History and military technology: Interview with a veteran of the French Foreign Legion

A veteran of the French Foreign Legion has accepted an interview for the blog. C. is also a veteran of the Gulf War and participated in several missions abroad during his service. He is also very familiar with some of the vehicles used by this unit.

1) Hello C., thank you for accepting an interview for alejandro-8en.blogspot.com. Could you provide us with a summary of your career in the French Army?

15 years in the Legion
From 1985 to 2000 when I retired.

First 11 years in 1 REC
All in a recce platoon from private to Sergeant Major (Adjutant) and platoon commander

I held all the jobs in the platoon and worked my way up.

Served on AMX10RC, ERC90, and AML90/60 as well as on the Light vehicles in the platoon.

We participated in operations in Senegal 1986
Chad 1987
Central African Republic same year (87)

Then an operation on the French islands of the Indian Ocean in 1989.

Then in Saudi Arabia and Iraq 1990 - 91 (gulf war).

Then Djibouti and operations in Somalia during the period 1992 to 1994.

Finally in 1994 and 95 we operated in ex-Yugoslavia. Mainly in the Sarajevo area.

1996 I was transferred to the Legion secret services and worked there until I retired in 2000

2) You joined the Foreign Legion, one of the most famous units in the French Army. What was the most demanding aspect of the training?

First of all, we must take into consideration that the French Foreign Legion is a very particular military unit that has been built up over a 200-year period to become probably the most multi-national, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic organisation currently in existence. It has today over 140 nationalities represented among its around 9000 men strong force. This exceptional reservoir of human potential obviously requires a very special education to work properly. The formation is so strong that in many ways the Legion should probably in many aspects be considered as a military cult where its members are part of a large family, or at least like monks in a monastery. Well... with the occasional access to women and booze though.

However, when you are hiring men from all over the world and from all possible cultural, religious, and social background, you will have to spend a lot of efforts in the beginning on taking out their heads their original culture, their original hight spirited ideas of their own individual value, and most of all eventual ideas about any racial and ill-conceived stupid concept of ethnic superiority.
To do this you have to break everybody down together, until eveyone is completely convinced that we are all (whatever colour, race, or ethnicity) equally completely useless. When we finally are all in the deepest shit together for a very long period, we learn very clearly that we are all equal humans, and that it is only together and united we might have a slight chance against the enemy.
It appears to me that this process can be considered by many as very uncomfortable. Not physically very difficult for a young normally fit man, but mentally so hard that many will not succeed. This is where we separate the men from the dickheads.

Once we have achieved this, we can slowly start to build a legionnaire. The Legion basic training is as the name implies, very basic. We obviously start from zero with a group of candidates that for the majority don’t speak a word of French. Hence the goal of the basic training is to make a simple, basic legionnaire that can survive the daily life in an operational combat platoon where he will really begin to learn the trade.

In order to achieve this, he must learn the following:
•    400 words of the French language that will give him a survival military vocabulary.
•    Learn to use and maintain in a safe way his individual weapon.
•    Achieve the phycical requirements (basic infantry stuff, nothing difficult).
•    Learn the use of infantry equpments (comms, NBC, navigation, vehicles, etc...)
•    Legion administration, rules and regulations, uniforms, maintenance, etc..
•    Legion history and the cult dogmas giving him the quasi-religious rules to live under.

This will allow him after approximately 5 months to join a combat platoon in a regiment. If he can survive another 6 months there, we can start to say that we have a legionnaire.

This training is more mentally painful than physically difficult. But this is how you make a man out of a kid.

3) How was the interaction with the different nationalities in the Legion? Any issues with culture/language?

Not really. There is only one culture (the Legion culture), and there is only one language. French.
I do not recommend anyone to behave differently and outside this framework.

4) You have used AMX10RC, ERC90, and AML90/60. What do you think were the strong and weak points of these vehicles?

All weapons systems, and armoured recconaisaance vechiles included, will always be a trade off between systems desiered strengths, and weaknesses that are often the costs one have to pay in order to achive the strenghts.

These veichles have been concived within the french concept of independent long-range offensive reconnaisance missions, were the objective is to be able control large areas and to provide an important amont of firepower in one place, this independently and over long distances.

Therefore, they all have a very long range capacity and are capable of operating over hundreds of kilometers mainly in the desert, but also in otherwise difficult terrain. Secondly they are fast. They drive at basically the same speeds as small trucks and cars. This compared to tracked vehicles that conventionally will be the types that have the same firepower, is a huge advantage. However the range and speed obviously comes at a cost of a somehow reduced all terrain capacity when compared to similar tracked vehicles.

By using either a 105 mm canon (AMX10RC) or a 90 mm (ERC90 and AML90), they are carrying a formidable firepower that can outgun in both explosive effect and range most other vehicles than the heavy tanks on the battlefield. This makes them able to destroy with one round the majority of potential targets, or at least seriously damage (put out of service) even the most modern heavily armored tanks. Even if there are armors that will resist a direct hit from a 105 mm and the crew might survive, it will be a very bad day with at least optics, electronics, and hauydraulics seriously damaged.

But all these good sides obviously comes at a cost. Speed, range, and mobility with strong firepower is obtained by reducing the armor in order to have less weight. It's the light cavalry from our history books. You surely know about the Hussards (from the Hungarian word hus) that was famously the light cavalry for centuries in the different European armies. With their very light armor, often made of only cordage, they would ride by horse and plough thru the ranks of infantry on the battlefield. Often relying on speed and surprice instead of the heavy armour used but knights and other cavalry units.

Hence the armor on these vehicles is compared to battle tanks quite thin, seldom exceeding 40 mm of an aluminium alloy. This will only allow for a protection form small arms and artillery schrapnell. However, the whole goal is to use the speed and mobility to provide a sudden shock of firepower wherever needed and to avoid coming under direct fire from the enemy. At the same time, we never stay in one place, hence avoiding being the victim of incoming artillery.

In other words, these vehicles are providing a long range, high mobility option with a tremendous firepower that especially when used in "wolf packs" can have a dramatic positive effect on the battlefield. In addition, they are well adapted to offensive and aggressive recconaisance missions, and are expetionally deadly in ambush and delaying missions.

However, their light armor condemns them to always being on the move, and they are very poorly adapted for direct frontal assaults.

Their biggest problem is probably that people, when seeing their large guns, percives them as some sort of battle tank, and wants to compare them to such. This is absolutely not the case.

5) When training, what is the maximum distance at which you opened fire? And the maximum speed when firing on the move (if any)? What was the typical rate of fire?

In training! The maximum range for an AMX10RC (direct fire) is around 3200 meters, and you can with your digitally assisted system shoot with a 100% accuracy up to that range. Eventual misses will be due to a fuckup from the gunners siden. For the AML90 and the ERC90 the range is slightly shorter and there is no digital assistance. The vehcile commander is here also both the loader and the "digital calculator".

This require some practical skills, and I use the opportunity to emphesize on the importance of having a trained crew. Your shooting efficency is solely relying on your crew training level. You can be in the best tank in the world, but if your training is poor and the crew on the other side are proffesionals? You are toast!!

6) Can you describe how the night fighting was conducted? Did you use night flares and/or IR sights?

Equipped with IR thermal cameras they are from a weapons perspective fully operational for night operations.

However, night operations are preferably long-range movements in safe areas. In the combat zone, the night is preferably done by covering the combat area with firepower from fixed positions while our protection reconnaissance teams are protecting the cannon bearing vehicles.

Mobile operations at night in a combat area, is something I would rather avoid.

7) Having served on different countries, what is your opinion on the debate "wheel vs tracks"? Was there any scenario/terrain where you hoped to have a vehicle with tracks?

In my opinion there is no debate. They are made for different purposes and cannot be compared. It’s basically not the same thing. It’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Land Rover. Makes no sense.

8) When performing exercises, what was the maximum distance you covered in a day? Were there any issues with the maintenance of the vehicles? What about the spare parts, any shortage?

Hahaha :-) There are always issues with maintenance on military vehicles. It all depends on how professional your crew is. It is your capacity to avoid maintenance problems, have parts available and be able to fix them quickly, that will be a good indication of your level of professionalism

9) In 1991 you served in Iraq. How did you prepare for the operation? Did you feel confident about facing the Iraqi Army (that used some French equipment)? Were you surprised about the pace/quick end of operations?

Obviously not confident at all. Iraq was just out of an 8 year long war with Iran, and we expected them to have a high level of professionalism.
But we prepared well, and the terrain (desert) was our area of expertise, this gave us the opportunity to completely overrun their defences.

I should add that the support from French combat helicopters and US attack planes (A10) was indeed a very good support.
It quickly became clear that they were not motivated for combat, and we ended up with a problem of what to do with all the prisoners, so the end was not a big surprise.

10) In your service you transitioned from the Cold War to local wars. Did you receive intelligence on likely opponents (T-72, AT missiles, IEDs)?

Sure. I was in a reconnaissance unit, and we constantly received training and information on both the structure, tactics, and equipment used by the enemy.
It’s a bit basic 101 training for such units and an important part of our training.

11) You also served when conscription was abolished, how did this affect your day to day life in the Legion?

There is and never was any conscript in the Legion, so this had no effect on us.

12) The French Army standard assault rifle was the FAMAS. What was your opinion of it? Did you like the bull up configuration? Did you have the chance to compare it to other types?

Sure. We received training on most available light weapons. AK47, M16, FAL, SIG, AG3, Steyer, etc… from that period.

Personally I am a big fan of the Bullpup type of weapons. Especially the FAMAS.
It's light and compact. This is very handy and this is important for 99.99% of the time you are carrying it around.

Secondly it's very simple to maintain and supports very well to dropped or slung around in corners.

Finally it is very accurate with simple sights up to the required distance (300 metre), and is very stable in short or medium range automatic fire. In other words, he's a fantastic allrounder.

13) Did you have the train with personnel from other countries? What were your impressions? Did you use/evaluate other vehicles? Was there one that you liked or disliked in particular?

I trained with soldiers from many countries. Spain, Italy, Germany, US, and UK. In addition, there is a long list of African and Middleeasten countries. It was always a pleasant experience and something we always liked to do. You always learn something new.

History and military technology

Tuesday, 19 December 2023

Interview with a veteran of the French Foreign Legion

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