Loading article…
Marie Joseph Pierre François Kœnig[b] (also Pierre Kœnig or Koenig;[4] 10 October 1898 – 2 September 1970) was a French general who most notably commanded a Free French brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in North Africa in 1942. The battle was a heroic show of strength, as the Free French held their position for 2 weeks and 2 days despite being outnumbered ten to one.
After the war he was made military governor of the French occupation zone in Germany (1945–1949) before starting a political career. He served twice as Minister of National Defence and the Armed Forces in the 1950s. He was posthumously elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France in 1984, making him the last titleholder to date.
Marie-Pierre Kœnig was born on 10 October 1898, in Caen, Calvados, France. His parents were from the Alsace region.
Kœnig fought in the French Army during World War I and served with distinction. He obtained his baccalaureate and enlisted in 1917. He served in the 36th Infantry Regiment. He was designated as an aspirant in February 1918 and joined his unit at the front. Decorated with the Médaille militaire, he was promoted to sous-lieutenant on 3 September 1918.
After the war, he served with French forces in Morocco and Cameroon. He served in Silesia as an assistant (French: adjoint) of Captain Adrien Henry in the Alps, in Germany, and in Morocco at the general staff headquarters of the division of Marrakesh.
Kœnig was a captain and assistant to Lieutenant-ColonelRaoul Magrin-Vernerey in the 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion of the French Foreign Legion.
When World War II broke out, Captain Kœnig returned to France. In the Spring of 1940, he was a member of the French expeditionary force in Norway for which he was later awarded Norway's Krigskorset med Sverd, or the War Cross with Sword, in 1942. After the fall of France, he escaped to England from Brittany.
In London, Kœnig joined General Charles de Gaulle and was promoted to colonel. He became chief of staff in the first divisions of the 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 of 3700 men held ground against five Axis divisions (c. 37,000 men) for 16 days at the Battle of Bir Hakeim until they were ordered to evacuate on 11 June 1942. De Gaulle said to Kœnig, "Know and tell your troops that all of France is watching you and that you are its pride."[5]
Later, Kœnig served as the Free French delegate to the Allied headquarters under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1944, he was given command of the Free French who participated in the Invasion of Normandy. Kœnig also served as a military advisor to de Gaulle. In June 1944, he was given command of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) to unify the various French Resistance groups under de Gaulle's control. Under his command, the FFI abandoned ranged battle in the maquis and preferred sabotage that was waged in support of the invading army. Important during D-Day, the FFI had a role that became decisive in the battle for Normandy and in the landing in Provence of the US Seventh Army and French Army B.
On 21 August 1944, de Gaulle appointed Kœnig military governor of Paris to restore law and order. In 1945, he was sent to arrest Marshal Philippe Pétain, who had taken refuge in Germany but gave himself up at the frontier with Switzerland.[6]
After the war, Kœnig was the military governor of the French occupation zone in Germany from 1945 to 1949.[7] In 1949, he became inspector general in North Africa, and in 1950, he became the vice-president of the Supreme War Council.
In 1951, after his retirement from the army, Kœnig was elected as Gaullist representative to the French National Assembly and briefly served as Minister of Defense under Pierre Mendès-France (1954) and Edgar Faure (1955).[8]
He gave his strong support to the new State of Israel as president of the Franco-Israeli Committee (Comité franco-israélien), at around the same time when he was France's Defense Minister, as shown from his informing Shimon Peres, then serving as Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, that France was willing to sell Israel any weapons it wished to purchase, from small arms to tanks (such as the AMX-13light tank).[8] Kœnig had witnessed the heroism of a battalion of Palestinian Jewish mine layers during the Battle of Bir Hakeim and afterwards allowed them to fly their own Star-of-David flag, against British regulations.[9]
Kœnig died on 2 September 1970, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and was buried at Montmartre Cemetery, in Paris.[8]
There are streets named after Kœnig in Jerusalem,[10]Netanya[11] and Haifa.[12]