Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

37
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque bigraphy, stories - French general

Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque : biography

22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947

Philippe François Marie, comte de Hauteclocque, then Leclerc de Hauteclocque, by a 1945 decree that incorporated his French Resistance alias Jacques-Philippe Leclerc to his name, ( 22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947), was a French general during World War II. He became Marshal of France posthumously, in 1952 and is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc.

Notes

Promotions

  • Second Lieutenant (9 September 1924)
  • Lieutenant (26 October 1926)
  • Captain (25 December 1934)
  • Commandant (31 July 1940)
  • Colonel (25 November 1940; confirmed in grade by De Gaulle, skipping the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel)
    • Temporary Brigadier-General (10 August 1941)
  • Brigadier General (14 April 1942, substantive)
  • Divisional General (25 May 1943)
  • Corps General (25 May 1945)
  • Army General (14 July 1946)
  • Marshal of France (23 August 1952; posthumous)

Posthumous honours

The Leclerc main battle tank built by GIAT Industries (Groupement Industriel des Armements Terrestres) of France is named after him. There is a monument to Leclerc at coordinates , in the Petit-Montrouge quarter of the 14th arrondissement in Paris, between Avenue de la Porte d’Orléans and Rue de la Légion Étrangère. The monument is near the Square du Serment-de-Koufra. The "serment de Koufra" is a pledge that Leclerc made on 2 March 1941, the day after taking the Italian fort at Kufra, Libya: he swore that his weapons would not be laid down until the French flag flew over the cathedral of Strasbourg.Jurez de ne déposer les armes que lorsque nos couleurs, nos belles couleurs, flotteront sur la cathédrale de Strasbourg.

Two streets in Paris are named for Leclerc: Avenue du Général Leclerc in the 14th arrondissement and Rue du Maréchal Leclerc in the 12th arrondissement, between the Bois de Vincennes and the Marne River.

Decorations

  • Grand Cross of the Légion d’honneur
  • Companion of the Liberation (6 March 1941)
  • Médaille militaire (6 June 1946)
  • Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 with 8 palms
  • Croix de guerre des théâtres d’opérations extérieures with palm
  • Médaille de la Résistance with rosette
  • Médaille coloniale with bars "Maroc", "Fezzan", "Koufra", "Tripolitaine", "Tunisie", "Extrême-Orient"
  • Médaille des Évadés
  • Insigne des blessés militaires
  • Commander of the Order of the Crown with palm (Belgium)
  • Croix de guerre (Belgium)
  • Distinguished Service Order (UK)
  • Silver Star (USA)

Ancestry and family

Philippe François Marie de Hauteclocque was born on 22 November 1902 at Belloy-Saint-Léonard in the department of Somme. He was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque (1864–1945) and Marie-Thérèse van der Cruisse de Waziers (1870–1956). Philippe was named in honour of an ancestor killed by Croats in 1635..

He came from an old line of country nobility; his direct ancestors had served in the Fifth Crusade against Egypt, and again in the Eighth Crusade of Saint Louis against Tunisia in 1270. They had also fought at the Battle of Saint-Omer in 1340 and the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. The family managed to survive the French Revolution. Three members of the family served in Napoleon’s Grande Armée and a fourth, who suffered from weak health, in the supply train. The youngest of these had a son, who became a noted egyptologist; he, in turn, had three sons. The first and third became officers in the French Army; serving during the colonial campaigns before both were killed during World War I. The second son was the general’s father; he also served in World War I, but survived the conflict and inherited the family estate in Belloy-Saint-Léonard.

Biography

Philippe attended the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military academy, graduating in 1924, and entered the French Army; he attained the rank of captain in 1937.