{"id":219,"date":"2023-08-07T15:57:33","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/tdby\/?p=219"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:57:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T15:57:33","slug":"father-of-the-free-french-navy-thierry-dargenlieu-gaullist-and-carmelite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/tdby\/2023\/08\/07\/father-of-the-free-french-navy-thierry-dargenlieu-gaullist-and-carmelite\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of the Free French Navy: Thierry d\u2019Argenlieu, Gaullist and Carmelite"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family friend, Simone Guyonvarch, lives part of the year in Sutton and part of the year on the Quiberon peninsula.\u00a0 Her father, like many mariners from southern Brittany, served in the Free French Navy during the Second World War.\u00a0 Postwar he stayed in the Navy, serving as a ship’s carpenter and literally sailing around the world on board the aircraft carrier Dixmunde<\/em> (formerly the escort carrier HMS Biter<\/em>).\u00a0 Simone kindly lent me a folder of\u00a0 fascinating documents covering her dad’s time in the FNFL, as well as a copy of Thierry d’Argenlieu’s wartime memoirs, Souvenirs de Guerre<\/em>.\u00a0 Photographs in the folder showed General de Gaulle and Amiral d’Argenlieu inspecting M. Guyonvarch’s chasseur<\/em>, moored on the Isle of Wight’s River Medina.\u00a0 We all know who Charles de Gaulle was, but who was Thierry d’Argenlieu?\u00a0 Last winter I wrote a 2000 word magazine piece on the Free French’s sailor priest; but History Today<\/em> said no and BBC History<\/em> never got back to me, hence its appearance here:<\/p>\n

Sea-going priests with ships in their sights are hard to find, but not in France.\u00a0 Georges Thierry d\u2019Argenlieu was a key player within the Free French, the political and military coalition that rallied around General de Gaulle following the fall of France in June 1940.\u00a0 That summer he co-founded Les Forces Navales Fran\u00e7aises Libres<\/em> [FNFL<\/em>], the Free French Navy.\u00a0 Mariner, priest and political animal, Father d\u2019Argenlieu rose from lieutenant to admiral in seven years, the strength of his religious faith matched only by the depth of his loyalty to Charles de Gaulle.<\/p>\n

Born into a Breton family with a long naval tradition, d\u2019Argenlieu became an officer in the Marine Nationale<\/em>, the French Navy.\u00a0 His achievements before and during the First World War earned him the L\u00e9gion d\u2019Honneur<\/em>.\u00a0 A devout Catholic, d\u2019Argenlieu joined the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, before transferring to the naval reserve and studying for the priesthood.\u00a0 Within ten years of ordination P\u00e8re Louis de la Trinit\u00e9 was the Carmelites\u2019 Prior Provincial in Paris.<\/p>\n

In September 1939 Lieutenant d\u2019Argenlieu returned to active service.\u00a0 Ten months later he was helping organise the defence of Cherbourg when ordered to cease fighting.\u00a0 D\u2019Argenlieu was appalled by news of the armistice and vowed to fight on.\u00a0 As a prisoner-of-war he escaped from a German truck and secured passage to Jersey.\u00a0 The last ship out of St Helier brought him to England.\u00a0 In London he bonded immediately with de Gaulle, and the fledgling Free French gained the service of an able administrator.\u00a0 A somewhat cold and ascetic character, d\u2019Argenlieu would prove a competent if unbending emissary and, surprisingly, a first-class propagandist.<\/p>\n

De Gaulle always had a healthy respect for high-flying prelates, and from the outset he and d\u2019Argenlieu got on well.\u00a0 Neither man felt the same affection towards Vice-Admiral Muselier.\u00a0 Both a sailor and a politician, \u00c9mile Muselier\u2019s rackety past included several clashes with Admiral Fran\u00e7ois Darlan, the Chief of the Naval Staff.\u00a0 It was a deep loathing of Darlan as much as de Gaulle\u2019s famous broadcast of 11 June that brought him to London.\u00a0 In August 1940 Muselier promoted d\u2019Argenlieu to capitaine de fr\u00e9gate<\/em>.\u00a0 Together with a young officer called Voisin they created the Free French Navy.<\/p>\n

Three destroyers and five submarines \u2013 including the huge Surcouf<\/em> \u2013 had been seized by the Royal Navy and handed over to the Free French.\u00a0 An assortment of small ships fleeing France created a combined force of around thirty vessels.\u00a0 In due course the Admiralty added corvettes for convoy duty and power boats for coastal patrol.<\/p>\n

Appointed the new navy\u2019s chaplain, d\u2019Argenlieu visited camps full of sailors fresh from the Norway campaign and keen to get home. \u00a0\u00a0He urged his fellow countrymen to stay and fight with the Free French, but few felt inspired by de Gaulle\u2019s message of resistance.\u00a0 Accepting the legitimacy of Marshal Petain\u2019s administration, the majority obeyed Darlan\u2019s order to cease fighting.\u00a0 Not to do so was seen in Vichy, the seat of government, as an act of treason.\u00a0 In due course a court martial sentenced the absent d\u2019Argenlieu to death.<\/p>\n

Most regular officers in the Marine Nationale<\/em> were Catholic, conservative, anti-republican and instinctively anti-semitic.\u00a0 They were soon seen by the Germans as valued collaborators in the administration of occupied France.\u00a0 The Vichy government was similarly trusting, especially in 1940-42 when Darlan served as Petain\u2019s deputy.\u00a0 Joint operations with the Royal Navy had done little to counter a historic distrust of the British, especially after French ships were seized or interned.<\/p>\n

Muted anger turned to open fury when on 3 July 1940 Admiral Somerville\u2019s Force H attacked the French fleet at Mers-el-K\u00e9bir. Although some ships fled the Algerian port for Toulon, several others were sunk or severely damaged.\u00a0 Nearly 1300 officers and men died.\u00a0 The attack raised morale in London, and sent a powerful message to Washington, but it alienated French public opinion and boosted the popularity of Petain\u2019s regime.\u00a0 Anglophobia was now a powerful propagandist force in France.<\/p>\n

The losses at Mers-el-K\u00e9bir severely tested Muselier and his fellow officers\u2019 support for de Gaulle\u2019s pro-British strategy.\u00a0 Britain\u2019s sinking of French ships, by no means for the last time, made recruitment that much more difficult.\u00a0 Nevertheless, fishermen from Normandy and Brittany risked crossing the Channel to join Les Forces Navales Fran\u00e7aises Libres<\/em>.\u00a0 The FNFL<\/em> based itself in Cowes, with a headquarters and training depot across the Solent at Emsworth.\u00a0 This was still a tiny force and yet Free French propaganda created the image of a mass movement: a widely circulated photograph of sailors marching through London on Bastille Day 1940 made the entire complement seem a fraction of a far greater force.<\/p>\n

D’Argenlieu accompanied de Gaulle on the disastrous expedition to French West Africa in September 1940.\u00a0 The capture of Dakar would be a major strategic gain, but ships and ground forces loyal to Vichy resisted all efforts by the Royal Navy taskforce to seize control and enter the port.\u00a0 A mixture of force and persuasion proved disastrous for the Free French, and d\u2019Argenlieu sustained a nasty leg wound.\u00a0 The failure of the operation severely dented de Gaulle\u2019s standing in London.\u00a0 A handful of Free French naval officers had found themselves on the side of their former comrades\u2019 enemy in a fiercely conducted naval encounter \u2013 for all intents and purposes Britain was now fighting France.<\/p>\n

De facto war was confirmed in subsequent Royal Navy and Free French operations to consolidate or secure control of other French colonies south of the Sahel and stretching deep into the interior.\u00a0 De Gaulle\u2019s credibility had been partially restored, and in Marie-Pierre Koenig and Philippe Leclerc the Free French had found their fighting generals: one the hero of Bir Hakeim in June 1942, the other the liberator of Paris in August 1944.\u00a0 The West Africa campaign had seen d\u2019Argenlieu directly involved in fighting between his embryonic navy and ships of the Marine Nationale<\/em>.\u00a0 This naturally enhanced his standing with de Gaulle, and it wasn\u2019t long before he was promoted to contre-amiral<\/em>.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Argenlieu\u2019s fierce loyalty to his master saw him entrusted with sensitive missions, most notably as High Commissioner of the Pacific Territories in 1941-42.\u00a0 More Gaullist than de Gaulle, his readiness to thwart American intentions in New Caledonia cemented the Roosevelt administration\u2019s suspicion of the Free French.\u00a0 Equally infuriating for the White House was Muselier\u2019s success in seizing St Pierre et Miquelon, France\u2019s only territory in North America.<\/p>\n

Although unbending as a diplomat, d\u2019Argenlieu was always a keen networker.\u00a0 Back in London he charmed useful contacts like Lord Mountbatten, the one chief of staff with a kind word for de Gaulle.\u00a0 The two men would meet again in postwar Saigon, with d\u2019Argenlieu deaf to Mountbatten\u2019s message of compromise.<\/p>\n

In August 1943 d\u2019Argenlieu took command of the renamed Les Forces Navales en Grande-Bretagne<\/em>.\u00a0 This kept him away from old enemies stationed in North Africa who had switched sides once the Allies were in full control: commanding the new Naval HQ in Algiers was Andr\u00e9 Lemonnier, the cruiser captain who had seen off d\u2019Argenlieu and his Royal Navy allies in September 1940.\u00a0 All elements of the Marine Nationale<\/em> outside Metropolitan France were now merged with the men and ships of the FNFL<\/em>.\u00a0 Only 6000 of the 42,000 personnel were Free French, bringing with them around eighty vessels.\u00a0 Their flagship was the battleship Richelieu<\/em>, its crew having switched sides after the Germans occupied all of France in November 1942.\u00a0 The Richelieu<\/em> and the other state-of-the-art ships previously holed up in Dakar constituted the core of France\u2019s renewed credentials as a maritime force.\u00a0 The new navy relied heavily on the British and the Americans compensating for French ships previously sunk or scuttled: London and Washington authorised a small but significant transfer of destroyers, frigates and the odd submarine.<\/p>\n

Fusing the rival navies was made that much easier by Darlan\u2019s assassination in Algiers at the end of 1942.\u00a0 The Marine Nationale<\/em>\u2019s commander in chief had been an arch collaborationist.\u00a0 Yet, ironically, before he died Darlan fulfilled his pledge that the Toulon fleet would be scuttled to prevent the Germans seizing it \u2013 in July 1940 Churchill had dismissed that promise, hence the attack at Mers-el-K\u00e9bir.<\/p>\n

Darlan had done a deal with the Americans, as had General Henri Giraud, the Allies\u2019 choice of military commander in Algiers.\u00a0 It became increasingly clear that Giraud had no power base in North Africa let alone within France, so once more de Gaulle was back in the ascendancy.\u00a0 Muselier was tarnished by his close association with Giraud, to the obvious advantage of d\u2019Argenlieu.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, when de Gaulle crossed to France on 14 July 1944 d\u2019Argenlieu joined him on the destroyer La Combattante<\/em>: seven months later the former HMS Haldon<\/em> would sink after hitting a mine off Hull.\u00a0 Free French ships had an unenviable record of avoidable mishaps, but d\u2019Argenlieu spent little time inquiring into why this should be \u2013 he was focused on higher matters, both spiritual and secular.\u00a0 Naturally he walked beside de Gaulle on his famous walk to Notre Dame on 25 August 1944.<\/p>\n

After the Liberation the heroes of 1940-41 feared they would be forgotten, but not in the Bulletin de la Marine Fran\u00e7aise<\/em>.\u00a0 The magazine dedicated frequent photo shoots to d\u2019Argenlieu, giving Lemonnier minimal coverage.\u00a0 The June 1944 issue applauded d\u2019Argenlieu\u2019s success creating rest and recreation centres in London and Cowes, while August\u2019s Bulletin<\/em> highlighted an emotional return to Cherbourg.\u00a0 Fittingly, the farewell issue saluted the ships and sailors of the FNFL<\/em> as they were in mid-1943 prior to merging with their former Vichy foes.<\/p>\n

The summer of 1945 saw the soon to be Admiral d\u2019Argenlieu appointed as Governor General in Indo-China.\u00a0 His inflexibility over the following eighteen months would see the Viet Minh commence a nine-year war to end French rule.\u00a0 Leclerc led an expeditionary force in a ruthless counterinsurgency operation, and yet increasingly he saw the need to negotiate.\u00a0 He failed to convince d\u2019Argenlieu that this was an unwinnable campaign, the two men having loathed each other since their first meeting in London five years before.<\/p>\n

The advent of the Fourth Republic saw de Gaulle out of power, and d\u2019Argenlieu was soon back with the Carmelites.\u00a0 He served the order faithfully until his death in 1965, but remained Chancellor of the Ordre de la Lib\u00e9ration<\/em>, the honour created by de Gaulle in November 1940 to reward the staunchest of his supporters.\u00a0 Most elevated among the order\u2019s thousand or so companions were those who had founded the Free French at the very moment of national humiliation.\u00a0 These were the loyalist of the loyal, with whom d\u2019Argenlieu worked relentlessly to forge a powerful and enduring myth of national resistance.\u00a0 When de Gaulle returned to office in May 1958 d\u2019Argenlieu quietly celebrated the creation of the Fifth Republic.\u00a0 Unlike other veteran Gaullists he stayed silent over the decision to quit Algeria.\u00a0 Thierry d\u2019Argenlieu was by now a largely forgotten figure, other than in the presidential office where his portrait took pride of place.<\/p>\n

Naval officers like d\u2019Argenlieu who rallied to de Gaulle were Catholic, conservative, and often monarchist; but their dislike of the Third Republic never extended to virulent anti-semitism and a readiness to place ideology above patriotism.\u00a0 Appalled by the notion of surrender, let alone collaboration, they fought alongside the British even when their emotions as loyal Frenchmen were sorely tested.\u00a0 De Gaulle\u2019s broad alliance embraced radicals and socialists \u2013 even at times Communists \u2013 but those he trusted most were men from the same mould as himself.\u00a0 This is what so infuriated Petain and all those intent on an anti-republican counter-revolution in France: why in God\u2019s name was a senior Carmelite at the head of a navy dependent on the goodwill of their oldest enemy?<\/p>\n

D\u2019Argenlieu had the last laugh, his closeness to de Gaulle ensuring power and influence even after the uneasy fusion of Free French and Vichy naval forces.\u00a0 Other Free French veterans had more painful experiences.\u00a0 Yet all of them could reflect on the desperate days of 1940 and know that with the passage of time their refusal to surrender would be duly vindicated and universally honoured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A family friend, Simone Guyonvarch, lives part of the year in Sutton and part of the year on the Quiberon peninsula.\u00a0 Her father, like many mariners from southern Brittany, served in the Free French Navy during the Second World War.\u00a0 Postwar he stayed in the Navy, serving as a ship’s carpenter and literally sailing around … <\/p>\n

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