Jean Lartéguy

Jean Lartéguy , actually Jean Pierre Lucien Osty (* 5. September 1920 in Maisons-Alfort , † 23. February 2011 in the Hôtel des Invalides , Paris ) was a French writer , war correspondent and Army - officer . In his works, he addressed topics such as terrorism and the so-called asymmetrical warfare in the context of decolonization . His protagonists are often drawn from real people such as the French officers Jacques Massu and Roger Trinquier . The US- American General David Petraeus was allegedly inspired by Larteguy's novel The Centurions for his field service regulation FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency . In Germany, Lartéguys Reportage Guerillas or the fourth death of Che Guevara is considered his best-known work, since parts of it were preprinted in 1968 in the news magazine Der Spiegel .

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Lartéguy studied history with Joseph Calmette in Toulouse and volunteered as a war volunteer when the Second World War broke out in 1939 . In 1942 he fled France to Spain , but was interned there for nine months . He then joined the French Army of the Liberation ( Free France ) and was an officer in the Commandos in North Africa . He later fought in France and Germany as well . As an award he received u. a. the cross of the Legion of Honor .

After seven years of service, he was released as captain of the reserve and worked as a war correspondent for Paris Match and Paris Press . In this capacity, he was in the Iran crisis , the Palestine War , the Korean War , the Indochina War , the Algerian War and the Vietnam War worked. In the Korean War he served as a volunteer in the so-called French battalion and took part in the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge . In the 1960s he reported from several Latin American countries in which guerrilla movements were active. In 1955 he received the Albert Londres Prize . Lartéguy was considered conservative, nationalist and anti-communist.

Depiction of the war (selection)

His greatest international success was 1960 Die Zenturionen ( Les Centurions , 1960, German edition Bonn 1961), which apparently achieved a circulation of a good million and u. a. has been translated into English and German . It is set in the Algerian War and deals extensively with the question of whether terrorists are combatants or not:

“And what difference do you make between an aviator sitting high up in his plane and dropping containers of napalm over a Mechta (Algerian farming settlement) and a terrorist dropping his bomb in Coq Hardi (bar in Algiers )? The terrorist just needs infinitely more courage. "

- The Centurions , 4th ed. Bonn 1961, p. 481.

The sequel appeared The Praetorians , which is also set in the Algerian War . Both novels served together in 1966 as a template for the feature film Lost Command ( They fear neither death nor the devil ) with Anthony Quinn and Alain Delon in the lead roles.

The plot of The Cruel Dreams is set in the Katanga crisis 1960–1963. The main character of Colonel La Roncière is based on Roger Trinquier . He is the leader of a group of French mercenaries who serve the separatist Katanga president as an elite force and are also used against UN troops that are supposed to prevent the separation of Katanga from the Democratic Republic of the Congo :

“La Roncière was amazed to discover that for the first time he could put himself in the shoes of the opponent without difficulty. In Indochina you couldn't take the place of the Viets, in Algeria you couldn't take the place of the Fellaghas. But now he was just a mercenary, a technician of a certain kind of warfare who was hired as well as others who were supposed to build a bridge. "

- The Cruel Dreams , p. 69.

The mercenaries also use terrorist methods analogous to urban guerrillas . This novel, too, is closely based on contemporary reality; in the end the mercenaries have to leave Katanga with the separatist president. After Indochina and Algeria, it is their third lost war.

Lartéguy's later works were no longer published in West Germany, although he was active as a writer until the 1990s.

Works (selection)

• The Centurions (Les centurions, 1960, German 1961)
• The Praetorians (Les prétoriens, 1961, German 1962)
• Les Mercenaires (The Mercenaries, 1963)
• The cruel dreams (Les chimères noires, 1963, German 1965)
• The yellow fever (Le Mal jaune, 1962, German 1964)
• The bronze drums (Les tambours de bronze, 1965, German 1966)
• Guerrilla or the fourth death of Che Guevara (Les guérilleros, 1967, German 1968)
• Tout l'or du diable. Guerre, Pétrole et Terrorisme (All gold to the devil. War, oil and terrorism) 1974

Movies

• They fear neither death nor the devil (Lost Command, USA 1966, directed by Mark Robson )

Web links

• Literature by and about Jean Lartéguy in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Jean Lartéguy: “Christ would have taken up a gun too” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1968, p. 54-65 ( online - 29 July 1968 ).
• Jean Lartéguy: “Christ would have taken up a gun too”. 1. Continuation . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1968, pp. 40-58 ( online - August 5, 1968 ).
• Jean Lartéguy: “Christ would have taken up a gun too”. 2. Continuation . In: Der Spiegel . No. 33 , 1968, pp. 46-60 ( Online - Aug. 12, 1968 ).
• Jean Lartéguy: “Christ would have taken up a gun too”. 3. Continuation . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1968, pp. 50-64 ( Online - Aug. 19, 1968 ).
• Jean Lartéguy: “Christ would have taken up a gun too”. 4. Continuation and conclusion . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1968, pp. 64-72 ( Online - Aug. 26, 1968 ).