then sent around the Cape of Good Hope in early 1941, with the 13th assigned to help British forces conquer Benito Mussolini’s shabby empire in East Africa. After that, the sideshows were over. Their main show in the Middle East began.
The period between the fall of Syria in the summer of 1941 and the end of the North African campaign in May, 1943 might be considered the golden age of the 13th DBLE in World War II, according to historian Douglas Porch. It would be without Magrin-Vernerey/Monclar, however. He had opposed invading Vichy-held Syria due to the risk of fighting the Legion garrison there. Monclar was replaced by the Legion’s outstanding hero of WWII, Prince Dimitri Amilakvari of Georgia. He had fled the Russian Revolution at 11 and joined the Legion at 20. “Amilakvari is the Legion,” said Monclar. Disdaining to trade his kepi for a helmet, Amilakvari was always immaculately turned out. He believed that “when one risks appearing before God, one must be properly dressed.”
Although the 13th DBLE’s casualties in the brief (June 8-July 14, 1941) Syria campaign were slight -- 21 killed, 47 wounded -- Monclar’s fears were borne out as the Vichy Legion garrison fiercely resisted the DBLE and the British, losing 128 killed, 728 wounded. The bitter division of the French army in WWII between de Gaulle and Henri Pétain, particularly in the officer corps, had found its way into the Foreign Legion. Given the choice between repatriation or joining the demi-brigade, only 692 of Syria’s 3,000-man Vichy Legion garrison, and just two officers, signed up.
After the bitterness of Syria came the high point for the 13th DBLE and for the entire Legion during WWII: its crucial role in the defense of Bir Hacheim between May 27 and June 10, 1942. Anchoring the southern tip of the British Gazala line, Bir Hacheim was a nine-mile, six-sided box position on a vast plateau, hot as a skillet and blasted by wind and sand. Making up a third of the Free French garrison under the command of General Pierre Koenig were Amilakvari and 957 men of the 13th DBLE. Among them were German Jews and leftists fleeing Adolf Hitler, as well as a future premier of France, Pierre Messmer. Koenig’s British driver, Susan Travers, who was enlisted on the spot, would be the only woman ever to serve in the French Foreign Legion. Arriving at Bir Hacheim on February 14, 1942, the Legionnaires and other Free French spent three months digging 1,200 trenches, gun pits and command posts and laying minefields and then waited for the inevitable blow to fall.
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