Last modified: 2009-06-06 by ivan sache
Keywords: foreign legion | legion etrangere | fanion de la legion (le) | piaf (edith) |
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The Foreign Legion was created by King
Louis-Philippe's Decree of 10 March 1831, as a regiment of light infantry constituted of foreign soldiers
and to be stationed in Algeria. Since then, the Legion has been involved into several war actions, including:
- 1835: Spanish Civil War between Isabel II and the Carlists; Conquest of Algeria;
- 1854: Crimean War (battle of Alma and siege of Sebastopol);
- 1859: Italian War;
- 1863-1867: Mexico;
- 1870: Franco-Prussian War;
- 1883: Conquest of Tonkin (now in Viet
Nam);
- 1892: Conquest of Dahomey (now
Benin);
- 1896: Conquest of Madagascar;
- 1914: Conquest and pacification of
Morocco; First World War;
- 1922: Pacification of Syria;
- 1926: Rif War (Morocco) against
Abd-el-Krim;
- 1940: Norwegian front;
- 1941: Protection of Cambodia;
- 1942: Dakar, Erythrea, Lebanon, Libya (Bir-Hakeim), Syria;
- 1943: Liberation of France and Italy;
- 1945-1954: War of Indochina (Diên-Biên-Phu);
- 1954-1962 Algeria;
- 1978: Kolwezi campaign in Katanga (then in
Zaire);
- 1991: Gulf War;
- 2002-2003: "Licorne" operation in Côte-d'Ivoire
Since the independence of Algeria (1962), the Foreign Legion has
been stationed in Aubagne, a town located between
Marseilles and
Aix-en-Provence.
The Legion is still a cherished unit in France, probably because
of the exotic uniform (the legionnaires bear the axe
and the shovel), their "rolling" step (slower than usual), and their
band (the only one in the French Army to play the exotic "Chinese
hat" [a kind of jingling Johnny]).
Ivan Sache, 8 August 2001
![[Pennant of the Foreign Legion]](../images/f/fr^lgetr.gif)
Pennant of the Foreign Legion - Image by Ivan Sache, 8 August 2001
The Institution for the Disabled Exservicemen of the French
Foreign Legion (Institution des invalides de la Légion
étrangère) is located in the small village of Puyloubier,
near Aix-en-Provence and the
Sainte-Victoire mountain, popularized by the painter Paul
Cézanne.
The Institution is named after Captain Danjou, the hero of
Camerone. On 30 April 1864, 64 soldiers of the Legion commanded by
Captain Danjou resisted for more than nine hours to more than 2,000
Mexican soldiers. The four survivors of Camerone spent
the rest of their carrier in the Legion in looking after their
brother-in-arms and were at the origin of the present Institution.
Since then, 30 April is Legion Day. On this Day, the youngest officer
of the Legion reads the account of Camerone fight facing all the
soldiers standing to attention.
The pennant of the Legion, horizontally divided green-red (the colours of the Legion) flies under the French national flag on the pole located in the court of the Institution.
Ivan Sache, 8 August 2001
The Foreign Legion was, especially between the two World Wars, the
source of a rich mythology, associated to exotism and colonialism.
In 1936, the singer Marie Dubas (1894-1972) performed for the first
time the song Mon légionnaire (lyrics by Raymond Asso, himself a veteran of the French Legion; music by Marguerite Monnot), a song relating a love affair between a romantic woman and a mysterious legionnaire refusing to give his name and eventually dying, "not seen, not caught", in the desert. Dubas' rather colourless performance of the song was quickly superseded by Édith Piaf's tragic, expressionist rendition.
The same year, Marie Dubas performed from the first time a song from
the same authors, Le fanion de la légion. Édith Piaf recorded the song the next year and performed it all over her career, although it was a minor success (compared to others, of course).
Le fanion de la légion relates the heroic resistance of 30
legionnaires entrenched in an outpost in Sahara, three of them
surviving at the end without surrendering. Most probably inspired by
the battle of Camerone, Mexico (1863), the action was "relocated" to
the Sahara, the hotspot of the Legion myth (as highlighted in Mon
légionnaire). While Mon légionnaire was a quite intimist song, Le fanion de la légion is an heroic war song, in which Piaf could express her outstanding skills in stage acting (whatever we may think of the background of the song; the performance dates back to 1954
and has to be considered in the context of the increasing "troubles"
in Algeria, while remembering that the song had been written decades
before).
Fanion can be translated as "pennant" but must be read here as
"flag" and probably understood as the French national flag. The flag
appears at the end of each main stanza, highlighting the progress of
the action, as follows:
[...]
Ah la la la, la belle histoire,
Là-haut sur les murs du bastion,
Dans le soleil plane la gloire
Et dans le vent claque un fanion.
C'est le fanion de la légion !
[...]
Ah la la la, la belle histoire,
Claquant au vent sur le bastion
Et troué comme une écumoire,
Il y a toujours le fanion,
Le beau fanion de la légion !
[...]
Ah la la la, la belle histoire,
Ils sont toujours dans le bastion
Mais ne peuvent crier victoire :
On leur a volé le fanion,
Le beau fanion de la légion !
[...]
Ah la la la, la belle histoire,
Les trois qui sont dans le bastion,
Sur leurs poitrines toutes noires
Avec du sang crénom de nom
Ont dessiné de beaux fanions.
Ah la la la, la belle histoire,
Ils peuvent redresser leurs fronts
Et vers le ciel crier victoire.
Au garde-a-vous sur le bastion,
Ils gueulent "présent la légion"."[...]
The beautiful story,
Up on the walls of the bastion,
In the sun glides glory
In the winds flutters a flag,
The flag of the legion!
[...]
The beautiful story,
Fluttering in the wind on the bastion
And riddled with holes like a skimmer,
The flag still stands,
The beautiful flag of the legion!
[...]
The beautiful story,
They are still inside the bastion
But they cannot crow over their victory:
They have been stolen the flag,
The beautiful flag of the legion!
[...]
The beautiful story,
The three who are still in the bastion,
On their black chest
With blood, dash it all!
Have drawn beautiful flags.
The beautiful story,
They can lift up their forehead
And to the sky crow over their victory.
Standing to attention on the bastion,
They shout "Present at call the legion".
To Asso's great disappointment, the song was not adopted by the legion, in spite of using part of the Legion's official march song, the boudin. On 10 November 1960, during the War of Algeria, Piaf dedicated her record of Non, je ne regrette rien (No regrets) to the Foreign Legion. Supporting the attempt of coup by the Generals in Algiers on 23 April 1961, the Legion adopted the song, which was also used by the supporters of French Algeria.
Ivan Sache, 14 February 2009