Roger Faulques

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Roger "René" Faulques
Weimar Germany
Died6 December 2011(2011-12-06) (aged 86)
Nice, France
AllegianceFrance French Army
Service/branchForeign Legion
Years of service1944–1964
RankColonel
Commands heldPlatoon ranking students (PEG) of 1st Foreign Parachute Battalion (1er BEP)
Battles/warsWorld War II
First Indochina War

Suez Crisis
Algerian War
Congo Crisis

North Yemen Civil War
Nigerian Civil War
AwardsLegion of Honour, Croix de Guerre

Roger Louis Faulques (14 December 1924 – 6 November 2011)

North Yemen Civil War and the Nigerian Civil War
. He is one of France's most decorated soldiers.

Early career

Faulques was a

Military School of Saint-Cyr, which had changed its terms of recruitment to overcome the lack of officers in the French army at the end of World War II. In 1946 he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant and was assigned, at his own request, to the Foreign Legion, within the 3rd Régiment Etranger d'Infanterie (3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment).[1]

First Indochina War

Faulques served in the

légion d'honneur and held five citations.[1]

After recovering from his wounds, Faulques saw action in the

légion d'honneur[3] for exceptional services and was again repatriated to France. His injuries required him to spend several years in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital
.

Algerian War

Villa Susini

Ending the war in Indochina with six wounds and eight citations, Faulques then served in

torture in Algeria and proved to be effective in the dismantling of several networks of the FLN.[1][2]

Congo Crisis

See also: Siege of Jadotville

Faulques and Captain Yves de La Bourdonnaye were given leave by army minister Pierre Messmer, and left to provide support to the Belgian-backed Katangese Gendarmerie against the Republic of Congo-Leopoldville,[1] joining hundreds of other British, Rhodesian, French, and South African mercenary and voluntary irregulars in replacing the 117 Belgian officers, and other white volunteers of Belgian descent.[4] Especially notable among the French mercenaries were professional career soldiers who had fought in the Algerian War, which of course included Faulques.[4]

Following his deposition and kidnapping, Congolese-Leopoldville Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated by the Katangese with the direct support of Belgium, and the indirect support of the CIA.[5][6][7] Katangese military officer Moise Tshombe then declared himself president.

Lumumba’s death resulted in mass protests, which were not only confined to the Congo.

99th Indian Infantry Brigade as UN peacekeepers in March in order to keep foreign combatants out of the country.[11] Nehru’s Indian forces under the command of Brigadier-General Raja attacked the Katangan capital of Elisabethville on 13 September 1961 in Operation Morthor. During this attack Indian soldiers assaulted the lightly defended post office and killed all of its Katangan occupants. According to Ian Colvin who was an eyewitness, the attack was “needlessly brutal.”[12] In response to this, serious fighting soon broke out as Katanga’s self-declared President Moise Tshombe encouraged both Katangese civilians and foreign mercenaries to go on the offensive against UN forces. Prior to this on the 5 April 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld criticised Belgian mercenaries for their service in Katanga and condemned Tshombe for turning the Katangese public against the United Nations.[4] The counterattack to Operation Morthor included the siege of Jadotville
led by Faulques, Michel de Clary, and Henri Lasimone.

The siege of Jadotville lasted five days. At the end of the battle, 155 Irish soldiers under Commandant Pat Quinlan surrendered to Faulques and his 3,000–5,000 strong Katangan force on 17 September having run out of ammunition. During the action the UN forces had inflicted heavy casualties on the Katangans and their mercenary allies (300 dead, 1,000 wounded), with only minimal casualties of their own (five wounded).[13]

In all, the failure of Operation Morthor was used in arguments both against the deployment of UN peacekeepers, and for the strengthening of such forces.[14][15] On September 18, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld's plane crashed over Zambia en route to negotiate a ceasefire between ONUC and the Katangese, prompting much speculation over the suspicious nature of his death, including the possibility that his plane was shot down by a fighter plane piloted by a Belgian mercenary working for self-declared President Tshombe.[16][17] Hammarskjöld was succeeded by U Thant.

In December 1961, UN troops launched Operation Unokat in order to regain control of the situation, against which the defence strategy was designed by Faulques. Operation Unokat applied significant pressure on the rebel state, and eventually Tshombe relented and signed the

Elizabethville, followed by the Indian brigade of General Raja, defeating the Katangese forces and securing the capital by 28 December.[20] After a year of guerrilla insurgency, Tshombe, realizing that his position was untenable, sued for peace on 15 January 1963. Two days later he signed an instrument of surrender and declared the Katangan secession to be over.[20][22]

Other mercenary work

Faulques continued his mercenary career, alongside his friend

MI6 (British intelligence),[1] then in Biafra on behalf of the French government.[1][24] According to David Smiley in Arabian Assignment (page 156), the French and Belgian mercenaries alternated in the early 1960s between the Yemeni and Congo theatres since in the Congo they had women and alcohol at will but were rarely paid, while in Yemen they were paid but were deprived of women and alcohol.[25]

In popular culture

Faulques served as a model for certain characters in the novels of Jean Lartéguy, Les Centurions, Les Prétoriens (The Praetorians) and Les Chimères Noires (The Hounds of Hell) and in Declan Power's 2005 book “The Siege of Jadotville”.

Faulques is portrayed by the French actor Guillaume Canet in the 2016 film The Siege of Jadotville.[26]

In 2010, Faulques was honoured at the Foreign Legion's

Camerone ceremony.[1]

Ribbons

Silver oak leaf cluster

Decorations

Foreign decorations

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k GUISNEL, Jean (30 April 2010). "Cérémonies de Camerone: le grand retour du commandant Roger Faulques, mercenaire du Katanga (Camerone Ceremonies: Return of Commandant Roger Faulques, Katanga Mercenary)". Le Point.
  2. ^ a b c "Décès du commandant Roger Faulques (Demise of Commandant Roger Faulques)". Le Figaro. 8 November 2011.
  3. Novopress
    . 8 November 2011.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-8157-5198-2
    .
  5. ^ "1961: Ex-Congo PM declared dead". 1961-02-13. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  6. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  7. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  8. ^ "1961: Lumumba rally clashes with UK police". 1961-02-19. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  9. ^ Mahoney, Richard D. (1983). JFK: Ordeal in Africa. pp. 72. "In the United States, the news of Lumumba's murder provoked racial riots. During an address by Ambassador Stevenson before the Security Council, a demonstration led by American blacks began in the visitors gallery. It quickly turned into a riot in which eighteen UN guards, two newsmen, and two protestors were injured. Outside of the UN building, fights between whites and blacks broke out. A large protest march into Times Square was halted by mounted police.".
  10. ^ "Lodi News-Sentinel - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  11. ^ Raghavan, Srinath (2016-09-18). "When Indian troops entered Congo 55 years ago". Livemint. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
  12. ISBN 0-09-087650-4
    .
  13. ^ "The True Story of the Heroic Battle That Inspired the New Netflix Film The Siege of Jadotville". Time. 2016-07-27. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  14. ISBN 978-0-275-96906-6
    .
  15. ^ Bellamy, Alex J., Paul Williams, and Stuart Griffin. Understanding Peacekeeping. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2010.
  16. ^ "Republic of Congo - ONUC Background". United Nations. 2001. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  17. ^ Borger, Julian (17 August 2011). "Dag Hammarskjöld: evidence suggests UN chief's plane was shot down". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  18. ^ Boulden 2001, p. 38
  19. ^ a b Mockaitis 1999, p. 35
  20. ^ a b c Mockaitis 1999, p. 36
  21. ^ Boulden 2001, p. 39
  22. ISBN 0-8157-5198-2
    .
  23. ^ "Obituaries: Colonel Jim Johnson, 1924-2008, OBE". Daily Telegraph.
  24. ^ "La mort de Roger Faulques, l'aventure de l'Indochine au Biafra". Ouest-France. 7 November 2011.
  25. ISBN 9780743217781
    – via Google Books.
  26. ^ "The Siege of Jadotville (2016)". IMDb. Retrieved 16 July 2019.

External links
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