In June 1942, the “ fantastic night From Bir Hakeim, made of modest weapons in itself, becomes a global event, giving hope to those who refused to be eternal defeated. The war of the desert, seen as closely as possible.
Reissued under a more concise title, the reconstituted memories of General Koenig, Bir Hakeim, June 10, 1942published in a first version in 1945 by the French Edition office then by Robert Laffont editions, in 1971, are known and are among the classic texts of military actors of the Second World War.
A story with several voices
“” Made up of arms, modest in itself “Says Koenig in the foreword (p. 33), the battle of Bir Hakeim, which takes place from May 26 to June 11, in the middle of 1942, reported by the one who then assumed the commander of the 1D Free French brigade – First Free French Brigade Groupaccording to the name of the British command-before becoming in 1944 the head of the French forces in Great Britain and the French forces of the interior (FFI), representative of the provisional government of the French Republic (GPRF) with General Eisenhower then Military Governor of Paris at the Liberation, there remains a world major event, whose political benefits take on disproportionate importance for free France, considered in its beginnings as a hideout of adventurers, deserters and fascists.
If the narration follows the winding journey of the writings of soldier, both by the privileged angle of approach and by the style which is similar in places to a military relationship with the tedious reading – of the very confession of its author -, the text is nonetheless a source for the historian.
Begun by General Koenig in 1958, in the midst of the Algerian war, the year of the return to power of General de Gaulle thanks to the crisis of May 13, after a long investigation and the harvest of numerous stories of survivors and archive documents, the work as it presents itself is itself the fruit of a history with several voices, individual and collective, which has the value of a testimony where various points of view are stretching.
This text, which begins with a tribute supported to the combatants who left their lives to Bir Hakeim, was completed after the death of Koenig, raised to the dignity of Marshal of France posthumously in 1984, by General Robert Carlot, son -in -law of his wife. The short presentation of François Broche whose father, Lieutenant-Colonel Félix Broche, who died in Bir Hakeim and appointed companion of the Liberation, was one of the relatives of Koenig, introduced some nuances under a right of inventory in the post-war Gaullist political parentage.
Guerrillas and skirmishes
The main interest of the work lies in the evocation of free France seen from the battlefield, far from London, Brazzaville or Algiers where the foundations of an alternative proto-state are built to the governments of Vichy, where the vanquished are increasingly firmly linked to the interests of the axis until the exile in Sigmaringen in the summer of 1944 on the lands of IIIe Reich. So it is possible to grasp how the military generates politics internationally.
The first point, essential, is the heterogeneous character of the recruitment of troops from all over the empire, of “ Everything that was French in the world “(P. 42), After journeys that attest to their determination to join General de Gaulle and the Allied cause, braving dangers and obstacles of all kinds. For many, it was not only a commitment despite their young age, but also of tearing as Roman Gary ironically understood in The promise of dawn : “ I very well understand those who refused to follow de Gaulle. They were too installed in their furniture, which they called the human condition. »»
Because the army is a system of men, the organization turns out to be essential to guarantee a form of efficiency, without giving up to secure the soldiers themselves and their positions. Forced by the circumstances to innovate, the free French have an organization that Koenig describes as “ revolutionary “, Taking advantage of the teachings of the defeat of 1940, but also of the constraints imposed by the weakness of the means, the dependence on the British army and the rigor of the environment. The hedgehog tactics, updated, makes it possible to arm all the combatant and non -combatants, better defended, more involved and welded by the attenuation of the distinction between the front and the rear.
The constant adaptation of men and materials to logistical data adjusts efforts to the objectives designated by the allies with a reasoned perspective of preservation of forces with very limited numbers compared to those, overwhelming, of theAfrika Korps and the Trieste division.
The war of the desert, seen as closely as possible, appears in everyday life made of expectations, patient observations of the enemy, whose presence we guess more than we see, by patrols and recognition operations, night helps carried out according to guerrilla techniques, a present punctuated by frequent skirmishes.
The darkness, the thick morning fog, the mirages which deform optical vision and the unpredictable and powerful winds of sand, as inappropriate as carrying dangers, reinforce the chance and the uncertainty of the environment, at the origin of fratricidal fire. The notion of battlefield is affected, insofar as the burial of the device, placed at the confluence of three roads, surrounded by fields and marshes of Mines (the famous V), does not dictate the direct confrontation of the forces of the axis, but rather the fixing of a position promised to annihilation by General Rommel – this “ man “, dixit Koenig – who sends parliamentarians to white flag three times for surrender.
Surrounded in the Libyan desert, lacking in ammunition and water reserves, the French free stand until exhaustion, before the decision made by Koenig of an exit “ vividly », Weapons in hand, without abandoning the equipment or the wounded or prisoners, in the admitted desire to overcome the trauma of 1940 to reconnect with the military tradition of 14-18, even the great army. At night, a strategic element, both protective and disruptive, holds an unprecedented place to the point of supporting the action it conditions.
On the India Road
Signaling the return of another face of France in the war, that of the reprobate and the dissent, the “ fantastic night From Bir Hakeim from June 10 to 11, 1942 took on the proportion of an epic in the international press to the point of arouse a form of English -speaking and firmly installing the Gaullist rebellion in the Allied military camp. The defeat of 1940 is however symbolically avenged ? Bir Hakeim opens the field of possibilities.
Since the end of May 1942, the men of General Koenig – 1D Free French division integrated into the 8e British army under the orders of General Ritchie – hold alone an intrinsic strategic value, buried, protected by a circular mines field, in the middle of the Libya desert. Their mission to defend Bir Hakeim is supported by the Ras and British units against the seat and the assault on the Italian-German forces, so as to delay the general offensive of Rommel from Cyrenaica towards the Nile and the Suez Canal, a strategic point on the India road for the British Empire.
Unexpectedly, holding Bir Hakeim, in an invisible distant fight, paradoxically allows mutual recognition between inner resistance and external resistance, tense towards the same objective of inversion of the order of things imposed by the winners. Because the war consists of time and space, the 8e British army in difficulty thus earns the duration necessary for the withdrawal operations of its rear before recovering from new positions.
Translating into acts, the injunction of Péguy that the resistance made his own, “ Whoever does not go is my man », The choice to break the encirclement stands out as the only way to escape the enemy who does not consider by free French as regular combatants, protected by people’s law, but as traitors to their homeland.
A daring and symbolic operation
But the expected surprise effect is missed, so that the exit turns into “ battle in good standing, at night, against an organized and well -installed enemy (P. 390). The noise of the engines and explosions of mines breaks the silence of the night in the desert, so that the alerted opponents launch lighting rockets. “” The show is amazing, reports Koenig. (…) The enemy profusely launches to the sky of rockets of all colors, red, green, white. (…) He has only one concern, that of seeing, seeing to find out what is happening (P. 389). The confrontation gradually turns into “ A series of special fights and even individual fights. (…) But everything is better than captivity He adds (p. 390).
Despite the losses raised in men and materials, enemy defenses are ultimately crossed in extreme confusion. The audacity of the operation, thanks to the night, signs the resolution of France free to embody the hopes of those who cannot resolve to be eternal defeated. Hailed by the contemporaries, the event, whose name is taken up by a maquis from Languedoc and a underground newspaper of Ain, echoes with the world military context of the spring of 1942, where the allied victory seems as distant as they are uncertain, while the propaganda of the axis is gargling with its successes.
If the interest of this testimony for history remains intact today, the lack of care given to this version by Nouveau Monde Éditions question. The shells, too numerous, turn to ridicule certain formulations however marked with gravity. Let us quote, among others: “ They await the arrival of their comrades and do not nail the victory “(P. 320) or” Rommel can this luxury ? (P. 319). The reader remains ulterior motive, shared between laughter and annoyance in front of such amateurism. It would therefore be better to refer to the old editions.