Emmanuel Charles Mast (7 January 1889 – 30 September 1977) was a major general who participated in the liberation of

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

in 1942 and was Resident General of France in Tunisia between 1943 and 1947.

Prewar

He was the son of Michel-Edmond Mast, an officer, and Jeanne Gouat, from Brumath,

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

. Among his ancestors were Protestant pastors from the Rhenish Palatinate or Baden-Wuerttemberg who had sought refuge in France in the seventeenth century, one of them being Andreas Cellarius. Before World War II, Colonel Mast was the French military attaché in Tokyo in 1937.

Beginning of World War II

Charles Mast was the Chief of Staff of the 10th Army Corps. On 1 June 1940, he was temporarily promoted to Brigadier, then to Brigadier General. Taken prisoner by the Nazis in the same month, he was imprisoned in the

Königstein Fortress Königstein Fortress (german: Festung Königstein), the " Saxon Bastille", is a hilltop fortress near Dresden, in Saxon Switzerland, Germany, above the town of Königstein on the left bank of the River Elbe. It is one of the largest hilltop fo ...

. On 20 September 1941, while plotting his escape, he learned that he would be liberated. Mast was then appointed Head of the Algiers Division, then head of the 3rd North African Infantry Division. Suspected of being an opponent of the

Vichy regime Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its ter ...

, he was imprisoned in 1941. His friend, Colonel Numata, Japanese military attache to the Vichy regime, demanded his release and got it. Charles Mast left the prison as Chief of Staff of the

19th Army Corps (France) The 19th Army Corps ( 19e Corps d'Armée) was a corps of the French army. In December 1870, the Tours delegation created the 19th Army Corps which was formed in Alençon. It was recreated by decree of the JO of August 13, 1874, it brought togeth ...

in North Africa in 1942.

Allied landings in North Africa

General Mast, who commanded the Algiers Division, was prominent in the preparation of the allied forces landings. He was one of the first Vichy commanders to collaborate with the allied forces to prepare for the naval landings. Mast took part in a clandestine meeting in Cherchell, 23 October 1942. This meeting took place not far from Algiers, in the Villa Teyssier. Participants included General

Mark Wayne Clark Mark Wayne Clark (May 1, 1896 – April 17, 1984) was a United States Army officer who saw service during World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. He was the youngest four-star general in the US Army during World War II. During World War I ...

, deputy to General Dwight Eisenhower. Clark met secretly with various military and civilian representatives of the resistance, including Colonel Jousse, Charles Mast, and Bernard Karsenty, Deputy José Aboulker. General Mark Wayne Clark, considered Charles Mast as spokesman for

Henri Giraud Henri Honoré Giraud (18 January 1879 – 11 March 1949) was a French general and a leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War until he was forced to retire in 1944. Born to an Alsatian family in Paris, Giraud graduated from ...

and the head of the French armies in North Africa. Henri Giraud, contacted by an American envoy and Jacques Lemaigre Dubreuil, agreed to participate in the operation. Mast, Chief of Staff of the Army Corps of Algiers, mediated between Giraud and Charles de Gaulle especially for military questions. They were opposed to Darlan and

Alphonse Juin Alphonse Pierre Juin (16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967) was a senior French Army general who became Marshal of France. A graduate of the École Spéciale Militaire class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon ...

. Charles Mast took command of the division march in Casablanca in 1942 and was appointed chief of military missions in Syria and Egypt in 1943. On 10 May 1943, days after the capture of Tunis, General de Gaulle appointed Mast as the resident General in Tunisia. de Gaulle made this appointment in the attempt to have strong leadership within the protectorate. Moncef Bay had been deposed on grounds of collusion with the Germans. Charles Mast remained as the resident General until 22 February 1947, when he was replaced by .

French Indochina

General Mast was not initially a supporter of

decolonization Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...

. General , intended to have him appointed as High Commissioner of French Indochina instead of Léon Pignon. As of 20 February 1947, Mast was a major general with the rank of army commander and army general appellation. Mast was also director of the Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN). In 1947, he became a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor Following scandal in 1950, Mast was placed in the general reserve. During this time he began a modest journalistic career. Mast wrote books such as ''The Story of a rebellion, 8 November 1942.'' Mast corresponded with journalists regarding his wartime career in Tunisia. Until his death, Mast had little confidence in France's western allies chances of success against a collaborated Communist attack.

Family

Charles Mast married in 1913 to Suzanne Bigault of Casanove; they had a son, George Mast (1914-1978), Ecole Polytechnique, promoting, 1936. He divorced and remarried 14 May 1935. His second wife, Marie-Madeleine Leroy, was a very close friend of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mast, Charles 1889 births 1977 deaths French military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Legion of Honour