2 db general leclerc biography

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The attack was, for the moment, effectively stalled. aux côtés du Général américain Mac Arthur.

D’octobre 1945 à juillet 1946, Leclerc faisant montre d’un sens politique en avance sur son temps, préconise une solution pacifique au conflit franco-vietnamien. On May 1, de Gaulle himself flew out to review the troops and confer with Leclerc.

The strategic situation changed in June when the Germans invaded Russia.

At least one of the bombers was hit by small-arms fire and left the area trailing smoke. His promise, made at the oasis of Kufra, not to disarm until the tricolore once more flew above Strasbourg Cathedral had been fulfilled.

ww2dbasePostwar

ww2dbaseWith the war over the French were eager to recover their pre-war colonies. Italian and German reconnaissance flights were stepped up, forcing the French to operate at night.

Leclerc arranged rotating holidays for his men in South Africa.

Meanwhile, both sides prepared for the inevitable conflict. Their last stragglers passing through the lines of 2 SS Panzer Corps at 1600 on 21 Aug 1944.

ww2dbaseDe Gaulle, meanwhile, was anxious that the liberation of Paris should be an entirely French affair but had failed to convince Eisenhower who preferred a bypass operation to isolate the city.

On November 23, 1944, he liberated Strasbourg and as he had promised Koufra, the tricolor flag again floats on the single spire of the cathedral Strasbourg.

His troops then continued fighting on German territory and the French were the first to enter Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest from Kehlsteinhaus in Berchtesgaden. Leclerc's unauthorised action almost floundered when units of the US V Corps reported Guillebon's presence near Rambouillet, well outside the area allotted to the Division.

Philippe de Hautecloque meets General de Gaulle on July 25, 1940 and receives a mission to rally the armed forces of French Equatorial Africa to those of Free France: in August 1940, Cameroon, Congo and Chad take the party de Gaulle, then Gabon in November of the same year.

From Chad where Leclerc is the military commander, he carries out bold raids of several thousand kilometers with few means against the Italian positions and seizes in particular the oasis of Koufra, on February 28th, 1941, where he pronounces with his men the memorable oath of March 2: “Swear not to lay down the arms when our colors, our beautiful colors, will float on the cathedral of Strasbourg”.

Sa foi en la victoire finale, son sens du terrain et de la manœuvre, son omniprésence, l’ont fait adopter d’emblée par ses hommes qui lui apportent adhésion et dévouement sans faille.

Quand il reçoit, à l’été 1943, la mission de transformer la 2e Division Française Libre en 2e Division Blindée, le Général LECLERC regroupe, à Témara sur la côte atlantique du Maroc, au fur et à mesure de leur arrivée, tous les éléments qui lui sont affectés: le noyau des Français Libres qui sont avec lui depuis près de trois ans, des unités déjà constituées de l’armée d’Afrique du Nord, des engagés et des appelés locaux, des Corses récemment libérés et les jeunes français évadés de France en passant par les Pyrénées et les geôles espagnoles.

The ruined Italian forts were reoccupied with fresh troops. While awaiting reinforcements, he planned his next move.

By November 27, the British had relieved Tobruk and pursued Rommel across the northern Libyan desert. The two men hit it off at once, and the British saw to Leclerc’s resupply needs, providing new trucks, uniforms, guns, and, most prized of all, new boots to replace torn and split shoes or rubber tire sandals.

The British general did not have faith in Leclerc and lamented to a colleague, “Poor Leclerc! Worse, he would have to haul all of his supplies—food, fuel, guns, and ammunition—from the tiny ports along the Atlantic Ocean through jungle and scrub desert more than 1,000 miles just to reach his starting off points on the Libyan border.

More fuel was consumed in the delivery than was delivered.

As part of the buildup, Leclerc began to receive a trickle of new equipment including four Bofors antiaircraft guns, six U.S.-made 75mm guns, 10 armored cars, and 400 trucks. He wrote to de Gaulle, “Whatever the difficulties, we will go and we will succeed.” Unlike the joint raid on Murzuk, Kufra would be an all French expedition.

First, however, Leclerc would conduct a raid in strength as a prelude to conquest.

At the outbreak of World War II Captain Vicomte de Hauteclocque was serving as Chief of Staff in the French 4th Infantry Division.

Fortunately, for the 2nd Armoured, the German defenders, of the 198th Infantry Division, were then ordered back across the Rhine leaving just a small holding force behind to delay the French advance.

ww2dbaseWhen ordered to resume the attack on 29 Jan 1945 Leclerc refused to do so without the support of two more infantry battalions. He asked only for British air support.

There were so few French to guard the surrendered Italians that even the priest, Père Bronner, took a turn at sentry duty.

Raising the French flag emblazoned with the Cross of Lorraine, the victors celebrated Free France’s first victory of the war.