The general who defied Vichy and led the Liberation Army
Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was a French professional soldier shaped by the First World War and the Moroccan war, and a commander who preserved his division’s cohesion amid France’s defeat in 1940. He remained in Vichy’s army, but in November 1942 he refused orders not to resist the German occupation of southern France, and joined the Free French after imprisonment and escape. Commanding Army B and then the French First Army, he led the liberation of Toulon and Marseille after the Provence landings, advanced to the Rhine and Danube, and represented France at the German surrender in Berlin in 1945. He later commanded the French colonial war in Indochina, where illness ended his life in 1952; he was posthumously made Marshal of France.
Career Timeline
- 1911Graduated from the cavalry school and commissioned as an officer
- 1914–191812th Dragoons and 93rd Infantry Regiment, First World War
- 1921–1926Served in Morocco during the Rif War
- 1940Commanded the 14th Infantry Division in the Battle of France
- 1942–1943Commander of the 16th Military Division; imprisoned after defying Vichy and later escaped
- 1943–1945Commanded Army B and the French First Army in the Liberation campaign
- 1950–1951High Commissioner in Indochina and Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Expeditionary Corps