Who would win in a knife fight between 100 US Marines and 100 French Foreign Legion soldiers and why?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “american legion knife“
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Written by: Reese
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Who would win in a knife fight between 100 US Marines and 100 French Foreign Legion soldiers and why?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “american legion knife“
About Reese
Due to their inhumane training and their indoctrinated love of glorious death, the 10–20 remaining and bloody legionaires would win.
Sort of.
As a classical military units, Marines are probably better
When it comes to ‘primitive’ training, survival and fighting, there are very few people on earth who can compete with legionaires.
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Lets say the fight was between battle experienced front line troops, equally equipped and supplied. I would back the Legionnaires any day. Here is why;
I would assume a similar level of hand to hand and combat training. In that respect, they are probably equal.
But the Legionaries never retreat. Never. They did once, when they were the Old Guard, at a place called Waterloo. But they learn’t their lesson and never have since – sometimes to the embarrassment of the French government.
Since then, the French government has learned not to commit Legionnaire units to combat unless they want an absolutely decisive outcome – one way or the other. At Dien Bien Phu, that is what France wanted, but it went the other way, and the Legionaries stood and died at their posts when all the ammunition and all hope was gone.
What is an acceptable body count for Marines? 10%, 20%? 50%? At some point, a surviving Marine officer is going to make the call, and get his remaining men out of there.
At no point will a Legionnaire officer make that call. 100% is a completely acceptable casualty rate, themselves included.
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It’s really close but my gut feeling is the Marines would have a slight advantage. There are more football players and wrestlers in the marine corp than in the french foreign legion. Generally speaking the US military has larger more athletic people than virtually any other military I have ever seen. The Marines are way ahead of the US military average in physical fitness.
I’m not a marine nor a legionnaire. On the other hand I have seen them both up close and personal on multiple occasions. Both train in hand to hand combat, both have pretty rigorous fitness standards and a high degree of training.
Ultimately I would bet on the Marines, though it would be very close. The reality is average Americans are larger than most people and we value contact sports as much or more than most cultures. This adds up. The FFL is drawing from a diverse pool of people some of whom have never had much in the way of fitness training but in the USA those are not the people that typically wind up in the Marines (those people wind up in other branches of the military). Every rule has exceptions, but for every 5′5″ skinny nerd you show me in the Marines I’ll show you a couple 6′+ 200-220 lb guys that look like they were carved from stone. I googled Marines working out and found this from the encyclopedia Britannica though it’s probably staged but in any picture ever of US troops and foreign troops standing together the US troops are typically much larger.
bottom line, the marines are simply drawing from a pool of more muscular and aggressive individuals than the FFL.
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That’s easy! THE KNIFE MANUFACTURERS! Believe it or not, this is always the case. People wonder what the Iraq and Afghan wars were about and who won or if anybody won? The suppliers of weapons, supplies and contract services won—big time! When three to four $TRILLION is spent on war, where does that money go? It turns out that the salaries paid to the troops account for no more than 3% of the total spent. All of the rest was funneled into the back pockets of Chaney, Rove and Bush’s already rich compadre’s. If something seems unclear or makes no sense, follow the money. It will become clear almost immediately what the real deal is/was.
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Rik Ardino (below) asks a better question based on the original
He says.
Here we go again…
Can I ask you a question?Who would win between 50 One-Eyed Tigers versus 50 female Polar Bears riding unicycles on a melting iceberg 30 mins before sunset?
I will answer his version as it offers more insight into this common question
If one considered 50 female Polar bears who were pregnant and not wearing clothes, then the Polar bears would win
If you bear in mind that Tigers cannot bear ‘bare bear-bearing’ bears in the first place, and if they were one-eyed Tigers they would have problems getting their bearings if the Polar bears are riding unicycles
Also, if the fight was on Bear Mountain the Polar bears would be on their home turf
The Tigers would probably surrender rather than bear the brunt of the bears bearing down on them
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Oh my God, so many of the answers here are hilarious. As if it’s some crime against humanity to ask, or take interest in, a silly, fun, hypothetical question.
Anyway: I am no soldier, of course, so I cannot claim to know. To my understanding, however, French Foreign Legion Soldiers’ training is far more intense and far more dehumanizing than even the most merciless of all (legal) US military training.
Just going on this little snippet, I’d say that the Legion soldiers would probably take it. Mike Richton, Anthony Ricci, and Steve Waddington also raise very good points to this effect; I defer to their far more informed and detailed answers.
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Which modern army trains their soldiers to fight with knives these days.
Why not do the comparison, “which would be better cooks?”. It is just as relevant as your question. Any modern army which has to resort to knife fighting is in deep doo doo (and so is their enemy, since they are also knife fighting, instead of shooting). Better to train your army in skills required to win modern warfare, not medieval warfare.
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The Marines will.Now a days.The Marines still use bayonets and m16.
Yes,the FFL training was little harder than the Marines but a real fighter does not recruit from training.The Real fighter are being recruit from their hearts and mind.
At Belleau Wood.The French was retreating and try to order the US Marines to retreat too.But one Marine replied:’Retreat!?Hell we just got here.Another one in Belleau wood.When the Marines were hiding on a foxhole.Dan Daly screams and Shout Come on you son of bitches,do you want to live forever?.Then the Marines see the bravery and replied:No.We don’t want to live forever.They fix their bayonets and charge do the defensive german nest in belleau wood.Many germans were killed by using bayonet and not a rifle by the Marines.But the FFL was bad ass too and I respect them as an allies.I remember their operation that kill 400 terrorist and lose only one men.But no doubt US Rangers,Green Berets and Delta Force was better than FFL.And another one.Try to Mess with Marine Force Recon or Marine Raiders and we will see.Even the CIA/SAD SOG pick up the men from the Marines.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe that “Knife Fighting” is specifically taught or emphasized in the Marines today. Hand to hand combat and bayonet/rifle training are touched upon in Basic Training, but majority emphasize for combat today are stressed in Rifle marksmanship and very little emphasis given to hand to hand and knife fighting. I do not know about the French Foreign Legions but given the modern day rifle tactics, they probably have only the rudimentary training like the US Marines. So in such a question, the answer would probably end up in a draw. However, having said that, there is a distinct advantage to the US Marine’s ability to win if this was a real do or die fight and that is due to the US Marines have much much more real actual combat experience including Close Quarter Combat experiences from their years in Iraq and Afhganistan and other places over the past 15 years. The French Foreign Legions whose rank and file soldiers have mostly been on garrison duty or on peace keeping duties during this period. For this reason and the do or die can do attitudes of our premier combat warriors, I give the definite nod to our few, our proud, The US Marines. In real actual combat, real battle field experience Trumps military drills and garrison duty. Hurrah! Go US Marines, beat those Legionaires!
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If the 100 were selected at random from the current active members of each corp, my money would be on the French.
My rationale is that the French Foreign Legion is a fairly small force selected and trained almost entirely for field combat. The Marine Corps is a vast organisation with intelligence, logistics, personnel, catering, data comms, language specialists, etc. as well as infantrymen.
On that basis, I think the randomly chosen French would be more likely to be at the peak of combat training.
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My money is on the Legion.
Why?
1. Marines are tough but the Legion is tougher. (Trust me.)
2. The Marines don’t teach knife fighting. The Legion probably does.
3. Few Marines have been in a knife fight before. A fair number of Legionnaires have.
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When I was in the Corp’s We received hand to hand combat training where We were taught to use everything from a Bayonet to the entrenching tool(small shovel) as a weapon.We were also taught enough dirty marshal arts(meaning there was no form)to devastate a enemy quickly. So if a FFL had the same kind of training it could be a tossup as who would win but I think a well trained Marine just might have the edge.
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Here we go again…
Can I ask you a question?
Who would win between 50 One-Eyed Tigers versus 50 female Polar Bears riding unicycles on a melting iceberg 30 mins before sunset?
Who knows? It sounds pretty stupid to me. Do you think anyone would ever round up 50 Tigers and 50 Polar Bears to put them in a hypothetical battle?
Fights are unpredictable, anyone who’s ever watched an evenly matched boxing match can attest to that. Unless your willing to round up 100 Foreign Legion Troops and 100 US Marines with knives to see them fight, it’s pointless to debate this.
There are better ways to spend your time; like learning how to knife fight.
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A bit silly question. Bar “fight” is not really a combat. In a civilian fight, if you kill someone, you will got to jail for murder. Once weapon is involved, then it is combat. But what one try to do. Do you try to occupy territory?, Are you try to cut off supply line? Soldiers are not gladiators. With no mission objective, I would assume both side would just retreat.
So basically, if some alien overload put American and French in a big stadium cage and tell them to fight to death. Then it all depends on which side “happen” to have had more training in knife fighting. But 100 japanese highschool kendo kid would have more edge because they have been doing it few hours, 5 days a week for few years. But this says nothing about how good they are as soldiers.
Modern soldiers of nation state are not warriors of stone age.
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Nobody will ever know—-but lots may guess. My guess would be who gets the most practice at knife fighting. That changes from time to time—-even in the Marines. Do Marines still practice it as much——no idea. Do Foreign Legion practice it like they used to. My answer would be that if one group practices for 4 hours, and the other for 30 hours, the one with far more practice would win. But since it would never happen we can guess anyway we want, and nobody would prove us wrong.
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You can argue for both sides or neither side all the live long day.
Ultimately far too many variables involved plus seriously contemplating this scenario is asinine.
To paraphrase Rik Andino ; Who Knows ? This is a stupid question.
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In 2012 in Djibouti, Africa, I spent 10 days doing a “Desert Survival” course conducted by French Marines. (The title of the course in French was “Aguerissement Zone Desertique”). It happened to be a Foreign Legion Unit was going though the same training at that time.
So I spent 10 days integrated into a French Foreign Legion platoon during a fairly intense training situation. Many of the legionaries were from Eastern Europe originally, but there were guys from all over the world. Generally speaking, they probably physically smaller than the average American, but that’s being very general.
I think the FFL gets a LOT of training on primitive means of survival and fighting. They’re continual taught how to survive without much. They get quite a lot of knife training.
As much as US Marines are well-trained (I’ve worked with Marines plenty, too, my boss in Iraq in 2008 was USMC and I went to FA officer training with a platoon of Marine Lieutenants), not all Marines routinely get the knife training that all FFL guys get.
So when dealing with two sets of fit, motivated troops, the guys with the most TRAINING have the advantage. Obviously.
And I believe French Foreign Legion guys get more knife training than US Marines. French Foreign Legion has my vote.
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I always equated French Foreign Legion to US Green Beret, not US Marines.
Both FFL and Berets are “special forces” of the Army with specialized skills for missions requiring above average soldering skills. Elite solders if you will.
Marines are killers. That is their primary reason to exist. Solders have many objective and are used for many things. Marines are used to kill.
What it takes to be in the Army and what it takes to get into the Marines should highlight the difference.
I believe the US Green Beret is a smaller percentage of the overall Army than the FFL. FFL in today’s world are really just a small upgrade to standard Army persons.
Obviously my personal opinion ONLY and the real answer is who knows.
I always like the same question between:
Navy Seals, Army Green Beret, Marine Special Ops, and Air Force Special Tactics.
Let the unknowable debate rage on!
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I do not know who will win this battle, but I know that the doctors in the emergency will win a lot of work.
Both military formations are very well prepared. Slightly different in their missions and purpose, but I would not angry either one of these groups.
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I don’t think that either the US Marines nor the FFL ever want to find out. Aside from that, friends don’t knife friends.
If yo want to comparee knife combat techniques and training, there are most likely safer and less terminal ways to compare than to engage in this kind of gorefest.
Be assured that US Marines, like everyone else, don’t fight fair. They’ll hit you with everything they got – And they have a lot in their supply inventory to hit you with.
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My money is on the marines. The French, hearing “fight” would show up with white flags instead of knives.
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The Marines, because the other guys are French. Ok, that was a flip answer; my point is that the answer depends on who answers, and there is probably no way to ever know. Everyone should be proud of their own unit, their own military, their own nation, etc. It is called esprit de corps. Any good Frenchman will argue for their Foreign Legion. As an American soldier, I will argue for my US Marines. But, while not really responsive to the question as asked, neither of those two groups would win against even one US Army Ranger… Which tells you something about me, huh?
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My money is on the Legion. Marines THINK they are great and, on the whole, they are.
Legionnaires ARE great – because they get more and tougher military training than anyone else – even the Marines.
Another reason – the Marines don’t teach knife fighting – the Legion does.
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I served as combat mountain troop in the 2nd Regiment de Genie as an engineer for the Legion. I had the pleasure of working with the American marines while on deployment in Djibouti.
Both the US Marines and FFL are excellent fighting forces and are very good at their jobs. I know my drills well and know the french tactics and training, I have been exposed to the US Marine tactics, training and drills and have participated in cross training. We are much of the same, no real difference apart from the individual man strengths and weaknesses, if we are comparing front-line infantry.
Official modern hypothetical statistics on close quarter combat situations reduce the outcome of wining to about 50%.
So there you have it. Its an even match up if you squared off a fighting unit against a fighting unit.
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Questions like these make me chuckle because the questioner gives credit to the notion that “100 US Marines” or “100 Anyone” are a homogenous group i.e. each Marine is the same as any other Marine. This is not true. As others have answered, if the randomization of selection was perfect, I would go with the French Foreign Legion (FFL). Why? The easiest is the rule of thumb regarding size of a force. The smaller the organized combat force, the easier it is to train to a higher standard—for many reasons. This is one reason why, as a whole, the USMC with its circa 185,000 active duty personnel (~ 1/3 the size of the US Army) and having only two schools of basic training versus the US Army’s many schools, is the best trained US military fighting force. In a different sense, why the USCG is better than an equivalent US Navy Force. The FFL has fewer than 8,000 members with a five year minimum enlistment and one training system. Another reason, though difficult to quantify, is the nature of the recruits who apply to, and survive the quasi-feral culture of recruit training. Some 40% of recruits come from poorer Eastern European and Baltic states, with the next 30% coming from Asia and South America. A far higher percentage of people from these regions are experienced the dirtiest aspects of fighting, i.e. street fighting or survival fighting. A fight in Chechnya is likely to be a lot different than a typical fight in California. Another aspect this population of recruits brings is an overall greater exposure to the reality of life and death from their proximity to the actual killing of animals for food, something few Westerners outside of the farming community are exposed to. It is a far leaner force and its history is steeped in warfare, the vast majority of which is low-intensity nasty guerilla-style fighting. In fact, it seems that there are few times in history when the FFL hasn’t been involved in fighting. Its small size and need for self-sufficiency (relatively speaking it gets much less logistical and almost no public/political support) in remote areas, along with the very real and present need for skill in fighting almost guarantees a higher level of individual prowess. During my USMC basic training, we were still routinely beaten (Mar-Jun 1984, Plt 1053), and the environment was just shy of sadistic. In my first unit I worked with Marines who’d been deployed with FFL troops in North Africa, and they recalled (with some awe) watching FFL troops practicing close combat with unsheathed knives, and in particular, the punishment one FFL soldier was given for being unshaven: shaving using a lighter’s open flame. He was impressed. The same question could be with much less certainty if the Marines were pulled from Infantry line companies or in favor of the Marines of chosen from Force Reconnaissance. The later are specially and continuously trained in close-in combat, and their fitness—a huge factor in hand-to-hand fighting—is almost legendary.
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(Sigh) whoever got luckier quickest, and got the pointy end into the other guys gut…Ahhh, shoot! now I have to wreck my cool pithy answer with filler to appease the dreaded and despised Quora answer-bot! I love Quora, the byplay is great, and I treasure interacting with other opinions and minds. Why, I talked with a scientist about lasers yesterday, it was very cool! But this answer-bot, I wish a pox upon it!
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Out of 200 professional warriors I would hope at least one would remember to bring his gun. There’s your winner.
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Both sides are tough as nails. The discipline of the Legionnaires made them ideal for these high risk tactical ventures. Battalion vs battalion ? Maybe at the battalion-level, the Corps would beat the legion
But the French legion is far tougher in mano-a-mano body combat :them some pretty mean hombres- and also ex criminals and in man-for-man the legionnairs has the advantage. And they are most brutal: they would eviscerate the Marines at the end, let them rot in hell
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Gary speaks truth. I have worked with quite a few FFL’s, and honestly do not wish to engage them. I’ve seen them fight while they were next to me ON MY SIDE. Like the Marines, cocky yes… but accomplished warriors.
C
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The answer is obvious: both sides lose. There would be no winners in an unauthorized fight that caused mortalities to either side between two units of belonging to allied nations. There would be court-martials-a-plenty among the survivors on both sides.
Now suppose this fight is happening in some bar and there happens to be a group of 10 Gurkhas in a corner trying to mind its own business. One of the cocky French or American combatants accidently jostles a Gurkhas drinking elbow. The Gurkhas try to be polite and try hard to ignore the provocation. But the cocky combatant hurls insults and provokes them into a fight by defaming the queen, their parentage, and their unit’s honor. The Gurkhas draw their kuchri’s, which are essentially short swords, and easily kill all 200 combatants. Some FFL fighters might survive if they are ex-Gurkhas.
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The Marines.
The French Foreign Legion, has a romantic view of it, but the reality is different.
The training is intense, but it’s intense to the point of leading many people to desertion due to the ritual humiliation and lack of morale.
Australian David Mason, wrote a book on his 5 years in the FFL, and stated that the training he received in the Army Reserve was more effective then the training he received in the FFL. For example, during ambush training, he was beaten for moving off the jungle track and calling contact, once he saw a potential ambusher, instead he was expected…
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I’ve been fascinated by the FFL since serving alongside a few of them in Afghanistan. I’ve read a number of books about them and consider myself reasonably well informed. I’m a big fan of our boys and think highly of the Marines, but I would definitely give the advantage here to the FFL. If it was an actual combat engagement, I’d go straight Marines, easy. But the knife fight factor changes things. The FFL isn’t like the U.S. military. You basically never leave the boot camp type environment. The Marines are very tough and have extensive daily PT requirements, but certainly not nearly as tough as they had it in boot camp. Not so for the FFL.
Also, Marine training has pretty strong regulations forbidding physical abuse by instructors and limited fighting between soldiers. It happens, but it is not the norm. In the FFL, in fighting is very discouraged on the surface, but actually encouraged underground and is quite common. So is physical punishment and downright abuse by superiors. Just look up how many FFL recruits have died after being denied water and forced to march for 30+ miles — even within the last few years. FFLs are regularly punched/kicked in the face if they do something significantly out of line, like yelling back at a superior.
While neither side has extensive knife training, I think the FFL does place a bit more focus on scraping and brute combat. They’ve been honed with over 200 years of influence by neer-do-wells, soldiers-of-fortune, criminals, professional soldiers from every country in the world, etc. That diversity pays off, especially in hand-to-hand-combat techniques.
Lastly, the FFL has a weird obsession with death. Their marching cadences include nonstop references to not coming home, etc. Their history is filled with last stands and fights to the death. I think they would therefore be slightly better equipped mentally for the prospect of running into a mass of men toting knives with nothing more than a knife yourself. Marines are certainly also prepared for death, but they consider that more a failure as opposed to an end goal.
I would give the edge to the size and power of the Marines physically, but I don’t think that would overcome the advantages of the FFL.
The French Foreign Legion Wins.
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I’m almost certain French Foreign Legion would win the battle for a very fundamental reason that they’re not afraid to die as opposed to their counterparts in the US. No wonder therefore one day US Marines will only be trained to fight battles with joysticks or drones. Forget about knives!
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Who cares?
Who cares if 100 cavemen were to face 100 North American native inhaitants?
These questions, like so many on Qura in this area – such as “If Ghengiis Kahn were to come up against the Waffen SS – who would win?” are a waste of electrons
And now I am told that “Your answer needs editing to be more helpful”
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Assuming that 24% of Frenches are obese (BMI > 30) versus 35% for the US I would bet on the French Foreign Legion. Assuming that the FFL is an elite and none of them are, per selection, obese comparing to the US, I would bet on the FFL.
Actually I would think that it wouldn’t be a fair fight for the US and that they have more chances to win if they have guns but I’m not even sure as knives can be thrown way faster than the time it would take a marine to pull up his gun.
Sure we won’t know the answer to this question as I realize it would require a lot of energy to answer it that I don’t have but wanted to point this fact out regarding obesity and the sad observation that makes me ask the question: How did he/she ended up in the army?
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Neither. The crew of the Enterprise would beam down, stun them all with phasers, then claim victory.
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Trick question. While the Legionnaires were busy fighting the Marines (and vice versa) I would systematically knock all 200 off them out with strategically placed NyQuil. Because freedom!
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French Foreign Legion.
Marines will fight to the last man though and the legion guys will not ever want to do that again.
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I think french foreign legion soldier have a much longer training that the average US marine (not talking about special forces here), and probably more experience in combat even before they join the legion. Neither should seek a fight with the other in any case, this cannot have a good ending.
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