==Death==
==Death==
On March 9, 1968, after an inspection tour in the Indian Ocean, Ailleret died, along with his wife and daughter and twelve other people, in the [[1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash|Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash]].<ref name=”afbdk”/> In poor visibility, the [[Douglas DC-6|DC-6]] turned the wrong way shortly after takeoff from [[Saint-Denis (Réunion)|Saint-Denis de La Réunion]] and crashed into a hill.
On March 9, 1968, after an inspection tour in the Indian Ocean, Ailleret died, along with his wife and daughter and twelve other people, in the [[1968 Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash|Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash]].<ref name=”afbdk”/> In poor visibility, the [[Douglas DC-6|DC-6]] turned the wrong way shortly after takeoff from [[Saint-Denis (Réunion)|Saint-Denis de La Réunion]] and crashed into a hill.
Ailleret’s funeral took place on March 15th at the [[Hôtel des Invalides]], attended by de Gaulle, and was broadcast on television.<ref name=”le pari nucléaire“/> Charles Ailleret and his family are buried in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy.<ref name=”le pari nucléaire”/>.
Ailleret’s funeral took place on March 15th at the [[Hôtel des Invalides]], attended by de Gaulle, and was broadcast on television.<ref name=””/> Charles Ailleret and his family are buried in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy.<ref name=”le pari nucléaire”/>.
==Family==
==Family==
French general (1907–1968)
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Charles Aillaret |
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|---|---|
| [[File:Charles-Ailleret-and-Pierre-Messmer-in-UN-352022113026 (cropped).jpg caption=Ailleret in 1966 at the United Nationals|frameless|upright=1]] |
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| Born | 26 March 1907
Gassicourt, France |
| Died | 9 March 1968 (aged 60) |
| Allegiance |  Free France France |
| Branch | French Army |
| Service years | 1928–1968 |
| Rank | General of the Army (1962) |
Charles Ailleret, born on 26 March 1907 in Gassicourt (Seine-et-Oise) and died on 9 March 1968 in a plane crash on La Réunion, was a general in the French Army, a former resistance fighter and later a deportee during the Second World War. He was Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces from 1962 to 1968. Ailleret was known for having opposed the generals’ putsch in Algeria in April 1961 while he was commanding the North-East Constantine region.
Early life and World War II career
Charles Louis Marcecl Ailleret was born 26 March 1907 in Gassicourt (Seine-et-Oise), now a district of Mantes-la-Jolie.[1][2][3]
Ailleret entered the École Polytechnique in 1926 and graduated into the artillery in 1928.[2] In 1940, Ailleret was a captain, serving in theremnant French army under the Vichy government on the staff of the inspector general. In this capacity, he was a member of the French delegation to the Italian Armistice Commission.[1] In 1942, he was demobilized from the army. Ailleret then joined the O.R.A. (Organisation de résistance de l’armée), becoming its commander for the Northern Zone. In June 1944, he was arrested and deported on August 15, 1944, from Pantin train station to the Buchenwald concentration camp and then the (Dora-Mittelbau), from which he returned in 1945.[2] The same year he resumed his role as a staff officer in the reconstituted French army, and was posted to Moscow as military attaché, returning to France in 1946.[1][3]
Post-war career and Algeria
Promoted to colonel in 1947, he commanded the 43rd Parachute Demi-Brigade. In 1951, he took command of the Army’s special forces. As deputy to General Buchalet and later head of military applications at the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), he was part of the inner circle that conducted the research to develop a nuclear weapon: in 1958, he was the joint forces commander for special weapons and directed the operations leading to the explosion of the first French atomic bomb,[2] Gerboise Bleue, on 13 February, 1960, in Reggane, in the Sahara Desert. This posting earned him the appellation “The Atomic General.”[1][4]
Ailleret was a strong advocate for the acquisition of nuclear weapons by France, arguing that such weapons would remove the possibility of war with another nuclear power, and that such weapons would be relatively inexpensive. At the same time, he argued against limited wars conducted according to what Ailleret considered outdated codes of conduct, termed by Ailleret the “Agincourt syndrome.” Ailleret considered nuclear disarmament efforts to be ineffectual, given the difficulty of verifying such disarmament.[3]
In April 1961, commanding an army corps in Algeria along the Morice Line facing Tunisia, he opposed the generals’ putsch in Algiers. In June 1961, as a result of his loyalty during the Algerian crisis to French President Charles de Gaulle, he assumed the duties of supreme commander of the joint forces in Algeria.[2][1] Ailleret authored the 19 March 1962 general order directing French forces to cease fire in Algeria.[5]
Army command
In 1962, Ailleret was promoted to General of the Army.[2] He issued Order of the Day No. 11 of March 19, 1962, announcing the ceasefire in Algeria. He opposed the OAS in March 1962, during the Battle of Bab El Oued and the 1962 Isly massacre, and then participated, with Christian Fouchet, High Commissioner in Algeria, in the transitional authority at the time of independence.[2]
He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces on July 16, 1962.[2] Ailleret was known as a decisive officer who could be harshly critical. His critics called him a “general from the ranks,” a term that he adopted as a point of pride.His opposition to the OAS and the Algerian rebellion made Ailleret a focus of hatred in dissident army ranks. His Paris residence was bombed by the OAS.[3]
Ailleret was an outspoken advocate for the Gaullist strategy for an autonomous deterrence and command. He organized France’s withdrawal from NATO’s integrated command in 1966 and implemented the strategy established by General de Gaulle of a French nuclear defense “in all directions.” However, Ailleret maintained close contact with American miulitary leadership, resulting in the 1967 Lemnitzer-Ailleret accords describing contingencies for military cooperation between French and American forces in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe.[3][6]
Death
On March 9, 1968, after an inspection tour in the Indian Ocean, Ailleret died, along with his wife and daughter and twelve other people, in the Sainte-Marie Douglas DC-6 crash.[2] In poor visibility, the DC-6 turned the wrong way shortly after takeoff from Saint-Denis de La Réunion and crashed into a hill.[7]
Ailleret’s funeral took place on March 15th at the Hôtel des Invalides, attended by de Gaulle, and was broadcast on television.[7] Charles Ailleret and his family are buried in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy.[8].
Family
He was the brother of Pierre Ailleret, who directed research that established the French civil nuclear power program.[3] With his wife, Liliane Ribotton Ailleret, he had a son and a daughter.[1]
Decorations
Charles Ailleret is the recipient of multiple French and foreign decorations, including:
- Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour[2]
- 1939-1945 War Cross;[2]
- Cross of Military Valour (three citations, including one at the army level, April 21, 1962);
- Medal of the French Resistance with rosette (decree of November 29, 1946);[2]
- Combatant’s Cross;
- Commemorative Medal of the 1939-1945 War;
- Commemorative Medal for Security and Law Enforcement Operations.
Grand Cross of the Order of Aviz (Portugal, December 19, 1966)[9]- Legion of Merit 1964[10]
Publications
- Histoire de l’Armement, Presses Universitaires France (1948)
- L’art de la guerre et la technique, Lavauzelle (1950)
- L’aventure atomique française – Comment naquit la force de frappe, Grasset, Paris, 1968
- Général du contingent – En Algérie, 1960-1962, Grasset, Paris
