Soldier of fortune 1 things how to#

This webpage is a work in progress to document as much as possible about foreign nationals who participated in the actual conflict during the Mexican Revolution 1910-1920. There is little doubt that Villa’s Mexican equivalent of the French Foreign Legion (known as the “Legion of Honor”) was an important factor in Villa’s successes against Huerta’s Federal Army.įrom the Post Cards Of the Mexican Revolution webpage Villa recruited Americans, Canadians and other foreigners of all ranks from simple infantrymen on up, but the most highly prized and best paid were machine gun experts such as Sam Dreben, artillery experts such as Ivor Thord-Gray, and doctors for Villa’s celebrated Servicio sanitario medic and mobile hospital corps. Later, during the revolt against the coup d’état of Victoriano Huerta, many of the same foreigners and others were recruited and enlisted by Pancho Villa and his División del Norte.

The first legion of foreign mercenaries, during the 1910 Madero revolt, was the Falange de los Extranjeros (Foreign Phalanx), which included Giuseppe (“Peppino”) Garibaldi, grandson of the famed Italian unifier, as well as many American recruits. Most mercenaries served in armies operating in the north of Mexico, partly because those areas were the closest to popular entry points to Mexico from the U.S., and partly because Pancho Villa had no compunction about hiring mercenaries.

Sarah “Wildwoman” Horn), ideologues and freebooters from outside Mexico were attracted by the purported excitement and romance, not to mention possible booty, of the Mexican Revolution. Members of Pancho Villa’s American Legion of Honor – MattĪmerican, Canadian and other foreign mercenaries in Mexico Anyway, check out this link to see the other interesting characters and photos at this website. That to me is a very interesting area that really hasn’t been studied when it comes to the dynamic of the globe trotting soldier for hire.

Soldier of fortune 1 things how to#

These soldiers for hire were the same guys who picked up battlefield innovations in other countries and wars they worked in and further evolved their ideas on how to wage war. The war in Europe was also emphasizing how effective these weapons were, and demonstrating how they could be used. It was these guys working in Mexico who introduced new and interesting ways of how to use the machine gun in warfare. They were the ones importing the know how of how to use these latest tools of warfare. (the White Company comes to mind)įinally, and this is what is really interesting about the mercenaries of this time period. It kind of reminds me of the long bow mercenary archers of the 14th century and how sought after they were. Very interesting round up of some highly specialized folks that applied their trade all over the world, to include Mexico. Guys like Tom Fountain, Sam Dreben, Alfred Lewis, and of course Maximillian Kloss and his work at the Battle of Celaya. The other thing I looked at was the amount of guys hired for their machine gun expertise. Slim was actually the name of quite a few American mercenaries back then. I got a kick out of the names of some of these guys. It is a fascinating look at the characters of that time period. You could say it was the time period in which the horse and repeating firearm was being trumped by machine guns, tanks, artillery and barbed wire.īut back to this collection of postcards. This was a very interesting period in which at the same time, you had wars like World War 1 going on in which many battlefield innovations were going on. During the Mexican Revolution, there were many soldiers of fortune from all over the world applying their trade on both sides of the conflict. This website has some cool photos of some forgotten history.