There are not a lot of yuks in Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace, about the French-Algerian conflict (link). But I did find a bit of dark comedy in one episode from the career of Marcel Bigeard, commander of the 3rd Regiment of Colonial Parachutists. Bigeard was apparently a first-class soldier who turned his troops into “a crack force; one of the most effective in the Western world.” He was also not above a bit of showmanship. Horne elaborates:
Tall and powerful with a beaked nose that imparted a look of a bird of prey, Bigeard had that particularly French quality of allure essential to an outstanding commander. He seldom did anything without panache. Instead of arriving by staff car or even helicopter, his favourite manner of inspecting a unit was to drop by parachute, arm at the salute as he touched down. (168)
And then this footnote:
This nearly ended in disaster when Bigeard, by now nearing sixty and a senior general, was dropped into a shark-infested sea by mistake during a visit to troops in
Bigeard, who later rose to be a four-star general and State Secretary and the Ministry of Defence, evidently served as a model for “Colonel Raspeguy,” in Jean Larteguy’s The Centurions, a novel by Jean Larteguy about the Algerian episode, later made into a movie, The Lost Command, with Anthony Quinn (link). It's something to think about: how would you like to be able to say your grandchildren--"why, did I ever tell you about the time I dropped the general into the ocean?" Yes, grandpa, many times.
No comments:
Post a Comment