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Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny

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Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny
AllegianceFrance
Service / branchFrench Army
Years of service1944-1951
RankLieutenant
Battles / warsWorld War II
First Indochina War
AwardsMédaille militaire
Croix de guerre 1939-1945
Croix de guerre des TOE
RelationsJean de Lattre de Tassigny

Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny (11 February 1928 – 30 May 1951) was a French Army officer, who fought during World War II and the First Indochina War, in which he was killed in action aged 23. At the time of his death, his father, General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, was the overall commander of French forces in Indochina. Bernard de Lattre received several medals during his short military career, including the Médaille militaire.

Early life and World War II

Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny was born on 11 February 1928 in Paris, France. He was the only child of the French soldier and future war hero and general Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, and his wife Simonne de Lamazière, both French aristocrats.[1]

Bernard was 12 when France was conquered by Nazi Germany in July 1940 during World War II. His father fought in the army during the invasion, later commanding forces in the "free zone" in Montpellier and Tunisia, but he was arrested for resisting the German military occupation of Vichy France in November 1942, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Bernard de Lattre, then aged 15, aided his father's escape from Riom prison on 3 September 1943. His father went to Algiers via London, while Bernard and his mother went into hiding. Bernard eventually escaped France through the Pyrenees, and crossed Spain to reach North Africa. There, like his father, he joined the forces of the Free French.

Still only 16, Bernard received special dispensation from General de Gaulle to join the army being assembled to invade France, and subsequently fought in the liberation of southern France and also in Germany. It was for his actions in these campaigns that he received the Médaille militaire, the youngest to receive that medal, and his first Croix de guerre.

First Indochina War and death

Bernard de Lattre served in the French army during the First Indochina War, and was killed in action during fighting on the Day River, near Ninh Binh. The citation for his actions concluded:

He fell heroically, giving an example of the finest military virtues.

— translated quote from TIME[2]

Following his son's death, his father arranged for a Catholic mass to be held in the cathedral in Hanoi.[3] Two days after the battle, Bernard de Lattre's body was flown home to France, accompanied by his father, and the funeral took place in Brittany.[4] The graves of all three de Lattres are now located side-by-side in the cemetery in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, the birthplace of Jean de Lattre.[5]

Bernard de Lattre's death received widespread press coverage at the time, including articles in Le Figaro, Le Monde, The New York Times[6] and TIME magazine.[2] His funeral was featured in LIFE magazine as 'Picture of the Week'.[4]

Decorations

Legacy

Bernard de Lattre's death greatly impacted his father and mother. His father in particular was said to have been deeply affected, and he died of cancer less than eight months later.[7] His mother, now entitled to call herself Madame la Maréchale following the posthumous promotion of her husband, "devoted herself to the memory of her son and to the history of her husband and the armies that he had commanded".[1]

In 1952, a 308-page book titled Un destin héroïque: Bernard de Lattre (A heroic destiny: Bernard de Lattre), was published by the French publishers Plon. The book is a collection of stories of Bernard's life, and letters that he wrote. It was written and edited by Robert Garric, professor of philosophy and head of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. The 1984-1985 class of the Ecole Militaire Interarmes was named “Promotion Lieutenant Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny” in his honour.[8]

A memorial partially dedicated to Bernard de Lattre, now known as the Chapelle Saint-Bernard, was inaugurated in 1955 in the commune of Wildenstein, in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It consists of an altar and small shelter beside a hiking trail, and construction at the site began in 1954, using plans approved by Madame de Lattre. The building material used was pink sandstone from nearby Rouffach. The site is dedicated to the memory of Bernard de Lattre, his father Jean de Lattre, and the French forces that fought in the area in 1944 to liberate Alsace from the Germans in World War II. The chapel later fell into disrepair, but was renovated and reinaugurated during a church service on 20 August 2004, the day dedicated to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.[9] There is an annual Mass held here in honour of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, attended by veteran associations, local dignitaries and relatives of the de Lattres.[10]

Also located in Wildenstein is the Center Bernard de Lattre, which includes a memorial to Jean de Lattre that was moved there after Algeria gained independence from France.

Historians writing about the First Indochina War have commented on the symbolism of Bernard de Lattre's death. In Soldats perdus: de l'Indochine à l'Algérie, dans la tourmente des guerres (2007), Erlingsen says that Bernard de Lattre's death was symbolic "of the modern world devastated by war" and that his life was "representative of our time".[11]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Obituary: Simonne de Lattre de Tassigny, Douglas Johnson, The Guardian, Thursday 12 June 2003
  2. ^ a b War: Soldier's Son, TIME, Monday, 11 June 1951
  3. ^ Volcano under snow: Vo Nguyen Giap, John Colvin, 2001, page 94
  4. ^ a b Kiss for a Soldier Son LIFE, 25 June 1951, page 27
  5. ^ Patrimoine, Site officiel de la commune Mouilleron-en-Pareds, accessed 17/01/2010
  6. ^ French Chief's Son Slain, Thursday, 31 May 1951, page 3
  7. ^ Jean-Marie de Lattre de Tassigny (1889-1952), Chemins de Memoire, accessed 17/01/2010
  8. ^ "Promotion Lieutenant Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny". Retrieved 9 January 2010.
  9. ^ Wildenstein, Le Souvenir Francais du Canton de Saint-Amarin, accessed 17/01/2010
  10. ^ Reports and pictures of recent memorial services are available at the website of the regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace: 2006, 2007, 2008
  11. ^ "symbole+de+notre" Soldats perdus: de l'Indochine à l'Algérie, dans la tourmente des guerres, Hélène Erlingsen, 2007, page 13
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