The Dinassaut ( French: [dinaso] , Di vision Na vale d'A ssaut , "Naval Assault Division") was a type of riverine military unit employed by the French Navy during the first Indochina War . It's an example of Riverine artillery .
115-501: The 'Dinassaut' were created by General Leclerc in 1947 in order to replace the flottilles fluviales created by Jaubert in 1945–1946. Ten groups were created. Each Dinassaut consisted of approximately 12 craft, often American landing craft modified with armour and using tank turrets as weapons. Other craft carried 81mm mortars to be employed as riverine artillery . The ships were converted LCVP && Armored Troop Carrier (LCM) : The ten naval assault divisions were located in
230-480: A Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur . Although they were devout Catholics, Hauteclocque and Thérèse subscribed to Action Française , the journal of a far-right political organisation of the same name, despite a papal interdict against it, and continued to do so even after Thérèse was refused absolution . In contrast, his cousin Xavier de Hauteclocque [ fr ] was an award-winning journalist who covered
345-634: A Moroccan Goumier unit at M'Zizel in the Atlas Mountains . He saw action in the fighting against the Ait Hammou guerrillas. In one action, two horses were shot out from under him. Afterwards, he was posted to the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique [ fr ] , the senior cavalry regiment of the Armée d'Afrique , based at Rabat . In February 1931, Hauteclocque went back to Saint-Cyr as an instructor, but wanted to return to active service. During
460-451: A tank destroyer regiment. Leclerc had to weld the various units, some of whom had recently been fighting against the Allies, into a team. This was no easy task. When two men from the 501e RCC upset a former Vichy officer by singing a disrespectful song about Général d'armée Henri Giraud, resulting in a fight, he told the officer concerned that respect had to be earned. In April 1944, 2e DB
575-511: A German command post, where he secretly destroyed the receipt. He convinced a German colonel that he had been wounded in Morocco, suffered from malaria , and had six children, all of which was true, and he was thus exempted from military service, which was false. The Germans let him go. He then made his way to the Crozat Canal , swam across, and encountered a French patrol. Hauteclocque reported to
690-706: A US force in Western Germany". At a meeting for the foreign ministers of France, the UK, and the US in New York from 12 September – 19 December 1950, it was stated that among other measures to strengthen West Germany 's position in the Cold War that the western allies would "end by legislation the state of war with Germany". In 1951, many former Western Allies did end their state of war with Germany: Australia (9 July), Canada, Italy, New Zealand,
805-625: A defiant group of a dozen captured Frenchmen of the SS Charlemagne Division . He asked them why they wore a German uniform, to which one of them replied by asking why Leclerc wore an American one. Leclerc told his men to get rid of them. That was taken as a death sentence. The group of French Waffen-SS men was summarily executed by the RMT without any form of military tribunal procedure, and their bodies left where they fell until an American burial team collected them three days later. On 2 June 1949
920-603: A first contingent of French soldiers on 5 October 1945. He was dependent on the British for equipment and shipping. He did not get along well with D'Argenlieu, whom de Gaulle had appointed French High Commissioner for Indochina. Leclerc heeded the advice he was given by United States General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to bring as many soldiers as possible. He broke the Vietminh blockade around Saigon, then drove through
1035-511: A much larger operation that captured Kufra . After the battle, he had his men swear an oath known today as the Serment de Koufra ("Oath of Kufra"): You shall not lay down arms, until the day when our colours, our beautiful colours, flutter over the Strasbourg Cathedral . Leclerc learnt a great deal about how to handle and supply a force advancing across the desert, and was rewarded with
1150-513: A scratch force of armoured and mechanised units that included Brigadier General Stanisław Maczek 's Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade . The groupement launched a series of counter-attacks. Lacking a radio, Hauteclocque gave directions to the Char B1 tanks with his cane. On 15 June, he was wounded in the head during a German air attack, and was taken to a hospital in a convent in Avallon . There he
1265-529: A small area around the town), was not recognized by the Allies. On 12 May an Allied liaison team arrived in Flensburg and took quarters aboard the passenger ship Patria . The liaison officers and the Supreme Allied Headquarters soon realized that they had no need to act through the Flensburg government and that its members should be arrested. On 23 May, acting on SHAEF's orders and with the approval of
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#17328558918311380-585: A surrender document at Caserta after prolonged unauthorised secret negotiations with the Western Allies , which were viewed with great suspicion by the Soviet Union as trying to reach a separate peace . In the document, the Germans agreed to a ceasefire and surrender of all the forces under the command of Vietinghoff on 2 May at 2 pm. Accordingly, after some bitter wrangling between Wolff and Albert Kesselring in
1495-694: A visa on the second attempt, being refused the first time for carrying too much money with him. Once in Spain he took a train to Madrid , and then to Lisbon , where he went to the British embassy, which arranged his passage to Britain on a merchant ship, the SS Hillary . Leclerc arrived in London on 25 July 1940, and met with de Gaulle, who announced that he was promoting him to Chef d'escadrons (major). He also encountered his cousin Pierre de Hauteclocque, Xavier's brother, who
1610-530: A wedding present, Adrien gave them a chateau in Tailly . They had six children: Henri (1926–1952), who was killed in the First Indochina War ; Hubert (1927–2015 ), who served as mayor of Tailly from 2001 to 2008; Charles (1929–); Jeanne (1931–2018); Michel (1933–2014); and Bénédicte (1936–). Philippe and Thérèse hired an Austrian governess, and spoke German in front of their children to improve their command of
1725-725: Is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc or just Leclerc . The son of an aristocratic family, Hauteclocque graduated from the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr , the French military academy, in 1924. After service with the French Occupation of the Ruhr and in Morocco, he returned to Saint-Cyr as an instructor. He was awarded the croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures for leading goumiers in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August 1933. During
1840-559: Is named after him. There is a monument to Leclerc in the Petit-Montrouge quarter of the 14th arrondissement in Paris, between Avenue de la Porte d'Orléans and Rue de la Légion Étrangère , and near the Square du Serment-de-Koufra . Two streets in Paris are named for him: Avenue du Général Leclerc in the 14th arrondissement and Rue du Maréchal Leclerc in the 12th arrondissement , between
1955-667: The Bois de Vincennes and the Marne River . For his promotion to Companion of the National Order of Liberation: Leader of the highest value, admirable in zeal and energy. Wounded during the Battle of France, escaped from the hands of the enemy and joined the Free French Forces; Took a decisive part in the rally of Cameroon, which he then knew, as governor, to organize for the war, and in
2070-734: The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)—the German Armed Forces High Command—not all commanders did so. The largest contingent was Army Group Centre under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner , who had been promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army on 30 April in Hitler's last will and testament. On 8 May, Schörner deserted his command and flew to Austria; the Soviet Army sent overwhelming force against Army Group Centre in
2185-604: The 2e Division Française Libre (2e DFL). In June 1943, de Gaulle informed him the 2e DFL would be re-equipped by the Americans as an armoured division, the 2e Division Blindée (2 DB). It was often called La Division Leclerc . Although organised along American lines, its units had French titles. The non-white units were transferred elsewhere. The remainder of 2e DFL became the Regiment de Marche du Tchad (RMT), 2e DB's motorised infantry regiment. Free French armoured units serving with
2300-663: The Battle of the Falaise Pocket , which inflicted a major defeat on the German Army. Like most new division commanders, Leclerc also made errors, in his case by allowing 2e DB to use roads that had been earmarked for American units, thereby causing traffic jams and holding up the American advance. The next assignment for 2e DB, and the one that it had been brought from Africa for, was the liberation of Paris . Allied troops initially avoided
2415-501: The Canal de l'Escaut . From there the 4e DI retreated northward, becoming encircled in the Lille pocket on 28 May. Hauteclocque received permission to escape through German lines. He attempted to make his way back to the French lines by pretending to be a civilian refugee, but was apprehended by a German patrol and taken prisoner when they discovered an old military pay receipt. He was taken back to
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#17328558918312530-783: The Dönitz-led government . The last battles were fought on the Eastern Front which ended in the total surrender of all of Nazi Germany ’s remaining armed forces such as in the Courland Pocket in western Latvia from Army Group Courland in the Baltics surrendering on 10 May 1945 and in Czechoslovakia during the Prague offensive on 11 May 1945. Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners : The total number of prisoners taken on
2645-636: The Eighth Army 's inland flank during its advance into Tunisia, and participated in the attack on the Mareth Line . L Force was then transformed into the 2e Division Blindée , although it was often referred to as La Division Leclerc . It fought under Leclerc's command in the Battle of Normandy , and participated in the liberation of Paris and Strasbourg . After the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, he
2760-557: The European theatre of World War II continued after the definitive surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies , signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 ( VE Day ) in Karlshorst , Berlin . After German leader Adolf Hitler 's suicide and handing over of power to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz on the last day of April 1945, Soviet troops conquered Berlin and accepted surrender of
2875-751: The Fifth Crusade against Egypt, and again in the Eighth Crusade of Saint Louis against Tunisia in 1270. They had also fought at the Battle of Saint-Omer in 1340 and the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. The family managed to survive the French Revolution . Three members of the family served in Napoleon's Grande Armée and a fourth, who suffered from weak health, served in the supply train. The third son, Constantin, who had served in Napoleon's Russian Campaign ,
2990-688: The French Union , a new name for the French empire broadly similar to the British Commonwealth , and that Ho would allow France to base 25,000 soldiers in Vietnam for five years. The Ho-Sainteny agreement was never confirmed because it disappointed people on both sides. Ho's immense prestige largely silenced Vietnamese dissent, but the agreement caused a serious split within the French side. French businessmen, planters, and officials in Saigon were "indignant at
3105-594: The Geneva Convention of 1929 on the treatment of former combatants. By October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease. Liberation of Nazi concentration camps and refugees : Allied forces began to discover the scale of the Holocaust , confirming the findings of Pilecki's 1943 Report . The advance into Germany uncovered numerous Nazi concentration camps and forced labour facilities. Up to 60,000 prisoners were at Bergen-Belsen when it
3220-877: The Lehrter Bahnhof railway station after encountering a Soviet Red Army patrol. Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann, confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998, were unearthed on 7 December 1972. German forces in North West Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands surrender : On 4 May 1945, the British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery took the unconditional military surrender at Lüneburg from Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg , and General Eberhard Kinzel , of all German forces "in Holland [sic], in northwest Germany including
3335-600: The Mekong delta and up into the Central Highlands . This was possible because Ho feared Chinese domination far more than French colonialism, which he perceived to be in decline. Ho's first priority was getting rid of the Chinese, and for this he needed French help. Leclerc quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the conflict. The French government negotiator Jean Sainteny flew to Saigon to consult Leclerc, who
3450-687: The Mekong Delta (Cochinchina) and the Red River Delta (Tonkin) as follows: Each one has a company of Commandos Marine (created off Fusiliers Marins ) attached to it. They were notably involved in: The following people have served there: Dinassaut 6 & 8 had been transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Navy (VNN) in 1953. The concept was reused by the US Navy during the Vietnam War . This leads to
3565-594: The Prague offensive , forcing many of the German units in there to capitulate by 11 May. The other units of the Army Group which did not surrender on 8 May were forced to surrender. Debellation: At the time the Allied powers assumed that a debellation had occurred (the end of a war caused by the complete destruction of a hostile state), and their actions during the immediate post war period were based on that legal premise (however,
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3680-706: The Red Army . On the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, (General Kurt von Tippelskirch , commander of the German 21st Army and General Hasso von Manteuffel , commander of Third Panzer Army ), surrendered to the Western Allies. 2 May is also believed to have been the day when Hitler's deputy Martin Bormann died, from the account of Artur Axmann who saw Bormann's corpse in Berlin near
3795-406: The Soviet Union had not yet endorsed the Vietminh or the Vietnamese nationalist party ( VNQDD ), and the French Communist Party chose to support French rule in Vietnam. On 6 March 1946, a tentative agreement was reached at the last minute (with Leclerc's fleet already in the Gulf of Tonkin ) between Sainteny and Ho. The agreement stated that France would recognise Vietnam as a free state within
3910-490: The Soviet Union . Between 14 August 1946 and 9 May 1947, up to five million people were forcibly handed over to the Soviets. On return, most deportees faced imprisonment or execution; on some occasions the NKVD began killing people before Allied troops had departed from the rendezvous points. The Allied Control Council was created to effect the Allies' assumed supreme authority over Germany, specifically to implement their assumed joint authority over Germany. On 30 August,
4025-454: The zone occupée into the zone libre where Thérèse and the children were, his sister Yvonne obtained an identity card for him in the name of "Leclerc". It was his first use of this name. He also told Yvonne that he intended to join Général de brigade Charles de Gaulle in Britain. He was reunited with his family in Saint-Germain-les-Vergnes on 30 June but stayed with them for only four days before setting out for Spain. He managed to obtain
4140-418: The 2e DB. Patton then gave Leclerc his next objective: the town of Baccarat and the bridge there over the Meurthe River . The bridge was captured before the Germans could destroy it. Haislip's XV Corps was transferred to the Seventh United States Army on 29 September, and Leclerc feared that 2e DB would be transferred to Général d'armée Jean de Lattre de Tassigny 's French First Army . Leclerc regarded
4255-426: The Allied forces, this time in the presence of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and representatives of SHAEF . The signing ceremony took place in a former German Army Engineering School in the Berlin district of Karlshorst ; it now houses the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst . VE-Day : Following news of the German surrender, spontaneous celebrations erupted all over the world on 7 May, including in Western Europe and
4370-402: The British Distinguished Service Order . He began planning a far more ambitious advance into Libya. This was delayed by a year due to Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel 's defeat of the British Eighth Army in the Battle of Gazala , and the subsequent German and Italian advance into Egypt. Leclerc was promoted to Général de brigade in August 1941, and pinned two metal stars captured from
4485-485: The Control Council constituted itself and issued its first proclamation, which informed the German people of the council's existence and asserted that the commands and directives issued by the Commanders-in-Chief in their respective zones were not affected by the establishment of the council. Cessation of hostilities between the United States and Germany was proclaimed on 13 December 1946 by US President Truman . The Paris Peace Conference ended on 10 February 1947 with
4600-515: The Czech resistance started the Prague uprising . The following day, the Soviets launched the Prague offensive . In Dresden , Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann let it be known that a large-scale German offensive on the Eastern Front was about to be launched. Within two days, Mutschmann abandoned the city but was captured by Soviet troops while trying to escape. Hermann Göring's surrender : On 6 May, Reichsmarshall and Hitler's second-in-command Hermann Göring surrendered to General Carl Spaatz , who
4715-409: The Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers was signed by the four Allies on 5 June. It included the following: The Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by
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4830-445: The Dutch town of Wageningen , in the presence of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (acting as commander-in-chief of the Dutch Interior Forces). German forces in Bavaria surrender : At 14:30 on 5 May 1945, General Hermann Foertsch surrendered all forces between the Bohemian mountains and the Upper Inn river to the American General Jacob L. Devers , commander of the American 6th Army Group . Central Europe : On 5 May 1945,
4945-432: The Eighth Army became the 501e Régiment de chars de combat (501 RCC). The artillery and the other two armoured regiments of 2e DB, the 12e Régiment de Cuirassiers (12e RC) and the 12e Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique [ fr ] (12e RCA), were drawn from the Vichy Armée d'Afrique . Perhaps the most unusual unit in the division was the Régiment Blindé de Fusiliers-Marins (RBFM), sailors who served as
5060-431: The First Army as being full of traitors who had supported Vichy France. Moreover, de Lattre had sacked Général de division Edgard de Larminat for Gaullist sentiments, and Leclerc had good reason to fear that he might meet a similar fate. On 22 November, Haislip gave Leclerc permission to advance on Strasbourg. Leclerc surprised the Germans by advancing over country roads and tracks to bypass their defences. Strasbourg
5175-455: The French Army's staff college, as part of its 60th class. On graduating in July 1939, he was ordered to report to the 4e Division d'Infanterie [ fr ] (4e DI) as its chief of staff. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Luxembourg , the Netherlands , and Belgium . The 4e DI was ordered to hold the line of the Sambre river. Hauteclocque was placed in charge of three infantry battalions . To his dismay, orders came to pull back to
5290-407: The French during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Vichy regime had allowed the Japanese to use Indochina as a base from which to attack the Allies in Malaya, Burma and China. On 9 March 1945, the Japanese had deposed the French colonial government , taken direct control of Indochina, defeated the French army in several engagements, and imprisoned surviving French soldiers. With the end of
5405-490: The French military academy. Each class has a name; his was Metz et Strasbourg after towns in Alsace and Lorraine returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles . He graduated on 1 October 1924, and was commissioned as a sous lieutenant in the French Army . Having chosen the cavalry branch, he then had to attend the Cavalry School in Saumur , from which he graduated first in his class on 8 August 1925. Hauteclocque's older brother Guy had married Madeleine de Gargan,
5520-663: The Frisian Islands and Heligoland and all other islands, in Schleswig-Holstein, and in Denmark… includ[ing] all naval ships in these areas", at the Timeloberg on Lüneburg Heath ; an area between the cities of Hamburg , Hanover and Bremen . The number of German land, sea and air forces involved in this surrender amounted to 1,000,000 men. On 5 May, Großadmiral Dönitz ordered all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases. At 16:00 on 5 May, German Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande supreme commander Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz surrendered to I Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes in
5635-421: The German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not effect the annexation of Germany [i.e., the document does not authorize the Allies to annex Germany]. The Potsdam Agreement was signed on 1 August 1945. In connection with this, the leaders of the United States, Britain and
5750-426: The German government's legal position during and following the reunification of Germany is that the state remained in existence although moribund in the immediate post war period). Dönitz government ordered dissolved by Eisenhower : Karl Dönitz continued to act as if he were the German head of state, but his Flensburg Government (so called because it was based at Flensburg in northern Germany and controlled only
5865-420: The Germans agreed to a complete unconditional surrender to all the Allies on all fronts. Eisenhower explicitly told Jodl that he would order western lines closed to German soldiers, thus forcing them to surrender to the Soviets. Jodl sent a signal to Dönitz, who was in Flensburg , informing him of Eisenhower's declaration. Shortly after midnight, Dönitz, accepting the inevitable, sent a signal to Jodl authorizing
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#17328558918315980-423: The Italians on his kepi . De Gaulle ordered the plan for an advance into Libya to be put in motion in the wake of the Eighth Army's victory in the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942. Leclerc set out from Fort Lamy on 16 December 1942 with 500 European and 2,700 African troops in 350 vehicles. He captured Sebha on 12 January 1943, and Mizdah on 22 January. He reached Tripoli on 26 January, where he
6095-428: The Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. On 28 November 1945, he legally changed his name to Jacques-Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, incorporating his Free French pseudonym. Although he had never before served in the Far East, as CEFEO commander, Leclerc was charged with recovering French Indochina . This territory, comprising the present day states of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, had been conquered by
6210-418: The Netherlands (26 July), South Africa, the United Kingdom (9 July), and the United States (19 October). The state of war between Germany and the Soviet Union was ended in early 1955. " The full authority of a sovereign state " was granted to the Federal Republic of Germany on 5 May 1955 under the terms of the Bonn–Paris conventions . The treaty ended the military occupation of West German territory, but
6325-406: The Piazzale Loreto of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta. This included Army Group Liguria . Graziani was the Minister of Defence for Mussolini's Italian Social Republic . Hitler dies by suicide : On 30 April 1945, as the Battle of Nuremberg and the Battle of Hamburg ended with American and British occupation, the Battle in Berlin
6440-611: The Potsdam Conference, so the French representatives on the Allied Control Council subsequently refused to recognise any obligation to implement the Potsdam Agreement; with the consequence that much of the programme envisaged at Potsdam, for the establishment of a German government and state adequate for accepting a peace settlement, remained a dead letter. Operation Keelhaul began the Allies' forced repatriation of displaced persons, families, anti-communists, White Russians , former Soviet Armed Forces POWs , foreign slave workers, soldier volunteers and Cossacks , and Nazi collaborators to
6555-421: The Second World War he fought in the Battle of France . He was one of the first who defied his government's Armistice to make his way to Britain to fight with the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle , adopting the nom de guerre of Leclerc so that his wife and children would not be put at risk if his name appeared in the papers. He was sent to French Equatorial Africa , where he rallied local leaders to
6670-512: The Soviet Union planned the new postwar German government, resettled war territory boundaries, de facto annexed a quarter of pre-war Germany situated east of the Oder–Neisse line , and mandated and organized the expulsion of the millions of Germans who remained in the annexed territories and elsewhere in the east. They also ordered German demilitarization , denazification , industrial disarmament and settlements of war reparations . But, as France (at American insistence) had not been invited to
6785-460: The Soviets, American Major General Rooks summoned Dönitz aboard the Patria and communicated to him that he and all the members of his Government were under arrest and that their government was dissolved. The Allies had a problem because they realized that although the German armed forces had surrendered unconditionally, SHAEF had failed to use the document created by the " European Advisory Commission " (EAC) and so there had been no formal surrender by
6900-419: The United States. As the Germans officially set the end of operations for 2301 Central European Time on 8 May, that day is celebrated across Europe as V-E Day . Most of the former Soviet Union celebrates Victory Day on 9 May, as the end of operations occurred after midnight Moscow Time . German units cease fire : Although the military commanders of most German forces obeyed the order to surrender issued by
7015-414: The Vietnamese. In July 1946, Leclerc was replaced as commander of the French forces by Jean-Étienne Valluy . At the time many French and American politicians were willing to believe that Ho was part of a Soviet plan to dominate the world, but Leclerc warned that "anti-communism will be a useless tool unless the problem of nationalism is resolved." His advice was simple: "Negotiate at all costs!" Leclerc
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#17328558918317130-700: The Western Front in April 1945 by the Western Allies was 1,500,000. April also witnessed the capture of at least 120,000 German troops by the Western Allies in the last campaign of the war in Italy. In the three to four months up to the end of April, over 800,000 German soldiers surrendered on the Eastern Front. In early April, the first Allied -governed Rheinwiesenlager camps were established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands of captured or surrendered Axis Forces personnel. Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces , not POWs (prisoners of war). The legal fiction circumvented provisions under
7245-407: The award up for three years. Others felt differently, and Hauteclocque was given early admission to the course for promotion to capitaine . He placed fourth in the class, and was promoted on 25 December 1934. Promotion was slow in the inter-war French Army, especially in the cavalry, and he was only the second in his Saint-Cyr class to reach that rank. Most had to wait until 1936. He was also made
7360-415: The bodies were exhumed and buried in the St. Zeno cemetery in Bad Reichenhall. For his services leading the 2e DB, Leclerc was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour . At the end of the Second World War in Europe in May 1945, Leclerc received command of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps ( Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient , CEFEO). He represented France at the surrender of
7475-438: The children again on 6 September 1944. His oldest sons, Henri and Hubert, now 18 and 17 years old respectively, lied about their ages to volunteer for service with 2e DB. Henri went on to serve with the RMT, while Hubert became a Sherman tank gunner with the 12e RCA. Other relatives also served with the division, including two nephews. The fighting in Paris cost 2e DB 97 killed and 238 wounded; nearly twice that number were lost in
7590-496: The civilian German government. This was considered a very important issue, because just as the civilian, but not military, surrender in 1918 had been used by Hitler to create the " stab in the back " argument, the Allies did not want to give any future hostile German regime a legal argument to resurrect an old quarrel. On 20 September 1945, the Allied Control Council passed its Control Council Law No. 1 - Repealing of Nazi Laws , which repealed numerous pieces of legislation enacted by
7705-421: The colonial campaigns, including fighting Samory in the Sudan. Both were killed in the early fighting of the First World War . The second son was Adrien, who enlisted in August 1914 as a trooper in the 11e Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval [ fr ] , the regiment in which his son Guy was a cornet . Adrien was later commissioned, and was twice awarded the Croix de Guerre for gallantry. He survived
7820-412: The complete and total surrender of all German forces. Channel Islanders were informed about the German surrender after : At 10:00 on 8 May, the Channel Islanders were informed by the German authorities that the war was over. British prime minister Winston Churchill made a radio broadcast at 15:00 during which he announced: "Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, but in
7935-443: The creation of the Mekong Delta Mobile Afloat Force later named Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) after May 1967. This article on military history is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . General Leclerc Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947) was a Free-French general during World War II . He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and
8050-580: The crumbling remains of Nazi Germany . Hitler appointed his successors as follows; Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as the new Reichspräsident ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). However, Goebbels died by suicide the next day, leaving Dönitz as the sole leader of Germany. German forces in Italy surrender : On 29 April, the day before Hitler died, Oberstleutnant Schweinitz and Sturmbannführer Wenner, plenipotentiaries for Generaloberst Heinrich von Vietinghoff and SS Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff , signed
8165-421: The daughter of the Baron de Gargan. Philippe became a frequent visitor to the Gargan household, and became enchanted by Madeleine's youngest sister Thérèse. The two courted while he was at Saint-Cyr. In the tradition of old noble families, Count Adrien asked Baron de Gargan for permission for Philippe to marry Thérèse. The wedding ceremony took place in the Church of St Joan of Arc in Rouen on 10 August 1925. For
8280-703: The discovery of their crimes. However, up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals eventually fled Europe using ratlines . German forces withdraw from Finland : On 25 April 1945, the last German troops withdrew from Finnish Lapland and made their way into occupied Norway. On 27 April 1945, the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph was taken. Mussolini is executed : On 25 April 1945, Italian partisans liberated Milan and Turin . On 27 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan , Italian dictator Benito Mussolini
8395-519: The early hours of 2 May, nearly 1,000,000 men in Italy and Austria surrendered unconditionally to British Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander on 2 May at 2 pm. German forces in Berlin surrender : The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling , the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, unconditionally surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of
8510-542: The fall of " Festung Breslau " ( Fortress Breslau ), General Alfred Jodl arrived in Reims and, following Dönitz's instructions, offered to surrender all forces fighting the Western Allies. This was exactly the same negotiating position that von Friedeburg had initially made to Montgomery, and like Montgomery, the Supreme Allied Commander , General Dwight D. Eisenhower , threatened to break off all negotiations unless
8625-582: The families of Free Frenchmen. When Louis-Michel-François Tardy , the Bishop of Libreville , refused to conduct a mass to celebrate the victory, Leclerc had him arrested. Capitaine de corvette Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu conducted the service in his capacity as a Carmelite priest. With Gabon in hand, de Gaulle sent Leclerc to Chad , the only Free French territory that shared a border with territory controlled by Axis Powers , along its Sahara Desert border with Italian-controlled Libya . Leclerc's attention
8740-567: The fighting in surrounding areas. These were replaced by men and women who, like Leclerc's sons, offered themselves at a recruitment office the 2e DB established near the Bois de Boulogne . After Paris, 2e DB returned to XV Corps at Leclerc's request. He won a notable victory on 12–16 September 1944 at the Battle of Dompaire against the Panzer IVs and Panther tanks of the German 112th Panzer Brigade by using manoeuvre and air power to compensate for
8855-517: The headquarters of Général d'armée Aubert Frère , the commander of the Seventh Army , who gave him permission to visit his home at Tailly, which was still behind French lines. When he got there, however, he found that Thérèse had fled to Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in the southwest of France, where she had relatives. On returning to the Seventh Army, he was ordered to join the 2ème groupement cuirassé,
8970-443: The historic city, moving around it to minimise the danger of destruction if the Germans sought to defend it. When Parisians rose against the Germans, de Gaulle and Leclerc persuaded General Dwight D. Eisenhower to help. Leclerc's men had to fight their way into Paris, and when they got there they found German infantry and tanks still holding parts of the city. The German commander, General der Infanterie Dietrich von Choltitz ,
9085-552: The interests of saving lives the 'Cease fire' began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, and our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today." At 02:41 on the morning of 7 May, at SHAEF headquarters in Reims, France, the chief-of-staff of the German Armed Forces High Command , General Alfred Jodl, signed an unconditional surrender document for all German forces to the Allies. General Franz Böhme announced
9200-508: The language. Having graduated from Saumur, Hauteclocque joined his regiment, the 5e Régiment de Cuirassiers [ fr ] , which was then on occupation duty in Trier as part of the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr . Garrison duty was not to his liking, so he volunteered for service with the 8e Régiment de Spahis Marocains [ fr ] , based at Taza in Morocco. He
9315-592: The liberation of Gabon; Commander of the troops of Chad, prepared and beautifully conducted the victorious operations of Murzuk and Kufra, which brought glory back under the folds of the flag. For his attribution of the Military Medal: During a glorious epic, which belongs to history, showed that the French flag always knew how to spread as a victor wherever the sacred cause of the homeland called it. End of World War II in Europe The final battles of
9430-643: The national-socialist regime, putting a de jure end to the Government of Nazi Germany . Incidentally, this law should have theoretically reestablished the Weimar Constitution ; however, this constitution stayed irrelevant on the grounds of the powers of the Allied Control Council acting as occupying forces. On 10 October 1945, Control Council Law No. 2 was also passed, formally abolishing all national socialist organisations. The Declaration Regarding
9545-617: The numerical and technical inferiority of his tanks. American historian Hugh M. Cole wrote that "this fight, characterised warmly by the XV Corps commander as a 'brilliant example' of perfect air-ground co-ordination, not only was an outstanding feat of arms but also dealt a crippling blow to Hitler's plans for an armoured thrust into the Third Army flank." Patton personally pinned a Silver Star on Leclerc, and brought with him another six Silver Stars and 25 Bronze Star Medals for other members of
9660-465: The papers. He quickly secured the Free French grip on Cameroon. He then led a force consisting of the 13e DBLE and Senegalese Tirailleurs against Gabon , whose local leader supported Vichy France . The Battle of Gabon lasted from 12 October to 12 November 1940, and ended with 20 dead and Gabon in Free French hands. Vichy prisoners were held as hostages in case Vichy France tried to retaliate against
9775-512: The prospect of losing their colonial privileges." D'Argenlieu bluntly denounced Leclerc. "I am amazed – yes, that is the word, amazed", he said, "that France's fine expeditionary corps in Indochina is commanded by officers who would rather negotiate than fight". D'Argenlieu stated that a higher level meeting in Paris would be required. He then unilaterally declared a French-controlled Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina without asking either Paris or
9890-594: The rebel Free French cause, and led a force against Gabon , whose leaders supported the French Government . From Chad he led raids into Italian Libya . After his forces captured Kufra , he had his men swear an oath known today as the Serment de Koufra , in which they pledged to fight on until their flag flew over the Strasbourg Cathedral . The forces under his command, known as L Force, campaigned in Libya in 1943, covered
10005-704: The rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, visited the concentration camp at Dachau , and wrote about the Night of Long Knives . Xavier died in April 1935, convinced that he had been poisoned by the Nazis. After the Second World War , Hauteclocque destroyed his copies of Action Française . Hauteclocque broke his leg in two places in a fall from his horse in 1936. He told his company that it
10120-512: The signing of peace treaties by the wartime Allies with the former European Axis powers ( Italy , Romania , Hungary and Bulgaria ) and their co-belligerent ally Finland . The Federal Republic of Germany , which had been founded on 23 May 1949 (when its Basic Law was promulgated), had its first government formed on 20 September 1949 while the German Democratic Republic was formed on 7 October. End of state of war with Germany
10235-532: The summer break in 1933, he flew south to Africa, where he reported to Général de brigade Henri Giraud on 11 July. Giraud sent him into the field as a liaison officer with a goum . He was awarded the croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures for leading goumiers in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August. The Commander in Chief in Morocco, Général de division Antoine Huré , felt that Hauteclocque should not have been there, and held
10350-609: The three occupying powers retained some special rights, e.g. vis-à-vis West Berlin . The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed following the 1990 German reunification , whereby the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in the newly single country, including Berlin. The treaty came into force on 15 March 1991. Under the terms of the Treaty, the Allies were allowed to keep troops in Berlin until
10465-463: The unconditional surrender of German troops in Norway on 7 May. It included the phrase "All forces under German control to cease active operations at 23:01 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945." The next day, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and other German OKW representatives travelled to Berlin, and shortly before midnight signed another document of unconditional surrender, again surrendering to all
10580-535: The unit, but its commander, Colonel Raoul Magrin-Vernerey , rejected his offer on the grounds that he was high-born, over-qualified and a cavalryman. Instead, in August 1940, de Gaulle ordered Leclerc to French Equatorial Africa , where the local leaders had declared themselves for Free France, as the governor of French Cameroon . At this time he adopted Leclerc as his nom de guerre , so that Thérèse and their children would not be put at risk if his name appeared in
10695-514: The use of his troops in the attack on Royan in April 1945. As a result, only part of 2e DB was employed. The division rejoined Seventh Army, crossing the Rhine on 25 April, and joining the pursuit into Bavaria . Leclerc visited Dachau concentration camp after its liberation by the Americans. In an incident that took place on 8 May 1945 at Karlstein near Bad Reichenhall in Bavaria, he was presented with
10810-503: The war, Indochina was divided in two, with the area north of the 16th parallel occupied by 150,000 Nationalist Chinese troops, while the part to the south was occupied by 20,000 British and Indian troops of Major General Douglas Gracey 's 20th Infantry Division . Meanwhile, the Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh had declared Vietnamese independence . Leclerc arrived in Saigon with
10925-578: The war, and inherited the family title and estate in Belloy-Saint-Léonard. Philippe de Hauteclocque was homeschooled until he was 13, when he was sent to L'école de la Providence , a Jesuit school in Amiens . In 1920, at the age of 17, he went to Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève , known as Ginette , a preparatory school in Versailles . He then entered the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr ,
11040-403: Was acting as high commissioner in the absence of d'Argenlieu. Leclerc approved Sainteny's proposal to negotiate with Ho because he preferred a diplomatic solution to a larger conflict, but he still dispatched a flotilla with shiploads of French soldiers to northern Vietnam ready to attack if the talks failed. At that time, Ho felt that negotiations with the French constituted his best option because
11155-444: Was again taken prisoner when the area was overrun by the Germans. This time, Hauteclocque escaped by jumping out a window. After the armistice was signed on 22 June, French soldiers who had not been captured were simply allowed to go home, and the Germans were friendly towards Hauteclocque, especially when they discovered that he spoke fluent German. He made his way to rejoin his family by car and bicycle. So that he could cross from
11270-524: Was appointed Inspector of Land Forces in North Africa. On 28 November 1947, his North American B-25 Mitchell , Tailly II , carrying Leclerc and his staff, crashed near Colomb-Béchar in French Algeria , killing everyone on board. His body was returned to France, where it was taken to Paris along the route that 2e DB had followed in August 1944. A funeral service was held at Notre Dame de Paris , and he
11385-509: Was captured by Italian partisans. It is disputed whether he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland (through the Splügen Pass ), and was travelling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino (a civil parish of Mezzegra ); the other fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo and executed there. The bodies were then taken to Milan and hung up on
11500-478: Was created a chevalier by King Louis XVIII , and a Papal count by Pope Pius IX in 1857. Constantin had two sons. The older, Alfred François Marie (1822–1902), died childless. The younger, Gustave François Marie Joseph (1829–1914), became a noted Egyptologist . Gustave, in turn, had three sons. The first, Henry (1862–1914), and third, Wallerand (1866–1914), became officers in the French Army, serving during
11615-525: Was declared by many former Western Allies from 1950. In the Petersberg Agreement of 22 November 1949, it was noted that the West German government wanted an end to the state of war, but the request could not be granted. The US state of war with Germany was being maintained for legal reasons, and though it was softened somewhat it was not suspended since "the US wants to retain a legal basis for keeping
11730-580: Was drawn to two Italian outposts in the desert, Murzuk in southwestern Libya and Kufra in the southeast. Both were over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from his base at Fort Lamy in Chad. He started with a small raid on Murzuk by eleven men of the Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Tchad (RTST) and two troops of the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) on 11 January 1941. In February, he led
11845-595: Was given command of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps ( Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient , CEFEO). He represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. He quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the nascent conflict in Indochina , but once again was ahead of his countrymen, and was recalled to France in 1946. He
11960-554: Was greeted by the Eighth Army's commander, General Bernard Montgomery . Leclerc's command, now reinforced by the Greek Sacred Squadron , and known as L Force, covered the Eighth Army's inland flank during its advance into Tunisia. L Force beat off a German counterattack on 10 March, and participated in the attack on the Mareth Line . After the fighting in North Africa ended, Leclerc's L Force, now about 4,000 strong, became
12075-400: Was his own fault for riding on the shoulder of the road. Thereafter he frequently walked with a cane. After another mishap involving losing his way during a tactical exercise and getting stuck in a field cordoned off with barbed wire, he told them that when you have done something really stupid, it is best to admit it. In November 1938, Hauteclocque entered the École supérieure de guerre ,
12190-845: Was inclined to surrender, and did so to Leclerc and Henri Rol-Tanguy of the French Forces of the Interior at the Gare Montparnasse on 25 August 1944. Leclerc arranged for Ensign Philippe de Gaulle , who was serving in the RBFM, to be in attendance, but the elder de Gaulle was annoyed that Leclerc had allowed the communist Rol to co-sign the surrender. The next day de Gaulle held a triumphal parade, accompanied by senior military figures including Leclerc, Alphonse Juin , Marie-Pierre Kœnig and Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu. Montgomery's troops liberated Tailly, allowing Leclerc to return home to see Thérèse and
12305-612: Was interred in a crypt at Les Invalides . Leclerc was posthumously created a Marshal of France on 23 August 1952, the anniversary of the day that 2e DB had entered Paris. Today his marshal's baton is displayed in the Leclerc room of the Musée de l'Armée at Invalides , as is his battered képi with the Italian stars that he wore at Kufra. The Leclerc tank built by GIAT Industries ( Groupement Industriel des Armements Terrestres ) of France
12420-626: Was killed in an air crash in Algeria in 1947. Philippe François Marie de Hauteclocque was born on 22 November 1902 at Belloy-Saint-Léonard in the department of Somme , France . He was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque (1864–1945), and Marie-Thérèse van der Cruisse de Waziers (1870–1956). Philippe was named in honour of an ancestor killed by Croatian soldiers in service of Habsburg monarchy during Thirty Years' War in 1635. Hauteclocque came from an old line of country nobility . His direct ancestors had served in
12535-522: Was liberated on 15 April 1945, by the British 11th Armoured Division . Four days later troops from the American 42nd Infantry Division found Dachau . Allied troops forced the remaining SS guards to gather up the corpses and place them in mass graves. Due to the prisoners' poor physical condition, thousands continued to die after liberation. Captured SS guards were subsequently tried at Allied war crime tribunals where many were sentenced to death. Some Nazi guards and personnel were killed outright upon
12650-506: Was promoted to lieutenant in October 1926. In 1927, he was posted as an instructor at the Military School of Dar El-Beida at Meknes , the military academy of French Morocco. Here, he met Paul de Langlade [ fr ] , a First World War veteran eight years his senior, who would later volunteer to serve under his command. In 1929, he was attached to the 38e Goum Mixte Marocains ,
12765-808: Was reached on 25 November, and that afternoon the Tricolour flew over the Strasbourg Cathedral. The German offensive in the Ardennes in December and in Alsace in January led Eisenhower to consider abandoning Strasbourg, but strong opposition to the idea from the French caused him to back down. As a result, the 2e DB was transferred to de Lattre's command to assist in the reduction of the Colmar Pocket . Leclerc objected to
12880-843: Was serving with the 13e Demi-Brigade de Légion Étrangère (13e DBLE, an infantry regiment of the French Foreign Legion ). This was the largest unit that had joined the Free French Forces . After participating in the Battles of Narvik , it had found itself in Britain when France surrendered. Formed after the war began, it contained many men who had fought for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War , and many refugees from Nazi and Fascist countries. Leclerc then offered his own services to
12995-918: Was shipped to Britain to participate in Operation Overlord , the Allied invasion of northern France. Leclerc and his staff travelled by air in a converted B-24 Liberator bomber. The division moved to training areas in Yorkshire , where Leclerc established his headquarters on the estate of Henry Frederick Hotham, 7th Baron Hotham , at Dalton Hall , Beverley . Training was conducted in concert with Maczek's 1st Polish Armoured Division . On 1 August 1944, 2e DB landed at Utah Beach in Normandy as part of Major General Wade Haislip 's United States XV Corps of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr. 's United States Third Army . Both of these American generals spoke French fluently. Later that month, 2e DB participated in
13110-586: Was still raging. With the Soviets surrounding Berlin and his escape route cut off by the Americans, German dictator Adolf Hitler , realizing that all was lost and not wishing to suffer Mussolini's fate, died by suicide in his Führerbunker along with his long-term partner Eva Braun , whom he had married less than 40 hours earlier. In his will , Hitler dismissed Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , his second-in-command, and Interior minister Heinrich Himmler after each of them separately tried to seize control of
13225-531: Was the commander of the operational United States Air Forces in Europe , along with his wife and daughter at the Germany - Austria border. German forces in Breslau surrender : At 18:00 on 6 May, General Hermann Niehoff , the commandant of Breslau , a 'fortress' city surrounded and besieged for months, surrendered to the Soviets. Jodl and Keitel surrender all German armed forces unconditionally : Thirty minutes after
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