Modelling > Scenarios

Here are Some Ideas for a British 'Foreign Legion'

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kengeorge:
1) Name / Title?

2) Location for Base of Operations. Preferably Offshore? (Isle of Man / Isle of Wight / Channel Islands / Belize?)

3) Force composition? French Foreign Legion has 8,900 men in eleven regiments and one sub-unit, So would the British 'Foreign Legion' be a simularly organised?

4) Do I include a Para capable force as well?

5) Small Arms? Anything but the L85 (More like FN SCAR-H / H&K HK417 / H&K G36 / Suggestions?)

6) Armour? Standard, Re-furbed FV430 series (Bulldog) Non-standard, LAV-25 / Boxer / M1128? What are the advantages / Disadvantages between Tracked v Wheeled Armour?

7) Air support? Limit to either Rotary Wing Vertical Assault and / or Gunship, or rely on AAC

8) Can any one think of anything I've missed

Frank3k:
 1 - Ministry for/of Foreign Missions. Sounds diplomatic enough...
 2 - Pre-1962, Jamaica after that, Belize. Gibraltar for Europe/N. Africa/Near East. Hong Kong for the Far East, Diego Garcia for the Indian Ocean, southern Africa and the Falklands.
 3- Probably more ships & planes.
 4 - Yes!
 
 For vehicles and weaponry, a small but significant number of enemy combatant weapons, like AK-47s and BTR-40s/BRDM-2/BTR-60-BTR-80

Geoff:
Gibraltar, Falklands, Fiji, HK, Aden, Cyprus.

Make it airmobile and like "Fireforce" all members jump qualified.

Used as a rapid reaction force.

Light armour (I think??)

Old Wombat:
Historically, control would come from the Foreign Office or Colonial Office with that control moving to the Ministry of Defence in the mid-60's.

I'd look at somewhere like Malta as your primary base, with training & HQ facilities (up to independence in 1964), then moving its HQ & training to mainland Britain (as the Légion étrangère did to France from Algeria in the mid-60's), with bases in Ceylon, Hong Kong, Belize/Guyana, BWI, etc., up to the mid-60's then shrinking to "missions" or "detachments" attached to (but not part of) embassies/consulates.

Force composition/size would probably also follow the French model as the Empire shrinks post-WW2.

Realistically you'd be issuing standard British small-arms & equipment but;

Rifles: My personal choice is the FN SCAR family, preferably -H but -L will do.
Handguns: I'm a .45 fan but a decent .41 (10mm) will do, probably Colt for either.
Machine-guns: You can't go past the ever reliable FN MAG/L7.

Vehicles: Standard British, Landrovers, Stalwarts, etc.

AFV's: you're probably looking at Cav units, not armoured, so British, again, FV100-family (Scimitars, Scorpions, etc.) & FV430-family (Bulldogs, Abbott SPG, etc.), with, maybe, a few non-Brit specialist vehicles thrown in for some variety (LAV-25/LAV-III, etc.)

Air: either/or for AAC/RAF or integral but, if integral, all helo's (Lynx, AH-1, CH-47, etc.) with RAF for heavy lift support.

I'd make the whole of the modern organisation pretty-much air-mobile with Rapid Deployment air & naval forces attached as required for heavy equipment.

apophenia:
For a name, how about beginning with something based on the WWII SOE -- Special Operations Executive-Volunteer (SOE-V), SOE-Foreign Legion (SOE-FL), or some such? Another possibility would be International Legion (à la Garibaldi).

kengeorge didn't give a start date for his foreign legion. As with the Légion étrangère, I'd envision only slight variations on standard British Army kit in the early days. That would likely begin to change in the late '50s? Eg:

 - Stirling (L2A3/Sterling Mark 4 and suppressed L34A1/Mark 5)
 - L1A1 mod (with a Para folding stock and Trilux sight mount)
 - L4A3 Bren conversion
 - L7A2 GPMG (joining but not eclipsing L4A3)
 - L111A1 (12.7 mm Browning M2)

Then, in 1963/1964, perhaps follow the SAS example to replace L1A1s with US AR-15 rifles. Those would joined a decade later by the L110A2 LMG (Para version of Minimi, replacing the Brens).

I'm with Old Wombat on the AFVs. Maybe add FV721 Fox recce car to the mix. Possibly anticipate the Sabre by putting Fox turrets on FV101 hull from the start ... 'FV101FL Scorpion-30' or 'Rarden-Scorpion'?

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