French Paratroops in France '40 Gold?

[SG1]

Airborne units of the Foreign Legion were created during the Indochina War, and only then. At the turn of 1950 when it was clear that the static defence used until then was doomed and the need for something more dynamic became obvious, aimed at destroying the enemy where it was. The available regular troops, like the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes, were too few and turning airborne some Infanterie de Marine units was not enough.

There were some doubts at the beginning because légionnaires were considered very good at building and manning outposts along the main roads, and defending them unto death in case of need, but not nimble enough to be good paratroop material (“l’esprit chasseur” - light infantry).
Doubts were lifted quickly, which is not surprising, taking into account the fact that quite a lot of the légionnaires had fought during WW2, some of them in airborne units... of which some were wearing Feldgrau.

After the defeat, as mentioned, the parachute companies were disbanded in Northern Africa. Some members went to London, joined the Free French and were included in various units of the British Army. The Vichy government made some covert attempts at maintaining the nucleus of parachute troops, but the terms of the armistice and the German monitoring ensured it all was on paper more than anything else.
After the invasion of Algeria by US and UK troops, when the Gaullist Movement started the creation of a new army to fight along the Western Allies, the French efforts towards the building of airborne units finally came to something, and the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes was set up (I think it was a Bataillon only, at the beginning). Some of the original members of the pre-war units joined in, coming back from the British Army, but the French parachute regiment was indeed organised, equiped and trained along the lines of the US Army, with the 82nd Airborne Division as the parent outfit. Still, some details of the regiment’s traditions pay tribute to the British paratroopers and commandos.

They then fought in Italy and in France after the Provence landing.
After the liberation of Paris the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes was made larger to prepare for the final fighting and the invasion of Germany, in a general move by the French government to increase the French participation. When they were brought back in line at the end of 1944 or the beginning of 1945, one third of the staff was composed of the original 1943 soldiers (modulo casualties replacement), one third of young Frenchman volunteering (students, resistance members, etc.) and one third of experienced soldiers transferring from other units... most of them coming from the Foreign Legion (but having to quit being a ”légionnaire” to become a “parachutiste”).
As a side note, having two thirds of experienced soldiers for one third of greenhorns ensured the latter suffered a relatively lower casualty rate compared to similar units of the newly-created French fighting forces.