After attending secondary school in Paris, Alain Savary graduated with degrees in law and political science, then qualified as a naval staff officer at the École du Commissariat de la Marine.

He participated in the Battle of France as a member of the naval staff, then travelled to Britain where, on 8 August 1940, he enlisted in the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL). With the rank of sub-lieutenant, he became aide-de-camp to the FNFL commander, Admiral Muselier. After the territory of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon sided with Free France, he was appointed as its governor, with the rank of lieutenant.

In June 1943, Savary was sent to Tripolitania, first on the naval staff, then as commander of the 2nd Squadron, 1st Regiment of Naval Fusiliers, which became an armoured reconnaissance regiment incorporated in the 1st Free French Division. With his unit, he took part in the Italian campaign, the Provence landings and the liberation of France, before being appointed to represent the Companions of Liberation on the Provisional Consultative Committee in October 1944.

In 1945, he was assigned to the Ministry of the Interior and thus embarked on a career as a senior civil servant and politician.

General secretary of the Office for German and Austrian Affairs in 1946, then councillor of the French Union, deputy for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Minister for Moroccan and Tunisian Affairs, he was the first secretary of the Socialist Party from 1969 to 1971. Deputy for Haute-Garonne (1973-81) and chairman of the Midi-Pyrénées Regional Council (1974-81), he served as Minister for Education from 1981 to 1984.

Alain Savary was an Officer of the Légion d’Honneur and a Companion of Liberation, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 (with three citations), the Medal of the Resistance and the Silver Star (United States).

Source : MINDEF/SGA/DMPA

The son of a notable Mpongwe family, Charles N’Tchoréré was a student at the Ecole Montfort. Forced to enter the world of employment, he occupied a sales post in Cameroon.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, he left his German colony and returned to Gabon. In 1916, he voluntary enlisted to fight on the front line. At the end of the war, he decided to pursue a career in the military. Appointed to warrant officer in 1919, he fought in Morocco. After joining the officers’ training academy in Fréjus, he left at the rank of major in 1922. Sent to the Levant, Lieutenant N’Tchoréré was gravely wounded during operations in Syria. He was cited in 1925 to the Order of the Division and decorated with Croix de Guerre with a silver star.

Following a brief interlude working at the ministry of war, he asked to be sent to Sudan. In Kati he took the command of the out-of-ranks company of the 2nd RTS (Regiment of Senegalese Tirailleurs), at the same time as being headmaster at the army children’s school.

Promoted to Captain in 1933, he was appointed to the 1st RTS in Saint-Louis (Senegal) where he again was at the head of the school for troop children.

At the outbreak of war in September 1939, he requested to take command of a battalion of Gabonese volunteers. Assigned to the Camp de Sauge, near Bordeaux, he was sent to the front on the Somme River where he took command of the 7th company of the 53rd RICMS (Mixed Colonial Senegalese Infantry Regiment). On 7 June, entrenched in the village of Airaines, near Amiens, Captain N’Tchoréré and his men, overwhelmed by German attacks, were taken prisoner after days of fierce resistance. However, a German officer refused to treat N’Tchoréré as an officer and when he refused to fall in line with the black enlisted soldiers, he was shot point blank.

For his conduct during the campaign in France, Captain N’Tchoréré was posthumously cited to the Order of the Division in October 1940 and then to the Order of the Army Corps in August 1954 and decorated with the Croix de Guerre with the silver gilt star attachment.

The 1957-1959 graduating year of the training academy for officers from overseas territories took the name Captain N’Tchoréré.

Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu graduated from the Naval Academy in 1908 and served first in Morocco and then, during World War I, in the Mediterranean, before joining the Carmelite Order in 1920.

As a reservist he was mobilised in 1939 and assigned to staff headquarters in Cherbourg before being promoted to corvette commander. Taken prisoner on 19 June 1940, he escaped on the 22nd and joined General de Gaulle, who named him chief of defence staff for the Free French Naval Forces. Frigate Captain Thierry d'Argenlieu took part in the rallying operations in Africa in the autumn of 1940. Called back to London in July 1941, he was appointed France’s High Commissioner for the Pacific, where he notably presided over rallying the support of Wallis and Futuna in 1942. After taking part in the Casablanca Conference, he was named commander of the Naval Forces in Great Britain on 19 July 1943. On 14 June 1944, on board the Combattante, he brought General de Gaulle to France and accompanied him all the way to Paris, which they entered on 25 August 1944.

Named Vice Admiral in December 1944, Thierry d'Argenlieu was entrusted with the highest functions from the end of World War II to 1947, including the position of France’s High Commissioner and Commander in Chief for Indochina between August 1945 and March 1947, before returning to the Carmelite Order.

Reverend Father Louis de la Trinité, Admiral Thierry d'Argenlieu, received the honours of the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and Companion of the Liberation. He was notably awarded the Médaille Militaire, the War Cross 1939-1945 with three palms, the War Cross for Foreign Operational Theatres with a palm and the Résistance Medal with a rosette.

Mustafa Kemal was born in Salonika, Macedonia, on 19 May 1881.

After graduating from military high school and the military academy in Istanbul, he was appointed Staff Captain in 1905 before being assigned to the Fifth Army based in Damascus, Syria, fighting against the Druzes. At the same time, he formed a small opposition society, called Vatan ve Hürriyet (Motherland and Liberty). In Autumn 1907, he was appointed Senior Captain of the Third Army in Salonika, where he met the Committee of Union and Progress and the Young Turks who opposed the regime which re-established the Constitution in 1876. In April 1909, he became Chief of Staff under General Mahmud Shevket, commander of the army put in place by constitutionalist officers to combat the uprising in Istanbul led by the defenders of absolutism. 

He made a name for himself in December 19911, in Libya, during the Italo-Turkish war, winning the Battle of Tobruk before he took military command of Derna, in March of the following year. However, Montenegro having declared war on Turkey in October, he returned to take part in the first Balkan war which saw Turkey fighting against Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. Chief of Staff in Gallipoli, he forced back the Bulgarian offensive. He was made military attaché to Sofia in 1913.

In November 1914, Turkey joined the war fighting alongside Germany. As Lieutenant Colonel, Mustafa Kemal was tasked with forming the 19th infantry division and made a reputation for himself during the German-Turkish counter-offensive which aimed to prevent the French and British troops landing in the Dardanelles Strait. Pushing back the allied assaults, he claimed a major victory on the Anafarta front in August 1915. Promoted to general, in 1916 he took command of the 16th army corps in the Caucasus then of the 2nd army in Diyarbakir. Confronting the Russian troops, he took Mus and Bitlis. Recalled to Syria, where he served under German General Erich von Falkenhayn, he was given command of the 7th army. When he returned to Istanbul in autumn 1917, he accompanied the crown prince Vahidettin on an official trip to Germany. He returned to Syria again in August 1918 where he took order of the 7th army against the British until the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918.

After the armistice and in opposition to the occupation and dismemberment of Turkey, he established an organised national resistance movement.

Appointed as general inspector of the northern and north-eastern armies in May 1919, he was tasked with assuring the security of the Samsun region, where Turkish, Greek and Armenian populations were fighting, and ordered the forces against the Greek troops which landed in Smyrna. 

Following disagreements with the Sultan’s politics, he made an announcement putting the Turkish War of Independence in motion, in the town of Amasya on 22 June 1919. He then called for national conferences to be held in Erzurum and Sivas in July and September respectively. Finally, the meeting of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara on 23 April 1920 resulted in the formation of a national government of which Assembly President Mustafa Kemal was elected as leader. 

Securing the withdrawal of the French from Cilecia and Armenia’s return of the occupied territories, he also succeeded in driving the Greeks out of Anatolia, importantly leading and winning the Battle of Dumlupinar (30 August 1922) and signing the Armistice of Mudanya on 11 October 1922.

In the meantime, the Sultan accepted on 10 August 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres which considerably shrank the Turkish Empire. Mustafa Kemal fought against this treaty and successes in having the Allies revise the terms. On 24 July 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne put an end to the Armenian and Greek claims and recognised Turkish sovereignty across the entire national territory.

Having got this far, Mustafa Kemal went even further, introducing major political, economic and social reforms to bring Turkey into the modern age. The sultanate was abolished (1 November 1922) and the Republic declared on 29 October 1923. Elected President, he made Ankara the capital, incorporated secularism into the constitution and set the country on the path to economic development. In line with the law of 1934 enforcing Turkish citizens to adopt a surname, he took the name Atatürk, meaning “Father of all the Turks”

He died on 10 November 1938 in Istanbul.

Alphonse Juin, son of a gendarme, was born in Bône, Algeria, on 16 December 1888. After his studies in Constantine and later in Algiers, he was admitted to Saint-Cyr in 1909. He graduated at the head of his class –the "de Fès" class, in 1912 – the same year as Charles de Gaulle. He chose to join the Algerian Tirailleurs. Assigned to Morocco at the end of 1912, Second Lieutenant Juin took part in the pacification operations in the country.

On 3 August 1914, Germany declared war on France. Lieutenant Juin joined the front with the Moroccan troops. In September 1914, he took part in the Battle of the Marne. Seriously wounded on the Champagne front in March 1915, he partially lost the use of his right arm. Captain in 1916, he joined the 5th battalion of Moroccan Tirailleurs at the Chemin des Dames. In February 1918, he completed army staff training at Melun before being seconded to the French military mission to the American army in October and assigned to developmental training courses for the liaison officers of the American Expeditionary Force.

He earned the certificate of the École Supérieure de Guerre in 1921 and served in Tunisia before returning to Morocco at the end of 1923, where he took part in the Rif Campaign. He returned to France with Maréchal Lyautey in the autumn of 1925 and worked under his orders at the Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre. Promoted to the rank of Battalion Chief in 1926, he left for the 7th Algerian Tirailleurs regiment in Constantine the following year.

In 1929 he was put in charge of the military staff offices of the Resident-General of Morocco, Lucien Saint, and played an active role in the last phase of the Atlas pacification plan. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in March 1932, he became a professor of general tactics at the École Supérieure de Guerre in 1933 before being assigned second in command at the 3rd Zouave regiment in Constantine. He took command of this regiment on 6 March 1935. In June, he was promoted to Colonel. In 1937, he was assigned to the service of the Resident-General of Morocco, General Noguès, and also took courses at the Centre des Hautes Études Militaires.

Named Brigadier General on 26 December 1938, he was assigned to mobilisation at staff headquarters for the North Africa theatre of operations. As the situation in Europe was worsening, he was in Algiers preparing measures relative to raising divisions in Algeria and Tunisia. With the declaration of war in September 1939, he asked to serve in metropolitan France. The following 4 December, he took up command of the 15th Motorised Infantry Division. When the German forces launched their offensive in the west on 10 May 1940, his division entered Belgium, where it fought remarkably at Gembloux on 14 and 15 May. Further to the south, German troops broke through the front at Sedan. Juin received an order to pull back. He successively defended Valenciennes and the outskirts of Lille, providing cover for the retreat 1st French Army toward Dunkirk. He was captured in Lille on 30 May 1940 and imprisoned at Königstein fortress. Named Major General during his captivity, he was released in June of 1941 at Maréchal Pétain’s request as a specialist of North Africa. Named deputy to the Commanding General of the troops in Morocco on 16 July 1941, he was promoted to General of the Army Corps and replaced General Weygand at the head of the North Africa forces on the following 20 November. For the Army of Africa, he pursued the policy adopted by his predecessor: "defence against everybody" (both Axis and Allied forces).

On 8 November 1942, the British and Americans landed in Algeria and Morocco. Juin, who was not informed of the operation, was arrested in Algiers by members of the local resistance movement. The authorities quickly took back control of the city. Juin was freed and intervened to obtain a cease-fire between the landing forces and the French troops. Back in the war on the Allied side, the Army of Africa then participated in taking back France’s national territory, with Tunisia as the first theatre of operations. During this campaign (November 1942 – May 1943), General Juin commanded the French Army Detachment and was named Army General on 25 December 1942. He held the position of acting French Resident-General in Tunisia starting on 8 May 1943. During the summer, he set up the French Expeditionary Corps that he led into the Italian Campaign. After several successful battles, on the Pantano in December 1943, on the Rapido and at Belvedere in January 1944, he was victorious at Garigliano on 13 May, opening up the way to Rome for the Allies. He then moved north to Sienna and northern Tuscany. Juin left the French Expeditionary Corps and Italy in August.

Named general chief of the national defence staff under General de Gaulle, Head of the Provisional Government, he entered liberated Paris on 25 August alongside the General. As France’s liberation continued, he dedicated himself to reorganising the French armed forces to enable them to play a full role at the end of the operations. At the same time, as a military expert, he carried out many missions, notably to Moscow in December 1944 where he took part in the negotiations on the future Franco-Soviet pact and to the United States in April of 1945 for the foundation of the United Nations. In April 1946, General Juin was sent to the Far East to negotiate the withdrawal of Chinese troops occupying northern Indochina.

In 1947, Juin returned to North Africa where he was appointed to the position of France’s Resident-General in Rabat, Morocco. The situation in the Far East continued to deteriorate, however, and in October 1950, the government sent him on a new mission to Indochina. Inspector general of the French armed forces in January 1951, he took on command of the allied forces in the Central Europe sector the following September under the Atlantic Alliance. His functions put him in the centre of domestic and international problems: France’s place in the Atlantic Alliance, the debate on the European Defence Community (EDC), the movement of the North African countries toward independence, the war in Indochina, etc. At the same time, he was promoted to the rank of Maréchal de France on 7 May 1952 and was admitted to the Académie Française on 26 June.

In February 1957, he published his first book, “Le Maghreb en Feu”, and then dedicated himself to writing his Memoires and various books.

Maréchal Juin died on 27 January 1967.

He had received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and held the Médaille Militaire, the War Cross 1914-1918, the War Cross 1939-1945, the War Cross for Foreign Operational Theatres, the Colonial Medal for Morocco and Tunisia, as well as many foreign decorations.

In May of 1927, L’oiseau blanc, the plane flown by Charles Nungesser and François Coli, disappeared over the Atlantic. This accident put an end to the life of one of the “Flying Aces” of the Great War.

Charles Nungesser was born in Paris on 15 March 1892. He was a daredevil from childhood, with a passion for mechanics, driving race cars and flying airplanes.

In 1907, after studying at the école des Arts et Métiers, Charles Nungesser travelled to South America.

He worked as a mechanic in Buenos Aires for an engine importer, participating in one of the first automobile rally raids in the Andes in 1909. He became part of the aviation world, showing off his talents as a pilot at an air show and during many flights over Uruguay and Argentina.

When the Great War broke out, Nungesser returned to France and joined a cavalry regiment.

He took part in the battle of the borders but was surrounded. He managed to get back to the French lines on 3 September 1914 after intercepting a German army staff car, killing the four officers riding in it and crossing the entire region occupied by the Germans at high speed.

This act of bravery earned him the French Médaille Militaire.

But Nungesser, who dreamt of aviation, asked to enlist in the air force. On 22 January 1915, he started training and on 8 April obtained his pilot’s licence. He was assigned to the 106th bomber squadron based in Saint-Pol, near Dunkirk, and flew his first mission over occupied Flanders on 11 April, flying a Voisin 3.

On the 26th, Nungesser engaged in his first dogfight against a German Albatros. His Voisin was hit four times, but he brought the plane back to the base. He received an army commendation for his exploits.

Nungesser was named warrant officer on 5 July and went to Nancy with his wing. He shot down his first enemy aircraft in the night of 30-31 July.

Wounded, he returned to the front to continue his missions

After an advanced training course for fighter missions, Charles Nungesser joined the N65 fighter squadron, based in Nancy, in November. It was during this period that he painted the fuselage of his Nieuport with his legendary coat of arms: a black heart with a silver skull and crossbones above a coffin with burning torches on either side.

During the Battle of the Somme in September 1916, Nungesser achieved the feat of shooting down three enemy planes in the same day. In December, his twentieth victory earned him an army commendation and the Military Cross.

Wounded and discharged, he nonetheless received an authorisation to continue flying and shot down two enemy planes on 1 May 1917. On 16 August he scored his thirtieth victory. But due to his injuries, his health began to fail, notably after he was seriously injured in a car accident in which Pochon, his mechanic, was killed. Nonetheless, Lieutenant Nungesser was back on the front in December.

When he shot down his thirty-sixth plane on 5 June 1918, he received another commendation as well as France’s Legion of Honour, declaring, “After this, I can die now!”

After another hospital stay, Nungesser returned to the front on 14 August.

On the 15th, he scored his forty-fifth and last victory.

When the war was over, Charles Nungesser agreed to set up a flight school in Orly. But this great athlete and daredevil had in mind a project to fly across the Atlantic.

On 8 May 1927, L’oiseau blanc, the plane flown by Nungesser and Coli, a comrade in arms, took off from Le Bourget, headed for the North American continent. He was never seen again.

“I was twenty. I won’t let anyone say those are the best years of your life.” These words were written by a young man, Paul Nizan, aged twenty-six at the time. They introduced his first book published in 1931, Aden, Arabie, an extremely inflammatory pamphlet against colonialism, which set the tone for his future work: open, controversial and intentionally despairing.  Waving the flag of mutiny and guided by the principles of communism, Paul Nizan, throughout his short career, relentlessly assailed the established order, ferreted out the failings of bourgeois society and watched out for the harbingers of history. 

Born on 7 February 1905 in Tours to a middle class family, his father had previously worked in rail before the war, at 19 years of age Paul joined the Ecole Normale Supérieure, one of France’s elite universities. His fellow students in his graduating year included philosophers and writers Ray Aron and Jean-Paul Sartre. On reading Aden, Arabie, Sartre, his inseparable friend who was always confused with him (one had a divergent strabismus and one a convergent strabismus), described him as "absorbed in studying his fingernails and releasing his violence with a sly and underhand serenity." But this apparent coolness, this brilliant demonstration of a charming dandy whose lilac outfits and concise way of speaking sent a tremble of excitement running through the ENS student ranks, belied his secret wounds.

"My only original trait is that periodically I suffer from depression," he once confided when chatting to the woman who would later become his wife, Henriette Alphen. "I’m neither joyful nor desperate, but I’ll admit during the main course that life doesn’t make any sense, and during dessert that nobody should be surprised if one day I enter the regular clergy.” Nizan would thus spend entire days in complete silence unless he ran away suddenly only to reappear a few nights later, haggard-looking, declaring his affiliations for somewhere between the extreme right and communism, and then discovered a passion for cinema. Tormented by a profound discontentment that gave him not a moment’s peace, obsessed by death, disgusted by the “official practice of philosophy”, he left to go to Aden, in Yemen, as a private tutor for an English family. Aden, “a compressed version of Europe” would be the opportunity for him to find his political consciousness. He returned a year later and opted for Marxism, the only concrete solution to his revolt. By late 1927, he had joined the French Communist Party. He was almost 23 and had a wife, one child, soon to be two, and the highest diploma for teaching philosophy.

A fervent militant, he stood as a candidate for the French Communist Party in the 1932 legislative elections in Bourg-en-Bresse, where he’d been teaching philosophy for a year. He then went on to pursue a career in literature and journalism and worked as editor in chief of the avant-garde magazine Bifur, which brought attention to Michaux, Sartre and Joyce; a literature critic at L’Humanité where he supported Céline, Breton and Lacan, and foreign politics correspondent for Ce Soir, then directed by Aragon. Between Moscow, where he was staying to organise the International Writers Congress, to Brest, the site of bloody riots as the Front Populaire grew in popularity, passing through England and Spain, the latter a few months before the Civil War broke, he was always on the front line.  A passionate international reporter, he still managed to pursue his literary career and published essays (Les Chiens de garde, Les Matérialistes de l'Antiquité) and novels (Antoine Bloyé, Le Cheval de Troie), one after the other, all to critical acclaim. In 1938, La Conspiration won the Interallié Prize. Ironically, only the French Communist Party remains somewhat reserved and even very critical with regard to his literary corpus since his publications could never be described as orthodox and did not toe the French Communist party line at the time. 

In 1939, his last publication Chronique de Septembre presented a detailed analysis of the negotiation mechanisms employed between Hitler, Daladier, Chamberlain and Mussolini that led to the Munich Agreement and the dismantling of Czechoslovakia.  He was surprised to learn of the German-Soviet Pact between Stalin and Hitler during his holidays in Ajaccio.

He immediately returned to Paris, impatient to find out the party position. The French Communist Party in fact approved the Pact. Faithful to his beliefs and his anti-fascist convictions, Nizan publically resigned from the FCP in September 1939.

Mobilised, he continued to militantly campaign on the front, passionately discussing his position with his fellow men.

Posted in Lille as an interpreter for the British army, he was killed on 23 May 1940 when the Germans attacked Dunkerque. He is buried at the national cemetery La Targette in Neuville-Saint-Vaast.

(Lille, 3 June 1818-Paris, 28 September 1889)

Louis, Léon, César Faidherbe was the fifth child in a humble family of hosiers in Lille. Stubborn and hardworking, he entered the Ecole Polytechnique in 1838 and, later, the school of application in Metz. In 1842 he was named an officer in the corps of engineers and became acquainted with the colonies, staying for a brief while on the island of Guadeloupe in 1848 and in Algeria (1849), where he stood out by his organisational skills and physical and emotional toughness. Faidherbe, who opposed the coup d'Etat of 2 December 1851, went to Senegal in 1852. He rallied to the cause of traders hoping to profit from growing peanuts, cotton, etc. in a pacified territory and dismissed the sitting representative, Bouët-Willaumez (1808-1871). Now Borom N'Dar, gouvernor, he took advantage of tribal divisions to bring his plan of creating a homogeneous colony around the Senegal River to fruition. In 1854 Faidherbe unleashed his troops to conquer the principalities of Senegal, Bambouk and Foutou Toro, eventually defeating El-hadj's forces at the 1857 siege of Médine, a major episode in the "war of the Cross against the Crescent".

Faidherbe expanded France's possessions by annexing the kingdom of Walo and part of Cayor, and extending French control over Upper Senegal towards Bambouk. In the South he imposed the French protectorate on the kingdom of Sine-Saloum, La Petite Côte and Cap Vert Peninsula all the way to Casamance. During his stays in Senegal from 1852 to 1861 and 1863 to 1865 he organised the colony into arrondissements and circles commanded by officers from metropolitan France and set up a recruitment system among local populations that led to the creation of the first Tirailleurs Sénégalais battalion in 1857. Faidherbe, who met with criticism for his harsh military and political ways, implemented a policy of colonial expansion through railway lines and small forts. He established the teaching of French, fostered the advancement of local elites, founded the Banque du Sénégal in 1855 and built a port in Dakar.

Faidherbe expanded France's possessions by annexing the kingdom of Walo and part of Cayor, and extending French control over Upper Senegal towards Bambouk. In the South he imposed the French protectorate on the kingdom of Sine-Saloum, La Petite Côte and Cap Vert Peninsula all the way to Casamance. During his stays in Senegal from 1852 to 1861 and 1863 to 1865 he organised the colony into arrondissements and circles commanded by officers from metropolitan France and set up a recruitment system among local populations that led to the creation of the first Tirailleurs Sénégalais battalion in 1857. Faidherbe, who met with criticism for his harsh military and political ways, implemented a policy of colonial expansion through railway lines and small forts. He established the teaching of French, fostered the advancement of local elites, founded the Banque du Sénégal in 1855 and built a port in Dakar.

After a period of convalescence and imperial disgrace, Borom N'Dar lived in Algeria until 1870, where he promoted ethnological and archaeological research and endowed the Académie d'Hippone with a big library. In 1869 the Bey of Tunis gave him the ribbon of First Class Knight in the Order of Nichan al-Iftikhar. In Algeria Faidherbe closely followed news of the Franco-Prussian War, approving the emperor's capture at Sedan and Bazaine's capitulation at Metz (27 October 1870). He ended his silence, criticised Napoleon III's government and backed the patriotic Government of National Defence, which assigned him to the 22nd corps of the Army of Lille, Bourbaki's Army of the North, on 19 November 1870. Then Faidherbe went to Tours, where he met Gambetta before taking command of his division with the rank of major general on 4 December. He put up fierce resistance to Baron Manteuffel's troops along the Le Havre-Thionville front. With crafty tactics, and relying on a group of effective scouts, he drove the Prussians out of Rouen and harassed General Goeben near Amiens, his men getting the upper hand at Pont-Noyelle (23-24 December 1870), Péronne-Bapaume and Cambrai-Saint-Quentin in January 1871. His toughness, which led the enemy to nickname him "Dogtooth", helped loosen the Prussians' grip around Paris.

Faithful to the Republic, Faidherbe accepted the armistice and sent men to the Versaillais troops of Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877). He resigned his command to devote himself to the affairs of Lille, where he became mayor. Then Faidherbe published a series of studies on reorganising the army in which he advocated greater discipline for officers, the modernisation of firearms and compulsory two-year military service in order to educate the disadvantaged classes. Faidherbe was elected to parliament, where he participated in the major debates of the nascent Third Republic and chaired the Central Railway Committee. A man of letters, he studied and published the Libyan inscriptions of Egypt, visited Jerusalem (May 1872), etc. On 28 February 1880 Faidherbe became Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour, an institution he reformed. Declared a military officer for life in 1883, he joined General Boulanger, assisting his triumphs until dying on 29 September 1889. A national funeral took place on 2 October. A huge crowd and an official delegation from Senegal accompanied the cortege to the Invalides chapel. The next day his hometown, Lille, held a grandiose funeral. One homage followed another. The same year, the Senate commissioned a bust for the Luxembourg Gardens; in October 1891 the town of Bapaume unveiled a statue in his honour; Lille had an equestrian statue erected in 1896.

A sampling of Faidherbe's writings sums up the eventful life journey of this republican military officer, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres and the Geographic Society: Berbers and Arabs on the Banks of the Senegal (1854), Vocabulary of Around 1,500 French Words with their Matching Terms in Saint-Louis Wolof, Fouta Poular (Toucouleur) and Bakel Soninké (Sarrakholé) (1860), the chapter on the geography of northwest Africa in textbooks used in the schools of Senegambia (1865), Complete Collection of Numidian (Libyan) Inscriptions with a General Ethnographic Survey of the Numidians (1870), Phoenician Epigraphy (1871), The Army of the North's Campaign in 1870-1871 (1871), "Additional Note to the Committee Investigating the Operations of the Army of the North" (1873), The French Sudan. The Médine Railway Line in Niger (1881-1885), Senegalese Languages: Wolof, Arabic-Hassania, Soninké and Sévère (1887) as well as contributions to or interviews with L'Echo du Nord and Mémorial.

Bibliographic sources

COURSIER (Alain), Faidherbe du Sénégal à l'armée du Nord, Paris, Tallandier, 1989. Gambetta - Faidherbe. 125e anniversaire de la proclamation de la 3e République : la campagne de Picardie 1870-1871, Société archéologique et historique de Boulogne-Conchy-Hainvillers et alentours, 1995. MOURRE (Michel), Dictionnaire encyclopédique d'histoire, D-H, Paris, Bordas, 1996, p. 2086. PONS (Grégori), "Faidherbe, le conquérant tranquille", Histoire magazine 9 (1980), p. 16-19. RIOUX (Jean-Pierre), dir, Dictionnaire de la France coloniale, Paris, Flammarion, 2007.

(Saint-Rémy-en-Provence, 1604-Paris, 1665) 

Blaise François Pagan, a French army engineer and Vauban's teacher, founded France's first fortification school with Errard de Bar-le-Duc and Antoine Deville. He wrote L'Art de la fortification, where he incorporated the bastion into the fortification's ground plan. Blaise François, Comte de Pagan, was born in Saint-Rémy-en-Provence, near Avignon.

His family, of Neapolitan origin, was a branch of the house of Luynes. At a very young age he entered into the service of Louis XIII as an army engineer. The young nobleman participated in the siege of Caen and the battle of Ponts-de-Cé in 1620, the sieges of Saint-Jean-d'Angély and Clérac in 1621 and, in 1622, the capture of Navarreins and Montauban, where he lost his left eye. In 1623 he was an engineering officer during the siege of Nancy. Pagan won fame during the 1629 siege of Suse when he led French troops across the barricades surrounding the town. During the Thirty Years War he worked with Deville at the sieges of Corbie, Landrecies and Hesdin. Pagan also participated in the sieges of La Rochelle and served in Italy, Picardy and Flanders.

Pagan went blind in 1642. He was promoted to maréchal-de-camp, but abandoned his military career and spent his retirement studying mathematics, history, geography, astronomy and the art of fortification. In his Treatise on Fortifications (1645), Pagan described where to locate the most exposed bastions' salients in order to adapt them better to the terrain. Building fortification works outside the walls, he argued, would help space out deep defence and slow down an attack on the main fort. The bastions' flanks are perpendicular to the line of defence to obtain perfect reciprocal flanking. From that point of view he differed from Deville, who maintained that bastions were just added, isolated forward works later connected to the fort. Heavy artillery would ensure defence. He recommended up to 30 cannons per bastion on three levels. The outside included a covered walkway with a small parade ground on the counterscarp (principle of active defence). He advised using the space between the couvre-faces and main wall for the surrounding villages' residents to camp in. His ideas remained theoretical until Vauban incorporated them into his first defence system.

Pagan was also an astronomer and conceived a theory of the planets. He presented his work in Théorèmes des planètes (1657), Les Tables astronomiques (1658) and Astrologie naturelle (1659). A mathematician as well, he wrote Théorèmes géométriques in 1651. His other writings include Relation de la rivière des Amazones (1658) and Œuvres posthumes (1669). In 1652 Pagan was sentenced to eight years in the Bastille for "boasting that he would make the King die by magic". He spent the rest of his life there, forgotten by the king and Cardinal Mazarin. "I am a sick, old man of 78 years..." he wrote in his last letter, dated 28 November 1665. "One day Your Excellency... will learn that I was found phtisical and frozen to death; in this weather I have no fire in my room, and what's more I am barely dressed. I beseech Your Excellency to remember that I have been here 13 years and 12 days, and to beg the King our lord, for the love of God, to give me liberty so that I may go home."

Hero of Free France

Author of a very successful book, "Le Grand Cirque" (The Big Show), Pierre Clostermann died on Wednesday, 22 March 2006 in Montesquieu-des-Albères. He was 85.

Born on 28 February 1921 in Curitiba, Brazil, son of a diplomat, Pierre Clostermann joined the Free French in England on 18 March 1942 and served in the "Alsace" fighter group.

Captain at the end of the war, he added up over 2,000 flying hours, nearly 600 battle flights, 33 recorded victories and 5 probable victories, as well as a large amount of material destruction: 225 lorries, 72 locomotives, 5 tanks, 2 motor torpedo boats.

Named “Companion of the Liberation” on 21 January 1946, he began a career in politics. He was re-elected 8 times, notably in the Bas-Rhin department. In 1951, he was elected MP for the Marne, then MP for the Seine (1956-1958), MP for the Seine-et-Oise (1962-1967) and for the Yvelines (1967-1969).

Promoted commander, Clostermann served in Algeria where he distinguished himself as lieutenant colonel of the French Air Force (1956-1957). He served as Vice President of the Commission of National Defence and the Armed Forces in the French National Assembly between 1963 and 1969.

Alongside his career as an engineer, he undertook a career as a successful author, notably telling the story of his experiences in World War II in “Le Grand Cirque” (The Big Show), in 1948, a book that sold over 3,000,000 copies.

(Born 7 February 1892: Budapest, Hungary – Died 3 June 1964: Val-de-Grâce, Paris)

Born with the army in his blood, Raoul Magrin-Vernery happily described how at seven years old he wanted to leave his family and enlist with the Boers...

The son of a French teacher posted in Vienna, Anne Magrin, Raoul Charles was taken under the wing of a Hungarian count who looked after his intellectual and moral education. Raised in the cosmopolitan milieu of Austro-Hungarian society, the young man acquired an ease for adapting to his surroundings that would serve him throughout his lifetime. When he returned to France he was raised by his grandmother in Avison in the Doubs. After studying at the Victor Hugo school in Besançon then in a seminary college in Ornans, driven by his life-long dream to wear a military uniform, he ran away at 15 to enlist in the Foreign Legion. Too young to be recruited, he returned to school and finally embarked on his military career on 10 October 1912 when he joined the Ecole Militaire Spéciale, France's foremost military academy, in Saint-Cyr.

Graduating in 1914, in Montmirail’s year, he was propelled into the eye of the storm in the 60th Infantry Regiment: Plaine d'Alsace, Morte-Fontaine (Oise), fighting on the Ourcq and Aisne rivers, a volunteer in the Aumetzwiller offensive (Moselle), the counter-attack in the Bois d'Haumont (Bois des Caures), the offensive on the Somme, Ypres, the battle for the Butte de Tahure in Champagne.

Exhibiting extraordinary bravery, he was gassed, wounded six times and cited 11 times, including seven times to the Order of the Army. Despite having 90% disability, he was promoted captain on 24 June 1916 with the 260th IR and received the Legion of Honour.

During peace time, he was sent to overseas theatres of operations, in Odessa (1919), Syria-Palestine (1920) where his bravery earned him a new citation and the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honour, in Algeria and in Morocco and then in Tonkin with the 5th Foreign Infantry Regiment. It was these missions that allowed him to fulfil his life’s ambition: to join the Foreign Legion, which he did in 1924.

On 23 February 1940, he quit the post of commander of the 4th Foreign Infantry Regiment in Morocco to take the helm of two marching battalions of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion, a contingent of the expedition to Norway. On 5 May he landed in Ballangen, freed Bjervik and Narvik, liberated 60 allied prisoners and captured 590 Germans. The expedition was cut short and Magrin-Vernerey was sent to Brest on 15 June. When the armistice was declared, he left France with Captain Koenig and 500 of his men to fight under the command of General de Gaulle. Promoted to colonel, he became known as Monclar (the name of a town in Tarn-et-Garonne, his family's birthplace) for Free France. In December 1940, his 13th Demi-Brigade started its journey to Africa, to Dakar, Freetown and Cameroon where he wrote a small treatise on his theory of combat, Catéchisme du Combat. The brigade was sent to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and took part in the campaign in Eritrea alongside the Garbay battalion, taking the capital Massawa, and capturing the admiral and the general commanders-in-chief of the Italian forces. In Syria (June 1941), however, as well as refusing to participate in the rallying campaign in Gabon, he refused to join because he couldn't stand the idea of a fratricidal struggle within the French army. Appointed to brigade general in 1941, he held various commands in Great Britain and then in the Levant. He was named Companion of the Liberation.

After various missions in Algeria, Pakistan and Indochina, he was named inspector of the Foreign Legion on 25 June 1948.

Appointed to general of the army corps on 20 February 1950, and having almost reached the age limit, rather than retire Monclar volunteered to join the command of the French Battalion of Korea which he commanded until 1951 against the communist troops in North Korea.

He retired in Neuilly, on 21 October 1962, a living military legend and crowned with the glory of seventeen national and twenty-one international decorations. He was the successor to General Kienst as the Governor of the Invalides,

He held this post until his death in 1964.

(18th January 1879: Paris - 11th March 1949: Dijon)

From a humble Alsation family who had settled in Paris - his father was a coal merchant - Henri Giraud, a young man with an adventurous nature, excelled in his secondary education at the Stanislas, Bossuet and Louis-le-Grand high schools, joining the ranks of the French army in 1900 on leaving the Saint-Cyr military academy.

He was posted to the 4th Zouaves, in North Africa, with which unit he was sent to the front in 1914. Wounded, he was taken prisoner on the 30th August at the Battle of Guise, during a counter attack by General Lanrezac against von Bulow's Second German Army. He managed to escape at the end of September with the help of Doctor Frère's network, meeting up with the French military attaché at La Haye, who evacuated him to the United Kingdom, from where he was able to return to France. He distinguished himself once again in the autumn of 1917 when the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Zouaves recaptured the fort of La Malmaison, on the Chemin des Dames and then during the offensives planned by Pétain following the crisis of spring 1917. After the war, he joined General Franchet d'Esperey's troops in Constantinople, returning with his Colonel's stripes to Morocco at Lyautey's request to fight against the Berber rebellion movements. He thus contributed to the surrender of Abd-el-Krim (27th May 1926) during the Rif war, for which brave feat he was awarded the légion d'honneur.

Promoted to Military Commander of the town of Metz, he met Colonels Charles de Gaulle and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. Made a General in 1936 and Commander of the 7th army and member of the Upper War Council, Giraud, who did not believe in the effectiveness of armoured tanks, was challenging the tactics advocated by de Gaulle when the Second World War broke out. On the 10th May 1940 his units, having been sent to the Netherlands, delayed the German advance, most notably at Breda on the 13th May. He was taken prisoner on the 19th May in Wassigny whilst trying to stand in the way of the Panzer divisions with the 9th Army in the Ardennes. He was imprisoned in Silesia at Koenigstein castle, near Dresden. On the 17th April 1942, Giraud escaped from there with the help of some loyal supporters, Generals Mesny, Mast and Baurès and the British secret services who facilitated his escape from Schandau onwards. He then reached the Alsace and, later, Vichy. His adventure, which quickly became general knowledge and which he relates in Mes evasions (My Escapes), annoyed the German government who wanted him to return to prison, but he escaped this sanction by signing a letter to Marshal Pétain expressing his intention not to oppose his regime. Living under supervision, it was not long before Giraud was contacted by the Allies who were anxious to keep General de Gaulle away from the preparations for Operation Torch. Exfiltrated in November 1942 via Gibraltar, he met Eisenhower from whom he obtained permission to remain in command of the French troops. On the ground, the situation degenerated into a civil war, with Admiral Darlan's men refusing to recognise his authority. The assassination of Darlan on the 24th December put an end to the conflict. Giraud took over as his successor, maintaining the institutions, as well as the exceptional status of Jews and having some of the resistance fighters who had assisted in the landings interned in camps in the Southern Sahara. Present at the conference of Casablanca, he was forced to release these resistance fighters and make his government more democratic. He then went on the board of directors of the French Committee for National Liberation (Comité français de Libération nationale or CFLN) and so the "dual between Giraud and de Gaulle" reached its peak. However, he was quickly overwhelmed by General de Gaulle's rallying actions and had to give in to him. His unfailing support for Pierre Pucheu ended up discrediting him amongst his partisans. Pétain's former Minister of the Interior had in fact persuaded Morocco to serve the colours of the Free French (France Libre), but his move was considered to be too late for someone accused of collaboration with the enemy and participation in the arrest of hostages.

On the 13th September 1943, he sent French troops to support Corsican resistance fighters by landing on the island. It was a military success but Giraud was the subject of much criticism from General de Gaulle for having armed the communist Corsican resistance movement, giving a political tone to the operations for the liberation of Europe and weakening the unification work of the resistance movement. He finally lost his seat on the CFLN. In April 1944, Giraud organised French participation in the Italian campaign, but, considered to be too implicated in the repressive Vichy system, he was discharged from his position of Commander in Chief and had to withdraw from the military involvement with the France Libre. He would share his experiences of these troubled times in his book: Un seul but: la Victoire, Alger, 1942-1944(Just one goal: Victory, Algiers1942-1944). On the 28th August 1944 he survived an assassination attempt in Mostaganem. In 1946, Giraud stood for the position of Deputy in Lorraine for the second National Constitutional Assembly on the list of the Republican Party of Liberty and of the Agrarian Independents. Elected on the 2nd June, he whipped support for the group of independent republicans and contributed to the creation of the Fourth Republic, despite his refusal to vote for the constitution. He took part in debates on the situation of non-repatriated prisoners of war (25th July 1946) and on the general policy of the government in Algeria (22nd August 1946). He sat on the Upper War Council until December 1948 and on the 10th March 1949 he received the Military Medal for his outstanding escape. He died the following day and is buried at Les Invalides.

(29th January 1877: Limoges - 21st December 1969: Paris)

The son of a serviceman who distinguished himself during the campaigns of the Second Empire in Africa and Asia and of a Genoese mother, Georges Catroux inherited a sense of service and a taste for distant lands. After attending schools in Limoges, Angers and Rennes depending on where his father was stationed, he went to the Prytanee National Military Academy in La Flèche and then the Special Military School of St. Cyr in 1896, graduating in the class of "great manoeuvres", before opting for the Foot Chasseurs Corps (Grenoble). In 1900, as a young lieutenant in the Foreign Legion, he was sent on a pacifying mission to the Sahara. Three years later, he was in Indochina to assist the Governor General Paul Beau, before leaving again for North Africa, firstly to Algeria where he encountered Lyautey (he would write a few years later about Lyautey the Moroccan ), and then to Morocco where, until 1911, he carried out preparatory operations for the occupation of the country, before returning to Algiers alongside the Governor General Lutaud. At the beginning of the First World War, he was in command of the 2nd regiment of Algerian tirailleurs. Wounded near Arras in October 1915, he was taken prisoner and met Charles de Gaulle at the 9th Fort in Ingolstadt.

He was a member of the French military expedition to Arabia in 1919-1920 and then appointed Governor of the State of Damascus, where he laid the foundations for the administration and governance of Syria, before carrying out the role of military attaché in Constantinople - he would share his Levantine experiences in Deux missions au Moyen-Orient (Two missions in the Middle East), 1919-1922. Lyautey recalled him to Morocco from June to October 1925 during the Rif war. Assigned to Henri de Jouvenel, the High Commissioner of the Levant, Catroux defended the argument for the independence of Syria and the Lebanon. Unable to find favourable support, he asked to be relieved of his duties and returned to the desert in 1927 to lead the 6th regiment of Algerian tirailleurs in Tlemcen. Promoted to Colonel and then to General, he commanded in Marrakech from 1931 to 1934, followed by Mulhouse and then the 19th Army Corps in Algiers from 1936 to 1939. When war was declared in September 1939, Catroux had been Governor General of Indochina for three months: then a reserve officer, he had been recalled by Mandel on the 21st August to fill this position. On the armistice he had to deal with a government that refused the presence of foreign troops in the country and promote relations with China and the Japanese, who were eager to take hold on the continent in order to take on Peking. The Vichy government removed him from office on the 26th July 1940. He therefore refused to return to France and decided to rally support for the Free French (France Libre) via Singapore and Cairo. Arriving in London on the 17th September 1940, General de Gaulle gave him the task of preparing the rallying of the States of the Levant as the France Libre's representative in the region. In June 1941, as a member of the Council for the Defence of the Empire and Commander in Chief and General Delegate for the France Libre in the Middle East, he announced the independence of Syria and the Lebanon. On he 19th July he was appointed High Commissioner of the France Libre in the Levant on the orders of General Wilson, the Commander in Chief of British troops in this area. He took part in the negotiations following the landings in North Africa and, when appointed Commander of the French Forces on the 25th November 1942, he took on the task of reuniting the overseas territories under his authority, whilst at the same time playing an intermediary role between de Gaulle and Giraud. In May 1943, as State Commissioner on the French Liberation Committee, he was given the task of coordinating Muslim affairs and drafted the order of the 7th March 1944 granting French nationality to certain categories of Muslims and the possibility of obtaining it for others. Governor General of Algeria in June 1944 and a Companion of the Liberation, he was appointed Secretary of State for North Africa in the provisional government of the French Republic on the 9th September that same year.

He was French Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1948, an experience that he would make the subject of J'ai vu tomber le rideau de fer, (I saw the iron curtain fall) and served as diplomatic advisor to the government on his return, when he was promoted to the dignity of Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur in 1954. While a commission was set up to determine the responsibility for the defeat of Dien Bien Phu, he would express his opinions of this war in Deux actes du drame indochinois (Two acts of the Indochinese drama). In 1955, when he was chosen to resolve the troubles in Morocco, he played a predominant role in the negotiations for the return of sultan Mohammed V, who was exiled in Madagascar. The following year, he carried out the duties of resident minister in Algeria, but resigned because of hostile demonstrations against Europeans. In 1961, Catroux was a member of a military tribunal responsible for judging the Putschist Generals Challe and Zeller and their accomplices. Retired from active service in 1969 and made a Companion of the Liberation, Georges Catroux died on the 21st December, in the Val-de-grâce hospital. He is buried in the cemetery in Thiais (Val-de-Marne).

Blenheim, 30 November 1874 – London, 24 January 1965

Winston Churchill was a British politician descended from one of the greatest English aristocratic families, that of the Dukes of Marlborough.

Born on 30 November 1874, Winston Churchill was a mediocre student until he was admitted to Sandhurst military school in 1893. He graduated 20th out of 130 in 1896.

He fought against the Spanish in Cuba, India and Sudan, where he signed up with General Kitchener in 1898. In 1899, during the Second Boer War in South Africa, he was taken prisoner and managed to escape, an incredible story applauded by the domestic and international press. From then on, half officer and half journalist, he wrote lively, expressive articles that were highly appreciated, opening the doors to the House of Commons to him in 1900.

Elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1900, he left the party and joined the Liberals in 1904, with whom he began a brilliant political career – he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1905, Trade Minister in 1908 and Home Minister in 1910.

In 1908, he met and married Clementine Hozier, with whom he had five children.

In 1911, at thirty-seven, he became First Lord of the Admiralty. He held this position at the outbreak of World War I.

In 1915, he prepared a Franco-British naval expedition against Turkey, Germany’s ally, to occupy the Dardanelles and to open up communication with Russia. But the landing at Gallipoli, in the spring of 1915, was an outright disaster that forced him to leave the government and nearly destroyed his career once and for all. He then briefly served on the French Front, commanding the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, but Lloyd George called him back to the government, entrusting him with the portfolio of Minister for Munitions (1917), then Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air (1918-1921).

With the Liberal Party’s loss in 1922, Churchill lost his seat in Parliament. He returned to the Conservative Party, which welcomed him back with no hard feelings in 1924, naming him Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In the 1930s, he repeatedly warned, in vain, of the threat posed by Hitler’s Germany.

Thus, when Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, he said, "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war."

In September 1939, Churchill was once again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. After Neville Chamberlain’s resignation on 10 May 1940, he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He proved to be a veritable war leader, firmly resolved to lead his country to victory and, in his inaugural speech before the House of Commons, announcing the dark days of the Battle of Britain, he declared, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat".

At the age of 66, Churchill had managed to reach the summit of power for the first time, and he was to remain there until the end of the conflict. He played a crucial role in supporting the morale of the British. The man with his incisive speeches, his cigar and his ‘V for Victory” came to symbolise Britain’s resistance against Nazism. He organised the evacuation of the Dunkirk pocket, allowed de Gaulle to launch his famous “Appel du 18 Juin”, exalted the tenacity of the British people during the Battle of Britain ("Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", Speech to the House of Commons, 20 August 1940), and made victory a non-negotiable necessity.

He had always been for cooperation with France, even though his relations with the leader of the Free French were often difficult despite the mutual respect the two men had for each other, but he did not hesitate to sink the French fleet at Mers el-Kébir to keep it from falling into Axis hands. Likewise, even though he was a fervent anti-Communist, he extended a hand to Stalin when the USSR was attacked by Germany on 22 June 1941, while signing the Atlantic Charter with Roosevelt in August 1941.

All his policies focused on a single goal – resisting Nazism and defeating Hitler, no doubt making him one of the main artisans of the allied victory.

At the end of the war, Churchill tried to convince Roosevelt to adopt a firmer attitude toward the USSR, but he was unable to stop the division of Europe between the Soviets and the Americans at the Yalta Conference in Ukraine.

In 1945, the elections were won by the Labour Party. Churchill became the leader of the Conservative opposition, denouncing the “Iron Curtain” in 1946 and insisting on the importance of the Commonwealth and privileged relations with the United States.

He was re-elected Prime Minister in 1951, turning the position over to Anthony Eden in April 1955. He dedicated the last years of his life to painting and literature.

Awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1953, Sir Winston Churchill wrote many books, including his War Memoirs (1948-1954), a priceless testimony to his extraordinary tenacity during one of the darkest periods in the history of Great Britain and the free world.

He died of a stroke in London on 24 January 1965, at the age of 90.

(Born 5 February 1912, Valenciennes – Died 4 February 1945, Dessenheim)

A child of the aviation age, the young Edmond inherited his passion for aircraft from his father, an engineer who graduated from the Arts et Métiers engineering school. Together they built gliders and formed air clubs. Graduating from high school in Latin and sciences at 16, he started a short-lived law course. After a few weeks, he applied for a pilot’s grant and was admitted into the aviation school in Morane. After earning his pilot’s licence on 1 August 1931, he completed his training in Istres on 20 April 1932 and started preparing for the entry exam to join the training school for reserve officers. Ranking a sub-lieutenant by 20 September, he gave up his stripes so he could bypass the regulation that banned reservist officers from flying. He then enlisted into a fighter unit at the rank of sergeant before joining the Air Force Academy in 1936 from where he graduated in October 1937 having returned to the rank of sub-lieutenant with a qualification in observation.

He was assigned to the GC I/5 fighter group in Reims and served under Jean Accart, in the first "Champagne" fighting squadron, which continued the legacy of the prestigious Spa-67 squadron from Navarre. Promoted to the grade of lieutenant at the start of the Second World War, his unit, flying one of the Curtis H-75 fighters, spent winter on the ground in Suippes, breaking up the daily monotony by carrying out long alert missions at altitude.

On 11 January 1940 Marin La Meslée, Marina as he was known over radio, experienced the intoxicating adrenalin of his first battles. On patrol with Lieutenant Rey, the two pilots brought a reconnaissance mission of a Dornier-17 to an end in the skies above Verdun. But it was in May of that year, confronted with the irresistible German machine of war that he earned his fame and entered into the aviation fighting hall of fame. On the 12th, he struck down two Stukas Junkers-87 and the following day more than one Messerschmitt-109 fighter plane. Over the following weeks Heinkel bomber, two Henschel-126s and one Heinkel-111 fell victim to his sharp shooting.

On 1 June, with 16 aircraft under his belt, he was appointed to lead the “Cigogne” squadron replacing Captain Accard, who had been seriously injured. When the Armistice was declared, he had carried out a total 106 sorties and chalked up fifteen victories in France and five over Germany, and earned ten Citations to the Order of the Army. His record is unrivalled.

In November 1942, the squadron based in North Africa received orders from Vichy to resume the offensive. Under cover of the British and American landing, the "Cigognes" flew for Free France in the skies above Tunisia, even if in reality the unit was only carrying out reconnaissance missions. The lieutenant carried out 105 sorties aboard an Airacobra P-39 and achieved four victories over the African coasts. A commander in June 1944, he returned to the base in Salon-en-Provence at the controls of a P-47 Thunderbolt on 20 September, a month after the landing in Provence. His unit was then attached to the 1st French Army.

In early 1945, offensives to reconquer Alsace were raging. Allied aircraft were used to destroy obstacles ahead of the infantry, attacking in perilous dives when necessary. On 4 February, Commander Edmond Marin la Meslée executed a second crossing over German lines. His aircraft, hit by a shot from a DCA, crashed and exploded two kilometres from the village of Rustenhardt.

His wings were permanently clipped just shy of his thirty-third birthday:

"A noble face of air-to-air combat, of which he was the embodiment, 

He will forever remain for his virtues and his glory,

One of the most brilliant figures of the French Air Force

And one of the most noble heroes of the nation."

(Wissembourg, 14th June 1864 - Strasbourg, 1st April 1939) Although today he is almost forgotten, in the first half of the 20th century Auguste Spinner was one of the greatest figures of the Alsace, as a French painter, decorator, architect, spy, journalist, soldier and then civil servant. Born in Wissembourg in 1864, Auguste Spinner was deeply affected by the Battle of the 4th August 1870 that touched the town where he was born and was thus to grow up with an abiding memory of France, the Alsace at the time being annexed to Wilhelm's Reich. After studying at the Fine Arts College in Karlsruhe, in the 1890's he took over the family painting and decorating business. He is most notably responsible for the frescoes that adorn the inside of the historic museum in Hagenau. With a passion for history, in 1905 he was involved in founding the Verein zur Erhaltung der Altertümer in Weissenburg und Umgegend or Society for the preservation of the antiques of Wissembourg and the surrounding areas, of which he became treasurer. Auguste Spinner was also recognised at the time as one of the major collectors of weapons and uniforms of the Alsace and one of the best historians on the war of 1870 in the North of the Alsace.

In addition, in 1908 he published one of the first detailed studies of the adventures of Count von Zeppelin during the Schirlenhofe affair, which was responsible for the first two casualties of the Franco-German war. From 1906 onwards, he started a project in Wissembourg to build a commemorative monument to the French soldiers who had fallen on the field of honour under the command of Marshal de Villars (1705-1706), Marshal Coigny (1744), General Hoche (1793) and General Abel Douay (1870). Assisted shortly afterwards by Paul Bourson, and then by all the Francophile Alsatian leaders of the time, his project came to fruition in 1909, after bitter negotiations with the imperial German government. The inauguration of the monument, which took place on the 17th October 1909, turned into a fantastic pro-French demonstration, during which more than 50,000 citizens from the Alsace and Lorraine gave a stunning performance of the Marseillaise to the accompaniment of the municipal Reichshoffen band, in front of the dumbfounded German authorities. Appointed general representative of the Souvenir Français association in the Alsace, Spinner continued his work to promote France by encouraging the creation of new sections of the Souvenir association and federating French ex-servicemen's associations for veterans of the Crimea, Italy, Mexico and the 1870 war. In 1910, he even intervened, alongside the chairman of the French ex-servicemen's association, Joseph Sansboeuf, and Maurice Barrès, in order to make the French National Assembly create a medal commemorating the war of 1870-1871.
Far removed from all fanaticism and jingoism, on the 24th July 1910 he organised one of the first ceremonies of Franco-German reconciliation in history to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Schirlenhofe skirmish. He brought together a party of former key players in the battle over the graves of the first two victims of the conflict of 1870. However, faced with increasing political lawsuits and arrests within Francophile circles affecting those close to him, notably the Abbot Wetterlé, Hansi and Zislin etc. Auguste Spinner began to feel threatened and in September 1912 chose to go into exile in Nancy, whilst still remaining very active in the annexed Alsace-Lorraine. In 1912 he was involved in founding the Westercamp Museum in Wissembourg to whom he bequeathed his collections and became vice president of the Alsace and Lorraine Souvenir association, which was dissolved by the Imperial authorities in 1913. Hansi later implicitly dedicated to him his album entitled Mon village - Ceux qui n'oublient pas, (My village - Those who will not forget) published at Christmas in 1913, in which Auguste Spinner's father, Laurent, who remained in Wissembourg, appears in the character of the night watchman.
During this period, Spinner became a special agent of Lieutenant Colonel Albert Carré who, in 1913, was given the task by the French High Command of organising a rallying centre in Besançon for Alsatian deserters from the German army in the event of war. Enlisting as a volunteer in the French army on the 28th July 1914, Spinner was called to the army as an interpreter officer before hostilities had even begun. Following an open letter from Maurice Barrès to the war Minister on the 22nd August 1914, he was given the task of selecting men from the Alsace and Lorraine from amongst the German prisoners of war. Awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 1915, he was posted from 1916 to the Information Service at army headquarters. Appointed Deputy Trustee of the town of Wissembourg, he was the first French soldier to enter the town which had become French again on the 24th November 1918. Demobilised in 1920, he then became the Director of the warehouse for tobacco manufactured in Strasbourg and held important positions in the Bas Rhin Souvenir Français association, the Federation of Volunteers in Action and various other patriotic associations. He ended his military career in 1935 with the rank of Interpreter Commander and the officer's rosette of the Légion d'Honneur. An occasional contributor to the Alsace Française review, in 1934-1935 he organised an important ceremony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Wissembourg monument. This was held on the 28th July 1935, presided over by General Gamelin and brought together more than 75 generals of Alsatian origin and several thousand spectators, including his friend Hansi.
The victim of an attack at the end of March 1939, Auguste Spinner died on the 1st April 1939. A grand funeral was arranged and, in accordance with his last wishes, his coffin was wrapped in a tricolour flag that had been flown during the 1909 inauguration ceremony. A year later "his" monument was blown up using dynamite by the Nazi authorities and his family was forced into exile. After the liberation, his son Georges, who had become an architect for listed buildings in France, recovered a few blocks of sandstone from the destroyed monument in order to create a stele for his father's grave in Wissembourg. A new monument was later built and inaugurated in le Geisberg on the 13th November 1960.

(17th December 1889: Dôle, Jura - 17th October 1982: Fréjus, Var)

Antoine Béthouart came from a family from Marquenterre in Picardy, and studied for his baccalaureate at Sainte-Geneviève in Versailles, enrolling at Saint-Cyr in 1909 in the class known as "Fez ", where he would meet Alphonse Juin and Charles de Gaulle. In October 1912, as sub-lieutenant, he was posted to the Vosges to the 152nd infantry regiment (RI) and served in various units before joining the 158th RI where he distinguished himself during the First World War in the Alsace, at Verdun, in the Somme, on the Chemin des Dames and during the attack on Mont Kemel. Wounded on three occasions, he was awarded numerous citations and ended the war with the rank of captain. Between 1919 and 1920, he was assigned to the Finnish army at Viborg, before being admitted to the Ecole de Guerre and serving, from 1922 to 1924, at the headquarters of the 12th army corps and the 6th battalion of alpine chasseurs. Promoted to Head of Battalion in March 1928, he commanded the 24th battalion of alpine chasseurs at Villefranche. Appointed deputy to the French military attaché in Yugoslavia in 1931 and then promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1934, he carried out this diplomatic role in full until 1938.

In September 1939, Colonel Béthouart, at the head of the 5th half-brigade of alpine chasseurs (Chambéry), was responsible for the border along the Alps, before returning to the Maginot line in the Moselle sector of Bitche. In February 1940, he formed the High Mountain brigade with a view to operations in Scandinavia. The corps of troops set off on the 12th April. As a result, its founder was awarded his Brigade General's stripes. After Bjervik, on the 28th May his men took Narvik, pushing back the German battalions of General Dietl to the border, a feat which would earn him promotion to the dignity of Commander of the Légion d'honneur. The French expeditionary corps to Norway was partially evacuated to the United Kingdom following the armistice. Béthouart remained faithful to his unit, following those of his men who wanted to return to France. He was finally repatriated to Morocco where in turn he took command of the Rabat subdivision, the presidency of the French Armistice Commission in Morocco and then command of the Casablanca division in January 1942, a strategic position where he organised assistance to the Allies during the November landings. He was arrested by the President General, Noguès, and on the 10th November appeared before a court martial in Meknès where he was sentenced to death. Freed a few days later, he was promoted to Division General and in December 1942 he was appointed Head of the Military Mission to Washington by General Giraud in order to negotiate the American government's practical aid for the French army. As Chief of Staff of the national defence in Algiers, he brought about the close relationship between the FFL and the African Army, accompanying General de Gaulle to Rome, London and Bayeux. In August 1944 he was commander of the 1st army corps, fighting with the 1st army in the Belfort Gap (14th November), taking Héricourt, Montbéliard, Delle and reaching Mulhouse; he is cited on the order of the army. On the 29th January 1945, during operations to close the Colmar Pocket, he upset the German fortified defences on the southern front and succeeded in joining up with units of the 1st army arriving from the North. He reached the banks of the Rhine on the 9th February; he was then promoted to the dignity of Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur. During the German campaign, he took Constance, Ulm, Friedrichshafen and Bregenz, finishing his epic journey in the Arlberg Pass (Austria) on the 6th May 1945. Rising to Companion of the Liberation, General Béthouart was appointed High Commissioner of the French Republic in Austria on the 8th July 1945, remaining in this role until the 30th September 1950, having left active service with the rank of Army General on the 12th January 1949.

On returning to France, he held the presidency of the Committee of the Flame under the Arc de Triomphe and of the European Federation of Servicemen's associations and continued to serve France as a member of parliament. In 1955 he represented the French in Morocco and, from 1959, French citizens overseas in the Senate, also being appointed member of the commission for foreign affairs, defence and the armed forces. On the 2nd and 3rd June 1958, he voted for full powers for General de Gaulle and for constitutional reform. In 1960, he voted for the act authorising the government to take the necessary measures for maintaining order in Algeria. The following year, he participated in discussions on aid to those repatriated from North Africa. From1963 to 1971, he was a spokesman for the Commission for Foreign Affairs on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' government finance bill for credits, making observations on numerous subjects including technical cooperation, the position of French nationals overseas (1963), compensation for farmers despoiled in Morocco (1964), the repatriated (1966), military aid credits for the countries of North Africa, diplomatic personnel and positions (1967), credits for cultural activities, the performance of the Upper Council for French citizens overseas, the posting of military conscripts (1969), the French Alliance, military aid to Algeria and the situation in Cambodia (1970). In June 1970, he was a member of the special commission charged with examining the government bill regarding compensation for repatriated French citizens. As Vice-president of the French delegation to the NATO parliamentary conference in 1965 and 1968, Béthouart spoke in public sessions in the Senate in 1966 and 1967 on the question of relations between France and the Atlantic Alliance. He also took responsibility for questions about the reform of the French army, took part in the debate on national service in 1965, on the army's health service in 1968 and, in 1970, on the government bill regarding military facilities for the period from 1971-1975. He retired in 1971 to pursue a career as a writer, starting with La Bataille pour l'Autriche (The Battle for Austria)(1966) and Cinq années d'espérance (Five years of Hope) (1968). He published Des hécatombes glorieuses aux désastres (From Glorious Bloodbaths to Tragedies) (memoirs) in 1972, followed by Le Prince Eugène de Savoie (1975) (Prince Eugene of the Savoie) and Metternich et l'Europe (Mettenich and Europe) (1978), alongside regular contributions to Le Figaro. General Antoine Béthouart died on 17th October 1982 in Fréjus and is buried in Rue, in the Somme.

(29th November 1895: Alès, Gard - 1st July 1962: Paris)

Eligible for Saint-Cyr in 1914, the class of the "Great Return", Edgard de Larminat, whose father was a Forest and Waterways Officer, continued the family tradition dating back to the 17th century of service to the state. Raised amongst the Jesuit community of Montfré and Les Postes, he attended high schools in Gap and Troyes and signed up at the age of 19 as a simple soldier in the 27th Infantry Regiment. Posted to the 134th, he undertook special studies as a student at Saint-Cyr and then joined in turn the 321st and 121st Infantry Regiments. Promoted to Captain in September 1917, he ended the war with four mentions on the military order of the day and was wounded three times, including once by gas (March 1918), having proved exemplary bravery at the fort de Vaux where he had been wounded by an exploding shell in June 1916. Because of this he would be singled out by the Légion d'honneur. With an independent nature and curious about distant horizons, he joined the marines (colonial army) in 1919 when his training at saint Cyr was completed. Sent to Morocco to implement the policies of Marshal Lyautey, he proved his full capability in commanding the 13th Battalion of Senegalese Tirailleurs of Ouezzane, a quality that earned him a further mention.

His command of the Kiffa Circle in Mauritania, between 1923 and 1926, left a lasting impression, as did his mission to Indochina from 1928 to 1931. As Head of Battalion in 1929, he studied at the Upper War Academy from 1933 to 1935, getting himself noticed for the depth of his cultural knowledge and his ability to understand military matters. As Lieutenant Colonel, he was posted to the Levant in January 1936 to carry out the role of Chief of Staff for the General Commander in Chief in the theatre of operations in the Middle-East. Made Colonel in March 1940, De Larminat refused to surrender his arms: whilst General Mittelhauser decided to follow the orders of the government in Bordeaux, he arranged the passage to Palestine of those troops who still wanted to carry on fighting. Arrested and imprisoned, he escaped, reaching Damascus on the 1st July and then joining the Free French (France Libre) whom he served with relentless fervour.

In Egypt, he regrouped the French contingents from Syria and then went as second in command to General Legentilhomme in Djibouti. Learning about the uprisings in Chad, Cameroon and French Equatorial Africa during a stay in London, he went to Léopoldville from where he prepared for the surrender of the garrison at Brazzaville on the 28th August, deposing the Governor General, taking command of the troops and the civilian and military command of the countries he had won over. Promoted to Brigade General, he carried out the duties of Superior Commander and Governor General and then High Commissioner until July 1941, when, appointed Division General, he returned to Syria alongside General Catroux. In December his North African adventure began. Commanding the French Forces in Libya, he took part in the Western Desert campaign, distinguishing himself at the battles of Gazalla (May 1942) and El-Alamein (October- November 1942) against Rommel.

He organised the 1st Free French Division at the head of which he brilliantly represented his homeland during the last operations of the Tunisian campaign, in May 1943 at Takrouna and Djebel Garci, thereby earning his stripes as General of the Army Corps. As Chief of Staff of the Free French Forces at the French Commission for National Liberation in June and July, in August 1943 he took command of the 2nd Army Corps, with whom he led the Italian campaign in May and June 1944 as deputy to the Commander of the French Expeditionary Corps to Italy. At its head, between the 10th June and the 4th July, he made his mark on the most glorious days of this operation between Viterbo and Sienna, in Tuscany, earning a further mention and the title of Commander of the Légion d'honneur. On the 16th August, De Larminat landed in Provence with the 2nd Army Corps, fighting through to Marseilles, liberating Toulon and opening the way for the reconquering of the country. Between October 1944 and June 1945 he led the Army Detachment of the Atlantic at the head of the Western Forces and played a decisive role in reducing the German pockets of resistance at Lorient, La Rochelle, Rochefort and la Pointe de Grave. During the winter of 1944-1945 he also carried out the task of turning the units of French Homeland Forces, which came from the resistance groups, into regular units. The army, the resistance movement and the Nation provided him with the subject matter for three books: L'Armée dans la Nation (the Army in the Nation); Bertie Albrecht, Pierre Arrighi, général Brosset, D. Corticchiato, Jean Prévost, 5 parmi d'autres (Bertie Albrecht, Pierre Arrighi, General Brosset, D. Corticchiato, Jean Prévost, to name but 5) ; Que sera la France de demain? (What will become of France tomorrow?)

As a Companion of the Liberation he carried out the role of Inspector General of the Overseas Forces between November 1945 and July 1947, was named as a titled member of the Upper War Council in 1950 and presided over the European Union Military Committee for Defence (1951-1954) - a subject that he covers in L'Armée européenne (The European Army). He was promoted to the rank of Army General in 1953, officiating as Inspector of Colonial Troops in 1955, before moving into the reserves on the 29th November 1956. Recalled in June 1962, when he had just finished Chroniques irrévérencieuses (Disrespectful Chronicles) (a book of memoirs of his early days at the end of the Second World War), De Larminat was given the presidency of the Military Court of Justice charged with instructing the trial of the instigators of the Algiers rebellion of April 1961. The trial was to open on the 2nd July against a background of the end of the war in Algeria, of a nation in tatters, contested power and virulent media campaigns. His dilemma was choosing his homeland, the army or allegiance to Gaullism, which led De Larminat to take his own life the day before the first session. On the 6th July General Dio read his funeral eulogy in the Cour des Invalides, ending his tribute as follows: "My General, may the God of the Army look after you. And may the earth in your small village in the Jura be soft. Your former comrades in arms, who are attached to you through so many memories, will piously preserve your memory " General Edgard de Larminat rests in the cemetery at Montain, in the Jura.

On the suicide of De Larminat: www.larminat-jm.com Historical publications, nos. 610, 615, 620, 632 Philippe Oulmont, editor. Larminat, un fidèle hors série (Larminat an out of the ordinary loyal supporter), Charles de Gaulle Foundation / LBM Publications. Distributed by Ouest France, 2008

(30th September 1887: Libourne, Gironde 18th June 1981: Dax, Dordogne)

Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert came from a military family who lived with an ethos of honour and serving their country. Carrying on these traditions, the young man soon responded to the call of the military, preparing for the Saint-Cyr special military college, where he enrolled in October 1907 (class of Morocco) after having tried the military profession for a whole year with the 50th infantry regiment. Attracted to North Africa, he chose to serve in Morocco where, in 1912, he joined the 3rd regiment of tirailleurs. He was a Lieutenant when the First World War broke out, appointed to the 1st mixed regiment of tirailleurs and zouaves of the 1st Moroccan division. In May 1915 he was a Captain, distinguishing himself in the 9th regiment of zouaves, where he ended the war as acting Battalion Chief, crowned with seven citations and the Légion d'Honneur. The period between the wars was the opportunity to take a course at the Ecole supérieure de guerre (Upper War Academy) and deepen his knowledge of the Maghreb, where he did not take long to become an expert.

Made Colonel in June 1937, he was in charge of the 9th RT at Miliana at the beginning of the Second World War when he was promoted to Commander of the Southern Tunisian unit (81st infantry brigade) at Blida in December. Forced to accept the armistice, Monsabert was resolved not to give up the struggle. In August 1941 he was a General, ensuring the continuation of the African army in order to serve alongside the Allies when the time came, preparing for the arrival of General Giraud in Blida following the landing in North Africa in November 1942. Banished by the Vichy regime, he took command of the African Free Forces and then the 19th army corps during the Tunisian campaign. In March 1943, he was Division General and took command of the 3rd Algerian infantry division, taking the whole summer to lead them across the Western Algerian desert, to the appreciation of his superiors and his men. In December, he set off from Bizerte for Nisida. As part of General Juin's French expeditionary Corps to Italy (Corps expéditionnaire français en Italie or CEFI), the "Africans" took up position in the Abruzzo. His unit, engaged in the mountains to the north of Venafro, had to endure the rigours of winter and the determination of the enemy, who had to retreat around the edges of Monna Casale to Acquafondata and the other side of the Rapido. Most importantly, he took the Belvedere Crest, which earned him his first citation on the order of the army. The American troops, unable to break down the fort of Monte Cassino, accepted General Juin's plan of a surrounding manoeuvre by troops of the CEFI. On the 12th May, his troops took Castelforte, crossing the Aurunci mountains within a few days. The Allies arrived in Rome on the 5th June. Fighting continued along Lake Bolsena and, across the Amiata, the 3rd DIA took Sienna on the 3rd July. After Italy came France, whose men landed in Toulon on the 16th August, taking part in the retaking of the town (21st August) and then of Marseille (28th August). Monsabert was made a citizen of honour of Marseille and promoted by General de Gaulle to the dignity of Great officer of the Légion d'Honneur.

Appointed Lieutenant General of the Army, he took command of the 2nd CA, continuing his reconquering mission: Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Mâcon, Chalon, Autun and Dijon fell. He took control of the Vosges and Alsace campaigns and took part in the defence of Strasbourg against a pocket of German resistance, crossing the Lauter and the Rhine to celebrate victory in Stuttgart. Monsabert was Superior Commander of the Occupying Troops in Germany on the 24th July 1945 and rose to the rank of Army General, receiving the Military Medal and becoming a Great Cross of the Légion d'Honneur. He retired from active service in 1946, to his Toureil home in Hastingues (Landes) where he devoted himself to defending the French army, both through writing Il faut refaire l'Armée française (We must change the French Army)(Paris, 1950), and in politics, through his election as MP for the Basses-Pyrénées region between 1951 and 1955. On the 8th July 1985, the city of Bordeaux paid tribute to its famous son. Charles Hernu, then minister for the Defence, unveiled a monument in memory of General de Monsabert in the Place des Martyrs de la Résistance.

(19th November 1868, Saint-Michel de Maurienne: Savoie - 16th February 1932: Paris) 

Gustave Ferrié was born on the 19th November 1868 to Pierre Ferrié, an engineer for the Southern Railway and Antoinette Manecy. From his childhood, he grew up surrounded by so many drawings and inventions that when he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in 1887, he chose military engineering. He was a radio transmissions engineer and in 1891 he was posted to this corps until 1898. His work during this period most notably involved increasing the range of the Eiffel Tower transmitter from 400 to 6,000km. In 1899, he was won over by wireless telegraphy after having attended a demonstration by Marconi on this new technology. The Minister for War, Freycinet, appointed him that same year to the Committee on Wireless Telegraphy Research between France and the United Kingdom in order to submit a report on the military applications for this means of communication. In addition, he worked on developing mobile military radio-communication units and in 1900 improved Branly's radio-detection system by inventing an electrolytic detector, an appliance that made sound transmission possible, the last version of which (1910) would be used by the French army during the First World War. As a Colonel in 1914, he identified the properties of the electron tube and considerably increased the range of the field transmitter/receivers used by the allied troops from 1916.

It was thanks to Ferrié's devices that in 1917 Mata-Hari' messages were intercepted and the spy's espionage activities were brought to an end. Promoted to General in 1919, he continued his research and the development of its military application: the construction of radio sets for the navy, the colonies and the air force. With such new links now possible, he refined the measurement of longitude and the earth's dimensions. Having reached the upper working age limit, he carried on working by special permission. Working on developing radio-electric techniques, he created a radio department at the Ecole supérieure d'Electricité. The scientific community recognised the major advances of his discoveries in the field of radio-telecommunications. The honours followed: in 1922, he was elected to the Academy of Sciences and became president of the International Scientific Radio Union as well as the international commission of longitudes by radio. He was also vice-president of the International Board of Scientific Unions, presided over the Committee of Geodesy and Geophysics and received the medal of honour from the Institute of Radio Engineers. Awarded the Legion of Honour, Gustave Ferrié was raised to the Dignity of the Great Cross in 1932. He died a short time later, on the 16th February, in hospital at the Val-de-Grâce hospital. His body rests in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery (89th division) beside his wife Pierrette Pernelle, whom he had married in 1908.

Further reading on the subject: Amoudry (Michel), Le Général Ferrié et la naissance des transmissions et de la radiodiffusion, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2000