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Well, thinking of Bolt Action, and wanted a force that would not be too out of place when squaring off against an Allies or Axis army. It got me thinking about the Legion, and how they were split for a while undee the Free French government, and the Vichy government.

So with that idea in mind, I found some models for a WWII French Foreign Legion force... But how was the Legion equipped in WWII, and what vehicles and artillery (if any) did they use?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=373&v=uKDwTkWXtJg

this might help ?

Depends upon when and what theater to a large extent, the Legion that served with the British were equipped with British weapons, those in Syria used either French or British stuff depending upon whether Vichy or FF, those with the Germans (incorporated into 90thL in the Desert) used German. Post '42 they mostly seemed to use US equipment.

For the Free French unit look up;
13ème Demi-brigade de Légion étrangère

I also started French Foreign Legion recently. I was initially torn between Bir Hakiem and Syria, but I recently committed to Bir Hakiem after the Western Desert book came out with official rules, and me and a buddy taking them to Adepticon.

Anyway, if you are interested in Syria,
here is the Order of Battle page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria%E2%80%93Lebanon_Campaign_order_of_battle

Also this is a solid resource for figuring out what kind of armored units were present in Africa at the time.
http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/france/ww2_French_Tanks.php

You can use that to look up vehicles and figure out how many were actually shipped to Syria. Remember Vichy French forces didn't really have any production or reinforcements. But they had a surprising amount of stuff since ze Germans wanted to keep them as an armed buffer. I know the Renault R-35 was pretty common down in Syria, but there was a surprising amount of stuff down there. The most "modern" weapons of course were comadeered for the battle of France.

 ingtaer wrote:
Depends upon when and what theater to a large extent, the Legion that served with the British were equipped with British weapons, those in Syria used either French or British stuff depending upon whether Vichy or FF, those with the Germans (incorporated into 90thL in the Desert) used German. Post '42 they mostly seemed to use US equipment.

For the Free French unit look up;
13ème Demi-brigade de Légion étrangère

I am likely to go with a Syrian based Legion army, mostly using French stuff (again, to be able to use them as FF or Vichy).

Thanks for the info so far guys! I have always been interested in the Foreign Legion, but have known very little of their involvement and equipment in WWII. It is much easier to find info on my first choice for an army (U.S. Airborne), but if we pick up playing Bolt Action... It looks like almost everybody will be starting an Allies army.

Syria is pretty interesting because you have the 13th Demi-Brigade against the Vichy 6th!

I will have a look and see if I can pull up the TOE for both as I remember coming across it a while back.

 ingtaer wrote:
Syria is pretty interesting because you have the 13th Demi-Brigade against the Vichy 6th!

I will have a look and see if I can pull up the TOE for both as I remember coming across it a while back.

That would be incredibly helpful.

For the 6th (Vichy);

Divided into two sections (1st and 2nd Batt. formed into Mountain infantry equipped with mules, 3rd and 4th mechanised).
Regiment comprising 3,295 men (87 O/334 NCO/2876 OR). (Platoon strength of three rifle sections and HQ, 4 platoons to Coy, 5 Coy to Batt.) each Batt has 2x machine gun platoon (each of 4x Mle 1914 Hotchkiss), a 4 tube mortar battery (60 or 82mm), not sure on organic AT and AA could be read as 2-4 guns of each.

Attached to the regiment were three batteries of 75mm M1897 (each of four guns) and maybe a six gun battery of 105mm - not sure on that could be Divisional troops. AT guns - 25mm Hotchkiss, an attached smattering of R35s and Panhard armoured cars.

That's as could as I can get, forgot how hard translating French military stuff is! Will try to do the 13ème on a different day but the lower tier strengths are the same, just attached guns/tanks/cars etc. are different.

 ingtaer wrote:
For the 6th (Vichy);

Divided into two sections (1st and 2nd Batt. formed into Mountain infantry equipped with mules, 3rd and 4th mechanised).
Regiment comprising 3,295 men (87 O/334 NCO/2876 OR). (Platoon strength of three rifle sections and HQ, 4 platoons to Coy, 5 Coy to Batt.) each Batt has 2x machine gun platoon (each of 4x Mle 1914 Hotchkiss), a 4 tube mortar battery (60 or 82mm), not sure on organic AT and AA could be read as 2-4 guns of each.

Attached to the regiment were three batteries of 75mm M1897 (each of four guns) and maybe a six gun battery of 105mm - not sure on that could be Divisional troops. AT guns - 25mm Hotchkiss, an attached smattering of R35s and Panhard armoured cars.

That's as could as I can get, forgot how hard translating French military stuff is! Will try to do the 13ème on a different day but the lower tier strengths are the same, just attached guns/tanks/cars etc. are different.

Holy cow. Thank you so much. That gives me a great starting point! Is there any info on what the standard squad organization was?