Prince Aage (DENMARK)

Prince Aage (1887-1940) was the great-great grandson of French King Louis-Philippe (founder of the French Foreign Legion). When he was 14 years old a lieutenant from the Foreign Legion visited his family and he became enraptured with his stories. In 1909 he entered the Danish army and, in 1913, was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Life Guards. After the war, he visited the US and spent some time in France before returning to Denmark. He secured permission from the King to resign his commission in order to enlist in the French Foreign Legion and did so in 1922. In the spring of 1923 he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2e Etrangere (2nd Regiment) in Morocco, where the Legion was then heavily engaged in the Middle Atlas mountains. By June the prince had been shot in the left thigh at the Battle of El Mers; receiving the Croix de Guerre. By April 1925, Abd-el-Krim's Riffian warriors had beaten the Spanish and began attacking the Legion border outposts. From 1923 to 1925, he was almost continually in action against one or another of the revolting native tribes. He was in the heaviest fighting against Abd-El-Krim, took part in the relief of the blockhouse at Bibano and witnessed the capture, by Krim's forces, of the French outposts.