The White Kepi: A Casual History of the French Foreign Legion by Walter Kanitz

Author:Walter Kanitz [Kanitz, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Arcole Publishing
Published: 2017-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Atrocities

James MacKinley Armstrong, in his Legion of Hell,{110} claims that only five out of every hundred volunteers for the Legion come out of it alive after the expiration of their contract. This figure of survivors represents five percent of the total enlistment in the Legion; the statement has all the earmarks of tm exaggeration. Yet it could correspond with the truth. There are no statistics to show the movement of recruits into the Legion or the number of Légionnaires leaving the Corps.

This writer has seen thousands of new soldiers pass through the depot in Sidi-bel-Abbès, sole entrance and exit of the Corps, but he has seen relatively few take the way back into the freedom of the civilian world.

So for all we know the figure of five percent could be exact. If not, it is probably pretty near the truth. The Legion has never bothered to publish statistics in this regard.

Be that as it may. At this point we are not concerned with the exact total figure. We are now investigating neither the percentages of those killed in action, those dead from diseases, or those who have taken their own lives, nor the number of deserters.

In this part of our book we want to establish the fact that an incredibly large number of Légionnaires have been killed after they have had the misfortune of falling into the hands of hostile Arabs, and that they have died in a way which would make the hair of any civilized person rise in horror. They have died in such an atrocious manner that the unwritten law of good taste interferes with the publication of the methods employed by the savage tribesmen.

However, this book is intended to be a history based on facts and for that reason we will temporarily lift the curtain of convention and social taboo in order to be at liberty to deal with an important segment of the Legionnaire’s life. Besides, it is exactly the prevalence of these atrocities which have led many a commentator and writer to compare the Foreign Legion with Hell.

In this connection it must be kept in mind that the Arab tribesmen opposing the men of the Foreign Legion were, and in the majority still are, primitive, savage people. They are inspired by a fanatical religious belief which guides their actions especially in the war against the Christian non-believer. Their fanaticism is of such fierceness that it even dwarfs that of the monks of the Spanish inquisition, who—the Lord knows—were neither overburdened with sentiment nor with brotherly feelings. The Arabs are unaware of any international treaty governing the ethics of warfare, nor have they ever heard of the special treatment and protection to which prisoners of war are entitled in accordance with universal conventions.

In the minds of the Arabs the best enemy is a dead enemy and following this unwritten rule they do not attempt to make any distinction between an enemy at liberty and an enemy in captivity. Just as their method of warfare is

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