Jean Compagnon

Jean Compagnon (26 October 1916 – 4 November 2010) was a French officer and Général de corps d'armée.

Jean, Georges, André Compagnon was the son of colonel Marcel Compagnon and Lucie Dehesdin.

He conducted his secondary studies at Collège Gerome.

He married twice and is survived by six children.

Saint-Cyrien of the promotion « King Alexander I of Yugoslavia » (1934-1936), Jean was commissioned as a Sous-lieutenant in 1936.

Assigned to the 4th Hussar Regiment 4e RH from 1937 to 1940, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on October 1, 1938.

In 1940, he combat engaged in Lorraine and on the Somme at the head of the a cavalry horse platoon of the 4th Hussar, and was wounded on June 5, at Picardie and was evacuated towards Paris.

At the end of June 1940, he pursued the campaign at the head of a cyclist platoon.

Assigned to North Africa in October with his unit, he was transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Regiment at the dissolution of the 4th Hussar Regiment on September 1.

Assigned to the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment 1er REC in Morocco in November 1940.

He participated to the campaign of Tunisia from December 1942 to March 1943.

He went back to Morocco, where he was promoted to captain on June 25, 1943.

Assigned to the general staff headquarters of général Leclerc, at the 2nd Armored Division 2e DB, in January 1944, disembarked at Grandcamp-Maisy on July 28, 1944, he participated to the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Paris.

In November 1944, he assumed command of a tank squadron of the 12th Cuirassier Regiment.

His tanks were the first to enter in Starsbourg and combat engaged in front of Kehl on November 23, 1944.

A man of words (Homme de lettres), « defense » correspondent at the journal Ouest-France in 1980, member of the Académie des sciences d'outre-mer, he wrote les Plages du débarquement (the disembarking beaches) in 1978 and June 6, 1944 - Débarquement en Normandie, Victoire stratégique de la guerre (Disembarking in Normandy, strategic war victory).

Wounded in Alsace in January 1945, convalescent, he reassumed command of the 3rd tank combat company of the 501e Régiment de chars de combat (501e R.C.C) on April 23, 1945, with whom he finished off the war while delivering, on May 4, 1945, the last combat of the 2nd Armored Division at Inzel in front of Berchtesgaden.

Volunteer for the Fast East (l'Extrême-Orient), he disembarked at Saigon on October 19, 1945, with the marching group of the 2nd Armored Division, which on February 15, 1946, he received the command of one of the three tactical autonomous under groups.

During the disembarking at Haiphong, he was wounded by the Chinese bullets.

At the head of his armored units, he was the first to reach Langson at the Chinese frontier in July 1946.

Repatriated in metropolis in October 1946, he was designated to follow a basic airborne course at Fort Benning in the United States (U.S.) in January 1948.

Assigned to the general staff headquarters of the inspection of airborne forces then to the permanent committee of the Atlantic Pact at London to start from November 1, 1948, to 1953.

He was promoted to the rank of Chef d'escadrons (Squadron chief) in 1951.

He followed several courses at the Superior War School from 1953 to 1955 and in parallel also, a cycle on the country in means of development at the Political Science School at Paris, and received his rank of lieutenant-colonel accordingly in 1956 while serving in the 1st Parachute Hussar Regiment 1er RHP in Algeria from 1955 to 1960, a regiment which he commanded from 1958 to 1960.

He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1959, and became an instructor at the War School from 1960 to 1962, at the Superior Inter-Arm Courses and conducted in the "three stars" (Land, Air, Sea), conferences on the art of the military on one part, on the decolonization and the various accords concluded with newly independent States in the African continent, on another.

He was designated in appointment as the military attaché of France to Washington D.C. from 1962 to 1965.

He left the United States (U.S.) for a post in Germany in 1965.

During his service years in France, the U.S. and Germany, he organized conferences of divers subjects, in French and in the language of these Nations, in the aim of the deepening the Foreign cultural relations.

He was admitted to the 1st section of officer generals in 1966.

Chief of the general staff headquarters of the général commander-in-chief of the French Forces in Germany (forces françaises en Allemagne) from 1966 to 1967, he returned to France to assume the functions of the assistant général of the 8th Division at Compiègne from 1967 to 1968, then command of the Second Armored Brigade (deuxième brigade blindée) until 1970.

Assistant général of the Military governor of Paris in 1970, he received his third star in 1971 then the command of the 11th Parachute Division 11e DP.

From 1973 to 1976, he commanded the 3rd Military Region where he served was lifted to the rank designation of a général de corps d’armée in 1974.

He was admitted to the 2nd section of officer generals to count from October 27, 1976.

Brevetted at the Superior War School (l’école supérieure de guerre), with a diploma from the management control institute (l’institut de contrôle de gestion), he became assistant in continuous formation and management from 1976 until 1981.

He taught personnel of various levels in three main domains: management, accountancy and communication - social relations, personnel management and salaries.

He accordingly organized a formation cycle in general culture, destined for the superior cadres and baring on the biggest problems at hand for the époque.

He organized high level summits, presented them and animated their debates.

He was the history counselor of the telefilms D-Day in 1984 and 39-45 in 1985.

He commented on several emission episodes on channel « 5 » on the Gulf War in 1991.

In May 1994, he published a biography Général Leclerc, maréchal de France (General Leclerc, Marshal of France).