Juin, Alphonse Pierre.

Back to all people

- Medals

Juin, Alphonse Pierre.
franceArmyFieldmarschal

Juin, Alphonse Pierre Juin, born; 16-12-1888 in Bône, French Algeria, was a senior French Army officer who became a Marshal of France. The only son of Victor Pierre Juin, a soldier who became a gendarme after 15 years of military service, mostly in Algeria, and his wife Précieuse Salini, the daughter of another soldier and who had become a gendarme. He was named after his paternal grandfather. When Alphonese was six, his family moved to Constantine, where he went to primary school, and learnt Arabic from the local boys. In 1902 he was awarded a bursary to study at the Lycée d’Aumale in Constantine. A graduate of the Saint-Cyr class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, 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 attended the École Supérieure de Guerre.  He chose to serve in North Africa again. After the outbreak of the World War II in September 1939, he assumed command of a division, the 15e Division d’Infantrie Motorisée (fr). The division was encircled in the Lille pocket during the Battle of France and Juin was captured. He was a prisoner of war until he was released at the behest of the Vichy Government in 1941, and was assigned to command French forces in North Africa.

After Operation Torch, the invasion of Algeria and Morocco by British and American forces in November 1942, Juin here with the American General Mark Wayne `Contraband` Clark 

  ordered French forces in Tunisia to resist the Germans and the Italians. His great skills were exhibited during the Italian campaign as commander of the French Expeditionary Corps . His expertise in mountain warfare was crucial in breaking the Gustav Line,with the Monte Cassino fortresse,  which had held up the Allied advance for six months.The capture of Monte Cassino enabled the advance of British and American troops to Rome. Rome fell into their hands on 04-06-1944, two days before the landing in Normandy.105,000 Allied and 80,000 German troops were involved in the fighting. 20,000 German under command of General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin, and 54,000 Allied troops under command of General Sir Harold Alexander Alexander, “ Earl of Tunis” Harold Rupert Leofric George. were killed, wounded or missing.In the final attack on the German positions, the main role was played by the Polish 2nd Corps of General Władysław Anders.

  About 4,000 of these Polish soldiers were killed.

Following this assignment he was Chief of Staff of French forces, and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident General in Morocco, where he opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Next came a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG, Allied Force Command Heidelberg  until 1956. During his NATO command, he was promoted to Marshal of France in 1952. He was greatly opposed to Charles De Gaulle‘s  here with General Juin with sigarette,   decision to grant independence to Algeria, and was “retired” in 1962 as a result.

U.S. General Omar Nelson “Brad” Bradley honored  by French General Alphonse Pierre Juin.

Death and burial ground of Juin, Alphonse Pierre.

    

He was the French Army’s last living Marshal of France. In December 1963, he suffered a thrombosis and was hospitalised in the Val-de-Grâce, where he was visited by de Gaulle. Delirious, Juin spoke of “Constantine, Algeria, my country”, to which de Gaulle embraced him and replied “Yes, I know, your country is there”. In the event, Juin did not die, but remained frail for the rest of his life. He suffered a heart attack November 1966, and was again taken to the Val-de-Grâce, where he died on 22-01-1967.

Marshall Alphonse Juin was buried in the crypte of Les Domes des Invalides in Paris, Section  L’eglise St-Louis-des-Invalides.

  

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com

Share on :

end

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *