43 Facts About Marcel Bigeard

Marcel Bigeard was one of the commanders in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and is thought by many to have been a dominating influence on French "unconventional" warfare thinking from that time onwards.

Marcel Bigeard was one of the most decorated officers in France, and is particularly noteworthy because of his rise from being a regular soldier in 1936 to ultimately concluding his career in 1976 as a Lieutenant General and serving in the government of Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

Marcel Bigeard was born in Toul, Meurthe-et-Moselle on February 14,1916, the son of Charles Bigeard, a railway worker, and Sophie Bigeard, a domineering housewife.

Marcel Bigeard had an older sister, Charlotte Bigeard, four years his senior.

At fourteen, Marcel Bigeard quit school to help his parents financially by taking a position in the local Societe Generale bank, where he did well.

At the beginning of 1945, Marcel Bigeard created and managed during a scholastic semester, the regional cadres school of Pyla-sur-Mer, near Bordeaux, destined to form officers issued from the French Forces of the Interior.

Marcel Bigeard was first sent to Indochina in October 1945 to assist with French efforts to reassert their influence over the former French colonies.

On July 1,1946, Marcel Bigeard left the 23 RIC and formed south-east of Dien Bien Phu, a unit constituted of four commandos of 25 volunteers at the corps of the autonomous Thai Battalion.

Marcel Bigeard then left Indochina on September 17,1947, and reached France three days later.

On October 1,1949, Marcel Bigeard set on foot the 3rd Tai Battalion, consisting of 2,530 men divided in five regular companies and nine companies of civilian guards with military supplementaries.

On November 12,1950, Marcel Bigeard embarked on a paquebot and left again Indochina.

Marcel Bigeard was ranked then as a Chef de battaillon in January 1952.

Over half of Marcel Bigeard's men were Vietnamese while the other half were French, thus requiring considerable leadership on his part to tie together a mixed unit to allow it to function effectively.

Marcel Bigeard was a keen self-publicist, welcoming journalists among his troops, which assisted his cause by getting the materials needed to help him succeed.

Marcel Bigeard's units were noted for their dedication to physical fitness above the normal requirements by the army.

Marcel Bigeard participated in many operations including a combat drop on Tu Le in November 1952.

An extremely able military tactician, Marcel Bigeard was called by the British military historian Martin Windrow the "intuitive master of terrain, who could conduct a battle by map and radio like the conductor of an orchestra".

On December 31,1953, Marcel Bigeard took command of the Airborne Groupment constituted of the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment 1 RCP and the 6 BPC, intervening to intercept opposing divisions.

Marcel Bigeard called Dien Bien Phu a "jungle Verdun", the final and most intense battle in Vietnam as the Vietnamese used their Soviet-built artillery on the hills above to rain heavy fire on the French positions; every day the Vietnamese staged huge "human wave" attacks, sending thousand of infantrymen to try to storm the French lines, only to be repulsed time after time.

Marcel Bigeard's paras were engaged in the heaviest fighting at Dien Bien Phu, and of his 800 men, only forty had not been killed by the end of the battle.

Marcel Bigeard was made a prisoner of war on May 7,1954, during the fall of the camp.

Marcel Bigeard was liberated four months later, leaving Indochina for good on September 25,1954.

In 1956, Marcel Bigeard was sent to the bled of Algeria to hunt down the FLN using helicopters to rapidly deploy his men.

On June 5,1956, during a skirmish, Marcel Bigeard took a bullet to his chest that narrowly missed his heart.

On September 5,1956, Marcel Bigeard was the victim of an assassination attempt by the FLN, being shot in the chest twice by FLN assassins while jogging alone by the Mediterranean.

Marcel Bigeard revitalized the unit by weeding out laggards and the uncommitted and then put the remainder through an intense training regime.

Marcel Bigeard led the 3 RPC through numerous operations, the most famous being the 1957 Battle of Algiers.

Marcel Bigeard did not take any part in the events of May 13,1958.

Marcel Bigeard became adjutant to General Ducournau at the 25 DP Under his disposition were around 5,000 men, formed from the 8th Infantry Regiment, the 14th Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment, the 23rd Moroccan Spahis Regiment 23 RSM, one group of DCA, one artillery regiment, and two mobile groups.

From July 1960 to January 1963, Marcel Bigeard took command of the 6th Colonial Infantry Outremer Regiment 6 RIAOM at Bouar in the Central African Republic.

In July 1970, Marcel Bigeard was back in Paris and was assigned for ten months to the army headquarters staff.

Marcel Bigeard was known for his unusual way of taking command, namely by parachuting in to his post while saluting his men, which nearly led to disaster in Madagascar when the wind blew him into the Indian Ocean that was full of sharks, thus requiring his men to dive in to save him.

Marcel Bigeard met on January 30,1975, President Valery Giscard d'Estaing who proposed the post of secretary of state attached to minister Yvon Bourges.

Marcel Bigeard held that post from February 1975 to August 1976, the date on which he leaves the service.

Marcel Bigeard was reelected to the first round in June 1981 then to the proportionnelle in March 1986.

In July 2000 Marcel Bigeard justified the use of torture during the Algerian War as a "necessary evil" in Le Monde newspaper, and confirmed its use while denying any claim of his involvement in personally using torture.

Marcel Bigeard was contradicted by Massu, who confirmed the existence of "Richaud", saying that Ighilahriz was referring to Dr Francois Richaud, who had been the doctor stationed at the prison in 1957.

Marcel Bigeard stated that Ighilahriz's claim she had been tortured by him was part of a campaign waged by the same left-wing intellectuals whom Marcel Bigeard blamed for undermining the French will to win in Algeria.

Marcel Bigeard denied having engaged in torture himself, but maintained that the use of torture against the FLN had been a "necessary evil".

Marcel Bigeard died on June 18,2010, at his home in Toul.

Marcel Bigeard had originally expressed a desire that his ashes should be scattered at Dien Bien Phu.

General Marcel Bigeard was awarded 27 citations, including 19 palms and 8 stars.

Marcel Bigeard served as an inspiration for Colonel Raspeguy in Lost Command and Jean Mathieu in The Battle of Algiers.