Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing

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Commandant Gabriel Auguste Ferdinand Ducuing (22 December 1885 – 25 May 1940) was an officer in the

Life

Early life

He was the son of a second cousin of Ferdinand Foch. Aiming for the merchant marine, he embarked in 1904 as "pilotin" on the three-masted "Cérès". Called to carry out his military service in 1907, he served on board the battleships "Brennus" and "Bouvet". On returning to the merchant fleet, he was promoted lieutenant in the course of 1908 and captain in the course of 1911. He sailed successively on several steamships, all the while taking the time to learn four foreign languages and to study for a law degree.

First World War

At the outbreak of war in July 1914 he was the

At the end of the war he did not rejoin the merchant-fleet, instead becoming a ship owner. Marked by the conflict, he remained a particularly active officer in the naval reserve. On 9 July 1925, replying to the call of the general delegate of the National Union of the Officers of the Reserve (Union Nationale des Officiers de Réserve), he combined with some friends to form (within the UNOR) the 5th commission made up of the sailors' vows at the congress of Belfort. This later became the general assembly component of the ACORAM (Central Association of the Officers of Reserve of the Army, or Association Centrale des Officiers de Réserve de l’Armée de Mer), of which Ducuing was naturally elected president, and which still remained close to UNOR.

On the president's suggestion, Ducuing, the French Navy in June 1927 created training centres for reserve officers, that will become accessible to naval

Second World War

In September 1939, Ducuing took command of the battery of D.C.A. (défense contre aéronefs, or anti-aircraft group) of the Croix Faron at Toulon. At the end of January 1940, the French Admiralty was anxious to observe and maintain free passage along the Pas-de-Calais coast, and so set up a coastal battery at Cap Gris-Nez. Ducuing was charged with commanding and organizing this battery from March 1940. He had 3 officers and around 100 men under him, with only twenty rifles and six revolvers between them. On 22 May, facing the German offensive as it closed in on him, with the weak means at his disposal he organized an advanced position of 24 men of which he took personal command. When practically encircled, commandant Ducuing and his men completely destroyed a German column made up of a small number of side-cars, a light tank and two armored cars. In the evening, he refused a surrender proposed to him by the Germans. In the night of 23 to 24 May the French destroyer Chacal was crippled by German bombs and grounded nearby, with some of the wounded sailors joining Ducuing's group.

During the night of 24 to 25 May, he organized the evacuation by sea of the sailors by dredger. On 25 May 1940, at 9am, the German armour under Guderian were no more than 200 metres from Ducuing's post on Cap Gris-Nez. Having run out of munitions, commandant Ducuing destroyed the artillery and machine guns and gave the order to his men to withdraw. Remaining at his post alone, he went to the mast of the base, hoisted the French colors and was killed by a short burst of automatic weapon fire.

Honours

• 1915 - Italian knighthood
• January 1917 - knight of the Légion d’honneur
• April 1928 - officer of the Légion d’honneur
• May/June 1940 - Posthumously made
  capitaine de frégate
  on (with the navy especially waiving its rule forbidding all posthumous promotions for him), and a brilliant citation in the ordre de l’armée.
• In May 1952, the secretary of state to the navy inaugurated a stela at Cap Gris-Nez in memory of him and the fallen sailors under his command.
• The D'Estienne d'Orves-class aviso Commandant Ducuing is named after him.

External links

• (in French) ACORAM - biography
• (in French) Memorial to the dead sailors of France^{[permanent dead link]}