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Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Surname de Lattre de Tassigny Given Name Jean Born 2 Feb 1889 Died 11 Jan 1952 Country France Category Military-Ground Gender Male

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny was born into an aristocratic family in a village in Mouilleron-en-Pareds in the Pays de la Loire region of France in 1889. He graduated from the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in Brittany, France in 1911. He participated in WW1 (during which he was wounded twice) and the Rif War in the 1920s. In 1932, he served on the staff of Maxime Weygand. In 1935, he was made the commandant of the Army War College. Between 1939 and 1940, as France entered into the European War during WW2, he was the commanding officer of French 14th Infantry Division. Remaining in the French Army after the French defeat, he was transferred to Tunisia in 1941 and took command of French 16th Division in 1942. Later in 1942, he was arrested for his involvement in anti-German resistance forces and was sentenced to a ten-year imprisonment term. He escaped imprisonment, crossed into Allied territory in Algeria, and was given command of French Army B within the US 6th Army Group. His troops participated in the invasion of Corsica and Southern France. Although he was criticized for his lack of aggressiveness which allowed the Germans to strengthen the defensive position later to be known as the Colmar Pocket, he remained a popular leader especially as his troops crossed the Rhine River into Germany and captured Karlsruhe, Ulm, and Stuttgart. He represented France at the German surrender ceremony in Berlin, Germany on 8 May 1945. After the war, he served as the chief of staff of infantry troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), served in diplomatic functions in South America, and saw action in the First Indochina War. In 1951, he returned to Paris, France due to declining health. He passed away in the following year. He was given a state funeral, during which international dignitaries such as Bernard Montgomery and Dwight Eisenhower served as pallbearers. He was posthumously given the title of Maréchal de France (Marshal of France). He was buried next to his son, Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny, who was killed in French Indochina during the First Indochina War.

ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia

Last Major Revision: Mar 2013

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