MERCER : Legion of strangers (fülszöveg)
The stranger-than-fiction story of the French Foreign Legion is one of men engaged in deeds of incredible heroism—and incredible folly—against incredible odds. In LEGION OF STRANGERS, Charles Mercer relates the vivid history of this unique fighting force: its training, its tactics, its campaigns, its discipline, and the strange "mystique" that has led thousands of foreigners to fight and die bravely for France.
Reflecting the rise and fall of the great French empire, this colorful chronicle follows the famed fighters from Spain to the Sahara, from Mexico to Madagascar, from Indo-China to the heartbreaking finale at Dienbienphu. How the Legion was used to crack the Hindenburg Line in World War I, its baffled role in the bungling of the Crimean war, the reluctant war against the Amazon women of Dahomey—these and many more unforgettable episodes are all recorded by an author who reveals the courage, cowardice, folly, wisdom, and even humor of combat on four continents.
A gripping study of war from the level of the highest military councils to the blood and sweat of the lowliest Legionnaire, LEGION OF STRANGERS is also a fascinating gallery of French military leaders, among them the irascible Bugeaud, the tragic Bazaine, the redoubtable MacMahon and the De Gaulle who used elements of the Legion as the core of his Free French Forces in World War II. In these pages, readers will also be introduced to scores of officers and enlisted men: Corporal Cochon, who guzzled eight men's twelve-month supply of wine in two weeks; Aage, the handsome Prince of Denmark, who found a new life in the Legion; and Captain Buschenschutz, who sentenced four men to musicians' school for disrupting his violin recital.
Charles Mercer writes candidly of the pleasures and torments of the Legionnaire in the ranks. He tells, too, how it feels to march thirty-five miles a day under a 100-pound pack for days on end in the blistering heat, and what it means to be exposed to the ravages of madness in a lonely desert fort.
Meticulously researched, Charles Mercer's saga of the intrepid Foreign Legion offers military buffs and armchair adventurers the full, thrilling story of a bold, defiant breed.
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| KATALÓGUS | TARTALOM |
