Major General Matthew B. Ridgeway (2nd from right), commander of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, meeting with his officers; Saint-Sauveur-Le-Vicomte, Manche, Cotentin Peninsula, France, June 16, 1944. 


Planning strategy

France, end of the war. Capitaine Jacques Lefort from the 1st Bataillon de Choc, a commando paratrooper unit.

Jacques Lefort is born in 1913 and enters Saint-Cyr (french officers school) on 1933. After brilliant results he integrates the french foreign legion. The 5th of may 1940, commanding a motorcycle platoon in the soon to be famous 13ème DBLE of the french foreign legion, he lands in Narvik, Norway. The day after, he is wounded. He is the last to leave the city after having blown up the bridge and ammunition depots. He then goes to England, then to Marocco. In october 1943 he enlists in the Bataillon de Choc, a new unit created in Algeria by french officers willing to develop commando techniques in the french army preparing to land in France. In january 1944 he is given command of the 2nd company and in june is wounded again during the fights to free Elba. He then fights in Provence. In october 1944 he is given command of the whole battalion by de Lattre. He leads it to the end of the war, through Germany and Austria.  
He dies in 1974 with the rank of general. 

Battle hardened paratrooper captain

Eismeerfront 1941
WW2 #Wehrmacht
taken from fb