Customer Reviews

The Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion: From Vietnam to Bosnia

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is very in depth about the 1er and 2eme REP. It covers mostly the second, but it has some history of the first. Out of the entire book, only about 1/3 is history. The rest is the modern organization, weapons, training, people and duties of the last remaining parachute regiment. The author writes well, and much of the book he describes a personal trip he took to Calvi, Corsica to interview, observe, and interact with the legionnaires of the 2eme REP. This book also covers much of the Legion in general, so this book is off all prospective recruits. Buy it, it is a very good book.

This book, having bought and read it about 18 months ago, finds me now - 31 March 1999 in Metz, France - about to follow in the path of those men written about by the author. Its descriptive narrative combined with historic facts and personal stories of the various men, convinced me after many years of self doubt that this, The French Foreign Legion, is the lifestyle and destiny I seek for myself! It makes for easy reading, that is hard to put down till the end.

I enjoyed reading Mr. Simpson's book. It's a survey of 2REP with a bit of history of the disgraced and disbanded 1REP. To tell the story of FFL's parachutists, he included some history from the disastrous drop into Dien Bien Phu in the border region between Laos and Viet Nam. 2REP is not a typical FFL regiment and Mr. Simpson does a great job explaining what they do and how they do it (with emphasis on Low Intensity Conflicts).

If you want a novel built around legionnaires or an "I was there" account, this is not the book for you. Mr. Simpson doesn't say it is.

The book gets five stars from me because it covers what it says it's covering with elegance and a sense of insight without sensationalism that is lacking in many similar military accounts.

The only thing left to do is to get Mr. Simpson to go through the jungle training school in Guiana and write about it.

I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN FRENCH FORIEGN LEGION HISTORY,ESPECIALLY THE 2E REP, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU.

I was not at all entertained by this book. I have read several books on the French Foreign Legion and this one was probably the most boring; in fact, it was text-book-boring. I tried reading it and just could not endure it beyond the first 100 pages. It may have historical detail as mentioned in other reviews, but it is certainly very dry and has no exciting moments or narrative. Sort of like telling war stories while on elephant tranquilizers.

This is a realy good book. It discripes the life in the foreign legion compleet. Buy it