René Cogny

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

René Jules Lucien Cogny ( April 25, 1904 in Saint-Valery-en-Caux - September 11, 1968 ) was a French general. He played a leading role during the Indochina War .

Life

Cogny joined the French army as an artilleryman . During the defeat of France in 1940 , Cogny was taken prisoner of war. After his release he was an officer in the armed forces of the Vichy regime . From 1942 Cogny was active in the Resistance and was arrested by the German authorities in 1943 and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp . From his imprisonment in the concentration camp, Cogny remained a lifelong handicap, which is why he had to walk with a stick. After the war he taught at the École superieur de Guerre .

During the Indochina War he served as head of the military cabinet and was thus a close collaborator of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny . Under Raoul Salan , he commanded the 2nd Division de marche du Tonkin . From 1953 to 1955 he served as commander in chief of the French troops in Tonkin . There was a rift between him and the current Commander in Chief Henri Navarre , especially after the defeat at Dien Bien Phu .

Cogny completed his career as Commander in Chief of the French Forces in Central Africa . He died in a plane crash in 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christopher E. Goscha: Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945 - 1954) - An International and Interdisciplinary Approach , Copenhagen, 2012, p. 108
    Frederick Logevall: Embers of War - The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam , New York, 2013, p. 420
  2. ↑ Christopher E. Goscha: Historical Dictionary of the Indochina War (1945-1954) - An International and Interdisciplinary Approach , Copenhagen, 2012, p. 108
  3. ^ Jacques Dalloz: Dictionnaire de La Guerre d'Indochine, Paris, 2006, p. 65
personal data
SURNAME Cogny, René
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cogny, René Jules Lucien (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Valery-en-Caux
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1968