Michel, Jean-Paul/Seefried, Monique B. General Louis Dio

The Wartime Epic of One of Free France's Greatest Soldiers, 1940-1946

Général Louis Dio: The War Epic of One of the Greatest Soldiers of Free France draws on archival documents and eyewitness accounts to tell the astonishing story of the most famous French unit of the Second World War and one of its most important leaders. The tactical and human facets of Louis Dio are illuminated in this exciting biography of a truly extraordinary man. Much has been written about General Philippe Leclerc, from his landing by canoe in Cameroon in 1940 to the Allied victory over Germany in 1945. However, his comrades-in-arms received far less attention. Among them, Louis Dio was the most consistent and successful, yet paradoxically one of the least known. Before the war, Dio served with the legendary Méharistes in Tunisia, French Sudan and Chad. As commander of the Groupe Nomade du Tibesti at the outbreak of war in 1939, he was appointed commander of a reinforcement unit and ordered to France, but it was too late. He then met Leclerc when he landed in Cameroon in August 1940. From then on, the two men remained together, and Dio became Leclerc's most trusted and capable subordinate. Dio was the only officer in the French 2nd Armoured Division to take part in all the battles from Douala to Gabon, Kufra, the Fezzan campaigns, Tunisia and the liberation of France, right up to the Nazi hideout above Berchtesgaden. With de Gaulle's approval, Leclerc chose Dio as his successor in 1945, and at the age of 37, he became the youngest general in France in the 20th century.