After wondering around for a couple of days, Lucky, in company of the yugoslave Mirko, decided to find out about the French Foreign Legion in Marseille. Getting tired of waiting, with some other guys, they left the fort. After some adventures they arrived in Morocco and delivered to the authorities. From there, Lucky was send to Algeria and the heavy instruction of that army. Once the instruction finished he was send to an operating unit and then another. Most of the time the Legionnairs were occupied by chasing rebels through the country. Several times wounded and decorated, he did not agree with some superior officer and was jailed. After his punishment he refused to end his service as ordinary soldier and was kicked out of the forces. After some years at sea (he started at the age of 15), Harry Luyckx enlisted in the Belgian army. After the legion, he went back out to sea till he met his wife, then he worked as a pipe-fitter and engine-fitter. He specialized himself and climbed the ladder until he became supervisor, superintendent and project manager on construction projects all over the globe.

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“A pleasure to read and nearly impossible to put down.” –Army Times “Embodies an experience that many have enjoyed in fantasy–few in reality.” –The Washington Post The French Foreign Legion–mysterious, romantic, deadly–is filled with men of dubious character, and hardly the place for a proper Englishman just nineteen years of age. Yet in 1960, Simon Murray traveled alone to Paris, Marseilles, and ultimately Algeria to fulfill the toughest contract of his life: a five-year stint in the Legion. Along the way, he kept a diary. Legionnaire is a compelling, firsthand account of Murray’s experience with this legendary band of soldiers. This gripping journal offers stark evidence that the Legion’s reputation for pushing men to their breaking points and beyond is well deserved. In the fierce, sun-baked North African desert, strong men cracked under brutal officers, merciless training methods, and barbarous punishments. Yet Murray survived, even thrived. For he shared one trait with these hard men from all nations and backgrounds: a determination never to surrender. “The drama, excitement, and color of a good guts-and-glory thriller.” –Dr. Henry Kissinger