Fighting for the French Foreign Legion Read online

  The sight that followed would have scared the life out of me if this had been for real. Out of the early morning mist came a wave of rapid assault craft of all shapes and sizes. From hovercraft carrying light assault vehicles to amphibious personnel carriers which suddenly roared up onto the beach to take up positions where they could put down covering fire to protect the arrival of the main force.

  There is no doubt that the logistical military power of the US is awesome – way, way beyond anything that the European armies, or anyone else for that matter, can put together. Impressive as it was, logistics don’t win wars. Within a couple of hours the beach was crawling with men and their equipment ready for the final push inland. But despite this impressive display, within minutes the small force from the REP had them pinned down on the beach. There was only one track out of the beach area and the best tanks and APCs could not cope with the Corsican terrain.

  There were only 200 legionnaires facing the might of the US, but they had prepared their ambushes well and quickly disabled the leading tanks which then blocked the only exit from the beachhead. In all fairness, if this had been the real thing, the US attack helicopters and fighter aircraft would have made short work of any resistance on the ground. Nevertheless, it was a lesson worth learning for everyone involved. The REP then made a tactical withdrawal and the American staff officers were impressed by the tactics, efficiency and mobility of the unit. Independent judges decided what had been hit or disabled and there was no arguing with them. If they said that you were dead, that was it, you were withdrawn from the exercise and couldn’t turn up somewhere else.

  The next phase of the exercise was to take place at an airfield on the other side of the island. As we drove to the location we came across a regular French army tank unit manning a roadblock. They were equipped with AMX 10RC six-wheeled light tanks which the Americans had never seen. There were six jeeps and a minibus in our convoy and although we were displaying observer markings, I expected some kind of reaction from the French unit as we pulled up in front of them. Instructed to tell the tank commander to present his unit to the Americans, I walked across to the lead tank and signalled for him to come out. Nothing. I climbed onto the nearest tank and noticed that the hatch was slightly ajar. By now there was a row of generals and their staff officers in front of the tank, waiting. I pulled the hatch up and instead of receiving a mouthful of abuse, all I heard was the sound of ... zzzz ... zzzz ... zzzz! The entire crew were sound asleep in the warmth of their tank.

  By now some of the other crews had become aware of our presence and hatches were popping open on all the other tanks. Someone must have said something over their command link because the commander suddenly shot out of the hatch like a jack-in-the-box. There were some red faces and I thought that the French generals were going to explode. The presentation was made and the Americans were impressed by the vehicle, if not the crew commander. I was sure that the career of the officer in command had just suddenly come to a halt. We continued on our way to the airport leaving the poor sod contemplating his future in the military.

  The scenario at the airport was that a group of terrorists had taken over the control tower and were holding civilian hostages. There were to be no negotiations and this was to be a demonstration by an American Special Forces unit of how to overpower the terrorists without loss of life. What happened next was as impressive as the beach landing had been. Two Hercules C130 transports were on final approach and covering fire was being supplied by Cobra attack helicopters. The idea was to keep all of the terrorists indoors and under cover while the Hercs landed. Their firepower was simulated by lazers and computers registered the imaginary impacts. So far so good.

  Within minutes the leading Herc touched down but kept rolling with its nose wheel well off the ground. The ramp at the rear was down and had been adapted to run along the surface of the runway on small wheels. Three armoured cars rolled backwards down the ramp out of the moving aircraft but as soon as they were on the tarmac, a forward gear was engaged and they fanned out to provide ground cover for the second aircraft which was now performing the same manoeuvre.

  The leading Herc had raised its ramp and was now lifting off at the other end of the runway as three more jeeps backed out of the second aircraft. I had heard of this tactic before but had never seen it done. It had taken less than two minutes to get the six vehicles and their crews into the airport ready to mount the ground attack. The Hercs were now circling the airport awaiting the all clear to land and recover the teams and the hostages. The Cobra gunships were still flying low over the area to provide instant firepower should it be required.

  Within minutes of landing the terminal building was secure and it was confirmed that the hostages were being held in the control tower. The problem they faced was that they were being held five floors up and because of the time it would have taken to mount a conventional assault, the hostages would be dead. One of the Americans spoke remarkably good French and so an audacious plan was hatched. Terrorists in real life like publicity for their cause and are not adverse to appearing on TV so he simply pressed the intercom button on the door and said that he was from a TV news crew who were there to interview them. After a minute or so, the door buzzed and was opened by one of the guys acting as a terrorist. He was quickly overpowered, the assault team were up the stairs and into the control room in a flash. A stun grenade was let off causing everyone without ear protection to drop to their knees holding their heads in shock. Everyone was made to lie on the floor and had their hands tagged. There and then was not the time to decide who were terrorists and who were hostages, thereby reducing the chance of confusion in the heat of the moment.

  Everyone was led downstairs where they were searched to sort out the goodies from the baddies. During all of this the two Hercs had landed and had taxied back to the end of the runway. The hostages were released and the terrorists bundled into one of the jeeps while the release team piled into the other five before they roared off in the direction of the Hercs and drove straight in. The tail gates closed and the Hercs were roaring down the runway with the Cobras in close formation behind them. It was so impressive.

  When I looked at my watch it showed that the whole thing from landing to take-off had taken exactly twenty-three minutes. I’m sure that if it had been the real thing, having a film crew on the spot would have appealed to the ego of the terrorists and they would have reacted in exactly the same way. The important thing about joint exercises like this is not who wins, but what you learn from them.

  The Legion uses an interesting obstacle course just outside Bonifacio in the very south of the island. It is not the hardest course in the world but it requires a little bit of courage to complete. Some of the US Marines wanted to give it a go but their officers were a bit worried about litigation if there was an injury. In the end a compromise was reached and it was agreed that they would ‘walk’ the course. If any of them didn’t want to do a particular obstacle then they wouldn’t be forced. Many of them said that it was one of the best things they had ever done. A team from the REP demonstrated how it should be done and won a great cheer and applause from the Americans.

  The world is an ever-changing place and all the training in the world can’t prepare you for the real thing. With the ending of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything has changed in this troubled world of ours. When Saddam invaded Kuwait it brought to an end all attempts at holding the reins on the troubled Middle East. It was just the start of all the turbulent times we are experiencing today.

  Up until that time most conflicts smouldering around the world had been internal affairs such as the UK’s problems in Northern Ireland, and to some extent the Falklands War. At least there we were fighting an enemy we understood and had a good idea where they were coming from politically, even if we didn’t agree. What was about to happen was a completely new ball game. When Saddam made his move on Kuwait, the reaction of the Western powers was instant. It came as a complete surprise to ev
eryone except the Intelligence agencies who had been trying to warn the politicians for years that we were facing a huge threat in the form of a new breed of extreme fundamentalist terrorism based in the Middle East.

  As ever, the politicians were afraid to inform the general public of the dangers we were facing. Perhaps it was because they didn’t want to damage their own little empires by being the bearers of bad news. The lack of response to what was happening in the Middle East was interpreted by extremist governments and terror groups as a weakness to be exploited, leading us to the shambles we all are now experiencing.

  Parachuting into Camp Raffalli on a clear winter’s day.

  Freefall above Corsica taken from a helmet camera at about 2,500m.

  The indoor Cini-tir range being used for anti-tank weapon training.

  Above the camp and Calvi.

  A watercolour showing the activities of the 3rd Company.

  A series of pen-and-ink drawings I did showing the speciality of each company: 1st company (Commando); 2nd Company (Mountain Warfare); 3rd Company (Amphibious Warfare).

  CEA (Compagnie Eclairage et Apuis) – Heavy Support Company.

  CCS (Compagnie Commandement et Service) – Command & Support Company (Administration, medics, mechanics, stores, mess facilities etc.).

  Getting ready to jump at Calvi.

  Jacks don’t work in the desert.

  First Gulf War – US Forces with oil well fires in the background.

  First Gulf War – deep behind enemy lines in Iraq.

  First Gulf War – taking cover for the night in Iraq.

  The author working on maps and plans of Sarajevo just before the Regiment’s deployment there.

  My office in Sarajevo.

  Sarajevo – south of the airport (Bosnian side of the road).

  Sarajevo – Serbian side south of the airport, southern entrance.

  Trenches just outside the airport at Sarajevo.

  The tunnel under the airport runway dug by the Bosnians (1993).

  At – 20oC even the camera had to be protected against the cold.

  General Ratko Mladi (Serbian) arriving at Sarajevo Airport for peace talks (1993).

  Sarajevo Airport.

  Sarajevo 1993.

  My small armoured car in the centre of Sarajevo – called a VBL (Véhicle Blindé Léger).

  Citation for my Military Cross.

  Being awarded the Military Cross.

  My medals: Military Cross with star (Sarajevo); Wounded in Action with star (Sarajevo); Overseas Mission (Tchad); UN Peacekeeping Medal; General Service Medal (silver).

  Competition painting.

  The author today.

  CHAPTER 11

  The Day When All of our Lives Changed

  Because of the threat of imminent war in the Gulf, France went to the UN Security Council and asked that the Legion be recognized as an official part of the French Army. This was a monumental moment in the history of the French Foreign Legion. Its status had changed for ever.

  Within days of this request being accepted, the Legion started to deploy units to the Gulf ahead of the Regular French Army units. The 1st Cavalry Regiment, the 2nd Infantry Regiment plus a detachment from the 6th Engineer Regiment left for Saudi Arabia to join the Coalition forces forming up to repulse Saddam’s army, which was occupying Kuwait. All the CRAP units of the French 11th Parachute Division were also put on alert for immediate deployment. This would be a mechanized war which meant that parachute units like the REP would not be involved directly in the conflict. It would be a different story if it came down to having to move into cities like Baghdad, but for the moment, as a regiment, we would not be involved.

  On the day word came that the CRAP were to be deployed to the Gulf, we were on exercise in mainland France. Within hours we had flown back to Calvi, packed our gear and were heading back to join the other CRAP units.

  On arrival in Saudi Arabia, it was decided that the Special Force units should be multi-national, drawing on the best expertise available from within the Coalition forces. We had arrived weeks ahead of the principal forces. Heavy equipment had to be brought in from the four corners of the world and it would be at least a couple of months before Coalition forces would be ready to move. We had arrived early with the intention of making sorties into Iraq to gather information about the deployment and strength of the Iraqi forces remaining in the country, either in reserve for Kuwait, or as protection for the Iraqi military infrastructure such as air bases and ammunition supply dumps. Satellite images could tell you a lot but this information still requires to be confirmed by good old-fashioned ground work.

  Saddam had made a bold move and I am sure that he did not believe that the UN would sanction the use of force to remove him from Kuwait. It was his belief that if the West became aggressive towards him, the Arab world would unite to back him in a holy war. This was the first of many errors of judgement to be made by Saddam.

  We were on strict instructions to avoid all contact with the enemy during the build-up. It was clear from the information we gathered in our sorties into Iraq that their forces were stretched to the limit and did not have the capacity to take on the huge force that was building up on the other side of the border. The Republican Guard were the only professional soldiers in Saddam’s army and had been used for the invasion of Kuwait. Although his army was large in numbers, it was made up of young untrained conscripts who didn’t appear to be aware of what was about to descend on them from a great height.

  One thing that did worry us was the large numbers of mobile Scud missile units that could be deployed. Israel and Saudi Arabia were well within striking distance and we believed that they could be equipped with chemical warheads. The fact that they could be disguised as container lorries made them hard to track from the air.

  I had brought the new digital photographic equipment with me which enabled me to send back real-time images of anti-aircraft defences and their exact location using GPS. This was modern warfare. The GPS location of a designated target would be fed into the guidance system of a missile which would then take it out even if it could not be seen from the air.

  In the middle of all this we were suddenly redeployed. We were preparing for another mission into Iraq when we were told to grab all our gear and get on a Hercules. We had no idea where we were heading until we were halfway into the flight. The pro-French government in Tchad had suddenly been overthrown in a military coup backed by Libya. Everyone’s attention was focused on what was happening in the Middle East and I suppose they thought that the coup would be unopposed. What they’d failed to appreciate was that French parachute regiments would not only be available but were on G1 alert and could respond immediately. France would not intervene in the internal affairs of the country, but was committed to the protection of the expat community and to ensure that no third party crossed the borders of Tchad or played a part in the disruption of the democratic process of the country.

  The airport at Ndjemina was already under the control of the French forces stationed in the country, so our arrival was not a problem. The Regiment flew out from Calvi and arrived just fifteen minutes after our own arrival. Our immediate mission was to secure the safety of all foreigners and escort them to the airport. We could not force them to leave, but few were willing to risk their lives in what was a very hostile and fragile environment.

  Groups of Tchadien soldiers were roaming the streets, no one seemed to be in charge and most were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. They were looting the shops and generally terrorizing anyone they came across –it was not a place to be white or living in an isolated villa.

  Two Air France 747s were brought in to assist with the rapid evacuation of the civilians who were now packing the airport. Many had lived and worked in Tchad for years and were leaving behind their jobs, homes and in some cases everything they possessed. There was no guarantee that they would ever be able to return. I felt sorry for many of them. There were also those, mostly businessmen I might
add, who were trying everything to get to the head of the queue to get on the aircraft. They soon found themselves at the back of the queue again when they were hauled out of the line by the legionnaires in charge of boarding the aircraft.

  At the front of the terminal there were hundreds of 4x4 Toyota Landcruisers abandoned with the keys still in the ignitions. Several were commandered by ourselves for transport and I managed to get my hands on a top-of-the-range model left by a very obnoxious gentleman. This particular vehicle was eventually given to someone who had once been part of the Regiment and now ran an orphanage just outside the capital with the aid of the REP and families, who regularly collected clothes and books to send out to him. There was no way he would abandon the children and the Regiment left a combat group with him to ensure their security. By the evening of the third day all the civilians who wished to leave had been evacuated. There had been some nervous moments but the evacuation had gone well. Not a single shot had been exchanged and things were a lot quieter in the town center.