Alphonse Juin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alphonse Pierre Juin
16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967
Baton of a modern Marshal of France
Place of birth	Annaba, Algeria
Place of death	Paris, France
Allegiance	French Army
Years of service	1912 - 1962
Rank	Général d'Armée
Commands held	French Expeditionary Corps
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Marshal of France Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor

Alphonse Pierre Juin (16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967) was a Marshal of France.

Juin was born at Annaba in Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912. In 1914 he was in Morocco, in command of native troops there. Upon the outbreak of World War I, he was sent to the Western Front in France where he was gravely wounded in 1915. As a result of this wound, he lost the use of his right arm.

After the war, he entered the "ecole de guerre" and had excellent results. He choose to serve in Africa again, first under the orders of Lyautey, then under those of Petain and Giraud. He served in the different staffs of the African officers.

In 1938, Juin was nominated to command a brigade. By the outbreak of World War II, he was in command of a division, the 15th Motorized Division. The division was encircled at Lille during the Battle of France and Juin was captured. Until 1941 he was kept as a prisoner of war in German hands. However during that year he was released at the behest of the Vichy Government and was assigned by them to command French forces in North Africa. After the invasion of Algeria and Morocco by British and American forces in November 1942, Juin changed sides and ordered General Barré's forces in Tunisia to resist against the Germans and the Italians. This was reflected during the Italian campaign when he commanded the French Expeditionary Corps in the US Fifth Army. The Corps' expertise in mountain warfare was well used and was one of the crucial factors in the breaking of the Winter Line in May 1944. It was Juin who made the plan to break the Gustav line, he took the Belvedere, Monte Majo, attacked the Liri valley, won the battle of the Garigliano, the battle of the East of Rome and played an important part in the battle for Sienna. Juin was also very firm in bringing the wild Moroccan irregulars, the goumiers, back under discipline and control after several excesses of mass rapine and pillage. ^[1]

Following this assignment he was Chief of Staff of French forces and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. He was also in charge of organizing the French Army and had contact both with SHAEF and with General De Lattre de Tassigny, commander of the First French Army.

In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident General in Morocco. He opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Next came a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG until 1956. During his NATO command, in 1952, he was promoted to Marshal of France. He was greatly opposed to Charles de Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, and he retired in 1962 as a result of the incident. (de Gaulle may have demanded Juin's resignation, but publicly announced that he was placing Juin "in the reserve of the Republic.")

He was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in Les Invalides, Paris.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Clayton, Anthony (1992), Three Marshals of France, Brassey's, ISBN 0-08-040707-2 .

[edit] External links

• Photo of Alphonse Juin, hosted by the Portal to Texas History

Preceded by Jean Tharaud

Seat 4 Académie française 1952-1967

Succeeded by Pierre Emmanuel