Previous to this, Germany, incensed by the thousands of Alsatians and Lorraines in the Legion, whom German law practically claims as deserters from that country, served notice that any captured Legionnaire would be shot. So the Legionnaires hang together. They stay by one another. They never leave wounded comrades behind.
The Germans promised no mercy. The Legion adopted the motto: “Without fear and without pity,” and on the flag is written, “Valor and Discipline.” The march of the Foreign Legion, roughly interpreted, reads:
Here’s to our blood-kin, here’s to our blood-kin,
To the Alsatian, the Swiss, the Lorraine.
For the Boche, there is none.
FOURAGERE OF THE FOREIGN LEGION
In Artois, after the Legion attacked and captured three lines of German trenches, in 1915, a captured officer, interviewed by the Colonel of the Legion, said:
“Never have we been attacked with such wild ferocity. Who are those white savages you turned loose upon us?”