Marcel Bigeard

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Marcel Bigeard in 1996 in front of a photo of himself from the time of Điện Biên Phủ

Marcel Bigeard (born February 14, 1916 in Toul , Département Meurthe-et-Moselle , France ; † June 18, 2010 ibid) was a French officer who was deployed in World War II , in the Indochina and Algerian Wars .

Life

Marcel Bigeard was the son of a railroad worker from Toul . He signed up after working as a bank clerk in the army. During the Second World War he was captured during the Western Campaign. He escaped from captivity and joined the Free French . Bigeard was battalion commander of the parachute troops during the Indochina War . Bigeard took part in the battles for Nghia Lo and Dien Bien Phu , among others . In the latter he was captured by the Viet Minh after the surrender . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel for his conduct during the battle.

During the Algerian War, Bigeard, as a subordinate of General Jacques Massu, had torture and shootings carried out. On so-called death flights , Algerians were thrown from airplanes into the Mediterranean, usually weighted down. The French secret service cynically called the murdered "Crevettes Bigeard" (Bigeard's shrimp). According to - difficult to verify - information from a French officer involved, 4,000 Algerians were murdered in this way. The French government decided on an amnesty for the proceedings in Algeria, so that Bigeard and the other responsible military officers were not brought to justice.

In 1976 he ended his career as Général de corps d'armée . In 1975 he began a one-year service as State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense. From 1978 to 1988 he was a member of the National Assembly for the Meurthe-et-Moselle department .

General Bigeard was the most highly decorated military in France. He was awarded the Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur and the Médaille de la Résistance , among others .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frederick Logevall: Embers of War - The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam , New York, 2013, p 237
  2. ↑ a b Jacques Dalloz: Dictionnaire de la Guerre d'Indochine 1945 - 1954 , Paris, 2006, p. 35
  3. ↑ Horne, Alistair (1977), A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962, p. 167. New York Review Books (published 2006), ISBN 978-1-59017-218-6 .
  4. ↑ Testimony of Paul Teitgen in the film by Yves Boisset, Que reste-t-il de la bataille d'Alger?
  5. ↑ Des guerres d'Indochine et d'Algérie aux dictatures d'Amérique latine ( Memento of the original of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Interview with Marie-Monique Robin from the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League), January 10, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ldh-toulon.net

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bigeard, Marcel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French officer
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Toul , Meurthe-et-Moselle department , France
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 2010
Place of death Toul