Jean-Marie de Lattre de Tassigny was a Marshal of France (born February 2, 1889 in Mouilleron-en-Pareds in Vendée - died January 11, 1952 in Paris).
Born into an old aristocratic family in French Flanders, and younger brother of Anne-Marie, he received a quality education at Saint Joseph College in Poitiers.
“de Lattre” is a very common Roman name in Flanders (in Flemish, it is:Van der Kerkhove). It comes from the Latin atrium which means entrance (or portico) of a temple, and more exactly in this context:the church square or the monastery enclosure, often serving as a cemetery. This name is also a toponymy, and the de Lattres settled in the 16th century in Lattre-St Quentin.
In the 18th century, (from Louis-Paul), the possession of an old property, the "Tassigny" which is the name of a fief near Guise, allows the fusion of the name "de Lattre" with that of the " de Tassigny”.
* Paternal branch (the de Lattres)
o Roger de Lattre de Tassigny, father of the marshal, is the "dean of the mayors of France" (mayor from 1911, until his death, in 1956, at the age of 101)
o Laurent Emile de Lattre de Tassigny (1799-1852):Page of the Duchess of Angoulême, sub-prefect of the Restoration in Châtellerault; then captain/officer of the dragoons of Charles X's royal guard
* Maternal branch (Hénault, and further Mosnay)
o Anne-Marie Louise Hénault:Born in Mouilleron-en-Pareds on March 18, 1862, she is the mother of the Marshal
o In the midst of the French Revolution, Jean François Hénault, gendarme, and national guard narrowly saves Marie Duchesne de Denant from the guillotine, by proposing to marry her.
o Alexis Mosnay, wife Eulalie Braud (from New Orleans), in the 18th century
From 1898 to 1904, Jean prepared for the Naval School and Saint-Cyr where he was received in 1908. He completed his classes at the 29th Dragons in Provins. He was a student of Saint-Cyr from 1909 to 1911, in the "Mauritania" promotion from which he graduated 4th in promotion. In 1911, he entered the cavalry school in Saumur.
First World War
In 1912 he was assigned to the 12th Dragons at Pont-à-Mousson and then to the front. He was injured for the first time on August 11, 1914 by shrapnel during a reconnaissance. On September 14, he was wounded by a spear from an uhlan while charging at the head of his squad of dragoons. Weakened by his wound, forced to hide in Pont-à-Mousson occupied by the Germans, he was saved from capture by an officer of the 5th regiment of hussars on a reconnaissance mission, second lieutenant Schmeltz.
He is then captain of the 93rd Infantry Regiment and ends the war with 4 wounds and 8 citations.
Between the wars
He was then assigned to the 49th Infantry Regiment from 1919 to 1921 in Bayonne. In 1921 he was sent to Morocco in the 3rd office and in the staff of the Taza region until 1926. From 1927 to 1929 he attended the war school with the 49th promotion. He married Simone Calary de Lamazière in 1927, and they had a son, Bernard, in 1928. In 1929 he became battalion commander in the 5th Infantry Regiment in Coulommiers. In 1932 he was promoted to the general staff of the army then to that of General Maxime Weygand, vice-president of the Superior Council of War, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1935 he became colonel, commanding the 151st Infantry Regiment in Metz. Between 1937 and 1938 he took courses at the center for advanced military studies and in 1938 became chief of staff to the governor of Strasbourg.
World War II
Promoted to brigadier general on March 23, 1939, he was chief of staff of the Fifth Army on September 2, 1939. On January 1, 1940, he took command of the 14th Infantry Division, which he commanded during the clashes with the Wehrmacht. in Rethel, where his division resisted heroically, as far as Champagne and Yonne, and miraculously retained its military cohesion in the midst of the chaos of the debacle. From July 1940 to September 1941, he was deputy general commanding the 13th military region in Clermont-Ferrand then became major general commanding the troops in Tunisia until the end of 1941. Thereafter he commanded the 16th Division in Montpellier and was promoted to lieutenant general.
When the free zone is invaded by German troops, he refuses the order not to fight and is arrested. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the State Court of the Lyon section on January 9, 1943.
Managing to escape from Riom prison on September 3, 1943, he went to London then Algiers, where he arrived on December 20, 1943 after being promoted to the rank of army general on November 11, 1943 by General de Gaulle. In December 1943 he commanded Army B, which became the First French Army. He landed in Provence on August 16, 1944, took Toulon and Marseille, went up the Rhone Valley, then the Rhine, liberated Alsace, and entered Germany as far as the Danube. He represented France at the signing of the armistice of May 8, 1945 in Berlin at the headquarters of Marshal Joukov.
After the war
Between December 1945 and March 1947, he was Inspector General and Chief of the General Staff of the Army. In March 1947 he was Inspector General of the Army, then Inspector General of the Armed Forces. From October 1948 to December 1950, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of Western Europe in Fontainebleau.
He became High Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief in Indochina and Commander-in-Chief in the Far East (1950-1952) and set up a Vietnamese national army. Exhausted by the overwork to which he imposed himself throughout his career and which his injury received in 1914 did not help, very affected by the death of his son Bernard, killed during the Indochina campaign, and Suffering from hip cancer, he died in Paris on January 11, 1952 following an operation. He was raised to the dignity of Marshal of France, posthumously, during his funeral on January 15, 1952. He was buried in his native village of Mouilleron-en-Pareds.
Awards
Cross:
* Belgian War Cross
* War Cross (Czechoslovakia)
* holder of the war cross 1914-1918 (8 citations)
* holder of the war cross 1939-1945
* holder of the T.O.E. (3 quotes)
Grand Cross:
* Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor
* Grand Cross of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olaf (Norway)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)
* Grand Cross of the Order of the Million Elephants (Laos)
* Grand Cross of the Order of Blood (Tunisia)
* Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia
* Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Dannebrog (Denmark)
* Grand Cross of the National Order of Vietnam
* Grand Cross of Military Merit (Chile)
* Grand Cross of the White Parasol (Laos)
* Grand Cross Libertador San Martin (Argentina)
* Grand Cross of Ouissam Alaouite (Morocco)
* Grand Cross of the Black Star (Benin)
Merits:
* Military Merit with white clasp (Cuba)
* Military Merit (Mexico)
* Chérifien Merit (Morocco)
* Commander of the Brazilian Order of Merit
* Legion of Merit (USA)
Medals:
* Companion of the Liberation - decree of November 20, 1944
* Gold Medal of Physical Education
* Public Health Gold Medal
* Military Medal
* Escapees Medal
* Distinguished Service Medal (USA)
* Military Cross (UK)
* Knight Grand Cross of the Bath (UK)
* Order of Suvorov (Soviet Union)
* Virtuti Militari (Poland)
Quotes
* "Do not suffer."
* "Hitting the enemy is good. Hitting the imagination is better."
* "It is not by improving an absurdity that one proves a certain intelligence:it is by removing it."