FRENCH SOLDIER’S DEATH

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26628, 14 January 1952, Page 7

FRENCH SOLDIER’S DEATH

General de Lattre de

Tasslgiiy (Rec. 8 p.m.) PARtS, January 12. General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French High Commissioner, in IndoChina and cototoatider of thte French Union fotces in that country, died yesterday after an operation. He Was 62. The French Govterhrhent will give General de Lattre two of the highest

honours Fratibte cari give—the posthumous rank of Marshal bf. France and a State funeral. . All. flags on public buildings will fly at half-mast until after the funeral on January 16. By his own wish, the general will be buried in the family tomb at Mouilleron eh Pareds. Western Ft-aHce. whefe his son Berhard was biiried last year after being killed ih IndoChina.

General de Lattre, the youngest fivestar general of the French Army, was regarded as General dfe GriuJle’S ablest field commander during World War 11. With the United States Seventh Army, his French First Ahriv fortned the Allied Sixth Army Group in France.

Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny was .born in 1889 and graduated from St. Cyr ih 1910. By the beginning of World War I he was a lieutenant in. a cavalry regiment. He was WoUnded ih September, 1014, and transferred to. the command of a battalion of the 93rd Infantry Regimeht. After the war he participated in the Moroccan campaign and before World War II he made himself popular ‘as commander of the 151st Infantry at Metz.

His career during the war was spectacular., He distinguished himself at the defence of Rethel and on the Aisne in 1940 and, before the armistice, proposed continuing the war against thfe Germahs by sending his division to England. In 1943, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the Vichy Government, accused of attempting a personal putsch. After a fete months, he made a spectacular fesefipe to London and later placed himself at General de Gaulje ’g disposal. He served in Italy, commanded the French troops at the Mediterranean invasion of France, and after combining with the Allied forces in. the north, broke through the Siegfried Line arid crossed the Danube. He was made commander of the Freheh occupation forces in Germany and Chief of the General Staff in 1945. After the rebellion by Vietmihh forces in Indo-China, General de Lattrfe was appointed commander of thfe French Uriiori forces ahd had Won many successes against the rebels.