This website has some cool photos of some forgotten history. 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 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. 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.
But back to this collection of postcards. It is a fascinating look at the characters of that time period. I got a kick out of the names of some of these guys. Like Diablo or Slim. Slim was actually the name of quite a few American mercenaries back then.
The other thing I looked at was the amount of guys hired for their machine gun expertise. Guys like Tom Fountain, Sam Dreben, Alfred Lewis, and of course Maximillian Kloss and his work at the Battle of Celaya. Very interesting round up of some highly specialized folks that applied their trade all over the world, to include Mexico. It kind of reminds me of the long bow mercenary archers of the 14th century and how sought after they were. (the White Company comes to mind)
Finally, and this is what is really interesting about the mercenaries of this time period. They were the ones importing the know how of how to use these latest tools of warfare. It was these guys working in Mexico who introduced new and interesting ways of how to use the machine gun in warfare. The war in Europe was also emphasizing how effective these weapons were, and demonstrating how they could be used.
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. 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. Anyway, check out this link to see the other interesting characters and photos at this website. –Matt
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American, Canadian and other foreign mercenaries in Mexico
From Wikipedia
Members of Pancho Villa’s American Legion of Honor
Many adventurers (e.g. 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. 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. 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.
