‘Perched on the back of a sunlit chair was something about 9 inches tall and shaped rather like a plump toy penguin with a nose-job. It appeared to be wearing a one-piece knitted jumpsuit of pale grey fluff with brown stitching, complete with an attached balaclava helmet. From the face-hole of the fuzzy balaclava, two big, shiny black eyes gazed up at me trustfully. Kweep*, it said quietly.’*When author Martin Windrow met the tawny owlet that he christened Mumble, it was l...

Stalingrad in the jungle: the battle that doomed the French Empire and led America into VietnamIn winter 1953-54 the French army in Vietnam challenged its elusive enemy, General Giap's Viet Minh, to pitched battle. Ten thousand French paras and légionnaires, with artillery and tanks, were flown to the remote valley of Dien Bien Phu to build a fortress upon which Giap could smash his inexperienced regiments. The siege which followed became a Stalingrad in the jungle...

The gripping true story of the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara.Ever since the 1920s the popular legend of the French Foreign Legion has been formed by P.C. Wren's novel BEAU GESTE - a world of remote forts, warrior tribes, and desperate men of all nationalities enlisting under pseudonyms to fight and die under the desert sun.As with all clichés, the reality is far richer and more surprising than this. In this book Martin Windrow describes desert battles...

It is hard to convey the public impact of France's war to maintain her colonial grip on Algeria.In the late 1950s this ugly conflict dominated Europe's media to almost the same extent as would Vietnam ten years later. It brought France to the very verge of military coup d'etat; it destroyed thousands of careers; bitterly divided the French military and political classes for a generation; and was characterised by extreme atrocities and war crimes.This compac...

It is arguable that no group of fighting men in the history of European arms has been so misrepresented by ill-informed publicity as the French Foreign Legion.Though initially conceived in 1831 as a means of drafting recently discharged foreign soldiers to Algeria, the Legion has developed into a sophisticated force of motorized infantry, airborne troops and light armour.In this book, acclaimed French Army expert Martin Windrow examines the history and unif...

Warriors: Fighting men and their uniforms is a journey through the whole span of military history using illustrations of the uniforms of warriors from ancient times to the present day.From ancient times to the present day, the world's finest warriors have been marked out by a stunning variety of dress, tactics and equipment. This splendid collection of artwork and commentaries illustrates famous combatants from all the ages of military history, bringing th...

The states of Indochina had been French colonies or protectorates since the 19th century.However, in March 1945 the Japanese interned all French troops and officials, and turned over all civil government to local authorities. The power vacuum caused by the Japanese surrender allowed the Viet Minh, a strong revolutionary organisation, to be established throughout Vietnam.When the French returned to the north, incidents between French and VM troops were inevi...

An illustrated account of the major colonial conflict of the 1920s, in which the occupying Spanish and French faced an armed uprising from the Berber tribes of northern Morocco.In June 1921, Abd el Krim, a Berber leader in the Rif highlands of Morocco, marshalled a pan-tribal uprising that killed some 13,000 Spanish troops, forcing occupying Spain to withdraw from the country's north coast and garnering worldwide attention through el Krim's deft diplomacy. Despite ...

An illustrated history of the classic 'Beau Geste' period of the French Foreign Legion when the corps was expanded during the most dynamic years of French imperial expansion.Legion battalions fought in the deserts and mountains of southern Algeria and Morocco, as well as in the jungles of North Vietnam, West Africa and Madagascar. Their varied uniforms and equipments for each period and theatre are illustrated and examined.Written by a leading expert on the...

An illustrated history of the classic 'Beau Geste' period of the French Foreign Legion when the corps was expanded during the most dynamic years of French imperial expansion.Legion battalions fought in the deserts and mountains of southern Algeria and Morocco, as well as in the jungles of North Vietnam, West Africa and Madagascar. Their varied uniforms and equipments for each period and theatre are illustrated and examined.Written by a leading expert on the...

As France emerged from the Franco-Prussian War she embarked on a period of active colonialism, acquiring territories in South-East Asia and Africa. By the turn of the century much of north, west and central Africa was under French control. In order to police all of these territories, the French needed an army and so the French Foreign Legion was born. In this book, world-renowned Legion expert Martin Windrow analyses what it would have been like to be a member of the French Foreign Legion ...

The decision, in Spring 1948, to form two battalions of Foreign Legion paratroopers was prompted by the requirement for enlarged airborne forces in Indochina, and the healthy recruitment then employed by the Legion.There were some initial doubts. The Legion were known to be magnificent heavy infantry, but were felt by some to lack the flexibility and agility demanded by independent airborne operations. In the Legion itself there were some misgivings over the possib...