Mon Legionnaire

The first post of 2026 is from the 18 January 1930 issue of Argosy.  It features the second story by Theodore Roscoe in his Thibaut Corday series which consisted of 21 stories that ran in Argosy magazine from 1929 to 1939.  They usually begin in a cafe or bar of sorts with the old veteran Legionnaire spinning tall tales of his days in the Foreign Legion to a bunch of open mouthed worldly gentlemen who indignantly huff in disbelief at some of the crazy parts of those tales.

This story features two rival cousins Hyacinth LaDu (the black haired one) and “La Carotte” (red hair) who are cadets at France’s St. Cyr military academy. They are rivals in every sort of way, especially since their Uncle dangled a cash award to the nephew who got the highest rankings. Carrot seemed to be doing much better than Hyacinth and it’s a classic Goofus vs. Gallant conflict.  Then a woman comes into the picture and this precipitates a duel by sabres between the two. Hyacinth puts out Carrot’s eye. Years later, the two men meet again in the Foreign Legion in the jungles of Dahomey where Carotts’s long plotted revenge comes to fruition.

An Eye for an Eye

If you enjoy the Thibaut Corday series you can find the entire collection at Steeger Books.  It is published in four volumes in paperback, hardcover and as an eBook.  There is also a deluxe edition containing all 21 stories in a hard cover.

This month’s Foreign Legion story novelette by Georges Surdez is a long read–an early Christmas present suitable for a Sunday afternoon on a cold winter’s day when you’re sick of football, Christmas shopping and world events and crave an hour or so of escapist reading.  Beyond Courage appeared in the 01 August 1930 issue of Adventure.

The story takes place in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco and begins with a detailed description of a counter-ambush in support of a supply convoy.  Young Lt. Fortier, although new to the Legion, is solid in the field and flawlessly executes his part of the plan.  But, as always, there is friction in war and good men get killed and then there are some officers who take themselves too seriously and vent petty frustrations out on the rank and file NCO’s and junior officers.  Surdez creates and presents his well developed characters and places them in personal conflict with the others, often in a test of will and/or stubbornness until something gives, someone gets killed or the tides of war render the conflict irrelevant. These inter-personal conflicts he portrays in the Legion and French commanders always seems to get resolved in the crucible of battle, as is the case here.  It’s a good story and the action could have been ripped right from the pages of actual memoirs of Foreign Legion fighters in the Rif Conflict (such as those of Prince Aage or Zinovi Pechkov).

Beyond Courage

You can find the full issue (not my scan, thank the up-loader and the original scanners and editors (“The Ibis Rebellion” and “_sas_” ) at the Internet Archive here.

This month’s pulp fiction story is another Panther paperback from their 1950’s Foreign Legion Series. This one is “And the Ants Came” by Ralph L. Finn and was published in 1955.  Finn was a popular writer for Panther books and other UK publishers who wrote in many genres including romance, science fiction and short stories and nonfiction subjects such as soccer.  An interesting page was found in the back that listed the books in the (up to this point in 1955).

The story takes place after WW2 in the Algerian Sahara.  British Legionnaire Roger Trant is staked out in the desert as some twisted form of punishment meted out by the Sergeant Kaufmann, a former German Nazi and sadistic French Foreign Legion NCO who despises Trant mainly for being English.  Trant is to be a feast for relentless, flesh-eating ants drawn by spilled wine and sweat.  However, as the insects begin to swarm , hope arrives in the form of Hameshadah—the feisty, red-haired daughter of Abdul-el-Harij, leader of the proud Marooz tribe. Rescuing Trant from certain death, Hameshadah brings him into a web of tribal intrigue, romance under desert moons, and brutal vengeance. After framing Trant’s desertion and thinking him dead, Kaufmann stirs the pot further by leading raids, abducting tribal women and carelessly sparking a tribal rebellion against French forces.  Trant and Hameshadah’s forbidden love clashes with tribal loyalties, culminating in a climactic showdown between the Legion, Trant, Kaufmann and the tribesmen.

Here is the .pdf of this book below.  Also a .cbr version can be found here.

Ralph L. Finn – And the Ants Came (Panther 1955)

Here’s probably one of Robert Carse’s oddest stories about the Foreign Legion.  This one appeared in Short Stories from 25 June 1939.  It concerns a Swiss legionnaire called Hans Tims who arrives one day at a remote Foreign Legion blockhouse in the Sahara with a group of replacements.  Tims is known for his crazy tall tales and bold lies but is actually a decent man, perhaps not the best soldier.  He also has slight amnesia from an old injury that might be the cause for him talking too much.  Unfortunately he catches the ire of Sergeant Dorkel and his habit for telling lies gets him in trouble with a fellow legionnaire over money and things begin to spiral out of control for him.  Before he can face severe punishment, the post is attacked Senussi warriors. Tims saves the day in a uniquely Swiss way.  

Carse usually does a better job in establishing the setting and breathing some life into his characters.  This story–not so much.  I felt his Tims character was pretty unconvincing and the story had a comedic undertone that one often finds in the pulps. I didn’t mind the story, it read well, but I was hoping for something more hard-boiled and gritty.

High and Wide

You can download the full Short Stories issue in .cbr format here.  It’s a big file!

I’ve written plenty about the Foreign Legion exploits of Bennett Doty.  So did he in his 1926 book Legion of the Damned. Eleven years later his story gets a condensed version written by the prolific pulp author Jack Kofoed.  This one appeared in the December 1937 issue of Thrilling Adventures.  It’s basically a more spicy synopsis of Doty’s adventure in the Legion fighting in Syria and then his misadventures when he unsuccessfully tried to desert.  Perhaps it might persuade readers to read Doty’s very good and exciting book.  You can download my poor copy at the first link or from the Internet Archive.  You can also read the entire pulp magazine by downloading it (.cbr format) here.

Doty of the Legion

It’s always enjoyable the rare times that I come across a Foreign Legion pulp story that is NOT written by the usual authors like Surdez, Newsom, Carse, Bedford Jones, Du Soe or Roscoe.  This one is written by Kenneth Keith Colvin, a pulp writer who was fairly prolific from 1927 to 1935, writing adventure, western and war stories that mostly appeared in the pulp magazines Complete Stories, Cowboy Stories and Outdoor Stories.  This one was published in the November 1929 issue of Over the Top, a hard to find war/military themed pulp.

Boast of the Legion is a well developed story that pits a hard-boiled Legion Company and it’s American commander against a couple of political careerists of the regular French Army during the second year of the Great War.  When a carefully contrived plot to disgrace the Legionnaires ultimately ends in a devastating German counter-attack the entire Allied offensive hinges on defending one sector and road for the time needed to rush reinforcements to the collapsing French lines.  That job is given to the only available unit–the reconstituted 2nd Company of the Legion led by Lieutenant Knoles.  Colvin knows his stuff and gives us an action packed battle story.  (My only quibble is with his somewhat odd descriptions of frontages–i.e. no way a unit of 120 men could defend a mile wide sector.)   But anyways, it’s a good read–the illustration is Lt. Knoles throwing a glass of wine into the ear of the conniving Captain Huot.

If you want to download the entire magazine you can find it on the Internet Archive here.  The usual black and white file is below.

Boast of the Legion

Sorry for being late with this post–many things were happening this weekend–a Father’s Day BBQ, the U.S. Army’s 250th Birthday and Israel’s “downsizing” of Iran’s nuclear ambitions to name a few.  This story by Robert Carse appeared in the 25 July 1938 issue of Short Stories. (you can find the entire issue at this link or in .pdf format here.

It begins with the American Foreign Legionnaire, Joe Tawn, using an axe to fight off a surprise attack by rebellious Chleuh warriors on the Legion’s logging detail.  For his bravery, his sergeant decides to push him to become a Corporal but Tawn first has to learn to speak French better.  However, things sour into a drunken fistfight between Sergeant Gerry the two and Tawn, fearing arrest, decides to desert the Legion.  He’s quickly captured by Abd el Hamidu, the leader of a hostile tribe and foe of the Foreign Legion.  Forced into servitude in the Berber’s village Tawn becomes privy to a planned attack on the Legion outpost.  Of course he saves the day.

The Cap of My Uncle

Note:  I had a long discussion with folks over the weekend about AI.  My son is a teacher at a high school and he’s already seeing attempts by students to pass off AI written reports as their own.  This got me thinking…so I uploaded this story (after converting the text with OCR) to X’s Grok AI program and asked it to summarize the story.  Et voila, below is Grok’s 250 word summary of this story.  Not bad IMO, better than mine.