Jean Sassi
Jean Sassi (11 June 1917 , 9 January 2009) was a French Army colonel and intelligence service officer, former "Jedburgh" (BCRA) of France and Far East. Commando chief of the SDECE's 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment (11e régiment parachutiste de choc). Maquis chief in French Indochina through the GCMA (1953-1955).
Sassi was born in French-ruled Tunis, from a family of Corsican origin. His grandfather had been a French soldier during the Tonkin Campaign. The young Sassi aspired to be a championship swimmer.
During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in April 1954 Jean Sassi led Mèo partisans (GCMA) in Operation Condor, also known as Operation D. He also participated in the French war in Algeria. Promoted to Commandant (equivalent to Major) on February 2, 1960 but was sent home for serious medical issues. He left the army at the age of 54 with the rank of colonel and then joined the personnel department of Citroën.
01Honours and awards
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Jean Sassi”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Jean Sassi 001.jpg by Renée Sassi, Public domain
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