Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bigeard!


This is coolbert:

"his ashes will be scattered over Dien Bien Phu"


Here thanks to the Telegraph is the obituary for the most famous French soldier from the time of the Second World War [WW2[, Marcel Bigeard!!

"General Marcel Bigeard"

"General Marcel Bigeard, who died on June 17 aged 94, was France's most decorated and popular soldier, a hero of Dien Bien Phu and the Battle of Algiers; but his reputation was tarnished in later life by allegations that he had taken part in torture"

Torture, for which the General never admitted, and forever denied!!

Bigeard, a man from a working-class family, a man of humble origins, who rose to high rank, BASED UPON HIS INTUITIVE SENSE OF BATTLE AND WAR, POSSESSING UNDENIABLE COURAGE!!

[wounded five times!]

* Over a period of five decades, served in the French Army, rising from the lowly rank of private to almost the pinnacle of command.

* A charter member of the French parachute mafia!

* Fought both as a guerrilla and insurgent [WW2], and later as a counter-insurgent [Indo-China and Algeria]! He was a Jedburgh?

* Survived the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, taken prisoner, repatriated, continuing most successfully his military career.

* Was in almost continuous combat for a period of twenty-two years [1939-1961]!

* His record tarnished [?] by those pesky allegations of having administered, presided over, and even personally conducted torture of captured enemy guerrillas, terrorists!

Marcel, gone now, but hardly to be forgotten!!

coolbert.

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