Jean Compagnon, French Army General and author died he was , 94

 Jean Compagnon  was a French Army officer and later General died he was , 94. He served in both World War II and the First Indochina War as one of the officers serving with Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque. Under Leclerc, Compagnon helped liberate Paris from German forces commanded by Dietrich von Choltitz.

(26 October 1916 St. Germain-en-Laye & died 4 November 2010 (Paris)

When he was born, Compagnon's father, Marcel, was serving in the Battle of the Somme. Compagnon went to school in Vesoul, and entered the Saint Cyr military academy aged 18, in 1934-1936, where he was in the class of Alexander I of Yugoslavia. He graduated in 1936 as asous-lieutenant, joined the 4e régiment de hussards and remaining with that unit until it was disbanded on 1 September 1940.^[2]

As the war began, Compagnon was serving with the 4e régiment de hussards, serving from horseback during the Battle of France. He fought in the Lorraine front, but was wounded in Picardy, leading a motorcycle cavalary unit. After the surrender, and disbandment of 4RH, Compagnon escaped to North Africa where he served with the 2e régiment de dragons, until transferred to the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regimentuntil 1943, when he was promoted to Captain on 25 June. In 1944, he made his way to London to serve with Charles De Gaulle and the 2nd Armored division.

2e DB and Compagnon did not see action on D-Day, but left Southhampton on July 29, 1944, and the division played an important role in theAllied breakout from Normandy, notably at the Falaise Pocket, when it destroyed the 9th Panzer Division. The division then was part of the liberation of Paris. In the push to the Rhine, Compagnon led the first French tank unit into Strasbourg where it fell on 23 November. In January 1945, Compagnon was wounded, but recuperated by the time the division reached the Berghof above Berchestgadsen on 4 May, along with the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.

He was wounded in 1946 during the First Indochina War. During Algerian War, Compagnon commanded the 1st Parachute Hussars from 1958–60, served as military attache in Washington, D.C., Chief of staff of French forces in Germany and was the military governor of Rennes. He retired in 1976 as a four-star general.

He started a new career as a historian and an author, publishing a biography of LeClerc in 1989, wrote accounts of the Normandy landings, and his memoir. He became a correspondent for Ouest-France, a university lecturer ^[3]. He was awarded the Grand-croix de la Legion d'honnoeur.

He was twice married, to Jacqueline Terilnden who died in 1963, with six children and secondly to Sylvie who survived him with one daughter.

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