Jacques Philippe Leclerc

The French general Jacques Philippe Leclerc (1902-1947) commanded the division which liberated Paris in 1944. He warned against the French attempt to regain control of Indochina.

Jacques Philippe Leclerc, Resistance name of Philippe Marie de Hauteclocque, was born into an aristocratic family on Nov. 22, 1902, at Belloy-Saint-Léonard. Graduating from St-Cyr in 1924, he made a brilliant reputation in Morocco during the struggle against the nationalist Riffi. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was a general staff officer when World War II began. Captured twice by the Germans in May-June 1940, he escaped both times and in July joined Charles De Gaulle in London.

Sent to rally French Equatorial Africa to De Gaulle, Leclerc, after a 39-day march over more than 1,500 miles, joined his ragtag army to that of Gen. B. L. Montgomery at Tripoli on Jan. 25, 1943. The Tunisian and Tripolitanian campaigns concluded, he participated in the cross-channel Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, as commander of the French 2d Armored Division. Leclerc arrived in Paris on August 24. The following day, after a triumphal march to the Hôtel-de-Ville, he received the surrender of the German commandant Gen. Choltitz.

After liberating Strasbourg and Bordeaux, Leclerc was named supreme commander of French forces in Indochina by De Gaulle. The French signatory of the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, he arrived in Saigon in October with orders to quell the nationalist rebellion of the Vietminh. Immediately recognizing that such a task required a massive French army and years of guerrilla warfare, Leclerc— convinced the cost was too high and ultimate success uncertain—recommended a negotiated peace. Although the Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh was amenable, Leclerc's recommendations were thwarted by the Catholic politicians in Paris and a clique of French colonialists in Saigon headed by Governor General Adm. Thierry d'Argenlieu. After the decision of the French government in 1947 to reconquer Indochina, the stage was set for the 7-year guerrilla war, which ended in the French humiliation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

Leclerc never lived to see his worst fears realized. Named inspector general of the French armies in North Africa in 1946 and promoted to full general the following year, he was killed in an airplane crash near Colomb-Béchar in Algeria on Nov. 28, 1947. At the time it was rumored, but never substantiated, that the accident was organized by colonial groups in Indochina who suspected Leclerc's "capitulationist" tendencies.

Leclerc was honored as a companion of the Order of the Liberation by Charles De Gaulle and named a commander of the Legion of Merit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1952 he was posthumously raised to the dignity of marshal of France.

Further Reading

The only biography of Leclerc is in French. In English his career may be followed in Alexander Werth, France, 1940-1955 (1956), and Robert Aron, France Reborn: The History of the Liberation (1964). □

Leclerc, Lt-General Philippe (1902–47),pseudonym of a French Army officer, Captain Viscount Philippe de Hauteclocque, who joined de Gaulle and the Free French in the UK after the fall of France in June 1940. De Gaulle promoted him major and sent him to rally colonies in French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa to the Free French, and in August 1940 he organized bloodless coups in the French Cameroons and Middle Congo, and later led French colonial troops (see Tirailleurs) in the Gabon campaign. Based at Fort Lamy in Chad, he was promoted colonel, then brigadier-general ( August 1941) while directing the Fezzan campaigns which culminated in his men fighting their way north to join the British and Commonwealth Eighth Army outside Tripoli in January 1943.

After fighting successfully in southern Tunisia during the North African campaign, Leclerc was promoted maj-general in August 1943 and his forces became the nucleus of the 2nd French Armoured Division (2ème Division Blindée). This new formation also included officers and men from the Vichy French forces in French North Africa and it was only Leclerc's strength of character that moulded such a disparate force into a first-class fighting unit.

After his division landed in France on 29 July 1944 it fought in the Normandy campaign and the battle for Germany with Patton's Third US Army. It captured Le Mans and Alençon, and was, on Eisenhower's orders, the first Allied formation to enter Paris (see also Paris rising) where Leclerc took the surrender of the German garrison. He then helped capture Strasbourg, was promoted lt-general, and fought with the Third Army all the way to Berchtesgaden. In May 1945 de Gaulle sent him to the Far East as C-in-C French Forces and it was he who signed the Japanese surrender on behalf of the French nation. He died in a plane crash in North Africa and was posthumously made a Marshal of France in 1952.

Bibliography

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

Jacques Philippe Leclerc , 1902–47, French general. His real name was Philippe, vicomte de Hauteclocque, but he adopted the name Leclerc in World War II. Commanding the Free French forces in French Equatorial Africa, he led (Dec., 1942–Jan., 1943) their spectacular march from Lake Chad to Tripoli, over c.1,500 mi (2,400 km); they entered Tripoli with the British 8th Army. Leclerc and his troops then took part in the Tunisian campaign. In 1944 he commanded the French 2d Armored Division; its nucleus was the veterans of his African campaign. Gen. Omar N. Bradley honored Leclerc by letting his division enter Paris first (Aug., 1944) to complete the liberation of the city. Leclerc subsequently took Strasbourg. He was made (1945) the French commander in Asia and accepted the Japanese surrender at Tokyo for France. He later commanded against the insurgents in Indochina. Made inspector general of the French forces in North Africa in 1946, he died a year later in a plane crash. He was posthumously created a marshal of France in 1952.