Help in identifying a particular Commando comic issue

[Twelvetrees]

Hello Commando fans. I wonder if anyone can help me identify and locate a particular issue, based on the information below.

As a kid I collected Commando comics avidly. Sadly my mother threw them all out when I was overseas in my 20s. I had a favourite, but I can't recall its title.

It concerned an Australian jewel thief or cat burglar who goes on the run in France, and ends up joining the French Foreign Legion and being sent to North Africa. He gets into a brawl in a town, during which he calls his fellow legionnaires by shouting, "À moi, la légion!"

There was a great panel in the comic which I'll always remember, in which he later ends up in close combat, tackling an Italian Bersagliere with the words, "Down you come, Beppo!"

The artist, I believe, was Gordon Livingstone, and it must have been published in or around the early 1980s. It could have been a reprint, however.

I've pored over Vic Whittle's excellent resource: http://www.britishcomics.20m.com/livingstone.htm. So far, no joy. Vic himself tells me he's unable to identify the issue.

It's definitely not 1573/5746 Legion Vendetta, nor is it 1682 Runaway!, both of which deal with Foreign Legion themes.

Might it possibly be 1361 The Lost Battalion? That one was not illustrated by Gordon Livingstone, but I'd appreciate anyone being able to rule it in or out for me completely.

Any help anyone could possibly give me in identifying this particular issue would be greatly appreciated. I'm really stumped.

Cheers from Australia,

12 Trees

[Post updated 9/9/24]