The French Foreign Legion 1872-1914

Following the Franco-Prussian War, the Foreign Legion was the strongest and the only all-volunteer white infantry regiment in the French Army. With Algeria pacified by the early 1880s, it provided expeditionary units for France's campaigns of colonial expansion in Vietnam and Africa in the 1880s-1900s, and these hard-bitten mercenaries earned such a reputation for endurance that the Legion was steadily tripled in size to 12 large battalions. This book describes the organization, campaigns and uniforms of the Legion's `golden age', illustrated with many rare images and meticulously detailed colour plates of uniforms and equipment.

Martin Windrow has been commissioning and art editor of the Men-at-Arms and Elite series from 1974-89 and since 1998. He has also written a number of Osprey titles, including MAA 300: French Foreign Legion Infantry & Cavalry since 1945, MAA 312: The Algerian War 1954-62, MAA 325: French Foreign Legion 1914-45, MAA 322: The French Indochina War 1946-54, and ELI 6: French Foreign Legion Paratroopers. In 2007 he travelled in Morocco, locating some historic Legion battle sites during research for his book Our Friends Beneath the Sands - The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010).
Mike Chappell comes from an Aldershot family with British Army connections stretching back several generations. He enlisted as a teenage private in the Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1952 and retired in 1974, as RSM of the 1st Battalion The Wessex Regiment (Rifle Volunteers), after seeing service in Malaya, Cyprus, Swaziland, Libya, Germany, Ulster and home garrisons. He began painting military subjects in 1968 and has gained worldwide popularity as a military illustrator. Mike has written and illustrated many books for Osprey, and currently lives in France.