60 Facts About Alphonse Juin

Alphonse Pierre Juin was a senior French Army general who became Marshal of France.

Alphonse Juin 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.

Alphonse Juin was greatly opposed to Charles De Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, and was "retired" in 1962 as a result.

Alphonse Juin was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in.

Alphonse Juin was born at Bone in French Algeria on 16 December 1888, 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 Precieuse Salini, the daughter of another soldier who had become a gendarme.

Alphonse Juin soon saw service in Morocco in the Zaian War, participating in the fighting around Taza.

Alphonse Juin joined Chef de Bataillon Joseph-Francois Poeymirau's 2e Regiment des Chasseurs Indigenes as a lieutenant.

Alphonse Juin was wounded in his left hand the following day, but refused evacuation to hospital, remaining at the front with his arm in a sling.

Alphonse Juin was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Alphonse Juin found Poeymirau, who had been wounded, in the hospital, and Poeymirau arranged for Alphonse Juin to be sent back to Morocco in December 1915 to convalesce.

Alphonse Juin returned to France towards the end of 1916 in command of a company of the 1er Regiment de Tirailleurs Marocains, participating in the Nivelle Offensive in April 1917.

Alphonse Juin was selected for staff training in February 1918.

Alphonse Juin turned down an offer of a staff appointment in Paris to serve under Poeymirau in Morocco, but Poeymirau died suddenly in 1924.

Since Alphonse Juin was staff trained and de Lattre was not, Alphonse Juin became G-4 and had as principal task the supplying of the forts in the Ouergha River area.

Alphonse Juin asked Juin to be its head, and Juin accepted even though it was a desk job in Paris for an officer with little influence.

Alphonse Juin refused even to attend the infrequent conseil meetings because of the presence of Marshal Philippe Petain.

Alphonse Juin was best man at de Lattre's wedding to Simonne Calary de Lamaziere in March 1927.

Alphonse Juin returned to North Africa in September 1927 to assume command of a battalion of the 19th Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment.

Alphonse Juin married Marie Gabrielle Cecile Bonnefoy, the daughter of an Army veterinary surgeon who had moved to Constantine and become a businessman, in 1928.

An army requirement for officers to complete six months in command of a battalion before they could be promoted made Alphonse Juin spend six months in command of a battalion of the 1st Zouaves Regiment.

Alphonse Juin was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in March 1932, returning to his previous post in time for active operations that year.

Alphonse Juin became a prisoner of war, and was held in Oflag IV-B Koenigstein, a prison camp for officers in Konigstein Fortress in Saxony.

Alphonse Juin was released in June 1941 at the request of Petain, now the head of the Vichy Government, in exchange for thirty German sailors, as a specialist in North African affairs.

Admiral Francois Darlan offered him the post of Minister for War following the death of General d'armee Charles Huntziger in November 1941, but Alphonse Juin turned down the offer, saying that he only wished to serve in North Africa.

Alphonse Juin was informed of the landings by Robert Daniel Murphy, the American consul-general in Algiers, on the morning of 8 November 1942 as the first waves were heading toward the beaches.

Alphonse Juin had previously told Murphy that his orders were to resist an invasion of North Africa, but he agreed to immediately consult with Darlan, who arrived at Alphonse Juin's villa within minutes.

Alphonse Juin did not want Algeria occupied by the Americans any more than he wished France to be occupied by the Germans, but he recognized the reality of the situation.

Darlan authorised Juin to negotiate a local ceasefire in Algiers, so Juin met with American Major General Charles W Ryder, commander of the US 34th Infantry Division, and the two arranged for an end to the fighting.

Alphonse Juin's orders were not always obeyed by his subordinates in Tunisia, many of whom believed that Darlan and Alphonse Juin were being held prisoner by the Americans, but he was able to personally persuade Nogues to work with the Allies.

Alphonse Juin's command, known as the Detachement d'armee Francais, held two distinct sectors on the Tunisian front, one in the north under General de brigade Fernand Barre, and one in the south under Koeltz.

Alphonse Juin's forces were poorly equipped, and when the Germans and Italians counter-attacked, he had to call on the British and Americans for assistance.

In January 1943, Alphonse Juin agreed to a more regular command arrangement, with French forces being concentrated in Koeltz's XIX Corps, which was placed under Lieutenant General Kenneth Anderson's British First Army.

In July 1943, Eisenhower, now the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, raised the possibility of French troops being used in the upcoming Italian campaign with Alphonse Juin, who accepted on behalf of Giraud, who was in Washington, DC Alphonse Juin was placed in charge of a force known as Detachement d'armee A, which was intended to eventually grow into an army headquarters.

Since it would form part of the US Fifth Army, under the lower-ranking American Lieutenant General Mark W Clark, Juin styled his command the Corps Expeditionnaire Francais, and took a reduction in rank to General de corps d'armee.

Alphonse Juin proposed that the CEF, now increased to four divisions, advance through the rugged Aurunci Mountains and outflank the German positions.

Alphonse Juin was aware of the difficulty of trying to advance, much less exploit a breakthrough over the mountain trails, but felt that the 4th Moroccan Mountain Division and Moroccan Goumiers could do it.

Only the most careful preparations and the utmost determination made this attack possible, but Alphonse Juin was that kind of a fighter.

Clark made a triumphal entry into Rome, with Alphonse Juin sitting next to him.

Alphonse Juin felt that the fruits of his victory had been lost through British caution and the American obsession with Rome's capture.

Alphonse Juin helped persuade Eisenhower to allow Philippe Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division to carry out the liberation of Paris, and he entered the city with de Gaulle on 25 August 1944.

Alphonse Juin restored order to the liberated areas, suppressing elements of the French Forces of the Interior that refused to disband with Spahis that he brought in from North Africa.

Alphonse Juin arranged with Eisenhower for FFI personnel to be absorbed into four new divisions that guarded the German forces that remained in bypassed garrisons along the Atlantic coast, and the frontier with Italy.

Alphonse Juin opposed the attack on Royan in April 1945, but it was carried out anyway over his objections.

At the time of the end of the war in Europe, Alphonse Juin was in the United States, where he represented France at the San Francisco Conference.

Alphonse Juin lost his direct access to the President when de Gaulle left office in 1946, and his plans for an Army large enough to handle France's commitments had to be scaled back.

In May 1947, Alphonse Juin returned to Africa as the Resident-General in Morocco.

Alphonse Juin opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence and worked uneasily with Mohammed V, the Sultan of Morocco, whom Juin correctly suspected of harbouring nationalist sympathies.

Alphonse Juin forbade religious schools and certain gatherings, which he felt were being taken over by nationalists.

Alphonse Juin likewise turned down an offer in 1948 to command the Western European Union land forces.

Alphonse Juin returned to Indochina in October 1950, when he was sent to report on the state of France's efforts there.

Alphonse Juin produced a damning report, in which he criticised both the strategy and tactics being employed.

On 20 November 1952, Alphonse Juin was elected at the Seat 4 of the Academie Francaise.

In 1953 Alphonse Juin took up a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG.

Alphonse Juin got along well with Eisenhower's successors, Generals Matthew Ridgway and Alfred Gruenther, whom he had known from the campaign in Italy.

Alphonse Juin was greatly moved by the disaster, in which his former aide was killed, but in the end turned the job down again.

Alphonse Juin retired on 1 October 1956, coinciding with Gruenther's retirement, as he did not wish to serve under any other American general.

Alphonse Juin was greatly opposed to de Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, although he remained steadfastly loyal to de Gaulle.

Alphonse Juin was "retired" and his special privileges as a marshal were taken away.

Delirious, Alphonse Juin spoke of "Constantine, Algeria, my country", to which de Gaulle embraced him and replied "Yes, I know, your country is there".

Alphonse Juin suffered a heart attack November 1966, and was again taken to the Val-de-Grace, where he died on 22 January 1967.