Between 3 and 6 February 1840 at the Battle of Mazagran in Algeria, a detachment of 123 chasseurs of the 1st BILA, under Captain Lelievre, held off repeated assaults by several thousand Arabs.

As discipline and living conditions in the Bat' d'Af' were harsh, Bataillonnaires, colloquially named Zéphyrs or Joyeux ("Joyous ones"), usually nicknamed their unit l'Enfer ("the Hell") or, ironically, Biribi (a game of chance of that period).

One of the considerations behind the creation and expansion of the French army's disciplinary battalions was the need to resolve a seeming contradiction: men whose crimes in civilian life had resulted in the loss of civil rights gained an undeserved privilege in being exempted from military service.

In addition to petty criminals and military offenders, the rank and file also included a number of soldiers suspected of Communard sympathies during the 1870s and the ringleaders of several mutinies in metropolitan regiments in the early 1900s.

[9] Legislation dated 21 March 1905 specified that individuals sentenced to prison terms of six months or more, or who had been convicted of any offence twice or more, should be drafted into the Bats d'Af when called up for military service.

However those who distinguished themselves "in the face of the enemy", or who had concluded more than eight months of service with good behaviour in the Light Infantry of Africa, had the option of transferring to regular units of the army to complete their term of enlistment.

[10] "Yesterday, they were "Apaches" (gangsters), anarchists, professional antimilitarists and thieves, delinquents filled with hatred of bourgeois society, men contemptuous of all morality, shirkers, pimps, knife-handlers, pickpockets... Today, they are soldiers.

"[11]Georges Darien, a volunteer who enlisted in the Train (Army Transport Corps) during the 1880s where he was condemned for insubordination, was sent for 33 months in the Bat' d'Af'.

During 1939-40 both the BIL and the BILA served primarily as construction units, working on fortifications, railways and roads in France, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

This formation provided a marching battalion, renamed the Bataillon d'Infanterie légère d'Outre-Mer (BILOM) which participated in the First Indochina War by manning a number of posts in the Bencat sector.

[16] Throughout most of their history the Bat' d'Af' wore the uniform of the French line infantry, modified according to the overseas conditions under which they had to serve and with some regimental distinctions.

[18] As light infantry the Bat' d'Af' wore silver buttons and rank braiding rather than the bronze or gold of the line regiments.

From World War I onwards the Bat' d'Af' were distinguished by "violet" (light purple/red) collar patch braiding and numbers on their khaki drill uniforms.

On 28 November 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, the battle of Beaune-la-Rolande took place where two companies of the 2nd BILA, which made up the African Light Infantry Regiment, were engaged.

During the 1914-1918 war, the 2nd BILA remained stationed in North Africa, but contributed to the formation of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd BMILA, which were called up to fight in Belgium and in metropolitan France.

[25] The Bat' d'Af' should not be confused with the compagnies d'exclus ("companies of the excluded" i.e. thieves) of the French Army, which were stationed at Aîn-Sefra in Southern Algeria.