My Camp: Life in the French Foreign Legion

by J.R. Lawrence

Follow the story of a young man, who, through a chance encounter in prison, leaves his life of crime and joins the ranks of one of the world's toughest fighting forces.J. R. Lawrence served in the 3rd company of the parachute regiment (2REP) from 2007 - 2011. The author served in the Foreign Legion during the War on Terror period and the book includes a chapter on the war in Afghanistan.

334 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2017

Reviews

[Jack Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended.

Honesty, or at least what I thought was honestly expressed.
If the Legion is really that messed up, it deserves to be dismantled.

[Mackiemesser · Rating 5 out of 5]

What tremendous fun! The book does exactly what it says on the cover: comprehensively report on this man's life in the Foreign Legion. The codes, the taboos, the men, the endless chores, the training, the adventures and, yes, the brutality and the seediness. I was fascinated. If you want to know about the Legion, good and bad, then you *must* read it.

What's more, the book is also something of a travelogue. I learned a great deal about the Midi, Corsica, Gabon and Afghanistan through JRs descriptions.

He is, as near as I can tell, frank about his failings and writes in a fluent, matter of fact style - all of which I found endearing. It was clearly self-published and the punctuation (the author is, for example, far too fond of commas) and spelling suffer for it. However, I found that likewise endearing. It lent the book authenticity, in my opinion. The man has an important and interesting story to tell and he's giving it to you unfiltered.

My main criticism of the book is the lack of photographs. The author gives enough detail that I would be very surprised if it turned out to be a fraud. Some pictures of him in uniform and with his unit would have helped remove doubt, however. That is the down side of being self-published. We as readers need more proof than otherwise that this isn't just made up.

[Peter Durkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It sounds more like a Second World War penal regiment than a modern military formation. If the troops were treated better and had better equipment they probably would have far less desertions. Hard to see how 2 REP get away with it in this day and age. It's one thing to treat trainees this way but trained soldiers?

[Bobby24 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started off very well and the whole book is interesting, but there is something missing, he doesn't talk about his comrades much except in passing, he leaves out the kind of stories guys like ie the drunken punch ups, he leaves us guessing about his adventures on leave in places like Paris or other Euro cities and he seems to have gone four years without getting his leg over, which for a fit young man with a great story is "unpressive". And I'd liked to have known a few lines about what happened afterwards, did he go back to Prison?

That said it is worth a read and my overall impression of him is that he was highly intelligent and a loss to the Legion, he could easily made a career out of it, he must have regrets about it, he'd broken the back of his time in but absolutely ruined it for himself

J.R Lawrence, if you read this leave a comment.

[James A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a bit wordy but worth the read

I was looking for a more up to date book on the French Foreign Legion and came upon this. The author sounded like he was being honest about his experiences and didn't sugar coat anything.

If you have read other books about the Legion you may find yourself skipping good chunks of his narrative because he gets overly descriptive and the story starts getting boring. I would've liked to have heard more about his fellow Legion Soldiers. I think that would have been very interesting.

[Len Levinson]

The book held my attention all the way through although it became tedious at times with descriptions of janitorial work, training hard, and brutal, stupid NCOs and officers. I don't know why anyone would volunteer for such misery except I guess a lot of criminals consider it better than prison, although I'm not sure the Legion is better than prison. It is a prison of its own kind. My service in the U.S. Army was a picnic compared to Lawrence's service in the Legion.

[martin scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title might put some people off, I can assure you that it has nothing to do with Hitler. The author is honest to the bone and his no holds bared approach had my laughing and disgusted. If you have a thing for military novels that aren't over the top mission impossible style adventures, highly recommend this book.

[C.MOSLEY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Read

It's a good read ,comes out of HM prison and joins the legion, can not give 5 having not been in the legion not sure if its 100% true. The author is super trooper but many Officers /NCOs are thick stupid...but its a good read

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a lots of fun reading it. Simply the best. This book made me realize many things about the Legion. I think is a really good read for anyone who's thinking to enter there and expect to be Rambo like. Just amazing book.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent account of life in the legion

Based on the authors account you’d need to have think skin and be pretty driven to stick around in the legion. Really liked his descriptions and sense of humor

[Pierre Lamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting perspective about the French Legion. A pity that there are quite a few grammatical and syntactical errors, particularly in the 2nd part of the book, which could be easily addressed.

[Kas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the modern day legion

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another take on life in the Legion, enjoyed this book also,

[Mrs Olga A Danes-Volkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the title is of dubious taste and the whole thing is full of typos, I enjoyed it. I would have liked to know what happened to the author afterward but never mind. His detailed description of life in the Foreign Legion shows it to be as brutal as I imagined it was but you must know that if you join. It is a strange anachronism in the 21st century but a good way to vanish from society... Worth the read.

[George Cowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read three firsthand accounts of life in the French Foreign Legion. The first was Simon Murray’s iconic Five Years in the French Foreign Legion which I read in 1987 when I was toying with the idea of joining the Foreign Legion myself. I got no further than the idea. And based upon what I have read since: David Mason’s 'Marching with the Devil' and now, JR Lawrence’s 'My Camp: Life in the French Foreign Legion', this was probably a good thing.

Simon Murray enlisted in the Foreign Legion in 1960 and remained in it for five years. I don’t remember the details about Murray’s account – only the general theme and that was one of brutality.

David Mason, meanwhile, enlisted in 1988 and was in the Legion for five years. The Legion was not as brutal as it was in the 1960s but its NCOs were the same petty minded tyrants and most were not cut out for any type of leadership position. Mason’s account also made me doubt whether the Legion was an elite fighting unit. Indeed, it seemed to be bereft of even the most basic knowledge of soldiering. I distinctly recall an exercise in which the notion of ‘digging in’ was not only alien to the Legion but also a considered to be a cowardly thing to do.

The ineptitude of the Legion was also made very clear to me in Lawrence’s book. The NCOs may not have been brutal as they were in Murray’s day but the prerequisite skill set was still the same: psychopathic traits, incompetence, unfairness, laziness and stupidity. Most were bullies. I shouldn’t just single out the NCOs because these traits were often present in the commissioned officers as well. Many of the NCOs no doubt stayed in the Legion because they were unemployable. The most inept never rose beyond the rank of corporal and so their anger and resentment about this was played out upon the new recruits.

The French language was not properly taught to new recruits. On various occasions NCOs would lose the plot when a recruit was unable to comprehend what was being said to them. This, in combination with the disproportionate punishment that followed, caused many to desert. I wonder how well the Legion would actually fare in a drawn out battle where Legionnaires ought to have been expected to provide developments about the battle as it unfolded? How could these same soldiers properly understand the more nuanced commands required in such a situation?

This, and for the reasons which I have outlined above, makes me think that the Legion could never be a front line fighting force. Sure, it might be effective as a type of garrison force but you would not want to depend upon it where it really counted. Lawrence dedicates a chapter to Afghanistan. One very telling incident which Lawrence writes about was that sometimes Legionaries would not even bother getting out of bed when it came to guard duty! And another thing I could not understand is why the Legion did not set up some type of proper toilet facilities. It is well known that the Americans periodically burn the contents of their latrines using diesel fuel but the Legion simply does without usable toilets so that people just ended up defecating around the camp.

A very enjoyable book. In fact, I found it hard to put down. Indeed, Lawrence set me up well because the enthusiasm I had for reading this book gave me the momentum to read several others immediately thereafter (and also to write this review as well). Since 'My Camp: Life in the French Foreign Legion', I have been able to put down my mobile phone and re-enter the pleasurable world of reading.