'Emile Henry Muselier' (
Marseilles,
17 April 1882 -
Toulon,
2 September 1965) was a
French admiral who led the ''
Forces navales françaises libres'' during
World War II. He was responsible for the idea of distinguishing his fleet from that of
Vichy France by adopting the
Cross of Lorraine, which later became the emblem of all of the Free French. After entering the
École Navale in
1899, he embarked on a brilliant but eventful military career. He ran unsuccessfully in the legislative elections of
1946 as vice-president of the ''
Rassemblement des gauches républicaines'', and then entered private life as a consulting engineer before his retirement in
1960. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Pierre, at Marseilles.
Early career
The first part of Muselier's career is marked by a campaign in the Far East, several others in the
Adriatic, one in
Albania, which overlapped with a stay in
Toulon. He also fought in
Yser,
Belgium as the head of a troop of marine fusilliers.
Muselier received his first real command, of the
aviso ''Scape'', in April of
1918. This was followed by the command of the
destroyer ''Ouragan'' in
1925, that of the
battleship ''Ernest Renan'' in
1927, then the ''Voltaire'' in 1930 and the ''Bretagne'' in
1931.
Promoted to rear-admiral, Muselier became in
1933 Major-General of the port of
Sidi-Abdalah in
Tunisia where he wrote social commentaries such as "La Mie de Pain" ("the breadcrumb"). In
1938, he received command of the Navy and the defence sector of the city of
Marseilles.
Muselier had previously been attached to the cabinets of
Painlevé and
Clemenceau, then became chief of staff of the naval delegation to
Germany
On
October 10 1939 Muselier was promoted to
vice-admiral by Admiral
Darlan, a comrade of his from the
École Navale. Darlan retracted the promotion as of
November 21, following libelous charges ranges against Muselier. A similar misfortune appeared when he was under the orders of General
de Gaulle, who he had rejoined as of
30 June 1940. He was, however, quickly cleared of the suspicions of treason which the
British levelled at him on the base of false documents; this prompted the British Government to offer its apologies to him.
Role in the Free French
On
July 1 1940, General de Gaulle named Muselier commander of the French maritime forces which remained free and, provisionally, comamander of the air forces; these roles were later confirmed in
1941 with the creation of the ''Conseil national''. The same day, Admiral Muselier wrote his own appeal, addressed to sailors and pilots. He assembled an embryonic General Staff with the
capitaine de vaisseau Thierry d'Argenlieu and the vessel ''Voisin'', before leaving on a mission to
Alexandria in order to attempt a
coup d'état in
Syria.
In 1940, the Vichy regime condemned Muselier ''in absentia'' to death and confiscated all of his goods. In 1941, it forfeited his French citizenship.
Under orders of General De Gaulle, he led the conquest of
Saint-Pierre and Miquelon on
24 December 1941, unloading three French corvettes and a submarine cruiser coming from
Halifax and installing the ''enseigne de vaisseau''
Alain Savary as Commissaire of Free France. This feat of arms earned the animosity of President Roosevelt towards General De Gaulle. De Gaulle had initially declined the suggestion of invasion made by Muselier. However, De Gaulle had desired to affirm French sovereignty after learning of Canadians and British desires for the archipelago. This finally led the admiral to resign of his post of Commissaire.
Not especially loyal to De Gaulle, Admiral Muselier was then drawn aside by this last, two years later, in
Algiers, because of serious political divergences. Preferring to answer under General Giraud, he served as the transitory civil and military person in charge for Algiers in June 1943, and had even appeared to act as the head of an anti-Gaullist putsch, before General De Gaulle became head of the ''Comité français de la Libération nationale''.
After having been the chief of the naval delegation to the military Mission for German Affairs, he retired from the navy in
1946.
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