French War Heroes

Im looking for more French war heroes from World War One and Two. Preferably officers but anything goes.

>pic related: it's Louis Barthas

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_at_Joncherey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules-André_Peugeot
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mangin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léo_Major
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre
youtube.com/watch?v=QC6-AhOmnCk
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

>French
>War Heroes

Wouldnt say Barthas to be a war hero

He Survived the whole time and his memoirs are really remarkable but thats it

Fear Written by Gabrielle Chevallier
He won the Croix de Guerre

Not sure if "hero", but I like this guy's story

>At around 6:00 a.m. on 2 August 1914, Leutnant Albert Mayer and his small cavalry patrol illegally crossed the French border. They did not meet resistance, as the French had moved their troops back 10 km (6.2 mi) from the border, to avoid provoking the Germans and to show good faith in their attempts to avoid war.

>At 9:50 a.m., Mayer slashed with his sabre at (but did not injure) a French sentry, who was on lookout at the entrance to Joncherey.

>Jules Andre Peugeot and four other soldiers were at their billet eating breakfast at the time. The daughter of the owner of the house came back inside from fetching water and reportedly said "The Prussians! The Prussians are coming!"[1]

>Around 10:00 a.m., Peugeot and his four comrades went to arrest the Germans. Upon meeting, Mayer fired three shots at Peugeot. One hit his shoulder and Peugeot fired back as he was falling.

>Peugeot's comrades fired at the patrol with pistols. Mayer was shot in the stomach but seconds later was killed by a shot to the head. Peugeot stumbled back to the billet house where he died at 10:37 a.m.[2]

>Jules-André Peugeot (June 11, 1893 - August 2, 1914) was the first French soldier to die in World War I. He died one day before war was formally declared on France by Germany.

>Before being called up for compulsory military service in 1913, Jules Andre Peugeot was a teacher.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_at_Joncherey
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules-André_Peugeot

Tl;dr: 22 years old teacher dies after breakfast a day before the war because an overzealous kraut went full retard

From the top of my head:

>Capitaine Jean Maridor
In 1944 he ramed a V1-Aerial Bomb in order to prevent it from reaching a military hospital

>Émile Driant
He and a small group of men managed to hold to hold off from the vastly outnumbering Germans, he was killed but his efforts allowed enough time for reinforcements to arrive. Without him the Battle of Verdun would have been lost.

>Sylvain Eugène Raynal
Held off the German attack in Fort Vaux for 7 days, Crown Prince Wilhelm even honoured him with a sword for his actions.

also:

>René Fonck
Highest allied ace of WW1, and the highest to survive. Sometime considered the best considering all of his unconfirmed kills and as of how he apparently was not hit once.

>Captain Tabourot
Eugène Raynal's second in command, he single handedly held off the Germans from entering the gallery of Vaux for some time by using hand grenades, until a German pioneer killed him.

>Pierre Billotte
During the battle of France, while commanding one Char B1 he successfully defended the village of Stonne. He managed to destroy 13 enemy Panzers (2 PzKpfw IV's and 11 PzKpfw III's) due to the strong armour of the tank it withstood 140 hits from the enemy until being heavily damaged by a German 88 and had to fall back due to lack of support.

>Pierre Clostermann
Top French ace of WW2, achieved 33 victories.

There are also a lot of Napoleonic wars ones

This madman hated Germans so much he set interracial breeding grounds for his African troops in the Rhineland to further humiliate the defeated nation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mangin

>Mangin had guarded the Rhineland in 1920 with Senegalese troops and, supposedly "every German 'knew' that he ordered German mayors to provide brothels for his soldiers, and when the mayors protested at 'providing German women for Senegalese', Mangin was alleged to have replied, 'German women are none too good for my Senegalese'".

>Sylvain Eugène Raynal
>Held off the German attack in Fort Vaux for 7 days, Crown Prince Wilhelm even honoured him with a sword for his actions.

Read somewhere that they ended up drinking their own piss before being forced to surrender because of thirst

It really pisses me off that WW1 France had such shitty doctrine that hundreds of thousands of men died needlessly. Plan 17 was literally Japanese-level retardation; something Japan should've taken note that courage and dash means jackshit against a well-entrenched motivated enemy with firepower and logistical support.

I mean, look at their fucking uniforms in 1914! Did they not learn anything from British riflemen sniping at officers in the Napoleonic Wars?

Albert Séverin Roche, named "First Soldier of France" by Foch in 1918.

>Tried to enlist in 1914, juged too frail he's rejected and sent back to his father's farm.
>Ran off and tried once again to enlist, accepted but as he's disliked and badly noted he desert, get captured and as punishment ask to get send "where we're fighting". Get affected to a mountain infantry battalion.
>Served from 1915 to 1918.
>Spent 10 hours crawling in the no man's land to go and get his wounded captain. Back to his line he fell asleep in a ditch and nearly got executed for desertion, he was saved in extremis by a messenger send by the captain.
>In a trench in Alsace, most of his section being dead or wounded he ran along the trench, firing one rifle after another and giving the impression that the trench is fully manned and repelling the attackers.
>Wounded 9 times. Once operated himself to remove a bullet from his lower jaw.
>Made 1180 prisoners over the course of the war.
>One of the 8 soldiers to carry the Unknown Soldier's coffin under the Arc de Triomphe.
>Dined at George V table.

He died of a stupid accident in 1939, hit by a car while coming home from work.

>>Captain Tabourot

Raynal even mentioned him in the pigeons he send to the french lines.

2 June 1916, with the first pigeon:
>"The enemy is surrounding us. I pay tribute to the brave captain Taboureau, heavily wounded. We're still holding."
The following day another pigeon asked, among others, for the Legion d'Honneur to be given to Taboureau, posthumously.

>Did they not learn anything from British riflemen sniping at officers in the Napoleonic Wars?

Except riflemen and skirmishers sniping officers happened on all sides, famously Nelson was sniped in Trafalgar.

>In a trench in Alsace, most of his section being dead or wounded he ran along the trench, firing one rifle after another and giving the impression that the trench is fully manned and repelling the attackers.

Seriously?
Wtf?

>He died of a stupid accident in 1939, hit by a car while coming home from work.

God had already decided that France had to lose WW2, so he killed this madman to make a Germany victory possible

Exactly. That was in 1805. The fact that 1914 rifles were breech-loaders with metallic cartridges and smokeless powder means that the average grunt can snipe a dude wearing bright red and white patterns on their uniform from thousands of yards away.

That was already ordained when the real men of France died needlessly in the Great War.

France lost more than 2/3 of young men from the ages of 18 to 29. Think about that for a second. That's a generation of manhood that a country lost in 4 years. Had those men not died and reproduced, their sons would've fought as tenaciously as their fathers did and refused to allow the Germans to occupy the whole of France.

R'nee La Retret

He was famous from running in the face of certain doom. He lived to eat cheese another day.

Francois LeFrogge

He very famously stayed behind lines eating snails

Jacques Fa'pua Le'fag

He famously diddled his commander in order to keep away from the front lines. Then after the Krauts marched through Parisian streets he famously gave his wife to Nazi officers for a bottle of wine.

If French Canadians count, there's Léo Major:

>He was the only Canadian and one of only three soldiers in the British Commonwealth to ever receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal twice in separate wars.

>On the night of 13 April 1945, Major single-handedly liberated the city of Zwolle in the Netherlands from German army occupation. This action earned him his first Distinguished Conduct Medal. He received his second DCM during the Korean War for leading the capture of a key hill.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léo_Major

The fierce battle for the French town of Verdun is ceaseless. Neither the French nor the Germans are willing to abandon the fight, which brings minuscule gains for each.

The French troops in front of them had been in the trenches too long and their morale was too low,Deserters, reaching the German lines gave details of the passages through the French wire.

the French position was captured, a whole French brigade being surrounded and surrendering: 2825 men, twenty-five machine guns and, to the amusement of the German war correspondent who broke the story, a full box of medals — the Croix de Guerre — ready for distribution.

One of the French officers who falls into German hands at Verdun is Captain Charles de Gaulle,in prison he teaches a Russian prisoner Mikhail Tukhachevsky to speak French. Later Tukhachevsky will be declared by Stalin a Marshall of the Soviet Union. But in 1937, Tukhachevsky will be executed by Stalin.

The french canadians are an interesting bunch. The colony started almost entirely with french whores. Trappers, and frontiersmen came from all around to mix with the frogs. They left a near mongrel race with none of the charm of French art/cooking/and etiquette and left them almost entirely a race of poutine sucking manner-less turds.

>Implying that war heroes aren't all the soldiers who died for France
Imo every French who died in the Chemin des dames are war heroes as an example. .

>American
>Army

t. lindy beige

...

Sounds like my kind of guy, I despise the Germans like most French

Kek I'm French and I approve, these are the true heroes of France

Op here, thanks for all the people, any successful French commanders of ww2 like Rene Olry?

That's honestly fucking genius

No one posted Joseph Darnan?
Come on,...

No one despise german but for a few inbred fucker like you.

A lot of people don't like germans. But most don't give a shit and just go on with their life.

Leclerc, De Lattre De Tassigny, Langlade, Koenig, Segonzac, Juin, Monsabert.

>hehe lol xp stupid germans get rekt
We wuzing just because you hate Germans
I wonder why NatSoc became so popular and the Germans resisted the fucking threaty of Versailles

I learnt that at the site of the battle iirc. Men in tunnels, fighting 1 vs 10, completely surrounded, no food nor water.

Held 7 days, after pissing in their own helmets and drink back to exhaustion of said piss, they were dying of thirst.

Their grandchildren are called surrender monkeys and cowards by nations that have at least a sea between them and any threat. (Well, the US did get invaded by Canada so maybe that counts as a threat)

You're stupid. Just look a second at French history. Just the two most obvious ones: Napoleonic wars and the HYW. We also lost generations there. Still held strong after that. The sons and grandsons of our WWI heroes still fought as tenacely as their ancestors, fuckwit. Tactically, the Battle of France was impressive from the French side. But it was a war. And tactics only win battles.

Hey now, Pierre- a German soldier is probably your granddaddy.

Because the whole country was built around French hate collected after the Napoleonic wars (and some others), and as a result, loosing WWI to France, a country half the size and your archememy, shaked the core foundations of Germany as a state, and severely questioned its purpose in the world?

I hope you're a Kraut and you read me, because I'd now like you to answer me: what's worse, requiring hookers for soldiers (of black skin reeeeee, chances are the women liked it, if we look at the situation today), or slaughtering children, elderly and wives with just sheer frustration and barbary as a reason ?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacre

I would really like to know your opinion on the subject.
I wonder how you'll tell me the French occupation led to that..

very curious
pls answer

t. American soldier's offspring who think himself British

Alsace is French clay. Germany is as well.

>Never invaded by faggots we had not invaded first

feelsgoodman.jpg

there is René Pommier Layrargues.

>French pilot WW2
>squadron embushed (from above) by twice as numerous german top ace Molders' squadron
>the fight starts with 6/8 French down
>René goes up facing the enemy
>shoots Molders down
>shoots another German
>is tracked by all the angry krauts (at least 11)
>avoids their shots for as long as possible since out of ammo
>goes down in flames


Or Guynemer eventhough he's partially meme tier. There is though, a trivia about him, since he encountered Luftwaffe's ace Herman Goering (yes, the fat retarded piece of shit).

They fight, but FatHerman's machine gun jams... and Guynemer has him locked down.... but doesnt shoot. Wouldn't be fair to shoot someone unable to defend himself. So he lets Goering go.
>Fast forward
1917, Guynemer falls we don't really know where in a forest. The French build a monument to the hero in the forest.
>Fast forward
Belgium is invaded by Krauts. Gôering goes to the monument of the guy he owes his pathethic life to.
Proceeds to bulldozer it out of anger.

Yep, you got it. GERMans are ISIS-tier.

Belgian, not a kraut
>Because the whole country was built...
>Because
Which question did you answer with this sentence?

Thank you for including a massacre of the second World War, (Oradour even, visited the site when I was young.) But not really relevant to the post World War I anti-german sentiment of your beloved hero Colonel.
Requiring hookers, come on I don't have to tell you about the Swarze schande/ Honte noir right? Hookers? Please.

Threating Germans like shit by the allied nations and chimping all: "le boche paiera" led to a breeding ground for extreme political beliefs e.g. National Socialism

Let alone me mentioning you saying "chances are the women liked it" and me replying you're a cuck . But please let this be about history only no need to segway that in your reply you knob

>"and afterwards..."
>"Anyways"

Geez, is this propaganda-kino? Subtle and horrifying all at once.

Jeez you can't write for shit. I'm no cuck, I made a joke about Germans being though. Thought it would be obvious.

If you read carefully, the post I replied to had "I wonder why". Then I got the reason: it is BECAUSE...
Seems simple, and yet you rewrote:
>Threating Germans like shit by the allied nations and chimping all: "le boche paiera" led to a breeding ground for extreme political beliefs e.g. National Socialism

again, NatSoc rose because [refer to what was written]


Oh my god the more I try to answer you the more I realize how much of a waste of time you're gonna be...

Look carefully at:
'German women are none too good for my Senegalese'"

And say me it's no softcore.
What I put in perspective with Oradour is that Germans are retards that get so angry because they got such a little dick. For instance, we got treated way less good by the Germans, and yet we didnt tard out after the war.
Siiiiiiiiiiimple, my thick friend.

Not him, but whatevs :3

>"le boche paiera" led to a breeding ground for extreme political beliefs e.g. National Socialism
This definetely contributed more than we'd let ourselves believe in France, but national-socialism was swelled that much more by the German delusion that they'd not been defeated in the field, which the german generals were all too eager to indulge in to erase that they'd been beaten. Hindenburg famously lectuted his soldiers that "you have not been beaten", while he had been pleading the Kaiser for weeks already to end the war. This is also why Luddendorf was one of the first partisans of national-socialism, as it flattered his ego that Hitler incriminate the Jews for the 1918 defeat, rather than on the German army.

And in this way, the Germans believing themselves beaten unfairly by back-stabbing jews, had naturally leapt on Hitler's policies, which promised them a war, though this time unhindered by "le evil Jews".

And even barring that, the Great depression and the Dawes loan being retrieved from Germany had more to do with inflating support for Hitler than resentment against France ever did, as that had dwindled away in the 1930s, with France letting Germany become a LoN member, promising them a referendum to return them the Ruhr.

So sure France fucked up, but probably not as much as people said. Other factors fuelled Hitler's rise.
Anyways, Wallon or Flamand or Eupen-Malmédy-ien?

well, someone's butthurt
youtube.com/watch?v=QC6-AhOmnCk

>you can't write for shit
Now this is something I take personally, I think I did a good job writing in English. Which isn't my mother tongue remember. Maybe try urban dictionary for the few lewd words I used such as 'chimping'.

And yes the cucked Germans liking refugee dick joke glanced over me, apologies.

Do you really think France had such a big part in "shaking the core foundations of the German Empire" even "making the Germans doubt themselves" and eventually leading to Germany electing the NSDAP into power. Don't give yourselves to much credit.
Losing to France wasn't a trauma, the whole interbellum was a trauma. Devaluation, unemployment, paying recompensations and humiliating Germany.

World War II is a whole other story m8
>treated way less good
Cry me a river, go tell that to the Poles or the Russians. More French died from allied bombings than anything else (also what is Vichy-France)
>didn't tard out after the war
I'd like check into post World War II relations between France and Germany a little more before I comment on that.

Thank you for partaking, why exactly am I butthurt? Also >le boudin, well meme'd m8

Right the failing Weimar Republic and the stab in the back myth contributed more to the cloudy political atmosphere than just the fact that Germany lost to France amongst other nations.

The stab in the back myth resulting in a newfound scapegoat and a man promising jobs and economic recovery in a crippled Germany. 'Showing backbone' to the nations humiliating Germany must've sounded real good. Extremism finds it's origin in these situations wheter it's far left or right.

Flamand here

>loosing to France
>not a trauma
>to a country that was litteraly built against the French
>to a country who litterally didn't sign their Constitution until they had invaded France
>to a country which signed said constitution (or whatever's the proper term in this case) in a foreign country
>In Palais de Versailles
>to a country that tried their best to demolish Paris everytime they entered it


hahahahahah
as predicted, you're a waste of time. I didn't even finish reading your message. I join in believing you did a great job at writing in English. Obviously by your standards, it's already high.

>Belgian
what kind?

Touched a nerve eh Frenchie?

WW2 France was a disgrace compared to the fortitude of the WW1 generation. The French Resistance was overblown as fuck, Vichy French collaborated with rounding up Jews for the Nazis, and Vichy forces in North Africa killed thousands of Allied servicemen instead of putting a token show of resistance and joining up.

I agree with wholehearteldy. If the men of First Marne, First Ypres, and Verdun had been around in 1940, the Germans would've paid dearly for every inch of soil they invaded. Don't get all prissy that your civilian and military authorities gave up, allowed that farce of Vichy to exist, and passively allowed the Occupation to go by. Everyone knows nowadays that the myth of active French resistance as a whole was manufactured by de Gaulle.

As for the post-Napoleonic years, fighting Algerians and Mexicans isn't all that impressive. The only truly notable opponents that France fought in-between 1815 and 1914 (besides the Germans in 1870-1871) were the Austrians at Solferino and the Russians in the Crimean War (and even that was a limited engagement compared to Napoleon's 1812 invasion). So don't give me that bullshit.

After the HYW, France indeed was a military powerhouse. They finally wised up and had a great artillery train (something which they had for many generations afterwards). Their wars in Italy are especially something to note in the end of the 15th century. However, the HYW casualties had nowhere near the utter loss that WW1 inflicted. The French even recovered a lot of their lost territory post-Poitiers thanks to Bertrand du Guesclin, but their leadership was so far up its ass that it deserved to lose again and again. It finally took a schizo peasant girl to rally France to expel the English, thwart the Burgundians, and restore itself as a whole again. And even then, I have more respect for the French conduct of the HYW than what they did in WW2.

So eat an Algerian dick and bend over frog.

You would not be able to touch your own ass if you were trying with both hands. So no, you did not "touch a nerve".
WW2 France fought, and lost when they called out to Pétain, which surrendered so he could instaure his own fascist dictature, which people only followed for the WWI meme you're so keen on. Vichy forces in NA killed less allies than Brits killed French in 1940. They were being invaded, they locally would not agree to surrender against their commands to fight forces 1K times as big. Forces or people that now make fun of them for surrendering. Lol. Active Resistance may not have been wide spread, but in my family it was. We're talking people that escaped from labour camps (it's harder taking a gun when you're 43, have a wife and 2 children to feed), and people that were tortured up to the execution point. Reason: not speaking. So I'd appreciate if you shut the fuck up on that part, especially since I'm mostly talking in the French delivering actual combat in 1940, not after 1940. (fact of the day: the Luftwaffe lost 1052 planes in the 4 months of BoBritain. And 1059 in the 2 months of BoFrance)

I never talked about post Napoleonic France. I talked Napoleonic France. Lost many good men, still was considered the best army in the world after WWI, still the most internationally present European country on Earth. Probably second globally, after the US. All that despite Napoleonic wars """""shortening the French male 5 cms""""""""". What a load of bullshit. That kind a shit your mother should have swallowed, since now you do it for her.

>. However, the HYW casualties had nowhere near the utter loss that WW1 inflicted.
oh my god this is sad
History is more than added up wikipedia recaps, redneck.
> The French even recovered a lot of their lost territory post-Poitiers thanks to Bertrand du Guesclin, but their leadership was so far up its ass that it deserved to lose again and again.
related to ?

>I never talked about post Napoleonic France
>Just the two most obvious ones: Napoleonic wars and the HYW. We also lost generations there. Still held strong after that.
>strong after that
This is why I mentioned French military status post-Napoleonic and post-HYW you Gallic phallus failure.

And that's great that your family resisted the Nazis, but doesn't measure to a whole does it when the nation is occupied and bent to serve German needs. Especially the tens of thousands of French women giving horizontal pleasure to their Herren and carrying their children. Maybe one of your relatives perhaps, oh, sorry, too close to home?

And I'm very well aware of the Battle of France and the casualties. You guys gave up too soon and Petain deserved to be held on trial for what he did.

>Vichy forces in NA killed less allies than Brits killed French in 1940
Don't get me started on Mers-el-Kebir. That was an attack that should not have happened if the French navy had actually sailed to the US or any other port outside of the Nazi sphere. Darlan even assured Churchill that he would scuttle the French fleet before handing it over to the Germans, but that wasn't gonna happen.

Despite my vitriol and obvious amusement at triggering you, you're talking to someone who is well versed in French history and has nothing but the upmost respect for the poilu of 1914-1918 as well as Napoleon's battalions. I give respect and credit to where it is due. I'd be the first person to crack any asshole in the jaw who underrates France in the Great War. I'd even like to visit the battlefields where French blood spilled incessantly thanks to their moronic leadership and tactics. That's sacred ground that I would gladly tread lightly with respect.

But don't get all full of yourself and be asspained when your country's conduct in WW2 and other eras aren't up to par. I treat everything with a nuanced glance, weighing the pros and cons. And in this case, you're having your period.