Henri Giraud

Henri Honoré Giraud (French: [ɑ̃ʁi ɔnɔʁe ʒiʁo]; 18 January 1879 – 11 March 1949) was a French Army general best known for his escape from German captivity in 1942 and subsequently as one of the leaders of the French Resistance and a rival of Charles de Gaulle. He was outmanoeuvred by de Gaulle and sidelined in April 1944, leading to his resignation.

Giraud also escaped from German captivity during the First World War, having been wounded and captured during the Battle of St. Quentin in 1914. He further distinguished himself at the Battle of La Malmaison in 1917, where he commanded the battalion that captured the Fort de Malmaison, and during the Rif War in 1925.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Giraud was placed in command of the Seventh Army and tasked with executing the ill-fated Breda manoeuvre during the Battle of France in May 1940. He assumed command of the routed Ninth Army in the midst of the battle and was shortly after captured by the Germans.

After his escape to Vichy France in April 1942, Giraud went into hiding and established contact with the Allies. Giraud was selected by the Roosevelt administration as the U.S.-backed candidate for the French leadership and assumed command of French troops in North Africa in November after the Allied landings. Following the assassination of François Darlan in December, Giraud became High Commissioner for French North and West Africa. His tenure was marked by a slow transition from Vichy authoritarianism to democratisation.

In January 1943, he took part in the Casablanca Conference along with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles de Gaulle. Giraud delivered a landmark speech in March in which he broke with the Vichy regime and embraced democratic principles. In June, Giraud and de Gaulle established the French Committee of National Liberation as a unified French government of which they became co-presidents. Following his sidelining and resignation, Giraud was the victim of an assassination attempt in August 1944.

After the war, Giraud was elected to the 1946 Constituent Assembly that was to establish the French Fourth Republic. He died in Dijon in 1949.