Alphonse Juin

Alphonse Pierre Juin was a senior French Army officer who became a Marshal of France.

Juin was a graduate of the Saint-Cyr class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent to the Western Front in France, where he was gravely wounded in 1915. As a result of this wound, he lost the use of his right arm.

After the war, he attended the École Supérieure de Guerre. He chose to serve in North Africa again. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he assumed command of a division, the 15e Division d'Infantrie Motorisée (fr). The division was encircled in the Lille pocket during the Battle of France and Juin was captured. He was a prisoner of war until he was released at the behest of the Vichy Government in 1941, and was assigned to command French forces in North Africa.

After Operation Torch, the invasion of Algeria and Morocco by British and American forces in November 1942, Juin ordered French forces in Tunisia to resist the Germans and the Italians. His great skills were exhibited during the Italian campaign as commander of the French Expeditionary Corps. His expertise in mountain warfare was crucial in breaking the Gustav Line, which had held up the Allied advance for six months.

Following this assignment he was Chief of Staff of French forces, and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident General in Morocco, where he opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Next came a senior NATO position as he assumed command of CENTAG until 1956. During his NATO command, he was promoted to Marshal of France in 1952. He was greatly opposed to Charles De Gaulle's decision to grant independence to Algeria, and was "retired" in 1962 as a result. He was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in Les Invalides.