Marie Pierre Koenig

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marie Pierre Kœnig (October 10, 1898September 2, 1970) was a French general. He commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hacheim in North Africa in 1942.

Marie Pierre Kœnig was born on October 10, 1898, in Caen, France. He fought in the French Army during World War I and served with distinction. After the war, he served with French forces in Morocco.

When World War II broke out, Kœnig returned to France. He was first assigned as a captain to lead French troops originally destined for Norway. After the fall of France, he escaped to England through the Dunkirk evacuation.

In London, Kœnig joined general Charles de Gaulle and was promoted to colonel. He became chief of staff in the first divisions of Free French Forces. In 1941 he served in the campaigns in Syria and Lebanon. He was later promoted to general and took command of the First French Brigade in Egypt. His unit was in the Battle of Bir Hakeim until they were forced to withdraw on June 19, 1942, with relatively few casualties.

Later Kœnig served as Free French delegate to supreme Allied headquarters under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1944 he was given command of the Free French that took part of the Normandy Invasion. In June 1944 he was given command of the French Forces of the Interior to unify various French Resistance groups under de Gaulle's control. On August 21, 1944, de Gaulle appointed him military governor of Paris to restore law and order.

After the war, Kœnig became a commander of the French army on the French occupation zone in Germany until 1949. In 1949 he became inspector general in North Africa and in 1950 vice president of the Supreme War Council. In 1951, after his retirement, he was elected as Gaullist representative to French National Assembly and briefly served as a minister of defense under Pierre Mendès-France and Edgar Faure until 1955.

Marie Pierre Kœnig died on September 2, 1970, in Neuilly-sur-Seine. In 1984 he was posthumously declared Marshal of France.

In addition to memorials in France, a street is named for him in Jerusalem, Israel.

Preceded by
René Pleven
Minister of National Defense
June 19, 1954 - August 14, 1954
Succeeded by
Emmanuel Temple
Preceded by
Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury
Minister of National Defense
February 23, 1955 - October 6, 1955
Succeeded by
Pierre Bilotte
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.