Editing French Foreign Legion (section)

===Tonkin Campaign and Sino-French War 1883–1888===
{{Main|Tonkin Campaign|Sino-French War}}

[[File:Legion sniper, Tuyen Quang.jpg|thumb|upright|A Legionnaire sniper at [[Siege of Tuyên Quang|Tuyên Quang]]]]

The Foreign Legion's First Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel Donnier) [[French Navy|sailed]] to Tonkin in late 1883, during the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded the [[Sino-French War]] (August 1884 to April 1885), and formed part of the attack column that stormed the western gate of [[Sơn Tây Campaign|Sơn Tây]] on 16 December. The Second and Third Infantry Battalions (''chef de bataillon'' Diguet and Lieutenant-Colonel Schoeffer) were also deployed to Tonkin shortly afterwards, and were present in all the major campaigns of the Sino-French War. Two Foreign Legion companies led the defence at the celebrated [[Siege of Tuyên Quang]] (24 November 1884 to 3 March 1885). In January 1885 the Foreign Legion's 4th Battalion (''chef de bataillon'' Vitalis) was deployed to the French bridgehead at Keelung (Jilong) in Formosa (Taiwan), where it took part in the later battles of the [[Keelung Campaign]]. The battalion played an important role in Colonel [[Jacques Duchesne]]'s offensive in March 1885 that captured the key Chinese positions of La Table and Fort Bamboo and disengaged Keelung.

In December 1883, during a review of the Second Legion Battalion on the eve of its departure for Tonkin to take part in the [[Bắc Ninh Campaign]], General [[Oscar de Négrier|François de Négrier]] pronounced a famous ''mot'': ''Vous, légionnaires, vous êtes soldats pour mourir, et je vous envoie où l'on meurt!'' ('You, Legionnaires, you are soldiers in order to die, and I'm sending you to where one dies!')