Voices of the Foreign Legion

Voices of the Foreign Legion PDF Author: Adrian D. Gilbert
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1629140929
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
The French Foreign Legion has built a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable and colorful military institutions. Established as a means of absorbing foreign troublemakers, the Legion spearheaded French colonialism in North Africa during the nineteenth century. Accepting volunteers from all parts of the world, the Legion acquired an aura of mystery and a less-than-enviable reputation for extreme brutality within its ranks. Voices of the Foreign Legion explores how the Legion selects its recruits, their native lands, and why these warriors seek a life full of hardship and danger. It analyzes the Legion’s brutal attitude toward discipline, questions why desertion has been a perennial problem, and assesses the Legion’s remarkable military achievements since its formation in the year 1831. This is the real story of the Legion, featuring firsthand accounts from the men who have fought in its ranks. Its scope ranges from the conquest of the colonies in Africa and the Far East through the horrors of the two world wars, to the bitter, but ultimately hopeless, battle to maintain France’s far-flung imperial possessions. The story is brought fully up-to-date with accounts and anecdotes from those contemporary foreign legionnaires who continue to fight for French interests around the globe. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Voices of the Foreign Legion

Voices of the Foreign Legion PDF Author: Adrian D. Gilbert
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1629140929
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description
The French Foreign Legion has built a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable and colorful military institutions. Established as a means of absorbing foreign troublemakers, the Legion spearheaded French colonialism in North Africa during the nineteenth century. Accepting volunteers from all parts of the world, the Legion acquired an aura of mystery and a less-than-enviable reputation for extreme brutality within its ranks. Voices of the Foreign Legion explores how the Legion selects its recruits, their native lands, and why these warriors seek a life full of hardship and danger. It analyzes the Legion’s brutal attitude toward discipline, questions why desertion has been a perennial problem, and assesses the Legion’s remarkable military achievements since its formation in the year 1831. This is the real story of the Legion, featuring firsthand accounts from the men who have fought in its ranks. Its scope ranges from the conquest of the colonies in Africa and the Far East through the horrors of the two world wars, to the bitter, but ultimately hopeless, battle to maintain France’s far-flung imperial possessions. The story is brought fully up-to-date with accounts and anecdotes from those contemporary foreign legionnaires who continue to fight for French interests around the globe. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Voices of the Foreign Legion

Voices of the Foreign Legion PDF Author: Adrian Gilbert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781786080400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The French Foreign Legion in Its Own Words.

Legionnaire

Legionnaire PDF Author: Simon Murray
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN: 0307415813
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
“A pleasure to read and nearly impossible to put down.” –Army Times “Embodies an experience that many have enjoyed in fantasy–few in reality.” –The Washington Post The French Foreign Legion–mysterious, romantic, deadly–is filled with men of dubious character, and hardly the place for a proper Englishman just nineteen years of age. Yet in 1960, Simon Murray traveled alone to Paris, Marseilles, and ultimately Algeria to fulfill the toughest contract of his life: a five-year stint in the Legion. Along the way, he kept a diary. Legionnaire is a compelling, firsthand account of Murray’s experience with this legendary band of soldiers. This gripping journal offers stark evidence that the Legion’s reputation for pushing men to their breaking points and beyond is well deserved. In the fierce, sun-baked North African desert, strong men cracked under brutal officers, merciless training methods, and barbarous punishments. Yet Murray survived, even thrived. For he shared one trait with these hard men from all nations and backgrounds: a determination never to surrender. “The drama, excitement, and color of a good guts-and-glory thriller.” –Dr. Henry Kissinger

Legion of the Lost

Legion of the Lost PDF Author: Jaime Salazar
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101118466
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The son of underpaid Mexican immigrants, Jaime earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue. But at twenty-three, he was disillusioned with the corporate fast track. So he became an outcast American in a hard-bitten group of recruits-men on the run from their pasts, men without hope: He joined the French Foreign Legion. From the Legion's notoriously brutal training to Salazar's fierce competitiveness, ultimate disillusionment and dramatic desertion, Legion of the Lost is a compelling, firsthand account of today's French Foreign Legion that will dispel myths while adding to the legend of the finest trained army of warriors the world has ever known.

Foreign Legion Series

Foreign Legion Series PDF Author: FOREIGN LEGION SERIES.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


The French Foreign Legion and Indochina in Retrospect

The French Foreign Legion and Indochina in Retrospect PDF Author: Michael Kaponya
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781627462099
Category : Indochinese War, 1946-1954
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Prior to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the French Foreign Legion defended the Indochinese Union from 1883 through 1945 from frequent armed attacks launched from outside its borders as well as bloody inside uprisings. At that time, the Union consisted of Tonkin, Annam, Laos, Cambodia, and Cochin-China. Michael Kaponya shares his memoirs as a French Foreign Legionnaire who served in the infantry and participated in battles and countless skirmishes between 1949 and 1952 in Indochina. The French Foreign Legion and Indochina in Retrospect also outlines the politics that led America into the twentieth century wars in South-East Asia and provides readers with a greater understanding of the aftermath of the French presence and ensuing U.S. involvement. The French Foreign Legion and Indochina in Retrospect addresses an overview of the French Foreign Legion, since its foundation in 1831, that fought with Honneur et Fidelite countless battles, up to 1962, in Algeria, Spain, Morocco, Russia, Italy, Mexico, France, China, Dahomey (Benin), Soudan, Madagascar, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia, Norway, Egypt, Libya, Germany, and Indochina. It also unveils the spirit of the legionnaires, originating from many countries and inseparably unites under the French flag with the Latin motto Legio Patria Nostra (the Legion is our fatherland). This fascinating memoir details Michael's experiences during and post-World War II in Europe, which led him to join the French Foreign Legion. Gain a greater understanding of the Legion and its roles in crucial conflicts from this first-hand account.

A Soldier of the Legion

A Soldier of the Legion PDF Author: C. N. Williamson
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
A Soldier of the Legion by C.M. Williamson is about a determined soldier who must fight hard to protect the ones he loves. Excerpt: "It was the great ball of the season at Fort Ellsworth. For a special reason it had begun unusually late; but, though the eighth dance was on, the great event of the evening had not happened yet. Until that should happen, the rest, charming though it might be, was a mere curtain-raiser to keep men amused before the first act of the play. The band of the —th was playing the "Merry Widow" waltz, still, a favorite at the fort, and only one of the officers was not dancing. All the others—young, middle-aged, and even elderly—were gliding more or less gracefully, more or less happily, over the waxed floor of the big, white-walled, flag-draped hall where Fort Ellsworth had its concerts, theatricals, small hops, and big balls."

Garrison Tales from Tonquin

Garrison Tales from Tonquin PDF Author: James O’Neill
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807131806
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
The thought of enlisting in the French Foreign Legion held a tantalizing allure for young nineteenth-century American boys in search of adventure. Apart from youthful fantasies few Americans seriously pursued joining the legion. These surprising and extraordinary short stories, written by one young man who did, take us to that time and place. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, James O'Neill enlisted in the legion in 1887, at the age of twenty-seven. In 1890, deployed to Tonquin in French Indochina (more familiar today as Tonkin, Vietnam), O'Neill faced tropical heat, infectious disease, and sudden death. Like his contemporary Stephen Crane, O'Neill's ability to tell an engaging story and his keen sense for telling details provide a unique record of his time in this exotic world. In these thirteen "tales," O'Neill shows -- with surprising subtlety -- that France's efforts to conquer and govern Indochina were foolhardy. Although the only American in his stories is the narrator, it is clear that the tales are aimed at readers in the United States and are intended to caution against the construction of empires abroad. Far from polemical tirades, these are absorbing, unadorned stories -- remarkably contemporary in both style and substance.Charles Royster provides a short biography of O'Neill, who seems to have vanished into obscurity a few years after these stories were first published in 1895. Royster has also unearthed and included two essays O'Neill published in magazines of the time, one a description of a Buddhist temple in Hanoi and the other an appreciation of the Hungarian novelist Maurus Jókai. Whether read for historical value, literary merit, or political insights, Garrison Tales from Tonquin is a true discovery.

Percival Christopher Wren's Foreign Legion Omnibus: Beau Geste, Beau Sabreur, Beau Ideal

Percival Christopher Wren's Foreign Legion Omnibus: Beau Geste, Beau Sabreur, Beau Ideal PDF Author: Percival Christopher Wren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1188

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Book Description
Follows the adventures of Beau Geste and his brothers, Englishmen who flee their country and join up with the French Legion after they are suspected for a crime they didn't commit.

Cohort of the Damned

Cohort of the Damned PDF Author: Andrew Keith
Publisher: WordFire +ORM
ISBN: 1614754012
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
A fugitive on the run tries to escape his dark past by joining the fight against the aliens in this military sci-fi series. Wolfgang Hauser was a privileged and pampered aristocrat—until the day aliens invaded his world and took everything from him. Now he’s an outcast accused of cowardice and murder. Without a family or a home, he’s on the run. And the only chance he has to escape his enemies is to join the Fifth Foreign Legion. But the Legion demands a high price from the misfits who flock to his banner in search of a new life. Wolfgang must now surrender his name, his beliefs, and his very identity to become a Legionnaire. But after losing so much already, can he bare the cost of hope?