The Polish question
Bayonne men
A Polish volunteer company in the French Foreign Legion, named after Bayonne, where it trained from August 1914. It was bled white in the attack near Arras on 9 May 1915.
In August 1914 Poles living in France wanted to form their own legion, but France, Russia's ally, would not allow Polish national units. About 200 volunteers were trained at Bayonne and enlisted in the Foreign Legion as a separate company with a Polish banner. From the autumn of 1914 the company served in Champagne.
On 9 May 1915, the first day of the Second Battle of Artois, the Bayonne men went into the attack near Neuville-Saint-Vaast and La Targette. They took the German positions but lost about three-quarters of their strength, including their commander. Around 50 survived, and in the summer of 1915 the company was disbanded. Many survivors later joined the Polish Army in France. The company's bullet-torn banner is kept in the Polish Army Museum.
Sources
In the chronicle
(04)4 articles use this term.