page_title: French Foreign Legion
section_title: Foreign Legion paratroops
hierarchical_section_title: French Foreign Legion / History / Algerian War 1954–1962 / Foreign Legion paratroops
caption_attribution_description: Insigne du 1er REP
context_page_description: The French Foreign Legion is a military service branch of the French Army established in 1831. Legionnaires are highly trained infantry soldiers and the Legion is unique in that it is open to foreign recruits willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. When it was founded, the French Foreign Legion was not unique; other foreign formations existed at the time in France. The Foreign Legion is today known as a unit whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on its strong esprit de corps, as its men come from different countries with different cultures. This is a way to strengthen them enough to work as a team. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also very stressful psychologically. French citizenship may be applied for after three years' service. The Legion is the only part of the French military that does not swear allegiance to France, but to the Foreign Legion itself. Any soldier who gets wounded during a battle for France can immediately apply to be a French citizen under a provision known as "Français par le sang versé". As of 2018, members came from 140 countries.
context_section_description: The legion was heavily engaged in fighting against the National Liberation Front and the Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN). The main activity during the period 1954–1962 was as part of the operations of the 10th Parachute Division and 25th Parachute Division. The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment, 1ᵉʳ REP, was under the command of the 10th Parachute Division (France), 10ème DP, and the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, 2ème REP, was under the command of the 25th Parachute Division (France), 25ème DP. While both the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1ᵉʳ REP), and the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2ème REP), were part of the operations of French parachute divisions (10ème DP and 25ème DP established in 1956), the Legion's 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1ᵉʳ REP), and the Legion's 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2ème REP), are older than the French divisions. The 1ᵉʳ REP was the former thrice-reconstituted 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion (1ᵉʳ BEP) and the 2ème REP was the former 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion (2ème BEP). Both battalions were renamed and their Legionnaires transferred from Indochina on 1 August 1954 to Algeria by 1 November 1954. Both traced their origins to the Parachute Company of the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment commanded by Legion Lieutenant Jacques Morin attached to the III/1ᵉʳ R.C.P.
  
  With the start of the War in Algeria on 1 November 1954, the two foreign participating parachute battalions back from Indochina,  the 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion (1ᵉʳ BEP, III Formation) and the 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion (2ème BEP), were not part of any French parachute divisions yet and were not designated as regiments until September and 1 December 1955 respectively.
  Main operations during the Algerian War included the Battle of Algiers and the Bataille of the Frontiers, fought by 60,000 soldiers including French and Foreign Legion paratroopers. For paratroopers of the Legion, the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment (1ᵉʳ REP) and 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2ème REP), were the only known foreign active parachute regiments, exclusively commanded by Pierre Paul Jeanpierre for the 1ᵉʳ REP and the paratrooper commanders of the 2ème REP. The remainder of French paratrooper units of the French Armed Forces were commanded by Jacques Massu, Buchond, Marcel Bigeard, Paul Aussaresses. Other Legion offensives in the mountains in 1959 included operations Jumelles, Cigales, and Ariège in the Aures and the last in Kabylie.
  The image of the Legion as a professional and non-political force was tarnished when the elite 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment 1ᵉʳ REP, which was also part of the 10th Parachute Division played a leading role in the general's putsch of 1961 and was subsequently disbanded.
caption: 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment formed and commanded by
   Legion Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Paul Jeanpierre (1912–1958).[42]
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