Jacques Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947) was a Free-French general during the Second World War. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc or just Leclerc.

The son of an aristocratic family, Hauteclocque graduated from the '' École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr'', the French military academy, in 1924. After service with the French Occupation of the Ruhr and in Morocco, he returned to Saint-Cyr as an instructor. He was awarded the '' croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures'' for leading ''goumiers'' in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August 1933. During the Second World War he fought in the Battle of France. He was one of the first who defied his government's Armistice to make his way to Britain to fight with the Free French under General Charles de Gaulle, adopting the '' nom de guerre'' of Leclerc so that his wife and children would not be put at risk if his name appeared in the papers. He was sent to French Equatorial Africa, where he rallied local leaders to the rebel Free French cause, and led a force against Gabon, whose leaders supported the French Government. From Chad he led raids into Italian Libya. After his forces captured Kufra, he had his men swear an oath known today as the ''Serment de Koufra'', in which they pledged to fight on until their flag flew over the Strasbourg Cathedral.

The forces under his command, known as L Force, campaigned in Libya in 1943, covered the Eighth Army's inland flank during its advance into Tunisia, and participated in the attack on the Mareth Line. L Force was then transformed into the ''2e Division Blindée'', although it was often referred to as ''La Division Leclerc''. It fought under Leclerc's command in the Battle of Normandy, and participated in the liberation of Paris and Strasbourg.

After the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, he was given command of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps (''Corps expéditionnaire français en Extrême-Orient'', CEFEO). He represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. He quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the nascent conflict in Indochina, but once again was ahead of his countrymen, and was recalled to France in 1946. He was killed in an air crash in Algeria in 1947.

Early life

Philippe François Marie de Hauteclocque was born on 22 November 1902 at Belloy-Saint-Léonard in the department of Somme, France. He was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque (1864–1945), and Marie-Thérèse van der Cruisse de Waziers (1870–1956). Philippe was named in honour of an ancestor killed by Croatian soldiers in service of Habsburg monarchy during Thirty Years' War in 1635.

Hauteclocque came from an old line of country nobility. His direct ancestors had served in the Fifth Crusade against Egypt, and again in the Eighth Crusade of Saint Louis against Tunisia in 1270. They had also fought at the Battle of Saint-Omer in 1340 and the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. The family managed to survive the French Revolution. Three members of the family served in Napoleon's '' Grande Armée'' and a fourth, who suffered from weak health, served in the supply train. The third son, Constantin, who had served in Napoleon's Russian Campaign, was created a ''chevalier'' by King Louis XVIII, and a Papal count by Pope Pius IX in 1857. Constantin had two sons. The older, Alfred François Marie (1822–1902), died childless. The younger, Gustave François Marie Joseph (1829–1914), became a noted Egyptologist.

Gustave, in turn, had three sons. The first, Henry (1862–1914), and third, Wallerand (1866–1914), became officers in the French Army, serving during the colonial campaigns, including fighting Samory in the Sudan. Both were killed in the early fighting of the First World War. The second son was Adrien, who enlisted in August 1914 as a trooper in the ', the regiment in which his son Guy was a cornet. Adrien was later commissioned, and was twice awarded the '' Croix de Guerre'' for gallantry. He survived the war, and inherited the family title and estate in Belloy-Saint-Léonard.

Military career

Philippe de Hauteclocque was homeschooled until he was 13, when he was sent to '' L'école de la Providence'', a Jesuit school in Amiens. In 1920, at the age of 17, he went to ''Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève'', known as ''Ginette'', a preparatory school in Versailles. He then entered the '' École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr'', the French military academy. Each class has a name; his was ''Metz et Strasbourg'' after towns in Alsace and Lorraine returned to France by the Treaty of Versailles. He graduated on 1 October 1924, and was commissioned as a ''sous lieutenant'' in the French Army. Having chosen the cavalry branch, he then had to attend the Cavalry School in Saumur, from which he graduated first in his class on 8 August 1925.

Hauteclocque's older brother Guy had married Madeleine de Gargan, the daughter of the Baron de Gargan. Philippe became a frequent visitor to the Gargan household, and became enchanted by Madeleine's youngest sister Thérèse. The two courted while he was at Saint-Cyr. In the tradition of old noble families, Count Adrien asked Baron de Gargan for permission for Philippe to marry Thérèse. The wedding ceremony took place in the Church of St Joan of Arc in Rouen on 10 August 1925. For a wedding present, Adrien gave them a chateau in Tailly. They had six children: Henri (1926–1952), who was killed in the First Indochina War; Hubert (1927–), who served as mayor of Tailly from 2001 to 2008; Charles (1929–); Jeanne (1931–); Michel (1933–2014); and Bénédicte (1936–). Philippe and Thérèse hired an Austrian governess, and spoke German in front of their children to improve their command of the language.

Having graduated from Saumur, Hauteclocque joined his regiment, the ', which was then on occupation duty in Trier as part of the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. Garrison duty was not to his liking, so he volunteered for service with the ', based at Taza in Morocco. He was promoted to ''lieutenant'' in October 1926. In 1927, he was posted as an instructor at the '' Military School of Dar El-Beida'' at Meknes, the military academy of French Morocco. Here, he met , a First World War veteran eight years his senior, who would later volunteer to serve under his command. In 1929, he was attached to the ''38e Goum Mixte Marocains'', a Moroccan Goumier unit at M'Zizel in the Atlas Mountains. He saw action in the fighting against the Ait Hammou guerrillas. In one action, two horses were shot out from under him. Afterwards, he was posted to the '', ''the senior cavalry regiment of the '' Armée d'Afrique'', based at Rabat.

In February 1931, Hauteclocque went back to Saint-Cyr as an instructor, but wanted to return to active service. During the summer break in 1933, he flew south to Africa, where he reported to ''Général de brigade'' Henri Giraud on 11 July. Giraud sent him into the field as a liaison officer with a ''goum''. He was awarded the '' croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures'' for leading ''goumiers'' in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August. The Commander in Chief in Morocco, ''Général de division'' Antoine Huré, felt that Hauteclocque should not have been there, and held the award up for three years. Others felt differently, and Hauteclocque was given early admission to the course for promotion to '' capitaine''. He placed fourth in the class, and was promoted on 25 December 1934. Promotion was slow in the inter-war French Army, especially in the cavalry, and he was only the second in his Saint-Cyr class to reach that rank. Most had to wait until 1936. He was also made a ''Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur''.

Although they were devout Catholics, Hauteclocque and Thérèse subscribed to ''Action Française'', the journal of a far-right political organisation of the same name, despite a papal interdict against it, and continued to do so even after Thérèse was refused absolution. In contrast, his cousin was an award-winning journalist who covered the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, visited the concentration camp at Dachau, and wrote about the Night of Long Knives. Xavier died in April 1935, convinced that he had been poisoned by the Nazis. After the Second World War, Hauteclocque destroyed his copies of ''Action Française''.

Hauteclocque broke his leg in two places in a fall from his horse in 1936. He told his company that it was his own fault for riding on the shoulder of the road. Thereafter he frequently walked with a cane. After another mishap involving losing his way during a tactical exercise and getting stuck in a field cordoned off with barbed wire, he told them that when you have done something really stupid, it is best to admit it.

In November 1938, Hauteclocque entered the ''École supérieure de guerre'', the French Army's staff college, as part of its 60th class. On graduating in July 1939, he was ordered to report to the ' (4e DI) as its chief of staff.

Fall of France

On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The 4e DI was ordered to hold the line of the Sambre river. Hauteclocque was placed in charge of three infantry battalions. To his dismay, orders came to pull back to the Canal de l'Escaut. From there the 4e DI retreated northward, becoming encircled in the Lille pocket on 28 May. Hauteclocque received permission to escape through German lines. He attempted to make his way back to the French lines by pretending to be a civilian refugee, but was apprehended by a German patrol and taken prisoner when they discovered an old military pay receipt. He was taken back to a German command post, where he secretly destroyed the receipt. He convinced a German colonel that he had been wounded in Morocco, suffered from malaria, and had six children, all of which was true, and he was thus exempted from military service, which was false. The Germans let him go. He then made his way to the Crozat Canal, swam across, and encountered a French patrol.

Hauteclocque reported to the headquarters of '' Général d'armée'' , the commander of the Seventh Army, who gave him permission to visit his home at Tailly, which was still behind French lines. When he got there, however, he found that Thérèse had fled to Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in the southwest of France, where she had relatives. On returning to the Seventh Army, he was ordered to join the ''2ème groupement cuirassé,'' a scratch force of armoured and mechanised units that included Brigadier General Stanisław Maczek's Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade. The ''groupement '' launched a series of counter-attacks. Lacking a radio, Hauteclocque gave directions to the Char B1 tanks with his cane. On 15 June, he was wounded in the head during a German air attack, and was taken to a hospital in a convent in Avallon. There he was again taken prisoner when the area was overrun by the Germans.

This time, Hauteclocque escaped by jumping out a window. After the armistice was signed on 22 June, French soldiers who had not been captured were simply allowed to go home, and the Germans were friendly towards Hauteclocque, especially when they discovered that he spoke fluent German. He made his way to rejoin his family by car and bicycle. So that he could cross from the zone occupée into the zone libre where Thérèse and the children were, his sister Yvonne obtained an identity card for him in the name of "Leclerc". It was his first use of this name. He also told Yvonne that he intended to join ''Général de brigade'' Charles de Gaulle in Britain. He was reunited with his family in Saint-Germain-les-Vergnes on 30 June but stayed with them for only four days before setting out for Spain. He managed to obtain a visa on the second attempt, being refused the first time for carrying too much money with him. Once in Spain he took a train to Madrid, and then to Lisbon, where he went to the British embassy, which arranged his passage to Britain on a merchant ship, the SS ''Hillary''.

Africa

Leclerc arrived in London on 25 July 1940, and met with de Gaulle, who announced that he was promoting him to ''Chef d'escadrons

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases