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"With Honor: Life and Career of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion

Peter Lyderik

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By Alexander Mikaberidze, from 2015.

Biography of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion. Born and raised in Georgia, Tokhadze immigrated to France after the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia in 1921. Enrolling in the Foreign Legion, he served with distinction in Morocco between 1925 and 1939. During the World War Ii, he was sent to the 5th Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, where he distinguished himself during the fighting the Japanese in 1945, when the legionnaires conducted an epic retreat of some 1000 km from the Tonkin region to China. Rising to the rank of colonel and garnering the much coveted Legion d'Honneur, Tokhadze was the highest ranked Georgian officer in the French army.

Online and free to read. Enjoy :)

http://www.academia.edu/10750889/_W...khadze_1901-1975_of_the_French_Foreign_Legion
 

mark wake

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By Alexander Mikaberidze, from 2015.

Biography of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion. Born and raised in Georgia, Tokhadze immigrated to France after the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia in 1921. Enrolling in the Foreign Legion, he served with distinction in Morocco between 1925 and 1939. During the World War Ii, he was sent to the 5th Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, where he distinguished himself during the fighting the Japanese in 1945, when the legionnaires conducted an epic retreat of some 1000 km from the Tonkin region to China. Rising to the rank of colonel and garnering the much coveted Legion d'Honneur, Tokhadze was the highest ranked Georgian officer in the French army.

Online and free to read. Enjoy :)

http://www.academia.edu/10750889/_W...khadze_1901-1975_of_the_French_Foreign_Legion

interesting article! thank you peter.
 

Rapace

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(...) Biography of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion. Born and raised in Georgia, Tokhadze immigrated to France after the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia in 1921. (...)
Another famous Georgian who served in the Legion was Lt-Col Prince Dimitri Amilakvari, KIA in 1942 during the battle of El Alamein, when serving with the 13e DBLE.


(...) he was sent to the 5th Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, where he distinguished himself during the fighting the Japanese in 1945, when the legionnaires conducted an epic retreat of some 1000 km from the Tonkin region to China. (...)
That's the episode of the so-called colonne Alessandri (from the name of the general who led it). It followed the March 1945 coup, when the Japanese decided towards the end of WW2 to oust the French administration in Indochina whom they didn't trust anymore and assume direct control of the region.
 
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