The Praetorians

I read the kindle version of this book and did not notice any problems with the electronic copy, even the footnotes worked fine. The novel continues the story of the paratroopers from the Centurions. It provides an excellent example of small unit tactics and also shows how good leaders can mold a demoralized unit into an effective unit. It also details the sacrifice of the paratroop units by the French government (and yes the French people). The author goes a bit into the machinations of the French leadership (though he really only touches on this). All in all a good book and worth reading if for nothing else it shows the turmoil among the French gov, people and the paratroopers; also how when push came to shove the army including the paratroopers supported the government even to their own detriment and how this support alienated many of the colonial people both Moslem and French the army (paratroopers) were defending. Think the Killing Fields light.

It is so instructive to read the French experience in modern guerilla warfare. Had we paid a bit more attention to what they had to teach, Viet-nam,and the current Middle eastern mess might have come out so much differently. These two "novels" (The Centurions being the other) should be required reading at the Army War college right along Bernard Fall's masterful and prophetic books. Not to mention being the basis of a 100 question multiple choice/fill in the blank test for anyone joining the Department of State.

The Praetorians, Jean Larteguy's long out-of-print sequel to The Centurions and one of the most important chronicles of the Algerian War, has finally been re-published in this beautiful mass market edition by Penguin Classics! The Praetorians is a historical novel of the fictional 10th Colonial Parachute Regiment in Algeria, including their involvement in the events of May 1958 that led to the downfall of the Fourth Republic and the return of Charles De Gaulle to power. The Praetorians brings back all of the characters of the Centurions including Raspeguy, the brilliant and colorful Basque paratrooper colonel; Glatigny, the pious nobleman from a military family, adjusting to war without honor; Esclavier, the book's main character and storyteller, from a family of leftists who don't understand his passion for war; Dia, the African colonial doctor and unit confessor; Boisfeuras, the cagey Eurasian intelligence officer; Mahmoudi, the Muslim Algerian patriot with divided loyalties; Pinieres, the giant lieutenant who represents the new breed of elite professional soldier epitomized by the paratroopers; and Marindelle, the propaganda genius and master conspirator. Fans of The Centurions will want to read this sequel but should be warned that The Praetorians differs from it's predecessor in many distinctive ways. First of all, the character development and backstory of The Centurions is essential to understanding the nuances of The Praetorians. Don't read the second without reading the first! Second, if you are unfamiliar with the Algerian War and the events of May 1958, do a little research first (I read The Praetorians simultaneously with the classic history of the war, A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne -- a great book I recommend and a fabulous two-book reading experience!) or you will be lost quickly. The Praetorians is truly a historical novel and the main characters mimic the actions of the actual people who participated in the crisis. Third, this is the retelling of the events of 1958 by Major Esclavier to a female journalist after they take place. The Algerian coup d'etat raised the hopes of the French troops in Algeria, the Algerian Europeans and moderate Muslims who favored integration with France. But it failed as Charles de Gaulle, in whom so many placed their hopes, proved to be uninterested in their dreams of an on-going French Algeria. Esclavier's retelling is disturbing and his betrayal at the hands of Irene will feel familiar to cynical critics of our own mainstream media. Finally, and this is why you should read this book: this is a brilliant military existential masterpiece that speaks to the current political and military crisis the US faces today -- with the French paratroopers of the 1950s replaced by their literal existential descendants, America's special operation commandos. Thus this edition has a thoughtful forward written by US General Stanley McChrystal. What caught my eye was how unchanged the complexities and tactics of Islamic rebellion are, and how impotent Western minds are to comprehend them. In one telling scene a French officer says, "Jehad [Jihad] has gone out of style." Man, was he ever wrong! This is a book about dashed hopes and crushed dreams and the band of sincere patriotic warriors who shed their blood and sweat for a nation that ultimately abandoned them. Jean Larteguy, the former French Marine paratrooper and journalist, is a brilliant writer and his colorful prose is flawless. There are some jarring syntax and POV issues that may be related to the book's translation from the French. But nonetheless, this is masterful military historical fiction. Highly recommended.

The sequel to The Centurions. Some of the Legionnaires who survived prison camp were sent to Algeria in a counterinsurgency role.This along with Horne’s “A Savage War Of Peace” and the movie “The Battle Of Algiers” are the holy trinity of urban insurgency.Translated by Xan Fielding who was SOE in WWII.

This book is a sequel to The Centurions which, unfortunately, I've not yet been able to obtain. I believe that it continues the saga of the French paratroopers who were captured by the Viet Minh following the loss of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. It recounts their frustrations not only with the military defeat. But, also how the local allies were abandoned to be subsequently murdered by the Communists. Many of the best field officers who survived learned valuable lessons in fighting counterinsurgencies. Those lessons were fruitful in countering the revolution in Algeria. An interesting sidenote is that they were fairly successful in bringing captured rebels over to their side. That means a significant number of former enemies ended up fighting for the French. Though they were prevailing militarily in Algeria the French people grew tired of the campaign. Similar to the American experiences in Vietnam,Iraq and Afghanistan. Guerrilla wars are difficult in the sense there are no easily definable front lines or easy narratives. The paratroop officers made the mistake of supporting de Gaulle who they thought would be supportive of their cause. He betrayed their trust. The loss of Algeria ended France as a major world power. Though written as a novel this is a valuable piece of history.

A must read if you want to get a feeling for French airborne in Vietnam and Algeria. An interesting read that leaves you asking what are the best methods to employ against aan enemy that refuses to play by the rules of war.

Well worth reading for anybody with a passing interest in modern French history. I had previously read the Centurions in the Penguin classic version on Kindle, so when the Praetorians was issued in the same format, was interested to follow the story. I seem to remember that both books together form the basis of a 1960s film called " The Lost Command" with Anthony Quinn as Colonel Raspeguy.If you have seen the film "The Battle of Algiers", the two books give a different perspective- perhaps more sympathetic to the French. The Centurions is a more straightforward read, while The Praetorians moves back and forwards in time, while describing what happened to the surviving characters from the first book in the last days of French Algeria. In this respect, it does become slightly confusing at times, so I would recommend reading Alastair Horne's "A Savage War of Peace" first, if you want to understand the historical context and especially the events around the 1958 putsch and what exactly was going on.If you want novels which give some background to the deep malaise that affected the French Army up until 1961, start with Zola's "The Debacle", move on through Sartre's "The Troubled Sleep" and finish up with "The Centurions/The Praetorians" and you probably get a fairly good idea. The introduction by a US General also tries to put the book in the context of more recent counter-insurgency campaigns- depending on your position - how or how not to fight them.Not a great book, but an interesting read if you are interested in modern French history.

The book is - according to the author - a pretty accurate account of the period of the Algerian War, surrounding the de facto coup and installation of De Gaulle in France, but with fictional character names and with many place names omitted / shortened to code. It is the last one of the paratroop / French Foreign Legion trilogy of Larteguy, preceeded by  Les mercenaires  and  Les Centurions . While I have not read the previous two yet, the book manages to stand on its own and you do not lack for understanding when reading it as a stand alone volume.While some operations in the field are described, a lot of the book is about the planning, motives and the state of mind of a class of professional French soldiers, who have gone through the Free French force, Chindit, Indochina and finally Algerian experience, and who according to some were amongst the best suited to the so called 'low intensity conflict' or guerilla warfare. You will not find a gripping, page turning account of firefights, nor will there be gruelling descriptions of the torture methods that were applied for instance during the Battle of Algiers.About three quarters of the book is recounted from the perspective of a French paratroop captain, who left the army some time after the May the 13th coup, which eventually brought De Gaulle to power. The final quarter is recounted as a journal of a conscript, who gets under command of one of the crack paratroop colonels, albeit in a regular reserve infantry batallion.A lot of the book describes the mindset, the mentality of the paratroops involved, and what they thought they ought to achieve. It is a very good example of the disconnect between a civilian population, which tasks an army to win but cannot abide the thought that war is fundamentally not a pleasant business and that hands inevitably get soiled, especially if an enemy is preying upon discrediting an armed force in that way (do not get me wrong, I am by no means an apologist of war crimes).It also shows the fundamental fear of a modern society of its armed forces - especially the politicians' fear - and the age old nugget that a military, which has been employed in war for decades is hard to integrate and hard to ignore.In complexity, it might appeal more to readers of something like Forsyth's  Biafra Story , or for complexity to something like  The Ragged Man: Book Four of The Twilight Reign . The sheer number of people involved, the many subtle or not so subtle plots, the politics that were slowly running away from the grasp of many of the protagonists, all make for a book, which is incredibly rich but gives no hard and fast answers. It probably does a very good impression of how a first hand witness to the goings on must have felt at the time.The book ends before the attempted assassination of De Gaulle - it seems the author wants no beef with that or with whoever did it. Finally, some people might accuse the author of apologism, of finding ways to justify and exonerate the special forces of this, and the previous Indochina wars for what they have on occassion done. The book certainly presents one side of the story only. However it does that bit extremely well and in my opinion, manages to skirt around some of the hypocrisy often involved in such criticism very successfully. It also shows that these men were generally not engaging in brutallity out of some deranged interpretation of fun but that they did have a pretty good, and for a very short time even a realistic vision and chance of achieving peace and integration in Algeria, saving a lot of later bloodshed. Les mercenairesLes CenturionsBiafra StoryThe Ragged Man: Book Four of The Twilight Reign

Good follow up to Centurions. Gives good account of war in Algeria from French paratroopers perspective and the events in Algiers in 1958 to 1960. Not a classic but a good read. Seems very dated now. Very good on the dilemma that western armies and soldiers face in fighting a revolutionary war.Americans should have studied the Algerian War and its lessons before getting embroiled in the Vietnam War. The Americans learned nothing from the French failures in Indo China and Algeria although they did adopt some of the tactics and torture methods that the French Army employed in Algeria when they fought in

The Centurions has been admired and used for training in military colleges for many years. This continues on from the original story and is also an excellent book. I enjoyed it.

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