French Foreign Legion uniforms

[elle72]

Hello,

Excuse my ignorance, but does anyone know if the 600 Czech men who enlisted to fight with the French Foreign legion in 1914 had their own uniforms or did they wear a French Foreign Legion uniform or a regular French Army uniform?

I would like to know if there was anything about them which made them stand out from the French Army? Having chosen to fight against the Germans/Austrians instead of with them I imagine they may been dealt with harshly if they had been taken prisoner.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Cheers, Elle

[centurion]

The French had a Czech Legion (different from the Foreign Legion). Their uniforms followed the equivalent French ones fairly closely (eg a Czech rifle regiment had the same uniform as French Alpine Rifle Regiments) but they did wear a Czech Legion badge on the collar. I imagine your men would have been the initial batch that started the Czech Legion. I've seen mention of Czech officers in German PoW camps where they seem to have been treated no differently from anyone else.

[Waddell]

Hi Elle,

I don't know if this answers your question but I'll have a go. I'll answer this for a Czech in the French Foreign Legion as opposed to the Czech Legion as mentioned by Centurion. You may need to find out which one said man served in.

I'm currently reading a history of the FFL- "The Damned Die Hard" by Hugh McLeave.

Chapter 10 concerns the First World War and opens with the veterans arriving in Paris from Africa to be greeted by the "motley crew of recruits pouring through the legion (namely Greeks,Poles,Czechs and Americans). The following is from the book-

"By the winter of 1914 the new Legionnaires had learned to handle a rifle and bayonet and were drafted into the trenches along the Somme and around Artois to shake down with the African sweats. The enlisted men had no proper uniforms. General Castelneau's plethoric face went livid when they paraded before him. "They told me they were sending the Legion. What are these- naval artillery?" The men were wearing Paris firemen's trousers and blue, marine tunics"

There were uniform shortages at this time and they made do with what they had. Martin Windrow's book "Uniforms of the French Foreign Legion 1831-1981" supports this-

"The period of France's mobilisation saw a number of obsolete items taken from store and draped around recruits, and doubtless those volunteers who enlisted in France were no exception"

I hope that answers the first part of your question.

As to whether the Czech's tried to stand out, I don't believe so. Windrow says that the only distinction between the regiments were there collar numbers (regimental numbers).

Early in the Legion's history it was found that basing the regiments by nationality was not a good thing. There had been problems in a desert battle where the Italian Legionnaires had retreated leaving the Polish legionnaires in a tough position. After the battle the Poles killed twenty of the Italians that night. After this battalions organised by nationality were scrapped and every Legionnaire was to learn French.

Having said this Windrow states that the 4th Legion regiment in 1914 was made up "almost entirely of Italian volunteers". I think the Czech's were in the 1st and 2nd regiments.

As you touch on, captured Legionnaires would get rough treatment, if they even got that far. McLeave's book is an interesting read and it talks about this. You should be aware that there were German Legionnaire's fighting against their countrymen as well as German soldier's who were ex-legionnaires.

I hope that help's you. The two books I mentioned are well worth tracking down. Windrow's has some excellent colour plates of uniforms, whilst McLeaves is a good read, even if it does have a touch of the Beau Geste about it.

Regards,

Scott.

[centurion]

As I understand it Germans in the Legion in 1914 were deliberately retained in the colonial outposts doing normal legionary duties rather being sent to the WF, not out of any consideration of their personal feelings or safety but because they might be a security risk. This would echo the approach used in 1870 and again in WW2.

[elle72]

Scott, that information is very interesting......I will try to get a copy of McLeaves book.

Cheers,

Elle