Frenchie Podcast

In Part II of the Cajun National Guard, we follow these young men to the shores of North Africa, Italy, and Southern France where they served as combat military police. Several hundred Cajuns from the Bayou Country made up the 2nd Battalion of the 156th Infantry Regiment. According to records, the 2nd Battalion was sent to North Africa “due to its French linguistic abilities.” These French-speaking Cajuns utilized their language skills in communication, intelligence gathering, interpreting, escort guard duty, transportation, and security. It was in French North Africa where these Cajun “Frenchies” first became highly sought after, and the military found many of them among the rank and file from the Louisiana National Guard.

In Episode 5, we chronicle the Cajuns of the Louisiana National Guard. The 2nd Battalion of the 156th Inf. Reg. (31st Dixie Division) consisted of several companies of guardsmen from the bayou country. Nearly all of them grew up speaking French as their first language. This entire unit spent more than 2 years training together before being shipped overseas as combat military police units. The history of this Cajun Guard unit is particularly unique, as it represented the largest French-speaking American infantry unit within the US military during World War II. In this first of a two-part series, you will hear voices of several of these veterans from New Iberia, Jeanerette, Lafayette, and Breaux Bridge and how they kept their culture and French-language in tact through the first years of the war.

In 1941, Bernice LeJeune was told by the army that his Cajun French language would be of “no use to the US military.” Two years later, he found himself on the shores of North Africa assigned as a French Interpreter for an American colonel. LeJeune traveled with this colonel all throughout the Mediterranean Campaign and helped maintain liaisons with the French people and the French army at the famous battles of Casino and Anzio in Italy. His Cajun French language served him well; it kept him from the front-line fighting in the foxholes and helped to bridge the communication gab among allies during the crucial Italian campaign. Claude Broussard and E. J. LeBlanc—two other Frenchie Cajuns who fought in Italy—share their stories of combat as well in this episode.

In this episode, we transition from the front lines to the high seas, and feature stories from Cajuns who served in the US Navy. These Cajuns had the occasion to speak their native French to other Francophones while in the Pacific or onboard ship, and some were actually engaged in interpreting for military commanders with French leaders. This episode features stories from Willis Granger, Jonas Perrin, Ovide Lancon, and James Warren David who had a distinguished career in the navy and served as an interpreter for a vice admiral. 

Sam Broussard was born and raised in Breaux Bridge, LA, and served as an intelligence officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He came ashore on Omaha Beach on D-Day as the intelligence officer with the US First Army. He led a special forces detachment unit throughout Normandy and Brittany on various missions alongside French resistance groups behind enemy lines. From France, he led additional missions in Belgium and Germany with Belgian underground forces. This episode includes excerpts from two interviews with Sam from the 1980s, including an interview done entirely in French. 

Bob Leblanc, a native of Vermilion Parish, served as a liaisons officer with Special Forces Detachment No. 11 in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He came ashore in Normandy with Gen. Patton’s Third Army and led a small advanced team behind enemy lines to coordinate activities with French resistance fighters. His ability to not only speak French, but to read and write it, gave him distinct advantages in the military. He also served in China with the OSS and later became commander of the Louisiana National Guard. This episode features excerpts from three separate interviews with Bob LeBlanc over a fifteen-year span.