Tag Archives: Chad Libya

Mad Max of Chad…and Iraq

Posted on by Leave a comment

A very Mad Max-looking (or possibly Le Dernier Combat) scene from 24 February 1986. It shows a bush patrol (patrouille en brousse) of 3e section du 8e régiment parachutiste d’infanterie de marine (8e RPIMa) near Moussoro, Chad, doing what they could to modify their uniforms in the 120 degree F heat.

Réf. : 1 986 072 34 13, Patrice George/ECPAD/Défense

Note the FAMAS bullpup of the assistant gunner and the holstered SACM pistol of the anti-tank man. Speaking of which, the pipe is a Luchaire Defense SA Lance-Roquettes AntiChar (LRAC) model F1 STRIM 89mm rocket launcher with a 3x APX M 309 optical sight and two spare rockets at the ready.

Introduced in the early 1970s as a marginally better (but 100 percent more French) weapon than the 90mm M20 Super Bazooka, the launcher weighed 11 pounds, sans sight, with HE rounds pushing another 7 pounds a pop. Capable of penetrating 400mm of armor, the French never confirmed or denied that it was used in combat in Chad.

The French Foreign Legion used the LRAC in Iraq as they served as the far left hook of the Desert Storm ground campaign. 

24-26 February 1991 Al Salman Iraq A two-man anti-tank rocket launchers (LRAC) of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e Régiment Étranger d’Infanterie, 2nd REI) sitting near a concrete hangar at the air base. Ref.: 1 991 001 239 17. Christian Fritsch/ECPAD/Defense

It was replaced by the MBDA Eryx after 1993, which is slated to be replaced by an updated 84mm Carl G.

As for 8e RPIMa, the “Chicken Thieves” (voleurs de poules) shown in the top image are still around and still specialize in light, fast-moving operations that often tend toward the desert environment, having deployed to Afghanistan (2008), Central Africa (2013) and the Sahel (2015) in recent years.

Honneur à l’Ancien

Posted on by Leave a comment

40 years ago: A throwback to the old Le Poilu (“the hairy one”) of Great War frame is this portrait of a Légionnaire of the 1er Régiment Etranger de Cavalerie (1 REC) at the French military’s Biltine camp in the Wadi Fira region of Chad in September 1983.

Contrast him to the spit and polished white kepi-clad legionnaires in the recruiting poster behind him, which, in a place like Chad, was probably put there with some irony in mind. Réf. F 83-382 LC308 Photo by Bernard Sidler/ECPAD/Défense

The Légionnaire, whose hand is bandaged, is possibly a sapper, which, as with the Canadian army and some other forces, in the French army are traditionally allowed to grow out their whiskers, even in field conditions. The unit was deployed to Chad during the lead-up to the so-called “Toyota Wars” between Gaddafi’s Libya and the French ally over the disputed Aouzou Strip. A Cold War flashpoint of which Africa was full of in the 1970s and 80s. 

Judging from the age of the hard-bitten campaigner in the above image, he may have been a veteran of African combat going back to the French in Algeria and the Kolwezi intervention.

As for the 1st REC, the Legion’s cavalry unit was formed in North Africa just over a century ago and stood up at Sousse in French colonial Tunisia on 8 March 1921. Of the regiment’s inaugural draft of 156 troopers, 128 were exiled White Russians, most former officers and nobles of the deposed Tsar’s cossacks and guards cavalry units, a feature that earned the 1 REC the nickname of “Royal Etranger” for a generation.

I have a vintage 1 REC badge in my collection– part of my regular New Orleans rounds-– made by Arthus-Bertrand and carrying the unit’s motto: Honneur Courage Fidélité.