Lattre de Tassigny, General Jean-Marie de

Lattre de Tassigny, General Jean-Marie de (1889–1952),French Army officer who commanded the 14th Division which fought well at Rethel during the fighting which preceded the fall of France in June 1940. As a maj-general, then a lt-general, he served the Vichy French government, commanding French troops in Tunisia between September 1941 and September 1942. However, he was imprisoned by the Vichy government when he resisted the German occupation of Vichy France in November 1942, though he was in fact simply carrying out the secret orders of the C-in-C French forces, Admiral Darlan. A charge of treason was dropped, but he was given a prison sentence of ten years for abandoning his post. At the fourth attempt he escaped and was flown, with SOE help, to the UK where he joined de Gaulle's Free French forces. In December 1943 he flew to North Africa, was promoted general, and was given command of what was to become Armée B. His forces captured Elba in June and some became part of the French Expeditionary Corps. This force fought with the Allies in the Italian campaign until July 1944 before being returned to de Lattre for the French Riviera landings in August 1944 in which Armée B took a leading role.

In September Armée B was renamed the First French Army and de Lattre remained its commander in the fighting which followed (see Colmar pocket, Rhine crossings, and Germany, battle for). During these months de Lattre's army absorbed about 137,000 members of the French Forces of the Interior (see FFI) and these gradually replaced some of his North African troops which were repatriated. In May 1945 he signed Germany's surrender on behalf of France but was replaced by Koenig as C-in-C French Army of Occupation in Germany by de Gaulle that August. He was posthumously promoted a Marshal of France.

Bibliography

Clayton, A. , Three Marshals of France (London, 1992).