6th Colonial Parachute Battalion 6e BPC (1952–1954)
Airborne Groupment
3rd Colonial Parachute Regiment 3e RPC (1955–1958)
6th Colonial Infantry Outremer Regiment 6e RIAOM
20th Parachute Brigade 20e BP
25th Parachute Brigade 25e BP
Area Forces of the Indian Ocean
4e RM
Battles/wars
World War II
Battle of France
First Indochina War
Operation Castor
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
Algerian War
Battle of Algiers
Battle of Agounennda
Battle of Timimoun
Awards
Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 Croix de guerre des TOE Cross for Military Valour Resistance Medal Escapees' Medal Colonial Medal 1939–1945 Commemorative war medal Indochina Campaign commemorative medal North Africa Security and Order Operations Commemorative Medal Insignia for the Military Wounded Order of the Dragon of Annam Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol (Laos) Distinguished Service Order (UK) Legion of Merit (US) Order of Merit (Senegal) Order of Merit (Togo) Order of Merit (Comores) Order of Merit (Mauritania) Order of Merit (Centrafrique) Order of Merit (Thailand)
Other work
Bank clerk, author, Deputy
Marcel Bigeard (French pronunciation:[maʁsɛlbiʒaʁ]; February 14, 1916 – June 18, 2010), personal radio call-sign "Bruno", was a French military officer and politician who fought in World War II, the First Indochina War and the Algerian War. He was one of the commanders in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and is thought by many to have been a dominating influence on French "unconventional" warfare thinking from that time onwards.[1]: 167 He was one of the most decorated officers in France, and is particularly noteworthy because of his rise from being a regular soldier in 1936 to ultimately concluding his career in 1976 as a Lieutenant General and serving in the government of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
After leaving the military, Bigeard embarked on a political career serving as deputy of Meurthe-et-Moselle from 1978 to 1988 and became a prolific author. His final years were marked by a controversy surrounding allegations that he had overseen torture during the Algerian conflict; he denied the allegations of personal involvement, though defended the use of torture during the war as a necessary evil.
^Horne, Alistair (1977). A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962. New York Review Books (published 2006). ISBN 978-1-59017-218-6.
MarcelBigeard (French pronunciation: [maʁsɛl biʒaʁ]; February 14, 1916 – June 18, 2010), personal radio call-sign "Bruno", was a French military officer...
Bigeard cap (French: casquette Bigeard) is a field cap worn by the French Army and several others. It was allegedly invented by French General Marcel...
confrontations in Timimoun between the French Armed Forces led by General MarcelBigeard and native Méharistes whom defected over to the National Liberation...
during the war. MarcelBigeard's troops were accused of practicing "death flights", whose victims were called crevettes Bigeard (fr), "Bigeard shrimp". "Gégène"...
victims came to be known as "Bigeard's shrimp" (crevettes Bigeard), after one of the paratrooper commanders, MarcelBigeard. During the Malagasy Uprising...
Parachute Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel MarcelBigeard and FLN’s Commando 41 (‘Ali Khodja’) under Si Azzedine. Bigeard and his regiment were sent to hunt down...
against him on charges of torture, claiming they were amnestied. General MarcelBigeard, who had denied employing torture for forty years, finally also admitted...
get Anthony Quinn for the lead. Quinn's character is loosely based on MarcelBigeard, the actual commander in French Indochina, who led the unit that was...
31 March, Langlais told Major MarcelBigeard, who was leading the defense at Eliane 2, to fall back from Eliane 4. Bigeard refused, saying "As long as I...
were called "crevettes Bigeard [fr]" 'Bigeard shrimp' after General MarcelBigeard, who allegedly ordered the procedure. Bigeard put his victims' feet...
Jacques Massu. Saadi Yacef has said that Mathieu was based more on MarcelBigeard, although the character is also reminiscent of Roger Trinquier. Accused...
of the French Armed Forces were commanded by Jacques Massu, Buchond, MarcelBigeard, Paul Aussaresses. Other Legion offensives in the mountains in 1959...
unsatisfactory for many members of the French high command. General MarcelBigeard was also against the idea of relying on foreign weapons; while visiting...
Women in Question. Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 9781134713301. "Prise de tête MarcelBigeard, un soldat propre ?". L'Humanité (in French). 24 June 2000. Retrieved...
American film director Mamady Doumbouya, Guinean Colonel Dick Applegate MarcelBigeard Christian de Castries Geneviève de Galard – nurse at the Battle of Dien...
city after the capture of Ben M'hidi by paratroopers under Colonel MarcelBigeard, Ben M'hidi was later killed while imprisoned by soldiers of Paul Aussaresses...
Zerrouky, E. (24 June 2000). Le Hyaric, Patrick (ed.). "Prise de tête MarcelBigeard, un soldat propre ?". L'Humanite (in French). Paris, France. Retrieved...
and several of his subordinates, likely including Roger Trinquier and MarcelBigeard. The Algiers putsch of 1958 began when the current government suggested...
personnel were actively involved in Vietnam in 1954. Jacques Massu (10e DP) MarcelBigeard (6e BPC) Roger Trinquier (GCMA) Jean Sassi (GCMA) Pierre Schoendoerffer...
Pass of June and July 1954. In an interview taped in May 2004, General MarcelBigeard (6th BPC) argues that "one of the deepest mistakes done by the French...
List of French paratrooper units Pierre Segretain Pierre Jeanpierre MarcelBigeard 35th Parachute Artillery Regiment Moroccan Division Lafayette Escadrille...
lieutenant, businessman and politician Antoine Avinin Lieutenant General MarcelBigeard Foreign Legion general Bernard Saint-Hillier Foreign Legion Lieutenant...
since 2006 Saint Gerard of Toul, bishop Antoine Augustin Calmet, monk MarcelBigeard, French Army General Anne-Laure Blin, politician Mickaël Causse, Neuroscientist...
awarded the Croix de Guerre by General Charles de Gaulle in March 1945. MarcelBigeard, highly decorated French general and veteran of World War II, French...
Global Information
Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur
Croix de Guerre 1939–1945
Croix de guerre des TOE
Cross for Military Valour
Resistance Medal
Escapees' Medal
Colonial Medal
1939–1945 Commemorative war medal
Indochina Campaign commemorative medal
North Africa Security and Order Operations Commemorative Medal
Insignia for the Military Wounded
Order of the Dragon of Annam
Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol (Laos)
Distinguished Service Order (UK)
Legion of Merit (US)