The French Foreign Legion - Softcover

Boyd, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1530731666 ISBN 13: 9781530731664

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016

Synopsis

What attracts men from 136 different nations to embrace the harsh military code of an army that requires them to lay down their lives for a country not their own, if ordered to do so by politicians whose language many of them hardly speak?

Douglas Boyd’s history of the Legion answers that question, with fifteen historic photographs and eleven battle/campaign maps.

Founded in 1831 to fight France’s colonial wars without spilling French blood, this mysterious army is today a world-class fighting force. Training is so tough that five recruits out of six are rejected, never to wear the coveted white kepi.

This is a world where fact exceeds the wildest fiction: men fighting literally to the last bullet at Camarón in Mexico in 1863; cooks and clerks with no parachute training volunteering to be dropped into beleaguered Dien Bien Phu in 1954 with the intention of dying beside their comrades; the paras who mutinied in Algeria to bring down the government of France; the heroes who dropped on Kolwezi to rescue thousands of European hostages.

Praise for The French Foreign Legion

'A tight and fascinating history of the nearly two centuries of the Legion's activities.' - Brig Anthony Hunter-Choat (UK's senior ex-legionnaire)

Perhaps the greatest praise of the book is the fact that legionnaires liked this history of their incredible army so much that they elected author Douglas Boyd an honorary ex-legionnaire.

RAF Russian linguist, international businessman, music impresario, BBC Television Producer/Director, Douglas Boyd has been writing full-time since setting up home in a medieval farmhouse in south-west France thirty-five years ago. His published fiction and non-fiction, translated into many languages, includes three novels set against a Legion background: The Eagle and the Snake, The Truth and the Lies, The Honour and the Glory.

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About this title

About the Author

Douglas Boyd has been a full-time writer since moving to France three decades ago, and previously worked as a producer for BBC TV. He has published numerous titles on historical subjects, including the hardback edition of The French Foreign Legion with Sutton in 2006. He is currently writing books on the Cold War and Russian imperialism and occupied Normandy in World War 2 for Ian Allan Publishing. He is an honorary member of the French Foreign Legion.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1530731666
• ISBN 13: 9781530731664
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 458