Foreign Legion most often refers to:
*
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...
, a unit of the French Army
Foreign Legion may also refer to:
Military
*
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective name which refers to all the units in the British Army that are composed of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers. The brigade draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army ...
, light infantry unit of the British Army
*
Foreign volunteers
The armed forces of many nations have, at one time or another, used foreign volunteers who are motivated by political, ideological or other considerations to join a foreign army. These may be formed into units of a given nationality or may be fo ...
, a term for troops joining a foreign army
*
International Brigades
The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existed f ...
, of the Spanish Civil War
*
International Legion
The International Legion was created in Italy by Giuseppe Garibaldi, on October 5, 1860 – in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Volturnus, where the forces of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were decisively broken.
It had been th ...
, created in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi
*
International Freedom Battalion, a leftist foreign fighters fighting for the Rojava forces during the Syrian Civil War
*
International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, a Ukrainian brigade created during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
*
King's German Legion
The King's German Legion (KGL; german: Des Königs Deutsche Legion, semantically erroneous obsolete German variations are , , ) was a British Army unit of mostly expatriated German personnel during the period 1803–16. The legion achieved th ...
(KGL), a British Army unit of expatriate Germans during the Napoleonic Wars
*
Mahal (Israel)
Mahal, more often spelled Machal ( he, מח"ל), refers to the group of overseas volunteers who fought alongside Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Some 4,000 volunteers, mostly Jews but also non-Jews, arrived from all over the w ...
, foreigners serving in the Israeli army
*
Polish Legions (Napoleonic period), Polish military units that served with the French Army, 1790s–1810s
*
Portuguese Legion (Napoleonic Wars), a Portuguese military force in Napoleon's Imperial Armies
*
Rhodesian Light Infantry
The 1st Battalion, Rhodesian Light Infantry (1RLI), commonly The Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI), was a regiment formed in 1961 at Brady Barracks (Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia) as a light infantry unit within the army of the Federation of Rhodesia ...
, informally known as Rhodesian Foreign Legion (1961–1980)
*
Royal Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL), informally known as Dutch Foreign Legion (1830–1950)
*
Royal Sicilian Regiment (1806-1816)
*
Russian–German Legion
The Russian–German Legion was a military unit set up in 1812 by the banished Graf Peter of Oldenburg on the instigation of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
Formation
Its first commander was Oberst von Arentsschild, and it was formed from non-F ...
, a Russian Army unit of expatriate German personnel during the Napoleonic Wars
*
Spanish Legion
For centuries, Spain recruited foreign soldiers to its army, forming the Foreign Regiments () - such as the Regiment of Hibernia (formed in 1709 from Irishmen who fled their own country in the wake of the Flight of the Earls and the penal ...
, a quasi-independent unit of the Spanish Army
*
Värvat främlingsregemente, Recruited Foreigners Regiment, Swedish regiment of Polish deserters
*
YPG International, foreign legion branches of the People's Protection Units (YPG).
Entertainment
*''
The Foreign Legion'', a 1928 silent film
*
Foreign Legion (band), a punk band from Wales
*
''Foreign Legion'' (album), a 2002 album by Murfreesboro
*
''Foreign Legion'' (Tin Hat album), a 2010 album by
Tin Hat
*
Foreign Legion (wrestling) (La Legión Extranjera), a loosely affiliated group in Mexican wrestling
*''Foreign Legions'', a 2001 anthology edited by
David Drake
David A. Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now a writer in the military science fiction genre.
Biography
Drake graduated Phi ...
See also
*''
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion'', a 1950 film
*''
Tarzan and the Foreign Legion'', a 1947 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs
*
French Foreign Legion (disambiguation)
*
Legion (disambiguation)
*
List of military legions
{{disambiguation
Military units and formations disambiguation pages