Foreign Legion Specialized Units in Indochina

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The underdeveloped nature of Indochina demanded a number of technical units to perform combat support and service support functions that were not easily duplicated among the locally recruited labor force. As the few Foreign Legion engineering units proved their worth, they spun off a number of similar units with increasingly specialized functions throughout Indochina. These were followed by logistics and service units, to include an aerial delivery company and port terminal units. The peculiar combat environment of the major river deltas also produced a need for amphibious assault units - a need met by Legionnaire Cavalry from the most tradition - bound arm of the French Army.

In 1948 a new combat arm was added in the form of the parachute battalions. Traditionalists resisted this move, insisting that the soul of the Legion resided in its infantry approach to warfare, but the young Turks, many newly returned from their first Indochina hitch with the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2nd REI), the 3rd REI, or the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-brigade (13th DBLE) thought otherwise. The French Army already had Metropolitan paratroops, whose methods and traditions reflected the American view of airborne warfare, and Colonial paratroops, whose World War II service gave them a decidedly British Special Air Service orientation. Veterans of both joined the Legion paratroopsas officers, as did a large number of German NCOs and enlisted men, some of whose first experience in paratroop combat had been with the Fallschirmjaegers. The first casualty suffered by the 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion (1st BEP) on the Colonial Route 4 operation was Sergeant Kertzl, a Fallschirmjaeger veteran whose German style exit over That Khe fouled his static line and caused him to strangle while being towed.

The following Foreign Legion specialized combat, combat support, and service support units served in Indochina:

1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1st REC):
Raised in Tunisia in 1921 by merging volunteers from the 2nd REI and various French Cavalry Regiments with White Russian refugees, the 1st REC fought in Syria, Morocco, and Algeria prior to World War II, then as a divisional reconnaissance unit until disbanded in 1940. Resurrected in Tunisia after the Allied landings, the 1st REC became an armored unit within General Jean De Lattre’s First French Army, fighting from the Riviera up through eastern France, and then to the Danube. Following the 1946 Viet Minh offensive, the 1st REC was alerted for Indochina, where its tanks were initially thought to be of limited use.

The 1st Squadron landed at Da Nang on January 4, 1947 as part of two provisional infantry battalions. It took part in the liberation of Hue, then cleared Viet Minh forces from Marble Mountain, Quang Nam, and Fai Foo. As armored vehicles became available, follow-on elements landing in Saigon reassumed an armored role. The 1st and 2nd Squadrons became the Cochinchinese Squadron Group (GEC), while the 1st REC elements in Da Nang became the Central Vietnam Squadron Group (GE). At the time, the regiment’s vehicles consisted of H-39 tanks, motorcycles, light trucks, and armored jeeps. They received their first amphibious vehicles from the 13th DBLE in March 1948–U.S. M - 29 Weasels, which the French called Crabs.

Over the following year, the GEC, 1st REC became less of an armored cavalry squadron, and more of amphibious assault unit, developing into a combined task force with the permanent attachment of a platoon from the 13th DBLE. The unit mainly operated in the Plain of Junks, Go Cong and Vinh Long provinces, and along Colonial Route 16. By 1949 they were based at My Tho. Ferrying other units into combat, screening flanks, assaulting across canals and flooded paddies, relieving posts under assault, or clearing specific tracts of the delta, the GEC, now designated the 1st Squadron Group (1st GE), gradually built up into a battalion - sized task force numbering three line troops (squadrons in French).

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Historical Conflicts

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