Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Henri Honoré Giraud (French: [ɑ̃ʁi ɔnɔʁe ʒiʁo]; 18 January 1879 – 11 March 1949) was a French military officer who was a leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War until he was forced to retire in 1944. [1] Born to an Alsatian family in Paris, Giraud graduated from the Saint-Cyr military academy and served in French ...
April 17, 1942 – French General Henri Giraud, reprising his World War I escape, got out of the high-security Königstein Castle by climbing down a 150-foot (46 m) homemade rope. This escape took two years of preparation (versus two months for his World War I escape).
Among the escapees was Henri Giraud, a French General who had commanded a division in 1940, who escaped from Königstein prison and, despite his pro-Vichy sympathies, joined the Free French in 1943. [53] Jean-Paul Sartre also managed to escape by forging papers demonstrating that he had a disability, leading to his repatriation. [54]
At the outset of World War II, Henri Giraud was a member of the French Superior War Council, and disagreed with Charles de Gaulle about the tactics of using armored troops. Giraud became commander of the 7th Army when it was sent to the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, and was captured by the Germans.
The Royallieu-Compiègne was an internment and deportation camp located in the north of France in the city of Compiègne, open from June 1941 to August 1944. French resistance fighters and Jews were among some of the prisoners held in this camp.
Mesny was involved in the escape of General Henri Giraud in 1942. On 28 October 1944, German General Fritz von Brodowski was shot and killed under suspicious circumstances after he was taken prisoner by the French.
Following the British Attack on Mers-el-Kébir (and elsewhere) against the French fleet on 3 July 1940, there was a state of war between Britain and Vichy France.From July 1940 until shortly after the Allied invasion of French North Africa on 8 November 1942, Laghouat was used as a de facto prisoner-of-war camp for British Empire and Commonwealth prisoners, mostly captured sailors and airmen. [3]
Henri Giraud, who had been assisted by Nurse Cavell's team when he was a junior officer, once again received Princess Marie's help when he escaped from Königstein Castle in 1942. She was arrested at Lille. [8] In recognition of her war service, she was awarded the honours of Chevalier of the Order of Leopold and of the Légion d'honneur.