March or Die: France and the Foreign Legion

Tony Geraghty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0246119756 ISBN 13: 9780246119759

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1986

Describes the origins of the Legion, recounts combat experiences, and includes profiles of notable legionnaires

Review:

'A splendid piece of Boy's Own Paper story-telling with blood and thunder accounts of deeds of derring-do by the Legion's "lost souls"' Mail on Sunday

‘A remarkable fighting unit, faithfully and excitingly described by Tony Geraghty.’
Sunday Telegraph

‘As a reference book, March or Die cannot be faulted’
TLS

From the Back Cover:

The bestselling author of 'Who Dares Wins: The Story of the SAS' analyses the legend and re-examines the battle honours of the Foreign Legion, illuminating the darker side of its historic relationship to the motherland as well as its triumphs.

Called into being in 1831 as a device to absorb the footloose veterans on Napoleon's old armies, the French Foreign Legion subsequently won astonishing victories in far-flung battlefields, from Spain, Algeria and Morocco to indo-China, and West and Central Africa. The legionnaires gained fame for their utter dedication and willingness to die, yet were viewed with suspicion and repeatedly betrayed by successive French governments.

Tony Geraghty also traces the Legion's diminished fortunes in recent years. It has fought in the Gulf War, Rwanda and Kosovo among other conflicts, but has found itself in 'a world of political correctness which left the legion marooned on an island of admirable but anachronistic values'.

"A splendid piece of Boy's Own Paper story-telling with blood and thunder accounts of derring-do by the Legion's 'lost souls'"
MAIL ON SUNDAY

"Tony Geraghty has written an excellent, fully researched history of the Legion"
EVENING STANDARD

"As a reference book 'March or Die' cannot be faulted"
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT