Yves Godard
Yves Godard | |
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Born | 21 December 1911 Commander of the Légion d'honneur |
Other work | OAS leader |
Yves Godard (21 December 1911 – 3 March 1975) was a
He was part of the occupation force in Austria, then a general staff officer of the French Army before taking command of the 11e Bataillon Parachutiste de Choc in 1948. He led the battalion during the First Indochina War, taking part during the war in a failed attempted to relieve the French Union garrison at Dien Bien Phu from Laos. In 1955 Godard became chief of staff of the Parachute Intervention Group, soon to become the 10th Parachute Division, in Algeria commanded by General Jacques Massu. He took part in the Anglo-French operation during the Suez Crisis in 1956.
Godard became one of the primary figures of the
For 12 years we have been mired into subversive conflicts. Costly shows of force against terrorist organisation that we have, alas, let develop ... Faced with a rebel who fights camouflaged, cowardly, who attacks women and children, one must fight with new formulas.[2]
In Summer 1959, he was named director general of the Sûreté in Algeria. Paul Delouvrier contemplated his transfer but hesitated, as "he holds all the security services of Algiers in his hands [and what would happen] if, immediately after his departure, bombs and grenades started exploding again?"[3]
During the Barricade Week, in January 1960, Godard sent Captain Yves de La Bourdonnaye to negotiate Pierre Lagaillarde's surrender. La Bourdonnaye later implied that he was sympathetic to the rebels and had done little to hasten their surrender.[4]
In February,
Decorations
- Commander of the Légion d'honneur
Sources and references
- ISBN 978-2-7071-5349-4
- ISBN 2-07-076065-0, p. 106
- ^ Raphaëlle Branche, op. cit, p. 243
- ^ Escadrons de la Mort, l'école française, Marie-Monique Robin, op. cit., p. 150
- ^ Escadrons de la Mort, l'école française, Marie-Monique Robin, op. cit., p. 185