Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, born in 1922 in Algiers and executed in that city on December 26, 1942, was a member of the French resistance who shot Admiral of the Fleet François Darlan, the former chief of government of Vichy France and the self-named high commissioner of French North Africa and West Africa, on December 24 1942. For this act, Bonnier de La Chapelle is considered a hero of the French resistance to Nazi tyranny in World War II.[1] This article is about the capital of Algeria. ... François Darlan, French admiral and politician of Vichy France Admiral of the Fleet François Darlan (August 7, 1881 – December 24, 1942) was a French naval officer and senior figure of the Vichy France regime. ... For other uses, see Vichy (disambiguation). ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States France Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Charles de Gaulle Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hirohito Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...

A student at the Lycée Stanislas in Paris after France's surrender to Nazi Germany on June 22, 1940, Bonnier de La Chapelle participated in an anti-German student demonstration at the Arc de Triomphe on Armistice Day, November 11, 1940. He then crossed in secret the demarcation line between German-occupied France and Vichy France and made his way to Algiers, where his father was a journalist. Having passed his baccalauréat examination in 1942, he was surprised by the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) on November 8, 1940 and by the participation of many of his friends in the so-called putsch of November 8, in which the resistance seized control of several Vichy government offices and headquarters in Algiers. An ardent anti-Vichyite, he regretted that his friends had not asked him to take part in the putsch.[2] Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... Arc de Triomphe by night The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly the Place de lÉtoile, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. ... Armistice Day Celebrations in Toronto Canada - 1918 Armistice Day is the anniversary of the official end of World War I, November 11, 1918. ... For other uses of Baccalaureate, see Baccalaureate (disambiguation). ... Combatants United States United Kingdom Free French Forces Germany Vichy France Commanders Dwight Eisenhower Andrew Cunningham Erwin Rommel François Darlan Strength 73,500 - Casualties 479+ dead 720 wounded 1346+ dead 1997 wounded Operation TORCH (initially called Operation GYMNAST) was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World...

After Darlan surrendered Algiers to Allied forces, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who feared armed resistance from Vichy sympathizers among the French, agreed to allow Darlan to govern French North Africa and West Africa under Vichyite policies, which caused considerable consternation in the French population as well as in Washington and London.^[1] Bonnier de La Chapelle and three friends decided to eliminate the Admiral, and Bonnier de La Chapelle drew the short straw. Having obtained a revolver, on December 24, 1942 he waited in a corridor of the Summer Palace (Palais d’Été), the admiral's headquarters in Algiers, for Darlan to return to his office. He shot Darlan twice, once in the face and once in the chest, and then shot the admiral's aide-de-camp in the thigh. At that point, the occupants of the other offices in the Palais effected his capture.^[2] This page is about Dwight D. Eisenhower. ...

A military tribunal convened the next day, December 25. Bonnier de La Chapelle declared that he had acted alone, and he was condemned to death. He was executed by firing squad on December 26, 1942. On December 21, 1945, the Court of Appeals in Algiers overturned the conviction, stating that he had acted "in the interest of the liberation of France."[3]

Sources

• http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Bonnier_de_La_Chapelle
• Douglas Porch, The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.
• Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

References

1. ^ Porch, The Path to Victory, pp. 361-63.
2. ^ Atkinson, An Army at Dawn, pp.251-52.