For Love and Adventure

Unlike many contemporary memoirists, Susan Travers waited to write her first book until its publication would no longer cause a scandal. At 91, the British-born Travers can rest easy. Tomorrow to Be Brave (Bantam Press; 287 pages) won’t damage any careers or break any hearts. The book, which tells the fascinating story of the only woman ever to serve in the French Foreign Legion, is a rich, rewarding read. The Legion takes recruits from all over the world, subjects them to grueling training in some of the bleakest spots on earth and spits them out, five years later, with a French passport and a new identity. In Tomorrow to Be Brave, Travers recounts her service with the Free France Legionnaires in North Africa during World War II (the other half of the Legion remained loyal to the Vichy government). She takes the reader on an unforgettable voyage as she discovers her two great passions: an ambitious, married officer and the Foreign Legion itself.

Travers spent most of her youth in Cannes during the 1920s when women took to masculine coifs, slinky dresses and cigarettes to help them shake off “the shackles of the previous century.” Swept up in fast-paced Riviera life, Travers gleefully partook in a whirlwind of booze, globetrotting and recreational sex, scandalizing her parents who accused her of becoming une fille facile.

Just before her 30th birthday, the war broke out. Eager for adventure, Travers signed up as a volunteer for Charles de Gaulle’s Resistance army and shipped off to Africa and the Middle East where she joined up with the Legion and became the driver for Colonel Marie-Pierre Koenig. On a trip from Damascus to Beirut, Koenig and Travers became lovers then lived together in Beirut, where they were stationed for several months. “Slowly, in the idyllic setting I would remember fondly all of my life,” she writes, “Pierre touched my soul in a way no other man had previously done … It was a love affair that allowed me to explore a place I’d never known before — the very depths of my heart.”

Promising Koenig that she would never leave his side, she accompanied the Legion to the unforgiving Western Desert of Libya, where it was to block General Rommel and his Afrika Korps on their advance to Egypt. Here, in a desolate spot called Bir Hakeim, the Legion set about preparing itself for what would prove a brutal battle.

The book’s finest storytelling occurs in the vivid descriptions of Bir Hakeim. Vastly superior in manpower and artillery, Rommel predicted that it would take him 15 minutes to crush the 3,700 men stationed there. Instead, combat raged for a bloody 15 days, the Legion holding out despite waning supplies and unbearable heat. As defeat seemed imminent, Koenig ordered a risky nighttime breakout through enemy lines. The book reaches its hair-raising climax with Travers at the wheel, Koenig at her side, speeding over dunes between firing tanks, and ultimately leading 2,400 men to safety.

At the end of the war Travers returned to Paris, where it became clear that her relationship with Koenig would have to end. Brokenhearted, she decided to officially apply for enlistment in the Legion, breaking a 144-year-old rule banning women from its ranks. Travers then left for Indochina: “What I desperately wanted, more than anything, was to stay with the Legion, my adopted family, the people with whom I felt most at home.” The Legionnaires dubbed her La Miss, a token of their respect and affection and, in 1956, Travers was awarded the Legion’s highest honor for her courage at Bir Hakeim. The book winds to a melancholy close, describing Travers’ tepid marriage to a fellow Legionnaire and her move from Indochina back to France. The story moves along at a mostly brisk pace as Travers offers the razor-sharp observations of an outsider coupled with the collegial pride of a fellow soldier.

Koenig went on to pursue a brilliant career, serving as Governor of Paris and, finally, France’s Minister of Defense.

Travers remained loyal to him until the end, spurning book deals for decades until her husband, Koenig and his wife had died. Travers waited 56 years to tell her story; it was worth the wait.