Talk:Foreign legion

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Format[edit]

I dont agree with some of the format and priorities here. According to its wikipedia entry the Israli Machal no longer exists as such. So why is it given such prominence? The Dutch KNIP sounds like a simple colonial unit. Again why is it special since it no longer exists ( and members would have been considered at least Dutch subjects )? The Waffen SS legions may be famous ( or infamous ) but what about the free French units who served in the British and Russian militaries during the same period?I would like to expand this article, so if someone can comment on my efforts I would be grateful. 85.216.52.8 17:38, 12 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Foreign Legion/foreign volunteers[edit]

This page is not about foreign volunteers in general - any list of foreign volunteer units belongs on the page "foreign volunteers".. Mesoso2 09:37, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removed[edit]

I removed a second FFL section, since it contained false information and was also a duplicate. V. Joe (talk) 04:28, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Foreign legions" in other countries[edit]

Germany[edit]

  • During World War II the German army and SS had whole units of non-Germans. In the documentary series Apocalypse: The Second World War, some of these were described as constituting a "veritable foreign legion."

Russian Empire[edit]

Syria[edit]

United Kingdom[edit]

  • When the Welsh Guards was formed in 1915 it earned the nickname "the Foreign Legion" because its ranks were filled with Welshmen drawn from other Guards regiments.

United States[edit]

  • The Ninety-third Infantry Division whose regiments were seconded to the French army during World War I, is the focus of a book titled The American Foreign Legion: Black Soldiers of the 93d in World War I.
  • "The Legion" is the nickname of the Fifth Special Forces Group, and according to the book Inside the Green Berets: The First Thirty Years, a History of the U.S. Army Special Forces by Charles M. Simpson III, USMA '46, "In the early days of the [Special] Forces, a heavy concentration of . . . [foreign-born] men gave the outfit a Foreign Legion flavor." Also, in Gehlen: Spy of the Century by E. H. Cookridge it is written that: ". . . about five thousand [Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Poles, Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians and . . . Russo-Asian nationals] were enlisted, assembled in camps at Bad Wiessee, at Kaufbeuren in Bavaria and at the US Army Hammand Barracks near Mannheim, and trained by American officers and former German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS NCO's. . . . / These units became the nucleus of CIA's private army, later better known as the 'Green Berets' in Vietnam. Some of them are today still stationed in West Germany: the 5th Special Reconnaissance Group, now entirely airborne, at Oberursel, and the 10th Special Group in Bavaria." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.3.139.136 (talk) 09:25, 7 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
  • When the Philippines was an American colony, the U.S. government there maintained a gendarmerie, the Philippine Constabulary, which during the first decade of its existence was described by its American officers as being a "foreign legion" because a number of Europeans from various countries served in it alongside them as commissioned officers. The following countries and colonies were represented in the PC: Belgium, Cuba, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey.
  • Carrier Air Wing Five is considered to be the American navy's "foreign legion" because it is the only American carrier battle group homeported outside the continental US. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.69.149.234 (talk) 11:47, 19 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]