Allied Commanders of World War Two/LeClerc

"General Jacques LeClerc"

NOTE: For those unfamiliar with World War Two, French involvement in the war is a bit complex. In September 1939 France, along with Britain, declared war on Germany in response to Hitler's invasion of Poland two days prior. France surrendered to Germany in June 1940 after a successful German offensive and campaign in the spring of 1940. Germany occupied much of northern France, including Paris, as well as the Atlantic coastal areas. The remainder of France, termed "Vichy France," since the government was in the city of Vichy, was French-governed, but was "cooperative" with the Axis. France also kept her colonies and the military units in those colonies, and retained, as well, a limited military force within the French-governed part of France. The colonial military units played varying roles in the war. The French surrender in 1940 also brought about the establishment of what came to be called the "Free French," led by Charles DeGaulle.* These forces were formed from Frenchmen who had escaped from France to Britain in 1940, and also from those who lived outside of France, largely from the colonies. The aim of the "Free French" was to give France a military presence on the side of the Allies (as opposed to the pro-Axis French government), and to free France from German occupation. Free French military forces played an increasing role as the war progressed, and I have chosen General LeClerc to represent France in this segment on Allied commanders.

The man who came to be known as "General LeClerc" was born in northern France as Philippe François Marie de Hauteclocque (Hey, say that three times real fast. Ah, in fact, say that one time real fast.). He became a cavalry officer and served in French Morocco for a time. When World War Two broke out, he was a captain in a division that moved into Belgium to meet the German attack. He was wounded and taken to a hospital, but left and made his way to Spain and Portugal upon the French surrender. He then joined the call by Charles DeGaulle to join the Free French in England. At this time he chose an alias in the hopes of protecting his family in France from reprisals by the pro-Axis Vichy government, and it is by that name that he is best known: "Jacques Philippe LeClerc." DeGaulle dispatched LeClerc and a small group of Free French to the African colony of Chad to bring this colony into the Free French cause, which was successful. From Chad, Leclerc's group raided into the Italian colony of Libya, just to the north.** LeClerc used Chad as a base of operations and training area for his small, but expanding, force.

By December 1942, with Rommel's German-Italian forces in retreat after their defeat at the Battle of El Alamein, LeClerc's small force of about a reinforced regiment crossed into southern Libya, defeated the Italian garrison and marched northwards towards Tripoli, meeting up with British and Commonwealth forces there in late January 1943. Incorporating Free French forces already present with the British forces with his own, LeClerc's men fought against the Axis forces until their surrender in Tunisia in May 1943. He then went to Morocco to establish and train the French 2nd Armored Division (French: "2eme Division Blindee"). The division served under General Patton's 3rd Army in Normandy from August 1944 and fought its way to Paris, where LeClerc accepted the surrender of the city by the German commander, General Dietrich von Choltitz. The division helped pursue the German forces into the long disputed territory of Alsace,*** and the division ended the war near Hitler's mountain home in Bavaria near Berchtesgaden.

LeClerc was later sent to Indochina to take command of the French forces there opposing the Japanese, but the Japanese surrendered before any major operations were carried out by LeClerc's forces. The general was the French representative at the formal Japanese surrender. General LeClerc was killed in an airplane crash in Algeria in 1947. He was made a "Marshal of France" posthumously in 1952.

* For some biographical info about DeGaulle, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/11/allied-leaders-of-world-war-iide-gaulle.html

**Chad, now an independent nation, is both French and Arabic speaking. LeClerc's Free French unit raided into Libya, as the Free French position was that the French surrender in June 1940 was not valid, and that the war continued; in this case, against Italy.

*** Alsace has been traded back and forth between Germany and France several times, just within the last one hundred years.

WORD HISTORY:
Cork-Certain aspects of the history of this word are a bit sketchy, but it seems to go back to Indo European "perkwu," which meant "oak." This gave Latin "quercus," with the same meaning. Arabic dialect was taken to Spain by the Moors, who conquered a large part of Spain, and a form of the word was taken up in this Arabic dialect as "al-qurq." Spanish took the Arabic form as "alcorque," for the "cork used in soles for shoes." German ("Kork"), Low German ("korck"), or Dutch ("kurk") borrowed the word from Spanish, likely through trade contact. English then borrowed the word from one of those sources as "kork" in the early 1200s. The verb form was derived from the noun in the1500s. By the way, German differentiates between "Kork," which means "the bark material used in various products," and "Korken," which means "a bottle-stopper made from the material."