Jean-Étienne Valluy
Encyclopedia
Jean Etienne Valluy was a French
general
(see also :fr:Jean-Étienne Valluy).
He was born in Rive-de-Gier
, Loire
, on 15 May 1899 to Claude (Claudius) Valluy and Jeanne, Adrienne Cossanges. In 1917 he entered the military academy of Saint-Cyr
. He left as “Aspirant
” in July 1918 and joined the Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale du Maroc (RICM) in August 1918. He took part in the last four months of the First World War, where he was wounded in the neck and received the first of his citations.
He climbed all the ranks of officer to Brigadier General
in 1945. He was a French military leader from 1943 until 1970. He was Director of the French Colonial Forces
, Chief of Staff 1st Army, General Officer Commanding 9th Colonial Division, General Officer Commander in Chief Indochina
, Inspector of Overseas Land Forces, Assistant Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Head French Delegation at NATO Council, and Commander in Chief Allied Forces Central Europe
.
During the war in Vietnam
, General Jean Etienne Valluy was the French commander
who replaced Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
and attempted to wipe out the Vietminh in one stroke, but failed. The French colonial government had co-existed uneasily with the Japanese occupying force during the Second World War but had been swept aside by Japanese military action in March 1945, leading to the Vietnamese declaration of independence in August 1945. By 1947, the French had re-occupied the south of Viêt-nam and Valluy in temporary command there sent troops north to re-establish control of Tonkin
. His French infantry with armored units went through Haiphong
fighting house to house against Vietminh squads. French aircraft zoomed in to bomb and strafe while the cruiser Suffren
, in the harbor, lobbed shells into the city, demolishing whole neighborhoods of flimsy structures. Refugees streamed into nearby provinces with their belongings in baskets and on bicycles, and the naval guns shelled them as well. Days passed before the French finally overcame the last Vietminh snipers. The Vietnamese claimed that the French actions caused twenty thousand deaths. A French admiral later estimated that no more than six thousand Vietnamese had been killed. Vu Quoc Uy
, then chairman of the Haiphong municipal committee, said in an interview in 1981 that the toll had been between five hundred and a thousand.
"If those gooks want a fight, they'll get it," said Valluy as he landed in Haiphong
on 17 December, his temper boiling over the slaughter of three French soldiers by Vietminh militia in Hanoi that day.
The French encircled the Vietminh base, Viet Bac
in 1947 by securing its only two roads and dropping paratroopers. They almost captured Ho Chi Minh
, who slipped into a camouflaged hole at the last minute. But General Valluy, whose experience until then had been in Europe
, quickly sized up his efforts as impossible. With a total of some fifteen thousand men, he was trying to defeat sixty thousand troops over nearly eighty thousand square miles of almost impenetrable forest. Unlike his 19th-century predecessors, he was up against not small insurgent bands but a disciplined army. He could only withdraw to a thin string of forts along Route 4, a twisting road running through ravines and over high passes between the towns of Lang Son
and Cao Bang. Chronically exposed to Vietminh ambushes, French soldiers dubbed it the Rue sans Joie, or Street without Joy
.
He died in Paris
in 1970 and is buried at Rive-de-Gier
, near Bank Freedom.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
(see also :fr:Jean-Étienne Valluy).
He was born in Rive-de-Gier
Rive-de-Gier
Rive-de-Gier is a commune in the Loire department in central France.The town is located on both sides of the river Gier. It's between Saint-Etienne and Lyon and had an important part during the French industrial revolution. Rive de Gier is a town in the French department of Loire, arrondissement...
, Loire
Loire
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
, on 15 May 1899 to Claude (Claudius) Valluy and Jeanne, Adrienne Cossanges. In 1917 he entered the military academy of Saint-Cyr
École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr
The École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr is the foremost French military academy. Its official name is . It is often referred to as Saint-Cyr . Its motto is "Ils s'instruisent pour vaincre": literally "They study to vanquish" or "Training for victory"...
. He left as “Aspirant
Aspirant
Aspirant is a military rank in the Canadian Navy, French military, Brazilian military, Romanian Navy and Polish Police.-Canadian Navy:Similar to the French usage, the Canadian Navy uses the French-language rank of "Aspirant de marine" to denote a junior officer under training. The same rank in the...
” in July 1918 and joined the Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale du Maroc (RICM) in August 1918. He took part in the last four months of the First World War, where he was wounded in the neck and received the first of his citations.
He climbed all the ranks of officer to Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
in 1945. He was a French military leader from 1943 until 1970. He was Director of the French Colonial Forces
French Colonial Forces
The French Colonial Forces , commonly called La Coloniale, was a general designation for the military forces that garrisoned in the French colonial empire from the late 17th century until 1960. They were recruited from mainland France or from the French settler and indigenous populations of the...
, Chief of Staff 1st Army, General Officer Commanding 9th Colonial Division, General Officer Commander in Chief Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
, Inspector of Overseas Land Forces, Assistant Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Head French Delegation at NATO Council, and Commander in Chief Allied Forces Central Europe
Allied Forces Central Europe
Joint Force Command Brunssum is the NATO military command based in Brunssum, Netherlands. JFC-B reports to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe based at Casteau, Belgium. It is one of three operational level commands in the NATO command structure, the others being Joint Force Command...
.
During the war in Vietnam
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
, General Jean Etienne Valluy was the French commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
who replaced Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Philippe François Marie, comte de Hauteclocque, then Leclerc de Hauteclocque, by a 1945 decree that incorporated his French Resistance alias Jacques-Philippe Leclerc to his name, , was a French general during World War II...
and attempted to wipe out the Vietminh in one stroke, but failed. The French colonial government had co-existed uneasily with the Japanese occupying force during the Second World War but had been swept aside by Japanese military action in March 1945, leading to the Vietnamese declaration of independence in August 1945. By 1947, the French had re-occupied the south of Viêt-nam and Valluy in temporary command there sent troops north to re-establish control of Tonkin
Tonkin
Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...
. His French infantry with armored units went through Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
fighting house to house against Vietminh squads. French aircraft zoomed in to bomb and strafe while the cruiser Suffren
French cruiser Suffren
The Suffren was a heavy cruiser of the French Navy, the name ship of the four-ship Suffren class. Launched in 1927, she was named for the 18th-century French admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, becoming the sixth vessel to bear the name Suffren.-World War II:In early June 1940, at the...
, in the harbor, lobbed shells into the city, demolishing whole neighborhoods of flimsy structures. Refugees streamed into nearby provinces with their belongings in baskets and on bicycles, and the naval guns shelled them as well. Days passed before the French finally overcame the last Vietminh snipers. The Vietnamese claimed that the French actions caused twenty thousand deaths. A French admiral later estimated that no more than six thousand Vietnamese had been killed. Vu Quoc Uy
Vu Quoc Uy
Vu Quoc Uy was born into a small intellectual family in the province of Nam Dinh. He was lucky to study in a Trung Thanh level school, so he soon felt sensitive to the cultural life and art of urban youth...
, then chairman of the Haiphong municipal committee, said in an interview in 1981 that the toll had been between five hundred and a thousand.
"If those gooks want a fight, they'll get it," said Valluy as he landed in Haiphong
Haiphong
, also Haiphong, is the third most populous city in Vietnam. The name means, "coastal defence".-History:Hai Phong was originally founded by Lê Chân, the female general of a Vietnamese revolution against the Chinese led by the Trưng Sisters in the year 43 C.E.The area which is now known as Duong...
on 17 December, his temper boiling over the slaughter of three French soldiers by Vietminh militia in Hanoi that day.
The French encircled the Vietminh base, Viet Bac
Viet Bac
Việt Bắc is a region of Vietnam north of Hanoi that served as the Viet Minh's base of support during the First Indochina War ....
in 1947 by securing its only two roads and dropping paratroopers. They almost captured Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
, who slipped into a camouflaged hole at the last minute. But General Valluy, whose experience until then had been in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, quickly sized up his efforts as impossible. With a total of some fifteen thousand men, he was trying to defeat sixty thousand troops over nearly eighty thousand square miles of almost impenetrable forest. Unlike his 19th-century predecessors, he was up against not small insurgent bands but a disciplined army. He could only withdraw to a thin string of forts along Route 4, a twisting road running through ravines and over high passes between the towns of Lang Son
Lang Son
Lạng Sơn , sometimes Langson, is a city in far northern Vietnam, is the capital of Lang Son province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Road 1A.-History:...
and Cao Bang. Chronically exposed to Vietminh ambushes, French soldiers dubbed it the Rue sans Joie, or Street without Joy
Street Without Joy
Street Without Joy or La Rue Sans Joie was the name given by troops of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to the stretch of Route 1 from Huế to Quảng Trị during the First Indochina War.-Situation:...
.
He died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1970 and is buried at Rive-de-Gier
Rive-de-Gier
Rive-de-Gier is a commune in the Loire department in central France.The town is located on both sides of the river Gier. It's between Saint-Etienne and Lyon and had an important part during the French industrial revolution. Rive de Gier is a town in the French department of Loire, arrondissement...
, near Bank Freedom.