**The son of General Charles de Gaulle died on Tuesday night at the age of 102. Despite a distinguished career in the French Navy, he lived much of his life in his father’s shadow.**
The luck of Philippe de Gaulle is to have been the “son of…” His bad luck was also exactly that. A brave soldier during World War II, he had an accomplished career in the French Navy but the model to which he was compared inevitably diminished his accomplishments. A victim of his glorious ancestry, he took his revenge late in life with a best-seller, *De Gaulle mon père* (“My father, De Gaulle”)*,* a very personal account of the great man, which captivated the general public but angered established historians.
Admiral Philippe de Gaulle died on the night of Tuesday, March 12, at the age of 102 in Paris. He was born in the French capital on December 28, 1921. He was the first child of Yvonne Vendroux and Captain Charles de Gaulle, who was wounded at Verdun in 1916 and was teaching at the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr at the time. Contrary to persistent legend, Philippe was not the godson of Philippe Pétain (a general who would go on to lead the collaborationist regime during the Second World War), but he did hold Charles de Gaulle in high esteem. As a token of their ties, which dated back to 1912, Pétain dedicated his photo to the newborn child with these words: “To the young Philippe who will walk, I hope, in the footsteps of his father.”
From the cradle, history was watching Philippe. It finally played a part in his life on June 19, 1940, when, accompanied by his mother and two sisters, he landed on the English coast in the hope of finding his father, whose whereabouts they had lost. By reading the local newspaper, they learned that a French brigadier general named Charles de Gaulle had launched a call to the resistance against the occupier the day before, via the BBC. Philipe de Gaulle was 18 years old. He was a young, slender man with a clean-shaven face who failed to convince his father to let him enter the naval academy at Collège Stanislas in Paris, where he had just passed his high school diploma. Colonel de Gaulle would have preferred to see him pursue a diplomatic career given that “it’s hardly an advantage for one family to have too many soldiers.”
A student at the Free French Forces Naval Academy, class of 1940, Philippe fought in what is known as the good war. He took part in the air defense of Portsmouth and then in numerous operations in the Channel and the Atlantic. On August 1, 1944, he landed on Utah Beach in northwestern France with the men of the Leclerc division, where he had been enlisted as a marine. The 2^(nd) Armored Division rushed to Paris where, on August 25, Ensign Philippe de Gaulle was ordered to negotiate the surrender of the German soldiers entrenched in the Palais-Bourbon, a mission he carried out with composure, without having fired a shot.
I’m not French, but I’m assuming he was a colonialist of some kind.
Was he as much of a prick as the dad? Just asking guys, no need to get salty.
He was 102 years old, he saw Germans taking over Paris in 1939 when he was 18
Holy shit I read his wikipedia page yesterday and he’s dead today
Un vrai bonhomme.
If you think fighting against Hitler was right ans was an important part of your history and national pride -> time to prove it now. There is a new, 21st century Hitler in the East.
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**The son of General Charles de Gaulle died on Tuesday night at the age of 102. Despite a distinguished career in the French Navy, he lived much of his life in his father’s shadow.**
The luck of Philippe de Gaulle is to have been the “son of…” His bad luck was also exactly that. A brave soldier during World War II, he had an accomplished career in the French Navy but the model to which he was compared inevitably diminished his accomplishments. A victim of his glorious ancestry, he took his revenge late in life with a best-seller, *De Gaulle mon père* (“My father, De Gaulle”)*,* a very personal account of the great man, which captivated the general public but angered established historians.
Admiral Philippe de Gaulle died on the night of Tuesday, March 12, at the age of 102 in Paris. He was born in the French capital on December 28, 1921. He was the first child of Yvonne Vendroux and Captain Charles de Gaulle, who was wounded at Verdun in 1916 and was teaching at the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr at the time. Contrary to persistent legend, Philippe was not the godson of Philippe Pétain (a general who would go on to lead the collaborationist regime during the Second World War), but he did hold Charles de Gaulle in high esteem. As a token of their ties, which dated back to 1912, Pétain dedicated his photo to the newborn child with these words: “To the young Philippe who will walk, I hope, in the footsteps of his father.”
From the cradle, history was watching Philippe. It finally played a part in his life on June 19, 1940, when, accompanied by his mother and two sisters, he landed on the English coast in the hope of finding his father, whose whereabouts they had lost. By reading the local newspaper, they learned that a French brigadier general named Charles de Gaulle had launched a call to the resistance against the occupier the day before, via the BBC. Philipe de Gaulle was 18 years old. He was a young, slender man with a clean-shaven face who failed to convince his father to let him enter the naval academy at Collège Stanislas in Paris, where he had just passed his high school diploma. Colonel de Gaulle would have preferred to see him pursue a diplomatic career given that “it’s hardly an advantage for one family to have too many soldiers.”
A student at the Free French Forces Naval Academy, class of 1940, Philippe fought in what is known as the good war. He took part in the air defense of Portsmouth and then in numerous operations in the Channel and the Atlantic. On August 1, 1944, he landed on Utah Beach in northwestern France with the men of the Leclerc division, where he had been enlisted as a marine. The 2^(nd) Armored Division rushed to Paris where, on August 25, Ensign Philippe de Gaulle was ordered to negotiate the surrender of the German soldiers entrenched in the Palais-Bourbon, a mission he carried out with composure, without having fired a shot.
**Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2024/03/13/admiral-philippe-de-gaulle-son-of-the-general-is-dead_6613365_15.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/obituaries/article/2024/03/13/admiral-philippe-de-gaulle-son-of-the-general-is-dead_6613365_15.html)
I’m not French, but I’m assuming he was a colonialist of some kind.
Was he as much of a prick as the dad? Just asking guys, no need to get salty.
He was 102 years old, he saw Germans taking over Paris in 1939 when he was 18
Holy shit I read his wikipedia page yesterday and he’s dead today
Un vrai bonhomme.
If you think fighting against Hitler was right ans was an important part of your history and national pride -> time to prove it now. There is a new, 21st century Hitler in the East.
mos