COBI French Armed Forces Set 2037

COBI's French Armed Forces set is built from 30 blocks and contains three figures: a soldier in tropical uniform with a pistol, an infantryman of 1940, and a legionnaire of the Foreign Legion with a two-colour Lee-Enfield rifle and the Legion's white képi — a new part made for this set. Stands and an accessory box are included, and the figures use pad printing throughout.

The white cap is the whole story

The képi blanc belongs to the French Foreign Legion, and the Legion is unlike any other unit in any army: it is a formation of the French army made up of foreigners, commanded by French officers, open to men of any nationality.

A recruit may serve under a declared identity rather than his own name. In exchange, after three years he may apply for French citizenship — and a legionnaire wounded in action becomes eligible immediately, under a principle the Legion states plainly: Français par le sang versé, French by spilled blood.

The Legion was founded in 1831 to give France soldiers it could send where French conscripts would not be sent, and it has fought in almost every French campaign since. In 1940 legionnaires fought in Norway and in France, and afterwards the Legion split between Vichy and the Free French — in Syria in 1941 two Legion units fought each other.

The white cap itself was not designed to be white. It is a khaki cover that bleached in the North African sun until the Legion made it official.

In the COBI range

One of the Historical Collection figure sets, all at the same scale and price and designed to combine. Set 2056 is the Great War with a French soldier of 1914, and 5734 the Dewoitine D.520 that flew for France, Vichy and then France again.

Specifications

Pieces: 30 · Figures: 3 with accessories · Stands and accessory box included
Box dimensions: 13 × 3.7 × 10.5 cm (5.1 × 1.5 × 4.1 in)