Yonderian volunteers to Burgundie in the Great Wars

Volonderres encamping just behind the frontlines during the Matavista Campaign, 1929

During the Great War, Yonderian volunteers, also known as Volonderres, made up a considerable amount of the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion serving in both combat and non-combat roles on land, air and sea for the entirety of the war. Although the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion already had a number of regiments of Yonderians even before the Great War, it received a number of major influxes of volunteers, chiefly at the very beginning of the war in 1928 and 1929, after which a steady flow of new volunteers was maintained throughout the war. Although it is hard to determine the exact number of Yonderians who served as volunteers, it is generally estimated to be around 1.5 million, making Yonderre by far the neutral nation to have contributed the most combatants to any warring nation of the Great War. It is known that at it's height in 1938, the Yonderian contingency of the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion numbered more than 300.000 men under arms, chiefly in frontline units.

Due to universal Yonderian conscription policies the Volonderres had already completed national service in the Yonderian Defence Force, and so were only given courtesy training in Burgundie. Yonderian volunteers were a welcome addition to the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion, and Volonderres holding enlisted and non-commissioned officer ranks in the YDF were generally inducted into the Legion at their respective ranks, while volunteer officers would go on to retrain with the Legion and generally go a rank down from their YDF standpoint before joining their units.

History

Background and name

Since the days of the Knights of the Realm in the late middle ages, Yonderian mercenaries have had a reputation for fearless military prowess, a notable early example being Siegmar von Willing's Black Company which took part in many major battles of the Great Confessional War and other conflicts of the time. Long before the Great War, the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion had already raised several regiments of Yonderians to fight in wars for Burgundie, supplementing the mercenary soldiers that were already being hired from Yonderre. A common and recurring joke from the 17th century told in Yonderre and Burgundie alike was that the Yonderian army was at all times "on loan" to the Bergendii. Beginning with the influx of Yonderian volunteers to Burgundie in the Great War, the Yonderian volunteers were often referred to as Volonderres, a contraction of the Burgoignesc word Volonteuer (Julian Ænglish: Volunteer) and Yonderre, a term which would later spread into general use in Levantia to refer to Yonderian volunteers.

Yonderian volunteers to Burgundie came chiefly, but not exclusively, from the ethnic and cultural Bergendii communities of Yonderre. Incentives to join were many for the would-be volunteers; for many it was a way out of unemployment that had been present in Yonderre following the Great Depression and stock market crashes of 1910. For others, it was a question of protecting Yonderre's historic and cultural motherland in the face of increasing Burgophobia.

Notable Volonderres

Rachet d'Everard, Captain in the Burgoignesc Foreign Legion and later Chief of Defence of Yonderre

• Rachet d'Everard (1903-1997) - Recipient of the Ordre d'Distintiu, later Chief of Defence of Yonderre and Yonderian Ambassador to Burgundie