Marie-Eugène Debeney

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Marie-Eugène Debeney

Marie-Eugène Debeney (born May 5, 1864 in Bourg-en-Bresse , † November 6, 1943 ) was a French officer, most recently Général d'armée , and chief of the French general staff from 1924 to 1930.

Life

Trained at the Saint-Cyr military school , Debeney became a sous-lieutenant in the hunters' troop ( chasseurs à pied ) in 1886 . Before the First World War , he served, among other things, as adjutant to Alexis Hagron and as an instructor at the École supérieure de guerre . When the war broke out, he became Deputy Chief of Staff of the 1st Army under Auguste Dubail . He also served as Chief of Staff under Dubail when he became Commander-in-Chief of the Groupe d'Armées de l'Est . In May 1915 he received a divisional command. In April 1916 he became the commander of an army corps and took part in the Battle of the Somme . From December 1916 he temporarily commanded the 7th Army deployed in the Vosges Mountains before he was called to the Grand Quartier Général by Philippe Pétain in 1917 . In December 1917 he took command of the 1st Army, which he led until the end of the war. Here Debeney stood out in the Battle of Amiens and the Hundred Days Offensive .

After the war, Debeney was commandant of the École de guerre . After Edmond Buat's death in December 1923, he was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff. In 1926 he was awarded the Médaille militaire . His work La Guerre et les hommes: réflexions d'après-guerre (1937) was awarded the Académie française prize.

Debeney died in November 1943 at the age of 79 as a result of a bomb attack that had been perpetrated on him and his companions, including his son Marie Cyrille (1891-1956), a few months earlier after attending a veterans' meeting. Marie Cyrille was Général de division , Director of the Service de l'Armistice and later Secretary to Marshal Pétains.

Fonts (selection)

  • Sur la securité militaire de la France (1930)
  • Le Réarmement allemand (1933)
  • La guerre et les hommes: réflexions d'après-guerre (1937)

Web links

Commons : Marie-Eugène Debeney  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Debeney, Marie-Eugène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Bourg-en-Bresse
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1943
Place of death Bourg-en-Bresse