The Most Relevant Books
on the French Foreign Legion

By Louis Perez y Cid
The French Foreign Legion has always been a source of inspiration. For nearly two centuries, it has attracted the pens of historians, writers, journalists… but also those of former legionnaires themselves, who have committed to paper their memories of battles, friendships, and sacrifices. Through these books, the very soul of the Legion is transmitted, a blend of memory and legend.

Stories that make history.
It is difficult to speak of the Legion without mentioning these three reference works, which I consider essential for grasping the scope of the Legionary epic:

“Honor and Fidelity. That is the Legion” by Louis Gaultier and Charles Jacquot, former members of the Legion. Illustrations by Louis Frégier, 1963.

Published in three volumes for the centenary of Camerone, the authors invite us to explore the battles of this elite corps from its origins to the Algerian War of 1962.

"History of the Foreign Legion" by Georges Blond - 1981.
Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Legion's creation, it is both the most extraordinary adventure story and a century and a half of French history.

"The Foreign Legion 1831-1962" by Douglas Porch - 1991.
Published in the USA in English, and in 1994 for the French translation and preface. This fundamental and uncompromising study is a model of military history, tracing the evolution of the Legion from its creation in 1831 to modern operations.

There are other books of very high quality, but I believe that with these three books you will understand what the French Foreign Legion truly is and how it has managed to endure through the ages.
The Legionnaires' Voices
Nothing equals the power of a personal account. Reading the memoirs of a veteran is to share their daily life: the hardship of the marches, the camaraderie in adversity, the moments of glory as well as the silent wounds. Accounts such as:

"Memories of Algeria 1840-1842" by Clement Lamping.
The German text was published in 1844 and then fell into oblivion. It was first published in French in 2000 by Bouchene. Originally from northern Germany, the author participated in various expeditions in the Algiers and Oran regions. His memoirs read like a meticulous and objective chronicle of the conquest. This is the oldest book by a legionnaire that I have ever read.

"I Am a Legionnaire" by Jean Martin, a legionnaire, with a preface by General Rollet.

Published in 1938 by Librairie Arthème Fayard, this book was written for his godmother during the war, Suzy Solidor, a singer, film actress (La Garçonne), and novelist.

"Le Légionnaire Flutsch," published by Librairie Plon in 1982, is written by Antoine Sylvère. The author, a legionnaire himself, is neither for nor against the Legion; it is the very essence of his book. He observes it as a man might examine his own body, noting its imperfections, its knotted muscles, its battered faces, but also its graces. It is the daily life of the Legion that he reveals to us. It's not the legion itself that interests Sylvère, but the men who made it up at the beginning of the 20th century.

I'm mentioning here the three books that particularly struck me.

There are many others, much more recent, such as "Carnet d'un légionnaire Mongol" (Diary of a Mongolian Legionnaire) by Oyunbat Baatartsogt, published by Amazon. It's a memoir of nine years of service in the French Foreign Legion (from 2010 to 2019).

Biographies of Legion veterans.

It's difficult to talk about the Legion without mentioning the highly emblematic General Rollet.

"Paul-Frédéric Rollet: Father of the Foreign Legion" by Pierre Soulié.
Published by the French Foreign Legion Command. Published by Italiques, 2001. This remarkable work, the fruit of ten years of research by the author under the auspices of the French Foreign Legion, was first published in the pages of the magazine Képi Blanc before being compiled into a single 730-page volume.
From the 19th century until recently, only the biographies of high-ranking officers interested authors.

For the past few years, Lieutenant Colonel Mickaël De Prat, a former Legionnaire and member of Légion'Arts, has dedicated himself to retracing the lives of Legionnaires who were direct participants in the Second World War, the Indochina War, and the Algerian War.
I invite you to browse the Comics & Books section of this website to discover all his works.

Art Books and Photographs
The Legion is also an aesthetic: uniforms, traditions, landscapes of war or brotherhood. Photographic albums and catalogs by military painters capture this visual dimension. Some works are true works of art, prized by collectors.

"Gazette des uniformes" (Uniform Gazette). Special issues 6 and 7 are devoted to the history, uniform, and equipment of the Legion from 1831 to 1997.
"L'uniforme légionnaire" (The Legionary Uniform) in two volumes, published by Képi Blanc magazine in 2005. Foreword by General Bruno Dary and illustrated by Evguenii Ponomarev, legionnaire, army painter, and member of Légion'Arts.

Why do these books matter?
Ultimately, whether you choose a historical treatise, a raw testimony, a vibrant graphic novel, or an art book, each work on the French Foreign Legion contributes to preserving a unique memory.
These books are more than just printed pages: they are fragments of the universal history of men from all over the world who came to serve under the same flag, the green and red one.
At Légion'Arts, we believe that art and publishing are essential for transmitting this memory.