3RD FOREIGN INFANTRY REGIMENT

The '3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment' (French: '''3e Régiment étranger d'infanterie''') (3e REI) is an infantry regiment in the French Foreign Legion. The regiment is station in French Guiana, protecting the Centre Spatial Guyanais.

Contents

History

World War I

World War II

Indochina

Controversy, 2005 events in Kourou

Composition

Honours

Battle Honours

Decorations

Notes

References

External link

History

World War I

When World War I started France received a stream of foreign volunteers that wanted to fight for France. This allowed the creation of four "march regiments" of the Foreign Legion.
In November 1915 the Legion units remaining on the Western Front were reorganised into a single "march regiment" designated Foreign Legion March Regiment (Régiment de Marche de la Légion Etrangère), often called the RMLE.
The Legion records that 42,883 men served on the western front in the March Regiments of the 1st and 2nd Foreign Regiment and the RMLE. It suffered 5,172 killed in action and around 25,000 wounded or missing, a total of 70% casualties over the course of the war. When the war ended it was the second most decorated regiment in the French Army.^[1]

World War II

Indochina

Arrived in 1946 to Indochina.

Controversy, 2005 events in Kourou

Soldiers from the 3rd REI were involved in violence towards the citizen of Kourou in 2005. It was reported that a group of legionnaires attacked bystanders in the evening as a retaliation to alleged aggressions from elements of the population.
The racial overtones of the incident, with European Legionnaires attacking French Guyanese citizens of African descent, caused quite a stir.

Composition

★ CCS

★ CEA

★ PROTERRE

Honours

Battle Honours

★ Cameróne 1863^[2]

★ Artois 1915

★ Champagne 1915

★ Bataille de la Somme 1916

★ Les Monts de Verdun 1917

★ Picardie-Soissonnais 1918

★ Vauxaillon 1918

★ Maroc 1921-34

★ Djebel Mansour 1943

★ Alsace 1944-1945

★ Stuttgart 1945

★ Indochine 1946-1954

Decorations

★ Cross of the Légion d'honneur with 16 palms

★ Médaille militaire with 11 palms

★ Croix de guerre 1914-1918 with 9 palms

★ Croix de guerre 1939-1945 with 3 palms

★ Croix de guerre théâtre d'opérations extérieures with 5 palms

Notes

1. Windrow p. 8
2. Camerone is a Battle Honour shared by all Foreign Legion Regiments, no matter when it was formed.

References

★ Porch, Douglas. ''The French Foreign Legion.'' New York: Harper Collins, 1991. ISBN 978-0-06-092308-2

★ Windrow, Martin. ''French Foreign Legion 1914-1945.'' London: Osprey Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-85532-761-9

★ Windrow, Martin. ''French Foreign Legion since 1945.'' London: Osprey Publishing, 1996. ISBN 1-85532-621-3

External link

★ Official homepage of the regiment