Alphonse Juin

Army-General Alphonse Pierre Juin (16 December 1888 – 27 January 1967) was a French Army officer who served in both world wars. A graduate of the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, Juin 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, Juin attended the École Supérieure de Guerre and chose to serve in North Africa again. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he assumed command of the 15th Motorized Infantry Division. The division was encircled in the Lille pocket during the Battle of France and Juin was captured by German forces. He remained a prisoner of war until being released at the behest of the Vichy Government in 1941, which assigned him to command French forces in North Africa.

Following the Allied invasion of Algeria and Morocco in November 1942, Juin defected to the Allies and ordered French forces in Tunisia to resist the Germans and Italians. He proceeded to command the French Expeditionary Corps in the Italian campaign. Juin's expertise in mountain warfare was crucial in breaking the Gustav Line, which had held up the Allied advance for six months.

Following this assignment, Juin served as Chief of the Defence Staff and represented France at the San Francisco Conference. In 1947 he returned to Africa as the Resident-General of France in Morocco, where he opposed Moroccan attempts to gain independence. Juin was subsequently appointed to a senior NATO position, assuming 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. Juin was the French Army's last living Marshal of France until his death in Paris in 1967, when he was buried in Les Invalides.