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Alphonse Pierre Juin
Alphonse Pierre Juin
	16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967
	;
Place of birth	Bône, Algeria
Place of death	Paris, France
Allegiance	France
Years of service	1912–1962
Rank	Général d'Armée
Commands held	15th Motorized Infantry Division; French Expeditionary Corps
Battles/wars	World War I; World War II
Awards	Marshal of France; Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur; Médaille militaire; Croix de guerre

Alphonse Pierre Juin (16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967) was a Marshal of France.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Juin was born at Bône in Algeria, and enlisted in the French Army, graduating from the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in 1912.

[edit] Career

In 1914 he was in Morocco, in command of native troops there. Upon the outbreak of World War I, he was sent to the Western Front in France where he was gravely wounded in 1915. As a result of this wound, he lost the use of his right arm.

After the war, he entered the "ecole de guerre" and had excellent results. He choose to serve in Africa again, first under the orders of Lyautey, then under those of Petain and Giraud. He served in the different staffs of the African officers.

In 1938, Juin was nominated to command a brigade. By the outbreak of World War II, he was in command of a division, the 15th Motorized Infantry Division. The division was encircled at Lille during the Battle of France and Juin was captured. Until 1941 he was kept as a prisoner of war in German custody. However during that year he was released at the behest of the Vichy Government and was assigned by them to command French forces in North Africa.

After the invasion of Algeria and Morocco by British and American forces in November 1942, Juin changed sides and ordered General Barré's forces in Tunisia to resist against the Germans and the Italians.

His great skills were exhibited during the Italian campaign when he commanded the French Expeditionary Corps in the US Fifth Army. The Corps' expertise in mountain warfare was particularly well used. The FEC was one of the crucial factors in the breaking of the Winter Line in May 1944. It was Juin who made the plan to break the Gustav line; he took the Belvedere, Monte Majo, attacked the Liri valley, won the battle of the Garigliano, the battle of the East of Rome and played an important part in the battle for Sienna. Juin's ability to analyze where things had gone wrong in some initial thrust and to set things right for the new effort earned him great respect among his contemporaries and among historians of the war such as the American, Rick Atkinson. He was also very firm in bringing the wild Moroccan irregulars, the goumiers, back under discipline and control after several excesses of mass rapine and pillage. ^[1]

Following this assignment he was Chief of Staff of French forces and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. He was also in charge of organizing the French Army and had contact both with SHAEF and with General De Lattre de Tassigny, commander of the First French Army.

In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident General in Morocco. He opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Next came a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG until 1956. During his NATO command, in 1952, he was promoted to Marshal of France. He was greatly opposed to Charles de Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, and he retired in 1962 as a result of the incident. (de Gaulle may have demanded Juin's resignation, but publicly announced that he was placing Juin "in the reserve of the Republic.")

[edit] Personal life

Juin was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in Les Invalides, Paris.

[edit] References

^ Clayton 1992, p. 87.

Clayton, Anthony (1992). Three Marshals of France. Brassey's. ISBN 0080407072.
Atkinson, Rick (2007). The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 (vol. 2 of The Liberation Trilogy). ISBN 978-0805088618.
"Alphonse Juin (1888-1967)" (in French). Académie française. 2009. http://www.academie-francaise.fr/immortels/base/academiciens/fiche.asp?param=601. Retrieved 2009-01-18.

This article incorporates information from the revision as of January 2009 of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

[edit] External links

Photo of Alphonse Juin, hosted by the Portal to Texas History

[Clayton87-0] Clayton 1992, p. 87.

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