France's lack of attention to the Foreign Legion is not only reflected in weapons and equipment, but also in terms of training, which is also incredibly lax.
Probably out of concern about the management and colonial stability problems that may arise after training colonial troops into elite troops, soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, regardless of whether they have received military-related training before joining the Foreign Legion, only need to undergo six months of training after joining the Foreign Legion.
After a few weeks of training, you can carry out the mission.
What if in southern Africa, basic training has not been completed in six weeks?
Not to mention elite.
To train an ordinary person into a qualified soldier requires a huge investment of money and energy. We all know that excellent shooters are fed by bullets, but how many countries are willing to use countless bullets to train a large number of excellent shooters?
According to southern African standards, apart from a very small number of veterans, most of the French Foreign Legion are unqualified.
Even veterans with qualified military skills have greatly reduced execution ability and discipline, and they also need to receive re-education.
"No, no, no, Patton, there is no need to train them into an elite force like the Southern African National Defense Force. They only need to become qualified soldiers who can undertake basic combat tasks-"
De Gaulle did not have high demands on the Foreign Legion.
After all, for Free France, even the elite foreign legionnaires are just exquisite cannon fodder——
"If that's all, then we don't need strict training for soldiers, but more for officers." Patton has experience, and this is what the Southern African Union troops do.
Of course, the Alliance's requirements for soldiers are much higher than those of the French Foreign Legion.
The French Foreign Legion is the same as the Southern African Union force, and its officers are also French.
"Officers are not needed. All our officers graduated from Saint-Cyr Military Academy -" De Gaulle was proud. Saint-Cyr Military Academy is one of the four famous schools.
The four most famous schools in the world in another time and space are West Point Military Academy in the United States, Sandhurst Royal Military Academy in the United Kingdom, Frunze in Russia, and Saint-Cyr in France.
At this time and space, Russia was still excluded from mainstream society. Frunze was unknown to outsiders. Nyasaland Army Academy replaced Frunze and became one of the "four famous schools".
There is also a chain of contempt within the "Big Four".
As we all know, Britain has always been dominated by the navy, and the Royal Naval Academy at Dartmouth is the one that trains naval talents.
So it is obvious that Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy that Rock attended, was obviously a make-up.
Saint-Cyr, who made de Gaulle proud, trained officers who could not even defeat the Germans. So what was the success of Saint-Cyr?
Is it just a long history?
As for the Western pastry——
Sorry, the United States is also a country dominated by the navy, and the army also makes up for it.
Therefore, among the four major institutions, the only one with real "big" strength is the Nyasaland Army Academy.
Patton did not want to dampen de Gaulle's pride.
Since officers don't need training and soldiers don't need training, then let's just continue to suck.
Anyway, Patton didn't care about the thousands of soldiers of the Foreign Legion.
What Patton and de Gaulle did not expect was that Rommel's North African Army had not yet attacked, and the Allies were in trouble.
As mentioned before, there is a tradition of mutiny in the Foreign Legion.
There are many reasons for mutiny, such as the unequal treatment between the Foreign Legion and the French mainland troops, the tyrannical officers of the Foreign Legion, which the soldiers could not bear, the frequency of performing tasks too intensively, or the difficulty of the tasks being too high.
, the troops suffered heavy casualties——
Anyway, just wait and wait, there are all kinds of outrageous reasons.
The reason for this mutiny was simple.
After the Third Army arrived in Algiers, there were more than 100,000 troops stationed in Algiers. Next to the station of the Third Regiment of the Foreign Legion was the station of the 66th Division of the Southern African Union.
The 66th Division is a force mainly composed of Brazilians.
Brazil is a member of the Southern African Union. After Southern Africa declared war on Germany, Brazil also declared war on Germany and officially joined the world war.
Brazil, which has just experienced a civil war, has an army of more than 300,000. Most of them have received Umbrella Company instructors and strict training based on mercenary standards, so their combat effectiveness is still guaranteed.
After entering the war, Brazil sent a total of 9 divisions, and four divisions in the Third Army came from Brazil.
Like other coalition forces, the soldiers of the 66th Division are mainly Africans, and the officers are all southern Africans or white Brazilians.
Southern African officers have very strict requirements for their troops.
Brazil has just experienced a civil war, and the officer group has not yet deteriorated, and still maintains strict discipline. Therefore, after the 66th Division arrived in Algiers, although there was no combat mission, the officers still organized training every day according to wartime standards to maintain the combat effectiveness of the unit.
The training of the alliance troops is various, such as emergency gatherings at night, long-distance training, physical training, etc., etc., every day is not idle.
The third regiment's station is right next to the 66th Division.
Seeing that the training of the 66th Division was in full swing, the officers of the Third Regiment started to think about it.
By the way, who doesn’t want to have an army with incredible combat effectiveness——
So one day, Louisson Langman, commander of the 3rd Regiment, imitated the 66th Division and held an emergency gathering at night.
For the troops, emergency gathering at night is very important. After all, the enemy will not notify in advance when attacking, nor will they choose the date based on the almanac. Experienced commanders are very good at night attacks——
If you think wrongly, face the wall by yourself.
Louison Langman is not good at it.
After all, the Foreign Legion had never conducted training in this area before.
Emergency gatherings at night are not easy to do.
The army has very strict requirements for camping. After dark, the lights are turned off, and no one is allowed to move around at will. Any slightest disturbance may lead to a mutiny in the camp, and the resulting tragedies are countless.
The Foreign Legion had never conducted a night emergency rally, and Louison Langman naturally had no experience in this area. He only saw that the 66th Division's night emergency rally was very simple and necessary, so he imitated the 66th Division himself.
Make one.
Louison Langman was not stupid. Before the training started, he summoned the officers to explain and remind him of the precautions.
In order to prevent accidents, Louison Langman even ordered the officers to confiscate all the bullets of the soldiers, whether there were guns or not. Even if it caused chaos, the damage caused would be extremely limited.
Louison Langman overlooked one thing.
The management of the French Foreign Legion is very chaotic.
Foreign Legionnaires are all mercenaries. The mercenaries of the Umbrella Company all know how to make some money while performing tasks, and the same goes for the French Foreign Legionnaires.
This only happens during missions, that is, during combat.
There are no tasks to perform in peacetime, and naturally there are no opportunities to make a fortune——
It cannot be said that you cannot make a big fortune, but you can still make a small fortune.
For example, with bullets, soldiers of the Foreign Legion engage in many transactions in private.
This is easy to understand.
After all, after a battle is won, it is up to the soldiers themselves to decide how many bullets are consumed.
The French government was stingy with the Foreign Legion in terms of weapons and equipment, but the supply of bullets was open, so various private transactions came into being.
It should be noted here that the location of the French Foreign Legion is different from the location of the southern African troops.
Southern African troops are stationed in the wild and soldiers are not allowed to move without permission. Without a suitable reason, soldiers cannot even leave the gate.
You can't even leave the door, so there will be less trouble to worry about, and there won't be any strange groups around the camp.
The French Foreign Legion is different.
As long as the Foreign Legion sets up camp, whether in a city or in the wilderness, some strange creatures will always appear quickly around the Foreign Legion's camp, such as young women engaged in special industries——
Another example is businessmen engaged in various transactions——
For these businessmen, bullets are hard currency and can be spent as money.
In the Foreign Legion, officers' incomes are very generous and they do not need to exchange bullets for things.
The officers did not enforce Louison Langman's order strictly enough. They only confiscated the soldiers' bullet boxes, not even the bullets in the magazine, which laid the foundation for the emergency gathering at night.
At 3 o'clock in the morning on January 26, Louison Langman and several officers of the Third Regiment blew the whistle together. The scene was quite ceremonial. The French are very good at this.
What happened next, no one expected.
Another explanation here is that in France during World War II, the army did not blow the charge horn when launching an attack, but blew a whistle.
Soldiers of the Foreign Legion have a conditioned reflex for whistles.
So when the whistle sounded, a certain soldier who was in a daze of sleep pushed the bullet into the chamber and pulled the trigger.
Firearms going off at night is a big no-no for the military.
Before the training began, Louison Langman had ordered the officers to confiscate all the bullets of the soldiers. Theoretically, the soldiers of the third regiment had no bullets.
So when the gunfire rang out, Louison Langman and all the officers were confused.
Don't forget it's still wartime and the Germans may attack at any time.
So since there are gunshots, what does it mean?
So an ordinary emergency gathering at night was turned into a farce by the French.
As mentioned above, the location of the 3rd Regiment is next to the location of the 66th Division.
Suddenly there was gunfire from the Third Regiment, and the officer on duty of the 66th Division naturally had to call and ask.
The officer on duty in the third regiment also didn't expect this kind of mistake to happen.
When the gunfire rang out, the officer on duty of the third regiment also called to inquire, so the call never got through.
The Southern African Army has communications companies at the regimental level.
The regiment-level unit of the Foreign Legion, not to mention the communications company, even has only one telephone.
Under normal circumstances, the 66th Division will not be dispatched even if the phone is not connected.
The key to the problem is that after the first gunshot was fired, the soldiers of the third regiment probably thought they were under attack, and then more gunshots were fired continuously, making the situation completely out of control.
The 66th Division has not dispatched yet. No matter how badly the third regiment fights, the 66th Division will not dispatch as long as they do not take the initiative to ask for help.
At this time, something unexpected happened again.
After the gunfire rang out, some soldiers of the Third Regiment who did not know the situation thought they were being attacked by the Germans and voluntarily left the camp and fled to the 66th Division's station.
Although the 66th Division was not dispatched, it was still well prepared to prepare for possible combat situations.
So when the soldiers of the third regiment appeared, the security troops of the 66th Division did not hesitate to shoot.
Among the alliance forces, the equipment of the Brazilian troops is better than that of the two Congolese troops. After all, they are troops that have fought side by side with the Southern African Defense Forces.
The 66th Division attaches great importance to defense work, and 20mm high-level dual-purpose machine guns are deployed around the camp.
The 20mm machine gun bullets are as thick as carrots and can easily penetrate the armor of most tanks today.
If it hits someone, it can tear them into pieces directly.
So when the 66th Division's machine guns opened fire, the Third Regiment suffered heavy losses.
After daybreak, statistics showed that only two machine guns fired, and each fired only one magazine.
It was these two magazines that killed 25 people and injured 9 people in the third regiment.
The nine injured people either had their arms or legs broken, and they were all broken into pieces and could not be put back together at all.
Not to mention that an "ordinary" nighttime emergency gathering was turned into a farce, but it actually caused so many casualties, the people must be held accountable.
Who to pursue?
Louison Langman was not responsible. He had made all kinds of preparations as much as possible before the training began. He even collected all the bullets. What other accidents could he cause?
The other officers of the third regiment are not responsible. They have made all kinds of preparations as much as possible according to Louison Langman's order. Although the preparations are not perfect, it is also caused by their lack of experience and the attitude of the officers.
It doesn't matter.
Then the only ones who are responsible are the soldiers who secretly hide bullets.
After learning the specific situation, Louison Langman ordered that all the bullets secretly hidden by the soldiers of the third regiment be confiscated.
It was this order that triggered the mutiny of the third regiment.
The mutiny in the army was not a workers' strike or a student strike, but a serious violent incident similar to a riot.
After de Gaulle learned the whole story of the mutiny, he was completely disappointed with the Foreign Legion and asked Patton to solve the mutiny of the Third Regiment in the southern African way.
Southern African way!
Patton and all the officers of the Third Army were confused.
Southern African armies have never mutinied.
Patton and other southern African officers had no experience dealing with mutinies.
The French are very experienced, but de Gaulle gave up his choice——
Then deal with it the way Southern Africa does.
During World War I, the French army mutinied many times, and each time they were resolved peacefully by experienced French generals.
That's why the Foreign Legion had the habit of mutiny.
Southern Africa's federal government can compromise.
The southern African military never compromises.
Therefore, the 66th Division directly surrounded the Third Regiment and asked the soldiers of the Third Regiment to lay down their weapons and surrender to the 66th Division, otherwise the 66th Division would launch an attack.
For example: I forgot yesterday, but I am still in the Internet cafe today, hoping to return to normal tomorrow, but these two days are all 4,000-word chapters, and a certain fish is still working very hard——
