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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2363547" data-attributes="member: 26473">Thanks for the heads-up on the music! Looks like a fun time.Easy as cut-'n'-paste. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> You're welcome, and thanks very much in return. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Lieutenant colonel, colonel, brigadier, and so on - I didn't have the book handy that listed the ranks when I typed that up last night (I was engrossed in the Yankees-Mets game but for the life of me I can't explain why... :\ ), but I will add them later for reference. In fact, Vidal and the gang will be meeting the XO of the regiment in a couple of weeks, lieutenant-colonel Jeanpierre....but I'm getting ahead of myself...You should definitely not shut up!As far as I can tell from my reading (and with the caveat that I am not an expert), warrant officers were not as specialized in the French Army as they historically have been in the U.S. Army. A couple of different sources describe adjudants filling the role of top NCO in platoons, what we would think of as 'platoon sergeant'.After the French government capitulated in Indochina, the Legion experienced a decrease in recruitment and an increase in desertion. This hit all of the regiments, including the REPs, pretty hard: both the 1st and 2nd BEPs were effectively annihilated at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 - the two battalions would be reformed as the 1st and 2nd REPs in 1955 by cannibalizing the 3rd BEP (which was basically a training formation anyway) and bringing in new recruits. The Legion as a whole was suffering a recruiting problem however that didn't start to rectify itself until 1956, the year our game begins.As is often the case with active combat units, there may be a shortage of qualified personnel to fill every billet - in Indochina and to some extent in Algeria it was not uncommon for a lieutenant to command a company, a sergeant a platoon, and so on. In fact, Pyotr met a lieutenant in command of a tirailleur company during the three weeks your characters were scattered to the winds, and the commander of 4th Platoon in 3rd Company is sergent Santos at the time Vidal and rest join the unit at Portemonte...but again, I get ahead of myself. In any case, the French suffered an acute shortage of officers and NCOs in Indochina and in the early years of Algeria., which is reflected in who fills what billets - I chose to reflect this with the relative absence of WOs in 3rd Co.On a related note the nature of the enlisted men in the Legion changed by Algeria as well. The number of Germans began to decrease, and there were fewer ex-Wehrmacht in the ranks, though many of the Legion NCOs were former defenders of the Reich (like your platoon sergeant...) - West Germany was about to take over its own armed forces again, so kids who wanted to be soldiers could stay at home instead of heading for the Legion recruiters. More French, Italian, and Spanish joined the Legion, as did a fair number of recruits from Eastern Europe, but men from all over the world still enlisted - I don't remember the exact count, but I think I have something like 30 nations represented in your fictional 3rd Co. For the first time in decades, the Legion in Algeria found itself with a group of enlisted men with little previous combat experience, though it still boasted some of the most experienced and toughest NCOs in the world.The officer corps of the Legion, which was about 90% French, also changed by the Algerian conflict - the officers of the old Army of Africa, who spent long years in posts in the Maghreb, the Sahara, and the Sahel, were replaced by a candidate corps straight from the Metropole. This was another consequence of Indochina - I don't remember the exact year, but in one year the number of officers killed fighting the Vietminh was equal to that produced by both of France's officer schools, which makes it hard to build up an experienced cadre. I reflected this in the game as well: of the four lieutenants in your fictional 3rd Co., only one served in Indochina.Wow, that was probably WAY more than you wanted to know - please forgive my many digressions. That said, there is one more thing: there are a couple of other ranks I didn't list. The rank of sergent-chef-major was rarely awarded, but it did exist. The rank of major, which was actually the top warrant officer (not an officer like the U.S., Canadian, and UK rank!), had been discontinued but was re-instituted sometime around 1959 or 1960. The rank of aspirant was a cadet officer, similar to 'third lieutenant' if I'm understanding my sources correctly - you are unlikely to meet an aspirant in-game except with a regular French Army unit.Did I completely exhaust this question?!? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":o" title="Eek!    :o"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":o" /></blockquote>

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