54 Facts About General Leclerc

Philippe Francois Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was a Free-French general during the Second World War.

General Leclerc became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le marechal Leclerc or just Leclerc.

General Leclerc was awarded the croix de guerre des theatres d'operations exterieures for leading goumiers in an attack on caves and ravines on Bou Amdoun on 11 August 1933.

General Leclerc 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.

General Leclerc 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.

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General Leclerc represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

General Leclerc quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the nascent conflict in Indochina, but was ahead of his countrymen, and was recalled to France in 1946.

General Leclerc was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque, and Marie-Therese van der Cruisse de Waziers.

General Leclerc survived the war, and inherited the family title and estate in Belloy-Saint-Leonard.

General Leclerc then entered the Ecole speciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military academy.

General Leclerc graduated on 1 October 1924, and was commissioned as a sous lieutenant in the French Army.

General Leclerc saw action in the fighting against the Ait Hammou guerrillas.

General Leclerc placed fourth in the class, and was promoted on 25 December 1934.

General Leclerc told his company that it was his own fault for riding on the shoulder of the road.

General Leclerc 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.

General Leclerc was taken back to a German command post, where he secretly destroyed the receipt.

General Leclerc 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.

General Leclerc then made his way to the Crozat Canal, swam across, and encountered a French patrol.

General Leclerc made his way to rejoin his family by car and bicycle.

General Leclerc told Yvonne that he intended to join General de brigade Charles de Gaulle in Britain.

General Leclerc managed to obtain a visa on the second attempt, being refused the first time for carrying too much money with him.

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

General Leclerc encountered his cousin Pierre de Hauteclocque, Xavier's brother, who was serving with the 13e Demi-Brigade de Legion Etrangere.

General Leclerc then offered his own services to the unit, but its commander, Colonel Raoul Magrin-Vernerey, rejected his offer on the grounds that he was high-born, over-qualified and a cavalryman.

General Leclerc then led a force consisting of the 13e DBLE and Senegalese Tirailleurs against Gabon, whose local leader supported Vichy France.

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General Leclerc's attention was drawn to two Italian outposts in the desert, Murzuk in southwestern Libya and Kufra in the southeast.

General Leclerc started with a small raid on Murzuk by eleven men of the Regiment de Tirailleurs Senegalais du Tchad and two troops of the British Long Range Desert Group on 11 January 1941.

General Leclerc learnt a great deal about how to handle and supply a force advancing across the desert, and was rewarded with the British Distinguished Service Order.

General Leclerc began planning a far more ambitious advance into Libya.

General Leclerc set out from Fort Lamy on 16 December 1942 with 500 European and 2,700 African troops in 350 vehicles.

General Leclerc captured Sebha on 12 January 1943, and Mizdah on 22 January.

General Leclerc had to weld the various units, some of whom had recently been fighting against the Allies, into a team.

The division moved to training areas in Yorkshire, where General Leclerc established his headquarters on the estate of Henry Frederick Hotham, 7th Baron Hotham, at Dalton Hall, Beverley.

On 1 August 1944,2e DB landed at Utah Beach in Normandy as part of Major General Wade Haislip's United States XV Corps of Lieutenant General George S Patton, Jr.

General Leclerc's men had to fight their way into Paris, and when they got there they found German infantry and tanks still holding parts of the city.

General Leclerc arranged for Ensign Philippe de Gaulle, who was serving in the RBFM, to be in attendance, but the elder de Gaulle was annoyed that General Leclerc had allowed the communist Rol to co-sign the surrender.

Patton personally pinned a Silver Star on General Leclerc, and brought with him another six Silver Stars and 25 Bronze Star Medals for other members of the 2e DB.

General Leclerc regarded the First Army as being full of traitors who had supported Vichy France.

General Leclerc objected to the use of his troops in the attack on Royan in April 1945.

General Leclerc visited Dachau concentration camp after its liberation by the Americans.

General Leclerc asked them why they wore a German uniform, to which one of them replied by asking why Leclerc wore an American one.

General Leclerc represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

General Leclerc arrived in Saigon with a first contingent of French soldiers on 5 October 1945.

General Leclerc was dependent on the British for equipment and shipping.

General Leclerc did not get along well with D'Argenlieu, whom de Gaulle had appointed French High Commissioner for Indochina.

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General Leclerc broke the Vietminh blockade around Saigon, then drove through the Mekong delta and up into the Central Highlands.

General Leclerc quickly perceived the necessity for a political solution to the conflict.

French government negotiator Jean Sainteny flew to Saigon to consult General Leclerc, who was acting as high commissioner in the absence of d'Argenlieu.

General Leclerc approved Sainteny's proposal to negotiate with Ho because he preferred a diplomatic solution to a larger conflict, but he still dispatched a flotilla with shiploads of French soldiers to northern Vietnam ready to attack if the talks failed.

In July 1946, General Leclerc was replaced as commander of the French forces by Jean-Etienne Valluy.

General Leclerc was appointed Inspector of Land Forces in North Africa.

General Leclerc's body was returned to France, where it was taken to Paris along the route that 2e DB had followed in August 1944.

General Leclerc was posthumously created a Marshal of France on 23 August 1952, the anniversary of the day that 2e DB had entered Paris.

General Leclerc tank built by GIAT Industries of France is named after him.