Alphonse Juin, born December 16, 1888 in Bône (department of Constantine)2 and died January 27, 1967 in Paris (5th arrondissement), is an army general elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France.

He was one of the great leaders of the liberation army in 1943-1944 and he distinguished himself above all at the head of the French Expeditionary Force in Italy which, on May 13, 1944, won the victory of Garigliano, opening the doors of Rome to the Allies who were trampling in front of Monte Cassino.

He is the only general of the Second World War to have been elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France during his lifetime, in 19523.
Alphonse Pierre Juin was born on December 16, 1888 in Sainte-Anne in the commune of Bône (department of Constantine), with his maternal grandfather Pascal Salini4. Son of Victor Pierre Juin (gendarme) and Précieuse Salini (no profession), he continued his studies at the high school of Algiers. He graduated as valedictorian of Fez de Saint-Cyr in 1912, a class which included Charles de Gaulle5. June will also be the only one to speak on familiar terms with General de Gaulle, when he becomes President of the Republic.

Second lieutenant, Alphonse Juin was assigned to the French protectorate of Morocco where, until 1914, he participated in so-called “pacification” operations5.

During the First World War, Lieutenant Juin participated, with Moroccan troops, within the Moroccan brigade of General Ditte6, in the battles of the Marne, in September 19145. Seriously injured in Champagne in Mars 1915, he permanently lost the use of his right arm5. He remained in the hospital for eight months before returning to the front. Appointed captain on April 4, 1916, he then fought in the 1st Moroccan rifle regiment7. In 1921, he obtained such good results at the War School that he was retained as a trainee professor. He then served again in North Africa under the orders of Marshal Lyautey5.

In February 1918, he attended staff courses in Melun before being seconded in October to the French military mission to the American army and assigned to the advanced training course for liaison officers of the American Expeditionary Force. Graduated from the École supérieure de guerre in 1921, he served in Tunisia before returning to Morocco at the end of 1923 where he participated in the Rif campaign. In the fall of 1925, he returned to France with Marshal Lyautey and worked under his orders at the Superior War Council. Promoted to battalion chief in 1926, he left the following year to join the 7th Algerian rifle regiment in Constantine. In 1929, he was head of the military cabinet of the Resident General in Morocco, Lucien Saint, and took an active part in carrying out the last phase of the Atlas pacification plan. Lieutenant-colonel in Mars 1932, he became professor of general tactics at the École supérieure de guerre in 1933 before being assigned as second in command to the 3rd Zouave regiment in Constantine. He took command of this regiment on Mars 6, 1935. In June, he was promoted to colonel. In 1937, he was assigned to the Resident General in Morocco, General Noguès, and at the same time followed courses at the Center for Advanced Military Studies.

All his life, Alphonse Juin maintained a physical relationship with the Maghreb: “I am part of this population, and with all my fibers”8.
The Second World War
The French campaign and captivity
Main article: Battle of France.

Promoted to brigadier general on December 26, 1938, he was assigned to the staff of the North African theater of operations. This assignment did not please him, the inaction in Algiers weighing on him, he asked to receive a command on the French front. He was entrusted with command of the 15th motorized infantry division, one of the best units in the army.9 Covering the retreat to Dunkirk, this unit was surrounded in the Lille pocket and fought with General Molinié's group until to the exhaustion of its ammunition. Juin was taken prisoner and interned at the Königstein fortress where he participated in the study group devoted to economic and social questions10. He was appointed major general during his captivity.
The Vichy Army

Following the Paris Accords negotiated by Darlan with Germany, he was released on June 15, 1941 at the request of the Vichy government like other officers renowned for their knowledge of Africa11. Precisely, he had been spotted by Charles Huntziger who had recommended him to Jacques Benoist-Méchin then Secretary of State for Franco-German Relations, who thus included him in the first protocol, at the head of the 961 officers for whom France requested the release. release to supplement the strength of its African army12.

Pétainist and anti-Gaullist, he was considered by Vichy as Minister of War13. He was finally integrated into the Vichy Army and appointed on July 16, 1941, deputy to the general superior commander of the troops of Morocco14 General Noguès, then Murphy, and took refuge behind the authority of Admiral Darlan, former vice-president of the Council who remained commander in chief of the military forces and who was then present in Algiers. Freed in the morning by the mobile guard, he organized the reconquest of the city against the resistance fighters, but, convinced that the game was over, did nothing to reject the Allies19. At 5:30 p.m., with the agreement of Admiral Darlan, he signed a limited suspension of arms in Algiers, where there were 13 French dead19.

But this first ceasefire only concerned Algiers: Darlan and Juin, now in the hands of the Allies, refused for three days to give the ceasefire order to their subordinates in Oran and Morocco, where the bloody fight between the French and the Allies would continue pointlessly. It was only following particularly vigorous pressure from General Clark that Juin and Darlan ended up, three days later and under threat, ordering a ceasefire to their subordinates in Oran and Morocco.

Thus, on the same November 8, 1942, in Oran and Morocco, Generals Boisseau and Noguès, Jun's subordinates, who had not been "neutralized" as in Algiers, welcomed the Allies with cannon fire. Juin ordered the French forces to maintain “elastic contact, without aggressiveness”17. On the afternoon of November 8, at 5:35 p.m., Darlan relieved Juin of his authority outside the Algiers region and charged Noguès with the defense of Morocco and General Barré with the defense of Tunisia17. Juin reports that he "will endeavor to carry out the marshal's orders, but that being in the hands of the Americans, he can only leave the entire initiative to the commanders of the eastern and western theaters"20. On November 11, after learning, around noon, of the invasion of the free zone by the Germans, he informed his subordinates that "upon receipt of this message, the position of neutrality vis-à-vis the Axis ceases." »20.
The resumption of fighting against Germany

June finally gave the order, on November 14, to the army of Tunisia, which had retreated to the Algerian border, to face the Germans, but its leader, General Barré, would wait until November 18 to resume the fight. The army of Tunisia reinforced by allied elements would then fight, but the human cost of reconquering the protectorate would be very high.

June, under the authority of Darlan, who proclaimed himself high commissioner of France in Africa, then of General Giraud21, received command of the French forces engaged in Tunisia. These contributed, at the cost of heavy losses, to the annihilation of the occupying forces of the Axis and Rommel's Afrika Korps.

As part of the purge measures in the army, a Special Commission of Inquiry of Tunisia was created on August 15, 1943 to establish the conditions in which the Axis armed forces were able to penetrate Tunisia in November 1942, and determine the responsibilities incurred by the civil and military authorities during these events. “Juin's responsibilities,” writes historian Christine Levisse-Touzé, “are established, but quickly suppressed, and there will be no follow-up22. » He was named army general on December 25, 1942.

In 1943, Juin was appointed by de Gaulle to head the French expeditionary force in Italy, which included four divisions (in total 112,000 men). Previously, in October, with General Patton, then deprived of command, Juin was charged with a curious special mission in Corsica, shortly after the liberation of the island, at the request of General Eisenhower, chief of operations in Mediterranean. It was a reconnaissance intended to lure the Germans about a possible Allied landing from the island in the Gulf of Genoa or in Tuscany23. This trip took on the appearance of a tourist trip. On returning to Algiers, Juin joined the Oranie and his corps, before embarking for Naples.
General Juin decorating American soldier Jonathan Hoag with the Croix de Guerre, Mars 21, 1944.

In the spring of 1944, he got the Allies to adopt a daring maneuver plan. Indeed, he broke the Gustav Line by enveloping Mount Cassino with in particular the Moroccan tabors of General Guillaume and the 4th regiment of Tunisian riflemen. The battle of Monte-Cassino reveals the military genius of General Juin who, by launching a light infantry assault to outflank the German position on his flanks, achieved total success, unlike the American General Clark who, by attempting a frontal assault of heavy infantry preceded by a catastrophic bombardment of the monastery, sent almost 1,700 soldiers to their death without any use.
The aftermath of the battle is the subject of controversy, see: Controversy after the Battle of Monte Cassino and crimes of 1944 in Ciociarie.

The crimes of 1944 in Italy, specifically in Lazio and Tuscany, were mass rapes and homicides committed against civilian populations by elements of the Army. total exclusion from public life by his ex-classmate from Saint-Cyr. Thus he was removed from his rightful place (due to his title of marshal) on the High Council of National Defense, by a decision of the head of state. Marshal Juin is also excluded from any commemorative event of the two world wars and deprived of the prerogatives and advantages due to his rank (office, secretary, car, driver, etc.).
Testimony at the “barricade trial”

During the “barricade trial”, which opened on November 3, 1960 and which followed the barricade week of January 1960, Marshal Juin was called to testify by Alain de Sérigny and his lawyer Jacques Isorni. He made the following statement35:

    “First [...] I would like to say a word about the other accused, because I believe I have been mentioned by everyone. Mr. de Sérigny is my friend, and I will bring him the testimony of my sympathy. I also know Colonel Gardes very well, whose glorious past justifies the brilliant future that is promised to him in our army. I have never met the others, but I know one thing: they are Algerians, and they are my compatriots. I didn't always approve of what they did. Algiers has already more than once gone into a trance during our national crises. Its inhabitants have always had an unfortunate tendency to politicize their passion. It's not always great. But finally there are the circumstances which sometimes justify actions, despair, which was the case last January.

    So I share their anguish, their heartbreak, because I grew up among them, or more precisely, their fathers. [...] They behaved heroically. They populated cemeteries as far away as Germany with their tombs. That I can say, and that's why I feel a little more like their brother.

    Whatever they feel, I share it. They were led by motives that we know, which they indicated here. Disappointed hopes, promises broken or believed to be so. They no longer understand anything about Algerian politics, its evolution, which will lead to a change in what was the vocabulary, the glossary. They were promised the abandonment of familiar horizons, their tombs, their possessions, promised to join this wandering herd of displaced people, in this distant homeland where they have not been for a long time. We have had examples of this sadness, those of Morocco and Tunisia. Or they were promised to remain condemned to die of homesickness in poverty and complete destitution. This is what I wanted to say to everyone.

    [Colonel Gardes] is an officer who was under my command in difficult circumstances. As soon as he left Saint-Cyr, he was trained in the African army. Just look at Colonel Gardes' notes, they are all excellent. My heart is torn, like the entire French army, to have seen him brought here. To continue it would be to face a new Dreyfus affair, to bring back into force the principle of reasons of state. The consciences of the day no longer admit these things. [...]

    [Mr. de Sérigny] is a man of integrity, sometimes a little turbulent, but who certainly never had the slightest intention of attacking the security of the State. »

Jacques Isorni then seeks to make the marshal admit that he supports the cause of French Algeria. This maneuver ended in semi-failure, Juin refusing to directly question the policy of the Gaullist government.

    “Master Isorni: “Mr. Marshal, in this article you spoke about you wrote of the speech of September 16 that it was a unilateral declaration and that it had revived hope in the rebellion camp. Do you confirm this? »

    Marshal Juin: “Yes, of course, but I have always said that there could be no question of returning to the principle of self-determination. »

    [...]

    Master Isorni: “Mr. Marshal, you are invested with the highest military dignity and you are addressing the highest existing military jurisdiction. Can you tell us if it is the duty of the nation to keep Algeria within French sovereignty, within the French Republic, and if this solution is consistent with the immense effort of the army and its soldiers? »

    Marshal Juin: “I have written it over and over again, and again on November 11th. It is unthinkable that Algeria could be separated from France. But, separated... separate... there are several ways to separate. I said, yes, I said that it would be a danger for France, a danger for Europe, a danger for the free world. It was a warning, we just have to draw conclusions from it. » »

Military career

    1909-1912: Military School of Saint-Cyr (promotion of Fez);
    1913: lieutenant;
    April 4 The name of Marshal Juin was given to various elements of the public or private domain:

    an avenue in Aix-en-Provence;
    an avenue in Ajaccio;
    an avenue of Bois-Guillaume;
    an avenue in Bordeaux (Cours du Maréchal Juin);
    an avenue in Boulogne-Billancourt;
    an avenue in Bourg-en-Bresse;
    a street in Bourges;
    an avenue in Cannes;
    a boulevard in Cagnes-sur-Mer;
    the monument to the Army of Africa in Chambéry: the bronze bas-relief, the work of Roland Irolla, represents Marshal Juin;
    an avenue in Fontenay-le-Comte;
    a street in Haubourdin;
    a bridge in Lyon;
    a boulevard