Chateau-Jobert, Pierre, Yvon, Alexandre, Jean

Date of birth:: February 3rd, 1912 (Morlaix, France)
Date of death:: December 29th, 2005 (Caumont-l'Eventé, France)
Nationality:: French

Biography

After his military service in 1934-1935, he entered, as a reserve second lieutenant, at the Fontainebleau artillery training school. He was assigned to the 154th RA in Tournoux, then seconded to the Air Observer School in Dinard.

Wounded on June 13, 1940 during the withdrawal of the School, he was treated at the Vannes hospital from where he escaped to embark, on June 21, in Saint-Jean-de-Luz on a Polish boat. bound for England.

He enlisted in the Free French Forces on July 1 in Liverpool under the name Conan.

Assigned as a lieutenant to the 13th Demi-brigade of the Foreign Legion (13th DBLE), he participated in the Eritrean campaign. There, seconded to the General Staff of the French Orient Brigade, he was in charge of the ammunition supply service during operations around Keren from March 12 to 28, 1941.

Pierre Chateau-Jobert, alias Conan, then took part, with the 1st Artillery Regiment FFL, in the campaigns of Syria and Libya where he was wounded on February 11, 1942.

Promoted captain in September 1942, he asked to serve in the paratroopers.

In England, on November 7, 1943, he took command of the 3rd Air Infantry Battalion (3rd BIA) recently formed in North Africa and which, at the end of July 1944, became the 3rd Parachute Hunter Regiment (3rd RCP).

The 3rd RCP operates in small units in various places in still occupied France: in Brittany, in the center and in the Lyon region for commando and guerrilla operations for the benefit of the maquis (80 ambushes, 46 sabotages and 45 raids) ; for these operations, which largely contributed to the success of the invading allied armies, the 3rd RCP received a citation to the Order of the Army.

Captain Conan distinguished himself during these operations. In particular following a parachute drop in Saône-et-Loire, in mid-August 1944, as head of the Harrods mission, with the objective of attacking the RN 6 and 74. He made contact with the local resistance through the intermediary of André Jarrot (alias Goujon.) At Chapelle-sur-Laives where, under enemy fire, he searches for and brings back one of his officers mortally wounded among the Germans.

In December 1944, he was promoted to battalion commander and handed over command of the 3rd RCP to Lieutenant-Colonel de Bollardière.

Pierre Chateau-Jobert created on April 1, 1945 the Military Parachuting School Center in Lannion. Battalion commander at the end of the war, in March 1946 he created the Pau-Idron Military Parachuting School Center (CEPM).

At the head of the Colonial Demi-Brigade de Commandos Parachutistes (DBCCP) in Indochina, he directed numerous airborne operations in Cambodia, Cochinchina and Annam from December 1947 to July 1948.

In 1949 and 1950, he served as second in command of the 1st DBCCP in Vannes-Meucon and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. Back in Indochina, he again commanded the DBCCP and the South Airborne Troops and was parachuted in operation in Tonkin and South Vietnam (1950-1952). In 1952 and 1953, he took over the command of the 1st DBCCP in Vannes and was appointed auditor at the Institute for Higher Studies in Muslim Administration.

He then served at the General Staff of the Land, Maritime and Air Forces of North Africa in Algiers (1953-1955) before commanding with the rank of colonel, in Constantine, the 2nd RCP which was parachuted in Port Said and Port-Fouad during the Franco-British expedition to Suez on November 5, 1956.

In 1957, Pierre Chateau-Jobert commanded in Bayonne the Colonial Parachute Brigade (BPC) which became, in December 1958, the Overseas Parachute Brigade. In May 1958, he supported the movement in favor of maintaining French Algeria.

Auditor of the 12th Session of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale and at the Center for Advanced Military Studies (1959-1960), in March 1961 he was assigned to Niger to command the troops in West Niger.

On April 22, 1961, on the occasion of the putsch launched in Algiers, he affirmed his support for the maintenance of French Algeria; he was sentenced to several months of fortress arrest. In October, he was assigned to the staff of the Maritime Prefect of Cherbourg. In January 1962, he went clandestinely to Algeria to take command of the OAS of East Algeria. Since the independence of Algeria, he has been living in hiding for seven years in France and abroad and was sentenced to death in absentia in 1965 by the State Security Court.