Raoul Charles Magrin-Vernerey, better known under the pseudonym of MONCLAR, was truly an extraordinary warrior figure, the very type of Legion officer as shown by legend and popular literature. Ralph Monclar, born February 7, 1892 in Budapest (Hungary), died in Val-de-Grâce, June 3, 1964 is a French officer, who distinguished himself during the two world wars, and particularly in the ranks of the French Forces free. He is one of the first senior officers to respond to the June 18 Appeal.
After studying at the Victor-Hugo high school in Besançon and at the minor seminary in Ornans, he was fifteen and a half when he presented himself to enlist in the Foreign Legion. Due to his young age he is not admitted and returns to his studies.
Entered Saint-Cyr in 1912, he left in 1914 with the promotion "Montmirail", was promoted second lieutenant on August 5 of that year, joined the 60th Infantry Regiment (60th RI) and ended the war with the rank of captain. He was then Knight of the Legion of Honor, holder of 11 citations wounded seven times and discharged at 90%:thigh fractured by bullet, right arm broken by the explosion of a grenade, two head wounds imposing two trepanations, eyes burned by gas.
After the armistice of November 11, 1918, assigned to the Levant, he commanded various Syrian posts or formations:Odessa, Levant, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Tonkin. Two new citations reward this picturesque officer for extreme bravery.
On March 1, 1924, he finally got to join the Legion he had dreamed of since his youth. After a brief stay with the 1er REI, he was assigned to the 3e REI and took part in the Moroccan campaign until 1927. He then joined the Middle East and was promoted to battalion commander in 1928.
He was again assigned to the Legion in 1931 and did not leave this weapon dear to his heart until October 1941. Assigned to the 2e REI, he stayed in Morocco then joined the 5e REI in Tonkin.
Returning from the Far East, he took command of the Saïda training battalion in January 1938, was appointed lieutenant-colonel on June 25 of the same year, before returning to Morocco with the 4e REI. Until February 23, 1940, when he was appointed to take command of the “two Legion battalions with an unfixed destination”, which had just been set up. This will be the beginning of the epic of the 13th DBLE.
On May 13, at BJERVIK, the 13th Demi-brigade fought its first battle, conquered four objectives without stopping, forced the enemy to flee, abandoning numerous prisoners, automatic weapons, equipment impossible to count and up to ten twin-engine aircraft.
From May 28 to June 2, Lieutenant-Colonel Magrin-Vernerey and his legionnaires won, in Narvik, what has been called "the only French victory of 39-40". Victory which earned them a citation in the order of the Free French Forces, with the award of the Croix de guerre with palme de vermeil, for having freed 60 Allied prisoners, taken 400 Germans prisoners, captured 10 guns and very important equipment.
Barely returned to France, with 500 of his men, joined the Free French Forces in England on June 21, 1940. Promoted to colonel, he then adopted the name of Monclar (from the name of the village of Monclar-de-Quercy, in the Tarn- et-Garonne).
Participating in Africa in the operations carried out against the Axis forces, it was he who, at the head of the French Brigade of the East in Erythea, took Massouah, took prisoner 9 general officers, 440 officers and 14,000 Italians. /P>
In June 1941 he was one of the few Free Frenchmen who refused to fight in Syria against other Frenchmen, and was therefore replaced at the head of the 13th DBLE by Pierre Kœnig
Promoted to general, he exercised various commands in the Levant, participated in the pacification of northern Syria and ended his stay as senior commander of the troops in the Levant.
Became deputy to the senior commander of the troops of Algeria from 1946, he was, in 1948, "responsible for the permanent mission of inspection of the units of the Legion". For nearly 2 years, he traveled incessantly wherever Legion units were stationed and fought in Algeria, Morocco, Madagascar, Indochina.
In 1950, general of the army corps, on the eve of his retirement, he exchanged his stars for the variegated stripes of lieutenant-colonel, in order to be able to fight again voluntarily at the head of the French battalion placed at the disposal of the UN. in Korea.
Reached the age limit, he returned to France in 1951 and, in 1962, succeeding General KIENTZ, became governor of the Invalides.
He died on June 3, 1964 in a position of honor, that of governor of the Hôtel des Invalides. He was buried in the cellar of the Governors, in the Saint-Louis church.
Military medalist, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, Companion of the Liberation, General MONCLAR also held the Croix de guerre 1914-1918, 1939-1945 and the TOE, the Legion of Merit with the rank of officer, the Silver Star, the Military Cross, and many other foreign decorations. 7 times injured, he had 22 citations and was 100% disabled.
He was the founding president of the National Association of Former French Forces of the UN and the Korean Regiment (ANAFFC ONU and RC, see the association's website at the following address [1]).
The promotion of Saint-Cyr 1984-1987 bears his name.
He was Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.
His decorations
“Like a coat of arms, or a priestly ornament or a Gnostic design, the uniform, precisely because it is never uniform, resembles a letter in code. So much the worse for the naive playing the blasé, who sees only the exterior scintillation, a scintillation moreover ever more extinguished... Efforts, glories, humiliations, triumphs, compromises, men saved, men lost, were inscribed here in cabalistic language... An allegory that is all the more formidable in that it was not the individuality of these events that was traced in this way, but their supposed universality..." Extract from Vladimir Volkoff's Anatomy Lesson.
French medals and decorations
* Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor
* Companion of the Liberation - decree of June 1, 1943
* Military Medal
* Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 (11 citations)
* Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 (3 citations)
* TOE War Cross (6 citations)
* Resistance medal with rosette
* Medal of the Escapees
* Military Wounded Badge (7 stars)
* Volunteer Combatant's Cross 1914-1918
* Colonial Medal with "Morocco 25-26", "Eritrea" clasps
* Levant Commemorative Medal
* Syria-Cilicia Commemorative Medal
* Commemorative medal of the 1914-1918 war
* Interallied Medal 1914-1918
* Commemorative medal of the 1939-1945 war
* Free France Voluntary Services Commemorative Medal
Foreign medals and decorations
* Norwegian War Cross with sword
* Grand Cross of St. Olaf
* Grand Cross Cambodia (local)
* British Empire Commander
* Virtualite Militari (Poland)
* Military Cross (Great Britain)
* Syrian Exceptional Merit
* Grand Officer of the Ouissam Alaouite
* Hellenic War Cross
* Romanian Star Officer with Sword
* Lebanese Merit
* Lebanese Commemorative
* Norwegian Commemorative
* Grand Cross Comoros (local)
* Commander of the Order of the Crown of Leopold II (Belgium)
*Silver Star
* Legion of Merit (Rank of officer)
* Korea Commemorative
* Belgian War Cross
* Grand Officer of the Dragon of Annam
* Order Military Merit Targuk with Silver Star