This list of military legions is in chronological order where possible. In modern times, most units using the name "legion" were composed of soldiers from a specific ethnic, national, religious or ideological background, and that background is often specified in the legion's name. Since the Napoleonic Wars, many countries have used the term "legionnaire" to refer to recruits who are neither citizens nor imperial subjects of the government whose military they enter. [1] These governments often, but do not always, group these foreign recruits into specific units that bear the name "legion."
Lauzun's Legion (1778–82), composite corps of the French Army comprising cavalry, infantry and artillery elements, mostly recruited from foreign mercenaries
Pulaski's Legion (1778–80), one of the few cavalry regiments in the American Continental Army, later merged into Armand's Legion
Royal Foreign Legion (Légion royal étrangère), infantry corps of mostly German mercenaries forming part of the restored French Bourbon army in 1815, renamed the Hohenlohe Regiment after 1821
British Legion (1835), officially the Auxiliary Legion, a British military force sent to Spain to support the Liberals and Queen Isabella II against the Carlists in the First Carlist War
Czechoslovak Legion opposing the Germans in Poland, 1939
Note: Except for the above, all WWII Legions fought on the German side. The Allies seem not to have used the term "Legion" when raising auxiliary units.
Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions"), conscripts and volunteers from the occupied eastern territories recruited into the German Army
La Légion Tricolore, a pro-Nazi French unit which was absorbed into the LVF after six months
Volga Tatar Legion, one of several units formed by the Wehrmacht out of Soviet prisoners of war according to their ethnicity
Other[]
Arab Legion (al-Jaysh al-Arabī) (1920–56), the regular army of Transjordan, predecessor of the present Jordanian Army
Foreign legion (disambiguation)
French Foreign Legion, a unit of the French Army mainly composed of foreigners wishing to fight for France (1831–present)
Polish Legions (disambiguation), eleven units at different times between the 18th and 20th centuries (some of which are listed separately above)
Spanish Legion, an elite unit of the Spanish Army (1920–present)
21st century[]
International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, a volunteer foreign legion military unit created by the Government of Ukraine to fight in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
See also[]
National Legion, a far right Belgian paramilary and political movement in the 1920s and 1930s, headed by Paul Hoornaert
Légion Belge, a far right but anti-Nazi World War II Belgian Resistance movement
White Legion, a Georgian guerrilla group in Abkhazia after the Georgian regular army's defeat in the War in Abkhazia
Caribbean Legion, active in Central American politics of the 1950s