Pierre Charles Albert Marie Langlais was a senior French military officer who fought in World War II and the First Indochina War.
22 Facts About Pierre Langlais
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Pierre Langlais attended St Cyr Military Academy and graduated in 1930.
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Pierre Langlais chose to serve in the Compagnies Meharistes in North Africa patrolling the Sahara.
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Pierre Langlais stayed in North Africa after the fall of France in 1940.
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Pierre Langlais then passed into the French First Army under the command of General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, seeing action in Alsace and Germany.
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Pierre Langlais arrived in Indochina as a Battalion Commander in the 9th Colonial Infantry Division in October 1945.
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Pierre Langlais's battalion participated in the early battles of the First Indochina War, including the Battle of Hanoi in December 1946.
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Pierre Langlais distinguished himself as a promising young battalion commander in the bitter house-to-house fighting prevalent throughout this battle, which eventually resulted in the French reoccupation of Hanoi.
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Pierre Langlais returned to Indochina for a second two-year tour of duty in 1949.
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Pierre Langlais was then deployed to central Vietnam and northern Laos where he was involved in several difficult missions.
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The unit was previously commanded by Jean Gilles, whom Pierre Langlais was close friends with.
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Pierre Langlais jumped with the men of the 1 BEP, but badly injured his ankle on landing and had to be evacuated to Hanoi the following day.
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Pierre Langlais returned to Dien Bien Phu with his foot in plaster on 12 December 1953 to take command of all airborne forces in the valley.
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Pierre Langlais immediately joined GAP 2 in the field on an operation along the Pavie Track to relieve the garrison at Muong Pon.
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Pierre Langlais' advice was ignored and offensive operations continued through January and into February 1954, although the tightening Viet Minh siege ring meant that raids were increasingly encountering Viet Minh forces within a few kilometres of the central position at Dien Bien Phu.
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At 17:00 on 13 March 1954 Pierre Langlais was taking a shower when the Viet Minh artillery barrage that signalled the start of the battle began.
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Pierre Langlais ran to his command post and got in contact with his subordinate units.
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At 17:30 a shell hit Pierre Langlais' command post, burying the occupants under sand and timber; they had just dug themselves out when a second shell scored a direct hit, but it was a dud.
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At 19:50 Colonel de Castries phoned Pierre Langlais to inform him that Lieutenant Colonel Gaucher had been killed with his entire staff and that Pierre Langlais was now in command of the central sector.
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The account of this "coup," however, is uncorroborated, and Martin Windrow, surveying the available primary sources, finds it more likely that the handing over of operational control to Pierre Langlais merely recognized the reality of the situation, and that Pierre Langlais had been making most of the key decisions in the defense for several weeks already.
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In 1986, in failing health and depressed, Pierre Langlais committed suicide by jumping from an apartment window in Vannes, 17 July.
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Pierre Langlais wrote a book about his experience at Dien Bien Phu:.