Philippe Kieffer

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Philippe Kieffer
Commando Kieffer's badge

Philippe Kieffer (born October 24, 1899 in Port-au-Prince , † November 20, 1962 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis ) was a French officer . He became known as the commander of the only regular French unit that took part in the Allied landings in Normandy as part of the amphibious forces .

Life

Kieffer was the son of a from the Alsace originating mathematics teacher and a schottischstämmigen businesswoman on Haiti born. After primary school in Port-au-Prince he was sent to secondary school in Jersey to a Jesuit- run school. In the summer of 1916 he returned to Haiti. From there, however, he could not be drafted to France for military service in the First World War and so did not do any military service.

He trained in business administration at a private open university, La Salle Extension University in Chicago , and became a stockbroker . In the 1930s he was an associate director of the National Bank of Haiti and secretary of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce .

In March 1939 he moved to France, where he was drafted into the French army on September 2, 1939 , and a month later he was transferred to the navy as a second class sailor . Promoted to corporal (Quartier-maître) , he served on the staff of Admiral Jean-Marie Charles Abrial . A week after the British and French forces evacuated near Dunkirk , he fled from Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue to England on board a trawler .

In Portsmouth he was on board the French battleship Courbet . After the successful attack by British commandos on Lofoten in the spring of 1941, the plan matured in him that French soldiers should also be given opportunities to carry out commando operations on the coast of occupied France. One effect should be the moral support of the resistance movement. Kieffer presented his proposals to Vice Admiral Émile Muselier , the commander of the Free French Navy, who in turn convinced the British military . The first 16 soldiers began their training in January 1942. After a while, the rapidly growing troop received the extremely physically demanding training of the British commando units, which Kieffer also took part, who was almost twice as old as his subordinates in his early 40s. Over time, the new unit developed into the 1st Battalion de Fusilier Marins Commandos (BMFC). In mid-April 1944, the unit was transferred to British No. 4 Commando integrated.

During Operation Overlord , the BMFC went ashore with 177 men under the command of Philippe Kieffer (meanwhile with the rank of Corvette Captain ) near Colleville-sur-Orne . Kieffer was injured by shrapnel in his thigh immediately after landing , but continued to command the unit. According to their instructions, the commandos advanced on Ouistreham in order to attack from the land side the stretch of beach that was heavily fortified by the Wehrmacht . The Germans had demolished the casino there down to the basement and fortified the remains as a bunker . In order to switch off the heavy enemy fire, Kieffer directed an amphibious Sherman tank against German positions. While standing on the turret of the tank, he was wounded again, this time in the arm. The BMFC finally succeeded in fulfilling the assignments assigned to it. By the evening of the same day it marched together with the rest of 4 Commando to Amfreville-les-Champs and buried itself there to protect the Allied bridgehead from German counter-attacks.

Three days later, on June 9th, Kieffer gave up command of the unit and was evacuated to England, where his wounds were being treated. He returned on July 23rd. The BMFC participated until the end of August in the breakout of the Allies from Normandy and in the persecution of the Wehrmacht as far as Saint-Maclou . The BMFC was then moved back to England. On August 25, Kieffer's son Claude, who had joined the Resistance , was captured and shot by Germans during the fighting for Paris .

On November 1st, during the battle of the Scheldt estuary , the BMFC landed on the island of Walcheren and thus contributed to the fact that the port of Antwerp could be used by the Allies. The unit fought until a few weeks before the end of the war in the Netherlands , where they carried out night raids on islands occupied by the Wehrmacht. On May 24th, Kieffer and 40 of his men took part in a victory parade in Paris.

In 1945 Kieffer was a member of the Départementrat von Calvados and delegate of the Provisional National Assembly of France. In 1951 he was at the NATO - bar operates. In 1954 he was promoted to frigate captain of the reserve.

In the war film The Longest Day , which describes the events during the Normandy landing, Philippe Kieffer was portrayed by Christian Marquand . Kieffer was hired as a consultant for the shooting. Cornelius Ryan had previously interviewed him for the book of the same name on which the film is based.

After his death in 1962, Kieffer was buried in Grandcamp-Maisy .

On May 8, 2008, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the establishment of a Commando Kieffer within the special forces of the marine infantry . The Kieffer Commando supports the other commandos with its technical equipment, for example for reconnaissance or NBC defense .

plant

  • Le béret vert , France-Empire, Paris 1948

literature

Web links

Commons : Philippe Kieffer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Philippe Kieffer. Ordre de la Liberation , accessed June 7, 2019 (French).
  2. ↑ Cornelius Ryan: The longest day , Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1962, p. 311
  3. ↑ Sarkozy rend homage au commando Kieffer. In: lefigaro.fr . May 8, 2008, accessed June 5, 2019 (French).
  4. ^ Force maritime des fusiliers marins et commandos. Ministry of Defense (France) , January 6, 2016, accessed June 5, 2019 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Kieffer, Philippe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Port-au-Prince
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1962
Place of death Cormeilles-en-Parisis