Henri Gouraud (General)

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Henri Gouraud (1923)

Henri Joseph Eugène Gouraud (born November 17, 1867 in Paris , † September 16, 1946 there ) was a French officer, most recently Général d'armée . In World War I army commander, Gouraud was in the interwar period, High Commissioner of the Levant and governor of Paris .

Life

Gouraud was born as one of six children of the doctor Xavier Gouraud and educated at the Paris College Stanislas . He chose a military career and graduated from Saint-Cyr Military School in 1888 . At the request of his father, he did not initially go to the colonies and instead came to a hunter battalion ( chasseurs à pied ) in Montbéliard . In 1894 he took part in his first overseas mission in what is now Mali , which would later become part of French West Africa . His time in Africa lasted with short interruptions until 1914, during which time he was military governor in Chad and Mauritania and achieved the rank of colonel . After completing a course at the Center for Higher Military Studies, his last post was in Morocco , where in 1911 he became commander of the Fez region with the rank of général de brigade . In May 1914 he was appointed commander of the colonial troops in western Morocco.

After the outbreak of the First World War , Gouraud returned to France at the head of the 4th Moroccan Brigade and in September was appointed General de division and Commander of the 10th Infantry Division. In January 1915 he received command of the Corps d'armée colonial , with which he took part in the winter battle in Champagne . In May 1915 he took over the command of the Corps Expéditionnaire Français aux Dardanelles , which was used in the Battle of Gallipoli . After a serious wound on June 30, 1915, his right arm had to be amputated. By December 1915, Gouraud was sufficiently restored to take command of the 4th Army in Champagne. After Hubert Lyautey had become Minister of War at the end of 1916, Gouraud temporarily represented him as General Resident in the Protectorate of Morocco before returning to the head of the 4th Army in June 1917. He successfully led this in the Battle of the Marne and the final Hundred Days Offensive . After the armistice , Gouraud's army was stationed in Alsace .

In October 1919, Gouraud was posted to the Levant to represent France's interests under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, and arrived in Beirut in November 1919 . After Prince Faisal's proclamation as King of Syria in March 1920, negotiations with him failed and in July 1920 Gouraud's Levant Army defeated the Syrian troops at the Battle of Maysalun . After this battle, Gourad, who saw himself in the tradition of the Crusaders , went to Saladin's tomb , kicked it and said: "Wake up Saladin. We are back. My presence here completes the victory of the cross over the crescent moon" .

After establishing the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon , Gouraud became its first High Commissioner until he was replaced by Maxime Weygand in April 1923 .

On his return to France, Gouraud was appointed a member of the Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre . On a trip through the United States, he also learned of his appointment as governor of Paris, as which he was to serve until 1937. In this role he was involved with veterans affairs and appeared publicly at parades. In retirement he devoted himself to editing his Souvenirs d'un Africain about the time of his colonial service in Africa. His tomb is in the crypt of the Aux Morts des Armées de Champagne monument in Sainte-Marie-à-Py , Champagne.

Web links

Commons : Henri Gouraud  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Ernest Meyer, Shareen Blair Brysac: King Makers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East. WW Norton & Company 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-06199-4 . P. 359.
personal data
SURNAME Gouraud, Henri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gouraud, Henri Joseph Eugène (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH September 16, 1946
Place of death Paris