French Armenian Legion - Order of Battle, 1916 - 1918

1918

The number of volunteers was an equivalent of 6 battalions, each containing 800 volunteers, and another 6 battalions was planned to be formed. Armenian committees were organizing the conscription process to recruit these soldiers in France and United States.

Ninety-five percent Armenian in composition, the Legion included Ottoman Armenian refugees, former prisoners of war, and permanent residents of Egypt, America, and Europe. The majority of the soldiers were said to be recruits from the Armenian-American community or embittered survivors of the battle of Musa Dagh who were living in refugee camps in Port Said, Egypt, at the time.

After the initial training in Cyprus, the Armenian Legion was first deployed in Palestine, to help French and British armies against Ottoman and German armies.

Under the command of General Edmund Allenby, the Legion, fighting in Palestine, Syria, and finally Cilicia, won the plaudits of Clemenceau’s government and its Entente allies."