laststandonzombieisland

It happened 85 years ago, in London, on 14 July 1940.

Men of the “Free French” 14e demi-brigade de marche de la Légion étrangère (DBMLE), who had participated in the Norwegian campaign and then rallied to General de Gaulle’s cause after the Fall of France, parade through the streets of London on Bastille Day. Note their Adrian helmets, iconic Legionnaire “Cheche” desert scarves, Alpine breeches and boots, and MAS 36 7.5x54mm bolt-action rifles carried with trigger guard out in French fashion.

On July 14, 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who delivered a very Francophile speech in tribute to the French men and women who had not given up fighting, allowed De Gaulle and his forces to celebrate Bastille Day in the English capital, which simultaneously became for a time the capital of Free France. The general laid a wreath at the foot of the statue of Marshal Foch (a ceremony he would repeat on Bastille Day 1942) and watched the (short) parade of the Free French Forces who marched from the Cenotaph in Whitehall to the statue of the marshal in Grosvenor Gardens.

The unit was originally formed as the two-battalion 13e DBMLE under the bespectacled Lt. Col. Raoul Charles Magrin-Vernerey in February 1940 in preparation for a planned Franco-British expeditionary force to initially intervene in Finland. Importantly, they were given a crash course in mountain operations, equipped with skis, and given the uniforms of the famed “Blue Devils,” the Chasseurs Alpins. 

However, Finland’s peace with Moscow on 12 March put its operations on ice.

Literally.

Re-tasked to the Franco-British expeditionary force to Norway in April, the legionnaires helped liberate first Bjervik and then Narvik from the Germans before being withdrawn in early June.

The brigade lost eight officers and 93 legionnaires in combat in Norway, including its 2nd battalion c/o, Maj. Albéric Joseph Calixte Guéninchault. Their dead remain in a military cemetery in Narvik, a plot of land that will forever be French.

Returning to France, they landed at Brittany on 4 June but, with the country rapidly collapsing to the Germans, elected to be taken off by British ships to Scotland on the 8th, to continue the fight. After all, most of the Legion was back in French North Africa, which was not under German occupation.

Following De Gaulle’s appeal on 18 June to join his forces, the choice was put to the men of the 1,619 remaining officers and men of the 13th DBMLE and, by sundown on the 30th, 25 officers, 102 NCOs, and 702 other ranks, led by Lt.Col. Magrin-Vernerey had elected to remain in exile and cast their lot with the Allies. The rest were repatriated to Vichy French-held Morocco, taking their flags with them.

As the “old” 13th DBMLE had returned home, the men left in Britain became the brand-new 14th DBMLE on 1 July 1940. Fighting under that designation, they served on Operation Menace, the botched landing in Senegal in October, and then in the more successful Gabon campaign in November.

Hearing that the “old” 13th DBMLE had been disbanded under pressure from the Germans to draw down Vichy French forces in November 1940, the 14th adopted the name of the 13th, becoming the “new” 13th DBMLE.

As such, they continued to serve as renowned fire eaters, earning honors at Keren-Massaouah (1941), Bir-Hakeim and El-Alamein (1942), Rome (1944), Colmar and Authion (1945), covering 20,000 miles in the process, spanning from Norway to Egypt and Syria, and back to Europe, fighting up the “Boot” in Italy to landing on the shores of the Riveria and driving to the Alps.

They later added Indochina (1945-54) and Algeria (1955-62) to the list.

They endure today, stationed at Larzac as part of the 6th Armored Brigade.