Jean Louis Delayen, born March 16, 1921 in Saint-Raphaël (Var), and died October 3, 2002 in Virginia (United States), was a French general, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
His biography, published in 1979 by Georges Fleury, bears the title Le Baroudeur. The 4 Wars of General Delayen, in reference to his nickname, and his 4 campaigns:World War II, Indochina War, Algerian War and Chad.
Childhood
Born in Saint-Raphaël in 1921, Jean-Louis Delayen spent the first years of his life in Morocco, then in Indochina, according to the assignments of his father, a colonel in the marines.
He returned to France in 1935 to continue his education at the Prytanée national militaire de La Flèche.
Military career (“The 4 Wars Of General Delayen”)
Second World War (1940-1945)
In 1940, he deserted the Prytanée to try to join the Free French Forces in London, but he was unable to find a boat to take him there, and ended up landing in Morocco.
He then enlisted in the army, and was assigned to the 6th regiment of Senegalese riflemen (6th RTS), then to the colonial infantry regiment of Morocco (RICM).
Appointed Aspirant within the RICM, he participated in August 1944 in the landing of Provence and the liberation of Toulon. Still with the RICM, he took part in the "March of the Rhine" (the victorious advance of the Allied armies towards the banks of the Rhine), at the head of a reconnaissance platoon of four jeeps armed with machine guns.
His platoon was the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine, on November 13, 1944, at Rosenau where he was wounded. The photo of Midshipman Delayen, "First Allied officer to reach the Rhine", dipping his platoon's pennant in the river, will make the "front page" of the New York Times (actually a reconstruction1).
Seriously wounded the next day in Battenheim, midshipman Delayen, considered dead, woke up in the hospital morgue. He recovered, however, after five months of convalescence, and was appointed second lieutenant in December 1944.
Indochina War (1945-1955)
In 1945, Second Lieutenant Delayen volunteered to go to Indochina , with the RICM (within the French Expeditionary Force in the Far East). Wounded a second time, he was made a lieutenant in 1946, and made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1947.
He returned to France in 1948, then returned to Tonkin as an intelligence officer, from 1949 to 1952, then from 1953 to 1955. There he created within the Commandos Nord Viet-Nam the first commando composed solely of Tonkinese. He was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1954.
War in Algeria (1955-1962)
He joined Algeria in 1955, to join the "Centre d 'Instruction Amphibie' in Arzew, then joins Nemours, on the border with Morocco.
There he trained the Yatagan commando, made up of Muslims supervised by marines-commandos, on the model of the North Vietnam commandos.
He was promoted to Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1959.
Pacific (1962-1965)
At the beginning of 1962, Commander Jean-Louis Delayen took command of the Marine Infantry Battalion of Tahiti, for 3 years.
Metropolis (1965-1972)
In 1965, promoted to lieutenant-colonel, he was permanently assigned to mainland France for the first time:he then headed the “Amphibious Training Center” based in Lorient.
After a year of training in the Marine Corps, in the United States, at the "Command and Staff College" in Quantico, he returned to France to take command of the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment, at Camp Auvours.
Chad (1972-1977)
In 1972, Chad was rocked by civil war. Colonel Delayen is appointed adviser to the General Commander-in-Chief of the Chadian Armed Forces. He will remain in post in N'Djamena for 6 years. He was promoted Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1975.
Metropolis and return to civilian life
In 1977, Jean-Louis Delayen was admitted to the 1st section of general officers with the rank of brigadier general, and he returned to France, where after a brief stint at the Ministry of Cooperation in Paris, he asked to pass under the Reserve in June 1978.
From 1978 to 1982, he settled in a barge, moored near the Pont de la Concorde in Paris. He then joined his American wife and son in the United States, where he lived until his death from a heart attack in 2003.
He is buried in Saint-Raphaël in the Var, where his funeral was celebrated by Father Heinrich, former chaplain of Diên Biên Phu. At the request of General Delayen, during his burial, his coffin was accompanied by the porpoises of his former regiments (RICM and 2nd RIMA) to the singing of Marie Dominique, the unofficial hymn of the Marine Infantry.
Decorations
Wounded three times, holder of 19 citations including 11 with palms (the most decorated French officer after General Marcel Bigeard), General Delayen was elevated to the dignity of Grand 'Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1996.
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor
War Cross 1939-1945 (2 citations)
War Cross for External Theaters of Operations (8 citations)
Cross of Military Valor (9 citations)
Volunteer Combatant's Cross