Singing: O Legionnaires, the combat begins
Corcoran: For 172 years, theyve been a constant in the slow march of French history. Foreigners prepared to fight and die for France --the men of the Foreign Legion.
Singing: Let the grenades and shrapnel rain down
Corcoran: The Legion carefully cultivates an image of glory and honour of a toughness bordering on brutality. Of battles fought against impossible odds in Indo-China and North Africa. Its a culture of inevitable death35,000 Legionnaires have died for France.
Singing: ...if our bloodied fingers stiffen on the ground. One last dream say goodbye to tomorrow
Corcoran: These days, the 7,500 strong Legion is the first unit France sends into harms way be it peacekeeping or intervening in some distant African war. For surviving veterans, theres often no happy ending on retirement. Some march off to a civilian life of depression, alcoholism and violence. The only reassurance – the Legions vow to look after its own to never leave a man behind. In a corner of Provence, some of the worlds most dangerous winemakers are hard at work. For this is -- officially at least a French Army base -- the Invalides Institute of the Foreign Legion. A retirement chateau for 120 Legion veterans, trying to earn their keep with dignity producing medal-winning reds, whites and rosé.
Hensinger: For example in 2000, a rosé was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Agricultural Wine Fair which is the biggest award you can hope to win.
Corcoran: Brought in to help the old timers with the harvest is a group of new recruits - mostly from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In a time-honoured tradition, the Foreign Legion will give them a new identity and eventually, a precious French passport. Young men wanting to escape their past - working alongside veterans with no future. None willing to share their thoughts.
Corcoran: At midday the old soldiers file in for lunch. The mystic of the Legion stripped bare by men whove stared into the abyss of war for too long. Alcohol, divorce, or mental illness forcing many to return to the only family they know. According to Chateau Commandant Gilbert Hensinger, these are men who have been damaged by life.
Hensinger: My job my role is to help the bums become lords again. Lords they once might have been in the their lives, but the uncertainties of life -- the knocks they have taken -- have turned them into bums. Often on arrival here they are just that -- bums.
Corcoran: More than a few have been on the wrong side of the law. One former legionnaire was sent here by the courts after he carved up a bar with a chainsaw and took his family hostage. Today, a new resident is welcomed after serving a stretch in prison.
Hensinger: Mr. Pasquale has come to us from the north, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Starting from this morning, hes now a member of the camp team as painter, because he was a painter after leaving the Legion. Welcome Mr. Pasquale and lets get to work!
Corcoran: The Institute was established in 1953, at the height of Frances colonial war in Indo-china. The French military was locked in a losing battle against Vietnamese nationalists with the Legion bearing the brunt of the fighting.
Hensinger: The severe fighting which took place in Indochina generated a great number of casualties -- young legionnaires with legs and arms amputated.
Corcoran: Many wounded Legionnaires were German, among them, veterans of Hitlers armies who had no wish to return to the ruins of post-war Germany. A few also feared investigation over Nazi war crimes. We were able to confirm that two German veterans still living here served as officers in the SS., though no one was willing identify them.
Hensinger: Nearly 70 percent of the legionnaires were German.
And many of these men couldnt go back for a variety of reasons, as you can easily understand.
Corcoran: As a rule the Legion always protects the men from their past. But there is one old German with an extraordinary history that Commandant Hensinger is prepared to reveal. One of the few veterans here who uses his real name.
Hensinger: Here are two photos of Mr. Freytag at the controls of his Messerschmidt.
Corcoran: Retired Legionnaire Freytag was once Luftwaffe Major Siegfried Freytag fighter ace and recipient of the prestigious Knights Cross.
Hensinger: He was credited with 104 aerial victories, and was shot down twice himself. I dont want to upset you, but he shot down a lot of Anglo-Saxon pilots.
Corcoran: He survived the Second World War only to discover that all his family and friends had perished. Joining the Legion he fought in Indochina as a humble infantryman.
Hes been here at the institute for 32 years a lonely distant figure now well into his 80s. But the past he tried to flee still haunts him remaining both the best and worst of times in Ziegfried Freytags long life.
Freytag: The happiest? hen I entered the German Air Force -- and the hardest? when I heard about my mothers death my parents and comrades.
Corcoran: Not everyone works in the vineyards. Some younger pensioners keep the demons at bay by turning out gift shop souvenirs, perpetuating the Legend of the Legion - in stark contrast to the lives theyve actually led.
Pottery Boss: We try to do as much as possible by hand because the goal is to give the retired legionnaires work -- and not just mass produce.
Corcoran: The ceramic shop supervisor a Spaniard worked as a graphic designer before signing up. In contrast to so many of his comrades here, he had a long and happy career in the Legion that ended at Frances nuclear test site at Muroroa Atoll, boarding and seizing anti-nuclear protest boats.
Pottery Boss: I became an officer and finally left the service after commanding two companies one company here in metropolitan France, and another in Tahiti.
Corcoran: And when the old legionnaires finally fade away, they join their comrades here, just beyond the vines.
Hensinger: Yes, my work with the legionnaires at the institute, as you say, ends here. Any legionnaire who dies at the institute is buried here with full military honours.
Corcoran: They are buried under the names given to them by the Legion. The end of lives seeking redemption from a past theyd fled.
Hensinger: If they werent in the institution, the uncertainties of life might have led them to a much more anonymous and lonely burial.
Corcoran: But even here the mythology marches on for according to the Legion, this field of foreigners -- so many lost souls in life -- have been bestowed a great honour by becoming Frenchmen in death.
Hensinger: The Legion never abandons its own whether in combat or in ordinary life that is our motto.
Corcoran: For 172 years, theyve been a constant in the slow march of French history. Foreigners prepared to fight and die for France --the men of the Foreign Legion.
Singing: Let the grenades and shrapnel rain down
Corcoran: The Legion carefully cultivates an image of glory and honour of a toughness bordering on brutality. Of battles fought against impossible odds in Indo-China and North Africa. Its a culture of inevitable death35,000 Legionnaires have died for France.
Singing: ...if our bloodied fingers stiffen on the ground. One last dream say goodbye to tomorrow
Corcoran: These days, the 7,500 strong Legion is the first unit France sends into harms way be it peacekeeping or intervening in some distant African war. For surviving veterans, theres often no happy ending on retirement. Some march off to a civilian life of depression, alcoholism and violence. The only reassurance – the Legions vow to look after its own to never leave a man behind. In a corner of Provence, some of the worlds most dangerous winemakers are hard at work. For this is -- officially at least a French Army base -- the Invalides Institute of the Foreign Legion. A retirement chateau for 120 Legion veterans, trying to earn their keep with dignity producing medal-winning reds, whites and rosé.
Hensinger: For example in 2000, a rosé was awarded a gold medal at the Paris Agricultural Wine Fair which is the biggest award you can hope to win.
Corcoran: Brought in to help the old timers with the harvest is a group of new recruits - mostly from Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In a time-honoured tradition, the Foreign Legion will give them a new identity and eventually, a precious French passport. Young men wanting to escape their past - working alongside veterans with no future. None willing to share their thoughts.
Corcoran: At midday the old soldiers file in for lunch. The mystic of the Legion stripped bare by men whove stared into the abyss of war for too long. Alcohol, divorce, or mental illness forcing many to return to the only family they know. According to Chateau Commandant Gilbert Hensinger, these are men who have been damaged by life.
Hensinger: My job my role is to help the bums become lords again. Lords they once might have been in the their lives, but the uncertainties of life -- the knocks they have taken -- have turned them into bums. Often on arrival here they are just that -- bums.
Corcoran: More than a few have been on the wrong side of the law. One former legionnaire was sent here by the courts after he carved up a bar with a chainsaw and took his family hostage. Today, a new resident is welcomed after serving a stretch in prison.
Hensinger: Mr. Pasquale has come to us from the north, Boulogne-sur-Mer. Starting from this morning, hes now a member of the camp team as painter, because he was a painter after leaving the Legion. Welcome Mr. Pasquale and lets get to work!
Corcoran: The Institute was established in 1953, at the height of Frances colonial war in Indo-china. The French military was locked in a losing battle against Vietnamese nationalists with the Legion bearing the brunt of the fighting.
Hensinger: The severe fighting which took place in Indochina generated a great number of casualties -- young legionnaires with legs and arms amputated.
Corcoran: Many wounded Legionnaires were German, among them, veterans of Hitlers armies who had no wish to return to the ruins of post-war Germany. A few also feared investigation over Nazi war crimes. We were able to confirm that two German veterans still living here served as officers in the SS., though no one was willing identify them.
Hensinger: Nearly 70 percent of the legionnaires were German.
And many of these men couldnt go back for a variety of reasons, as you can easily understand.
Corcoran: As a rule the Legion always protects the men from their past. But there is one old German with an extraordinary history that Commandant Hensinger is prepared to reveal. One of the few veterans here who uses his real name.
Hensinger: Here are two photos of Mr. Freytag at the controls of his Messerschmidt.
Corcoran: Retired Legionnaire Freytag was once Luftwaffe Major Siegfried Freytag fighter ace and recipient of the prestigious Knights Cross.
Hensinger: He was credited with 104 aerial victories, and was shot down twice himself. I dont want to upset you, but he shot down a lot of Anglo-Saxon pilots.
Corcoran: He survived the Second World War only to discover that all his family and friends had perished. Joining the Legion he fought in Indochina as a humble infantryman.
Hes been here at the institute for 32 years a lonely distant figure now well into his 80s. But the past he tried to flee still haunts him remaining both the best and worst of times in Ziegfried Freytags long life.
Freytag: The happiest? hen I entered the German Air Force -- and the hardest? when I heard about my mothers death my parents and comrades.
Corcoran: Not everyone works in the vineyards. Some younger pensioners keep the demons at bay by turning out gift shop souvenirs, perpetuating the Legend of the Legion - in stark contrast to the lives theyve actually led.
Pottery Boss: We try to do as much as possible by hand because the goal is to give the retired legionnaires work -- and not just mass produce.
Corcoran: The ceramic shop supervisor a Spaniard worked as a graphic designer before signing up. In contrast to so many of his comrades here, he had a long and happy career in the Legion that ended at Frances nuclear test site at Muroroa Atoll, boarding and seizing anti-nuclear protest boats.
Pottery Boss: I became an officer and finally left the service after commanding two companies one company here in metropolitan France, and another in Tahiti.
Corcoran: And when the old legionnaires finally fade away, they join their comrades here, just beyond the vines.
Hensinger: Yes, my work with the legionnaires at the institute, as you say, ends here. Any legionnaire who dies at the institute is buried here with full military honours.
Corcoran: They are buried under the names given to them by the Legion. The end of lives seeking redemption from a past theyd fled.
Hensinger: If they werent in the institution, the uncertainties of life might have led them to a much more anonymous and lonely burial.
Corcoran: But even here the mythology marches on for according to the Legion, this field of foreigners -- so many lost souls in life -- have been bestowed a great honour by becoming Frenchmen in death.
Hensinger: The Legion never abandons its own whether in combat or in ordinary life that is our motto.