History

The 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion is a French Army unit created in 1940. It is part of the Foreign Legion. Created in 1940, it was, together with the RTST, one of the two regiments that joined the Free French Forces (FFL) as a formed unit. It took part in most of the French Army’s campaigns during the Second World War.

After fighting in Indochina from 1946 to 1954, the 13e DBLE moved to Algeria, which it left in 1962 upon that country’s independence. It was based until 2011 at Quartier Général Monclar in Djibouti, under an agreement between France and the Republic of Djibouti following that country’s independence in 1977. In the summer of 2011, the unit’s structure was thoroughly overhauled when it relocated to the United Arab Emirates.

Composition

Transferred to Camp du Larzac in 2016, the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion was reorganized as an infantry regiment under the French Army’s “Au contact” plan, reaching a strength of 1,300 personnel in 2018, organized into eight companies:

• A Command and Logistics Company (CCL), bringing together all deployable services required for regimental command in operations (signals, operations cell, medics, transport section, maintenance, etc.)
• Five combat companies, each comprising a command platoon, a support platoon, and three rifle platoons
• A Support Company (CA), comprising a command platoon, an engagement-support platoon, and a direct-support platoon equipped with Milan anti-tank missiles
• A reserve company (8th Company / Reserve Intervention Unit), made up of a command platoon and two rifle platoons