Warrior 157 - French Foreign Legionnaire 1890-1914 (2011).pdf

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FRENCH FOREIGN
LÉGIONNAIRE
1890–1914
MARTIN WINDROW
ILLUSTRATED BY PETER DENNIS
WARRIOR • 157
FRENCH FOREIGN
LÉGIONNAIRE
1890–1914
MARTIN WINDROW
ILLUSTRATED BY PETER DENNIS
Series editor
Marcus Cowper
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
RECRUITMENT
Class, nationality and age
Motives for enlistment
Enlistment and processing
4
5
9
TRAINING
Marching, shooting and manoeuvring
16
APPEARANCE
Dress, equipment and weapons
20
LIFE IN PEACETIME
Pay, and off-duty hours
Manoeuvres and hard labour
Discipline
24
BELIEF AND BELONGING
The officers
31
LIFE ON CAMPAIGN
Dahomey and Madagascar, 1890s Tonkin, 1890s
The mounted companies Morocco, 1908
The Sud-Oranais, 1900–07
36
THE EXPERIENCE OF BATTLE
Tonkin – Thuong Lam and Hu Thué, 1889 and 1890
Morocco – Sidi el Mekki, 1908
The Sud-Oranais – El Moungar, 1903
50
THE AFTERMATH OF BATTLE
Medical treatment
Discharge
58
MUSEUMS
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
62
63
64
FRENCH FOREIGN
LÉGIONNAIRE 1890–1914
INTRODUCTION
Under the Third Republic born of France’s defeat by Germany in 1870, the
French infantry was divided between three separate organizations. The 144
Line regiments of l’Armée Métropolitaine (Metropolitan Army) – young men
conscripted for (by 1890) three years’ service with the colours – were based in
France, training for the day when they would recapture the lost provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine. The Troupes de Marine (Naval Troops) – raised entirely
from volunteers after 1893 – garrisoned naval bases at home and overseas,
and provided field forces for the colonies in sub-Saharan Africa and South-
East Asia. By 1896 there were 12 white naval infantry regiments, plus six
regiments of native
tirailleurs
(‘skirmishers’, light infantry) in West Africa,
Madagascar and Indochina, raised and officered by the Troupes de Marine.
Line and naval infantry regiments each had three battalions. Finally, French
North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) was garrisoned by l’Armée d’Afrique
(Africa Army) – designated as XIX Army Corps. From the 1880s this, like the
other two organizations, also provided task-organized ‘marching units’ for
colonial expeditions. These
régiments
and
bataillons de marche
were formed
with men selected from a number of the permanent ‘organic’ regiments.
The infantry of the Armée d’Afrique included four Algerian
tirailleur
regiments of Arab volunteers led by white officers, and four white
zouave
regiments, largely raised by short-service conscription from the settler
population; unlike the Metropolitan and Naval infantry, both these types of
regiment had four battalions. There were also four single penal battalions of
Infanterie Légère d’Afrique (Africa Light Infantry, the ‘Bats d’Af’, composed
of French civilian or military criminals); and the all-volunteer Légion
Étrangère (Foreign Legion). By 1890 the Legion consisted of two regiments
each with a large depot element and four 1,000-man battalions. After 1891,
regimental establishment increased to five battalions each, with a second
depot company, and again to six battalions from 1900; both the 1er and
2e Régiments Étrangers (1st and 2nd Foreign Regiments, RE) were
headquartered in Oran province in western Algeria.
The Legion thus provided by far the largest of the French Army’s white
infantry regiments and the only ones raised entirely from long-service
volunteers, and, as foreign mercenaries, their casualties in battle or from
disease were politically acceptable. Most colonial expeditions outside North
Africa were the prerogative of the Troupes de Marine, but by 1890 the Legion
4
had proved their superior hardihood and endurance during seven years’ costly
campaigning in Indochina (Vietnam). Since the Army and Navy were
competitive, as the French Empire expanded Legion units would increasingly
be deployed as the Army’s spearhead in far-off, fever-ridden hellholes.
Each Foreign Regiment, commanded by a lieutenant-colonel, comprised
four to six rifle battalions, a headquarters staff and a large reception, training
and depot element. Each battalion was commanded by a
chef de bataillon
(major), seconded by a
capitaine adjudant-major
and a lieutenant
officier
d’approvisionnement
in charge of logistics and communications. The
battalion had four rifle companies each with a captain, two lieutenants and
200–250 rankers. Companies were divided into
pelotons
(half-companies) of
at least 100,
sections
(platoons) of 50–60, and
groupes
(squads) of 25–30
rankers.
In 1890, four of the Legion’s eight battalions were stationed in Algeria,
which had been almost entirely peaceful for the past eight years, except in the
far south of Oran Department – the ‘Sud-Oranais’. The other four were in
North Vietnam, where widely dispersed security garrisons were still having
to provide men for continuing campaigns of pacification.
CHRONOLOGY
1890
Legion has eight battalions: in Tonkin (North Vietnam),
the I/1st and II/1st RE (i.e. 1st & 2nd Bns of 1st RE),
III/2nd and IV/2nd RE; in Algeria, the III/1st and IV/1st
RE, I/2nd and II/2nd RE.
V/1st and V/2nd RE ordered raised, enlarging Legion to
ten battalions.
VI/1st and VI/2nd REs ordered raised, enlarging Legion to
12 battalions.
November 1891
December 1899
Algerian/Moroccan border:
1890
Construction of railway southwards through the Sud-
Oranais reaches border HQ at Ain Sefra.
Two of the battalions based in Algeria are rotated at
intervals to the Sud-Oranais, along the debatable frontier
with the still independent sovereign state of Morocco.
They and their detached mounted (mule) companies
reconnoitre in force in attempts to deter cross-border
raiding; map, build tracks and sink wells; establish
temporary, then permanent posts; patrol from them, and
escort camel convoys supplying them.
French occupation of Touat oasis complex in south-west
Algeria enrages tribes.
V/1st RE establish posts at Igli and Taghit,
c.320km
(200
miles) south-south-west of Ain Sefra.
5
During 1890s
Winter 1899/1900
March–June 1900

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