Chapter 5: Instruction and Seduction

The Chevalier arrived back at Quartier Vienot at 1800 hours just as I handed over my duty of Orderly Sergeant to my relief. He looked satisfied, happy, and tired; so I suspected his bed companion had been as lusty as Grigor Pavel had suggested. I didn’t have to ask the Chevalier how his evening and night had gone as his smile told me all I needed to know.

Next morning DILE had a meeting and the results of our inspection of 1REC were discussed. The fact we had found an officer purloining gasoline and defrauding not just the government but his regiment, cast a shadow over the proceedings. However DILE’s function was to check that correct procedures were in place and being followed and any malpractices, by either accident or design, be discovered and set right. Lieutenant Colonel Tomas Torquonde complimented us for uncovering the fraud, and for the way we had conducted ourselves when the ire of 1REC was directed at us.

“I told Commandant (Major, US and UK) Belvoir he should be thankful it was DILE and not the Gendarmerie who discovered the underhand methods being employed by his commissary staff. If les flics had been involved, a member of his regiment would have been dishonourably discharged and jailed rather than retired without a pension. Because it was an ‘in house’ investigation it could be dealt with by the Legion. That is why the DILE was established. The Legion sorts out its own bad apples and keeps it ‘in house’ and the general public’s admiration and respect for the Legion is thus not compromised. Commandant Belvoir saw the logic and sense in what I said, and had the grace to apologise on behalf of his regiment for their unfriendly behaviour towards us. They have been given the full facts and know we did our duty and kept the worst of the fraud from being headlines in newspapers and on TV. We will have no more trouble from 1REC.”

He next told us what our new assignment was to carrying out an inspection of the Legion Training Group. I sighed. ‘Back to Corsica ‘ I thought to myself.

However I was surprised to learn training of recruits to the Legion had been moved from Corsica to Castelnaudary, a town about 25 km NW of Carcassonne in the Occitan region of Southern France, an area I had never visited before. Caserne Lapasset, the new home of the recruits, was an old barrack complex situated in the centre of the town, which was good news for the bars and bistros owners of the town; but bad news for the recruits who were not allowed out of barracks for their first two months of training, but would be able to see and hear females passing the barracks. However a completely new Quartier was to be constructed on the outskirts of the town where recruits would be housed well away from the temptations of downtown Castelnaudary.

The new title of the training unit was Régiment d’Instruction de La Légion Etrangère’, Instruction Regiment of the Foreign Legion. which provided the four-month-long basic training for Enlisted Volunteers besides giving instruction in many other military skills, including battlefield first aid, mine locating and disposal, map reading, radio operation, and unarmed combat.to serving legionnaires.

Along with the new location at Caserne Lapasset, Castelnaudary, there had been a major shift in the concept of training new recruits. The basic course was still 16 weeks of unmitigated hell but the White Kepi March was held after only 4 weeks of training. The reason for this was simple — money! Under the previous regime if a recruit failed the White Kepi March at the end of the 16 week basic course he had to re-do the Basic Course from the beginning. Few wanted to go through that hell again and left the Legion, thus becoming a waste of the money and time spent on them. Alfie Hinds was one of the very few Enlisted Volunteers who stayed to do the 16 week course again. Now, if a recruit failed the White Kepi March after the first 4 weeks he could have another attempt after re-doing the first 4 weeks of training. Even then, many Enlisted Volunteers baulked at restarting the training and left. However, that only cost the Legion 4 weeks expenditure rather than 4 months.

There were several members of the instructing staff at Castelnaudary who I recognised from my time at Corte. Although instructors only remain in post at the training unit for a maximum of 3 years they can reapply for instructional duties after serving 1 year with another unit. Competent and capable instructors are soon taken back on strength, and many of the present staff of the Instruction Regiment were old faces, if not old friends. I was pleased to see that the Chef de Bataillon of the Instruction Regiment was Commandant Draganov, who had first been my platoon commander then my company commander when I served in BEPI, the Independent Foreign Parachute Battalion, in Djibouti. He shook my hand when he saw me.

“I’m very pleased to see you have been promoted. As I recall I said I hoped you would be a sergent the next time I met you.”

“Yes, Sir, you did and I’m glad I haven’t disappointed you.”

Another face from the past was Sergent — now Adjutant – Zysk, the man who had enlisted me at Marseille and gave me the nickname ‘Professor.’ He grinned broadly when he saw me and shook my hand.

“I’m glad to see you got promotion, Professor. I thought you’d cooked your goose when you missed the Camerone Day parade when with Les Pionniers de la Légion. Although it seems you had some crazy woman to blame for that?”

“Crazy’s right, Serg ... I mean Adjutant. The mad bitch tried to kill me, but only succeeded in killing poor little Ferdi Azarian.”

“Yeah, I heard about that. Tough luck on him, but good luck for you, Professor.” He leaned in closer to me. “I hope your investigations won’t be tinged with the remembrance I ran your arse ragged when you were at Corte?”

“Not at all, Adjutant. At Corte you ran everyone’s arse ragged. Besides, I have you to thank for my nickname, so I will look with untainted eyes at all the files.”

“I hear you caught Capitaine Borosov at 1REC helping himself to petroleum?”

“He was not only greedy, but stupid with it.”

“None of our officers are either. Well, maybe one or two are stupid; but they are not greedy, so we should get a clean bill of health.”

“I have no doubt everything will be above board, Adjutant, with you and Commandant Draganov in charge,” I said. At times I can be quite sly in buttering up senior ranks.

Adjutant Zysk clapped me on my back. “It’s good to see you again, Professor, and the first drink in the Sergents’ Mess tonight is on me. The rest of the time you are here you can pay!”

DILE spent a month going through the files and procedures of the Instruction Regiment and found only a few inconsistencies. It was as Zysk had said. They were all above board, or else the commissary department’s sergent had some scams we couldn’t detect. DILE were just about finishing their inspection when I was called into the Instruction Regiment Commandant’s office, where both Commandant Draganov and Lieutenant Colonel Torquonde were present. I looked from one to the other and scanned through the events of the past weeks in my mind, but there was nothing I had done, or had not done, that merited the attention of two senior officers.

Lieutenant Colonel Torquonde was the first to address me. “I understand from Commandant Draganov that you were in charge of your company’s signal section when in BEPI?”

Before I could reply in the affirmative Commandant Draganov spoke. “He ran the section efficiently and highly effectively, which is why I could use his talent here at Castelnaudary for the next eight weeks or so, providing he can be spared from DILE for that time?”

“DILE are off to Djibouti next week. BEPI and the Thirteenth Demi Brigade are due for inspection. Naturally, Sergent Soissons will not be part of the team that investigates BEPI, his former unit, so he could be spared.” Colonel Torquonde said.

I wasn’t sure why Commandant Draganov had need of me, but if it got me off a trip to Djibouti, then I was all for it. Draganov saw I was in the dark as to why he wanted me at Castelnaudary and enlightened me.

“We have four, two week courses for trainee signallers scheduled to start in three days’ time, and we are an instructor short. Sergent-chef Calvert broke his leg yesterday playing rugby — the Legion versus the Navy, which fortunately we won — and Calvert will not be fit for duty for at least two months. Will you volunteer to be an instructor on the course? I know you haven’t had any experience of teaching but you know more than enough about radio procedure and Morse code usage. You commanded an operational signals section in Djibouti, so you should be able to pass on your knowledge to trainees, who will be legionnaires second class rather than Enlisted Volunteers.”

I jumped at the chance of getting off the trip to Djibouti. “Yes, Sir! Certainly, Sir!”

The officers smiled at my obvious pleasure, both knowing the reason.

“That’s settled then,” said Colonel Torquonde. “DILE will see you in about two months’ time, Sergent. We will be sweating and burning in Djibouti, while you live in the lap of luxury in Occitan.” He grinned at Commandant Draganov. “Had I any radio procedure skills I would have volunteered for the job myself!” He got from his chair, placed his kepi on his head and made his way to the door. I saluted him as he left the room.