From the wasteland of the Sahara to the torrid jungles of Indochina, the French Foreign Legion has emblazoned a road of glory and romance like no other army in the world. Hugh McLeave's true-adventure history is a rendering of the dramatic and heroic deeds, the ironies of politics and war, and the personal stories of the men who made the Legion the greatest mercenary unit of all time. Created by King Louis Philippe in 1831 to "bleed or shovel sand" in the conquest of Algeria, the Legion has often been the last resort for society's misfits. Refugees, revolutionaries, poets, princes, and petty criminals have been welcomed with no questions asked about their pasts--a fact that long ago earned it the nickname "The Legion of the Damned." North Africa and the Legion molded one another, and in this crucible the legend of these crack fighting troops was born. Here men with no loyalty to country or family came to die for the Legion as they opened up the French colonial empire.^

With devotion akin to a religious mystique, officers and men endured disease, hunger, all kinds of privations; proudly covered up their wounds to die with their comrades; faced firing squads without blindfolds. The Legion has fought in more than thirty countries on four continents. Over 44,000 foreigners from fifty-one countries joined its ranks to fight in World War I. Legionnaires fought at Narvik and Bir Hakeim in World War II, at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, at the Battle of Algiers in 1960.^

Brave, bizarre, and brilliant figures march through these pages, among them: the bullheaded General François de Négrier, whose ominous phrase still greets the rookie as he enters the regimental barracks near Marseilles: "You legionnaires are soldiers in order to die and I am sending you where you can die"; idealistic poets like American Alan Seeger and Swissborn Blaise Cendrars; and the only woman ever to join the Legion, Susan Travers, the daughter of a British admiral, whose courage made even the toughest legionnaires feel like cowards. The Legion has come a long way since it began life as untamable rabble nearly two centuries ago. Today, the Legion, depicted so colorfully and convincingly here, continues to draw over 600 recruits a month, and remains true to its tradition of turning failures and moral weaklings into self-respecting individuals.--Adapted from book jacket.