Légion étrangère

The French Foreign Legion of the colonial era was mainly deployed in extra-European areas and consisted of mercenaries on five-year contracts. The situation during World War I, however, was different: A large proportion of the Legion was not deployed on colonial soil, but on the Western Front and other European theatres of war. The “classical” mercenary Legionnaires fought alongside wartime volunteers who desired to fight for France, but often were rather unhappy to have to do so in the ranks of the infamous Foreign Legion.