"With Honor and Fidelity": Life and Career of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion

Biography of Colonel Nicolas Tokhadze of the French Foreign Legion. Born and raised in Georgia, Tokhadze immigrated to France after the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia in 1921. Enrolling in the Foreign Legion, he served with distinction in Morocco between 1925 and 1939. During the World War II, he was sent to the 5th Foreign Regiment of the French Foreign Legion in Indochina, where he distinguished himself during the fighting the Japanese in 1945, when the legionnaires conducted an epic retreat of some 1000 km from the Tonkin region to China. Rising to the rank of colonel and garnering the much coveted Legion d'Honneur, Tokhadze was the highest ranked Georgian officer in the French army.