Henri Navarre
Henri Eugène Navarre (born July 31, 1898 in Villefranche-de-Rouergue , Aveyron , † September 26, 1983 in Paris ) was a French general and commander in chief in the final phase of the Indochina War .
Life
Navarre graduated from the Saint-Cyr Military School . At the end of the First World War he was a Sous-lieutenant in the 2nd e régiment de hussards . On the eve of the Second World War , he held the rank of captain . After the defeat of France in 1940, Navarre served as head of military intelligence under Maxime Weygand in Algiers . At the same time he was active in the Resistance . In 1945 Navarre was promoted to Général de brigade .
In May 1953 he took over from General Raoul Salan the supreme command of the French forces in Indochina . Navarre was appointed by Prime Minister René Mayer to achieve a militarily favorable position for a negotiated solution. Mayer deliberately chose Navarre as a commander not previously deployed in Indochina. With the plan named after him, Navarre relied on a defensive orientation in the north of the country and an aggressive campaign against the Viet Minh in the south. By chaining the events, he escalated the establishment of a patrol base at Điện Biên Phủ, contrary to the plan of a defensive open field battle. His intention was to inflict heavy casualties on the Viet Minh by successfully defending the airborne base.
He handed over the supreme command on site to Colonel Christian Marie Fernand Comte de La Croix de Castries . Neither of them rated the Việt Minh strong enough to withstand the French armed forces, which consisted largely of elite troops such as paratroopers and foreign legionaries , and they relied on their technical and material superiority.
The tide quickly turned, however, when the Việt Minh in a masterly camouflaged operation carried guns, ammunition, medicine and provisions onto the steep mountain slopes of the jungle and threw back the French troops with repeated assault attacks by artillery fire. At the end of the 55-day battle of Điện Biên Phủ , the French troops had to surrender. In fact, the French colonial rule over Indochina ended. After the defeat, Navarre was relieved of his post in Indochina.
In 1956 he resigned from the military and published his book Agonie de l'Indochine , in which he sought the blame for the French defeat in Indochina with the political system of the Fourth Republic , politicians, intellectuals, journalists and communists.
swell
- Peter Scholl-Latour Death in the rice field
- Peter Scholl-Latour Giant on feet of clay
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jacques Dalloz: Dictionnaire de la Guerre d'Indochine 1945 - 1954, Paris, 2006, pp. 167f
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Navarre, Henri |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Navarre, Henri Eugène |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French general in the Indochina War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Villefranche-de-Rouergue , Aveyron |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 26, 1983 |
| Place of death | Paris |