# Please explain this picture **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557 "2016-01-29T06:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/21 "2016-01-31T19:56:41Z")
The factual answer in post #8 left off a bit. As noted, the aprons are buffalo leather. What’s not mentioned is that each legionnaire had to procure his own apron off a live buffalo using just his axe. Only the survivors make it into the parade. Just kidding. 😃 But someday this will be a widely believed urban legend and only us 'Dopers will know the true source of the oft-repeated & circularly-sourced story of the legionnaire’s axes. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2016, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/22 "2016-02-01T13:24:26Z")
In other military ceremonial weirdness - the Royal Welsh Regiment has appointed a new goat [Fusilier Llywelyn](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-35371670). ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2016, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/23 "2016-02-02T00:37:39Z")
This is my Axe! This is my gun! One is for chopping, one is for fun! ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/24 "2016-02-04T22:46:29Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > In other military ceremonial weirdness - the Royal Welsh Regiment has appointed a new goat [Fusilier Llywelyn](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-35371670). That’s nothing. The Norwegian Royal Guard’s [penguin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav) was knighted… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557/25 "2016-02-04T23:09:28Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > [Foreign Legion Pioneers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Legion_Pioneers_%28Pionniers%29) Aha! This clears up a detail about the Battle of Waterloo that I’ve always wondered about. There was [a famous skirmish at Château d’Hougoumont](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hougoumont): > [@](#): > > Sous-Lieutenant Legros, wielding an axe, managed to break through the north gate. A desperate fight ensued between the invading French soldiers and the defending Guards. In a near-miraculous attack, Macdonell, a small party of officers and Corporal James Graham fought through the melee to shut the gate, trapping Legros and about 30 other soldiers of the 1st Legere inside. All of the French who entered, apart from a young drummer boy, were killed in a desperate hand-to-hand fight. The fight was [recently dramatized](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUtDkfHlzgs) in _Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell_. So, why would Sous-Lieutenant Legros be wielding an axe in battle instead of a rifle and bayonet? **Because he was a pionnier, and was tasked with breaking through fortifications such as the gate at Hougoumont!** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-this-picture/744557.md?page=1)