Warriors of the French Foreign Legion looks at the infamous “army of cutthroats and thieves,” where new recruits leave behind their pasts and take on a new name and a new identity.
Within the Légion étrangère, one unit stands out as even more elite, the second paratrooper regiment. Here’s what happened to the first:
The 1st Régiment Étranger Parachutiste (1st REP) was established in 1955 during the Algerian War and disbanded in April 1961 as the entire regiment rose against the French government of Charles de Gaulle (Algiers Putsch), in protest against moves to negotiate an end to the Algerian War.