Hi lads
I agree with some of your comments Ted
Apart from Officers of course the French Nationals who joined the Legion as O/R's
(albeit joining under false Nationalities) don't stick it long, that's a known fact.
As for the French Metropolitan Units, i think people in general under-estimate them.
Getting back on track, an incident in Indochina which intrested me was the 1945 retreat
of the Legion garrison from Saigon.
Apparantly when the War ended the Japs turned on the Vichy French population with a
savage ferocity, previously Saigon was populated with quite a few French Nationals
(Military and civillian alike) and most of these were butchered at the Wars end.
Previously these people had been free to move about the area and even the Military
were tolerated by the Japanese, obviously because of being Pro-Vichy and were even in
some cases allowed to act as a type of "Police-Force" being mostly disarmed.
The Japanese turned on these people, obviously in reprisal for what happened at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki because they were "Westerners", but there was a small Vichy Legion garrison
led by a certain Sous-Lieutenant Chenel which fought its way out of the entrapment and
through the jungles to the safety of Nationalist China where after a short internment the
survivors were returned to France.
It is a fantastic story and well worth some research, unfortunately not a lot is written about
it, i think this was due to the fact that even though these men did a an incrediable feat the
French Govt still regarded them as "Vichy" so the incident i think was "white-washed"
Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings
Regards Peiper.