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Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fight For France and For Civilization
They volunteered for the French, but they were fighting for the future of civilization.
Before America joined World War I, a small group of Americans volunteered for the French Foreign Legion to help defeat the Central Powers. Historian David Hanna profiles seven of these volunteers: a poet, an artist, a boxer, a stunt pilot, a college student, a veteran of the Spanish American War, and an advertising executive. All seven men were united in courage; and some, like poet Alan Seeger, paid the ultimate sacrifice. Before he was killed in battle, Seeger penned the immortal words that inspired this book's title:
I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
Before America joined World War I, a small group of Americans volunteered for the French Foreign Legion to help defeat the Central Powers. Historian David Hanna profiles seven of these volunteers: a poet, an artist, a boxer, a stunt pilot, a college student, a veteran of the Spanish American War, and an advertising executive. All seven men were united in courage; and some, like poet Alan Seeger, paid the ultimate sacrifice. Before he was killed in battle, Seeger penned the immortal words that inspired this book's title:
I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
332 pages, Hardcover
First published June 20, 2016
8 people are currently reading
315 people want to read
About the author
David Hanna
4 books27 followersI am an author based in New York and Morris County, New Jersey. I grew up in the Pemaquid region of Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 9, 2018
A so-so book on the FFL. I would have dived deeper into the personlaties and used more sources on the war. Otherwise, just a fair book on Americans in WWI.
February 28, 2017
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, its forces joined a handful of Americans who had already been fighting under the French flag for years. In his 2016 volume, Rendezvous with Death: The Americans Who Joined the Foreign Legion in 1914 to Fright for France and for Civilization, author David Hanna many first-hand accounts, including, the soldiers’ letters and memoirs, to tell the little-known story of these first Americans in the First World War.
Although there would be more American volunteers later, and at least three Americans were already serving in the Foreign Legion as mercenaries, Hanna’s narrative concentrates on the few dozen original enlistees who on August 25, 1914, marched to the train that would take them to the Legion’s training center. Two of them, poet Alan Seeger and Franco-American big game hunter Rene Phelizot, took turns carrying the procession’s huge American flag. Crowds gathered to see them off, throwing chocolates and flowers. Pretty girls offered kisses. Few would survive the fighting that would stagger on for more than four more years.
They were a motley crew -- artists, students, dreamers, and the occasional prize fighter – united only by their nationality and love of France.
The Foreign Legion didn’t know what to make of them. Its soldiers, foreign volunteers serving under French officers, were typically “men running from something – perverts, deserters, thugs, and worse. The discipline was severe; the conditions often harsh,” Hanna writes. “No one with better options sign up for the Legion.” Until the Americans arrived.
Unlike the regular French forces, the Legion’s soldiers pledged allegiance only to their unit, not to France, which allowed the Americans to join without forfeiting their citizenship. It was in the Legion that the recruits got their first taste of war in the fall of 1914, encountering the Great War’s legendary mud – “so thick it would pull the boots off one’s feet” with “a stench putrid and obscene.” And that the first of them died.
More battles would follow – at Artois, Verdun, the Somme. As the volunteers’ numbers dwindled, another fighting venue opened – in the sky – where they ultimately formed the famous Lafayette Escadrille. One of them, Eugene Bullard, would become the first black American fighter pilot. But while the French saw American airmen as publicity tools to encourage American intervention in the war, Germany considered them blatant violators of America’s vaunted neutrality.
The U.S., however, did not enter the war until spring 1917, and then not through the efforts of the American volunteers but through the fatal telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann offering aid to Mexico in return for an alliance with Germany.
U.S. entry came too late for poet Alan Seeger, who helped Phelizot carry the American flag across Paris in August 1914, and who had been frustrated ever since by his country’s failure to aid the Allies. On the afternoon of July 4, 1916, Seeger advanced with his fellow legionnaires on German trenches. In his most famous poem, he had written, “I have a rendezvous with Death, at some disputed barricade. . . ” That day he kept his rendezvous.
He and the other volunteers would leave behind an America that first fought for, then turned its back on European wars, leaving their idealism in tatters. But France was saved – at least until the next time.
Although there would be more American volunteers later, and at least three Americans were already serving in the Foreign Legion as mercenaries, Hanna’s narrative concentrates on the few dozen original enlistees who on August 25, 1914, marched to the train that would take them to the Legion’s training center. Two of them, poet Alan Seeger and Franco-American big game hunter Rene Phelizot, took turns carrying the procession’s huge American flag. Crowds gathered to see them off, throwing chocolates and flowers. Pretty girls offered kisses. Few would survive the fighting that would stagger on for more than four more years.
They were a motley crew -- artists, students, dreamers, and the occasional prize fighter – united only by their nationality and love of France.
The Foreign Legion didn’t know what to make of them. Its soldiers, foreign volunteers serving under French officers, were typically “men running from something – perverts, deserters, thugs, and worse. The discipline was severe; the conditions often harsh,” Hanna writes. “No one with better options sign up for the Legion.” Until the Americans arrived.
Unlike the regular French forces, the Legion’s soldiers pledged allegiance only to their unit, not to France, which allowed the Americans to join without forfeiting their citizenship. It was in the Legion that the recruits got their first taste of war in the fall of 1914, encountering the Great War’s legendary mud – “so thick it would pull the boots off one’s feet” with “a stench putrid and obscene.” And that the first of them died.
More battles would follow – at Artois, Verdun, the Somme. As the volunteers’ numbers dwindled, another fighting venue opened – in the sky – where they ultimately formed the famous Lafayette Escadrille. One of them, Eugene Bullard, would become the first black American fighter pilot. But while the French saw American airmen as publicity tools to encourage American intervention in the war, Germany considered them blatant violators of America’s vaunted neutrality.
The U.S., however, did not enter the war until spring 1917, and then not through the efforts of the American volunteers but through the fatal telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann offering aid to Mexico in return for an alliance with Germany.
U.S. entry came too late for poet Alan Seeger, who helped Phelizot carry the American flag across Paris in August 1914, and who had been frustrated ever since by his country’s failure to aid the Allies. On the afternoon of July 4, 1916, Seeger advanced with his fellow legionnaires on German trenches. In his most famous poem, he had written, “I have a rendezvous with Death, at some disputed barricade. . . ” That day he kept his rendezvous.
He and the other volunteers would leave behind an America that first fought for, then turned its back on European wars, leaving their idealism in tatters. But France was saved – at least until the next time.
September 25, 2018
Horribly biased book, making Germany out to be a super villain with France America saviors of freedom and democracy. Author David Hanna also trashes Britain, Woodrow Wilson, pacifists, and generally anyone who doesn't share his warmongering beliefs. The book is also full of factual errors, bland writing, and not enough information about individual soldiers. This book isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
July 3, 2019
No real character development. Q- Why join the the French Foreign Legion? Hanna gives the impression that it’s idealism, folly, escapism and other assorted reasons. There is probably not one reason, but Hanna never clearly explores why these men joined. The title comes from a Sefer poem (Sefer does perish during conflict). If Sefer joined for idealistic reasons, the poem is a dark, somber poem. Quite ironic.
November 26, 2023
I enjoyed this audiobook. Hanna's research on the topic is clearly thorough, and he provides sufficient detail to help the reader/listener identify with the individuals whose stories he recounts, while keeping the narrative moving. Definitely a worthwhile read/listen on a niche First World War topic.
June 24, 2022
Well-researched and captivatingly presented.
March 12, 2017
Worth adding to you WW I knowledge.
August 25, 2016
This book needed to be written, and the story of these young men needed to be told. But, though I have read about several of these lives briefly, in other books on WW1, David Hanna has treated their legacy with the respect and detail it deserves. He has reached into their reasons, their attitudes, their ideals and their hearts, and without neglecting faults, brings the reader to stand back in humility and regard their sacrifice.
I was in tears reading this story of men who fought in and for the land and city of my birth. As an American, I was proud of their strong moral resolve and devotion to the cause for which they fought. As a grandchild of a soldier who arrived in France on the first ship to officially come from the States, I could not help but feel awe of the full circle. We are the future that these men, however few but still determined to hold the line until their country joined the fight, died for.
Let's not blow it folks.
I was in tears reading this story of men who fought in and for the land and city of my birth. As an American, I was proud of their strong moral resolve and devotion to the cause for which they fought. As a grandchild of a soldier who arrived in France on the first ship to officially come from the States, I could not help but feel awe of the full circle. We are the future that these men, however few but still determined to hold the line until their country joined the fight, died for.
Let's not blow it folks.
October 26, 2016
This is a subject that I knew nothing about - American citizens joining the Foreign Legion to fight the oppressive German nation in WWI. Their collective, voluntary decision to enter this war was fueled by their love of France (Paris) and their hatred of the oppressiveness of Germanic thinking. The book provides background information into some of these volunteers (enough to give the reader a vested interest in them, but nothing overly detailed) and follows them from the Foreign Legion training camp to the battlefields of Champagne, Verdun and the Somme to name the most influential. It also highlights the cross-over of several of these volunteers into the air combat campaign that was quite primitive in terms of technological advancements.
It is a book that is to-the-point, only 280 pages, and kept my interest through its entirety. There were some grammatical errors spotted in the content, but nothing to spoil the read.
It is a book that is to-the-point, only 280 pages, and kept my interest through its entirety. There were some grammatical errors spotted in the content, but nothing to spoil the read.
October 26, 2016
A well written and well research work about the Americans who joined the French Foreign legion in its WWI fight against Germany. Hanna quotes from letters written by the soldiers, Alan Seeger's poetry, and follows the Americans from their pre-war lives, some in Paris and many in the United States, through the end of the war and post-war lives--when they survived.. I feel it was a good summary of WWI from it's beginning to the end and it's resultant treaties and impact on the participating countries. I received this book as a GoodReads giveaway and I thank the author and publisher for the privilege to read this book.
August 11, 2016
A very interesting book covering World War I and the Americans who chose to fight for France's freedom before America became involved in the war. They first had to join the Foreign Legion, and from there many went on to become some of the first aviators of World War I.
The author chose to focus on a few well known and not so well known American young men...and makes it very personal as well as informative.
The author chose to focus on a few well known and not so well known American young men...and makes it very personal as well as informative.
November 9, 2016
A OK book with good information. However, authors and editors need learn that books must go in chronological order or by following the life of one person at a time. Jumping around with multiple timelines and multiple people makes books confusing which this book does. Otherwise, I would have given the book a higher rating.
June 19, 2016
Really great human drama in this story.
November 20, 2016
A nice history of the Americans who served under the French in World War 1. A good read.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews