Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc (1922-2013) | French Foreign Legion Information

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc was a French Foreign Legion officer who served mainly with airborne units. Best known for his active participation in the 1961 Generals’ Putsch, he died on August 26, 2013. The following article was written in his memory.

1er REP - 1 REP - Hélie de Saint Marc - 1961 — Major *Hélie de Saint Marc* (1922-2013)

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc (officially Élie Denoix de Saint Marc, also known as Hélie de Saint Marc) was born in southwestern France’s Bordeaux on February 11, 1922. He was the last of seven children of Joseph, a lawyer and World War I veteran, and his wife, Madeleine. Upon finishing his studies at the Tivoli Jesuit college, young Hélie entered the illegal Resistance movement in February 1941 during the military occupation of France by Nazi Germany. He was 19 years old. In July 1943, he decided to flee to Spain to join the Free French forces. However, Hélie was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Germany’s Buchenwald concentration camp, where he almost died. Sent to the Langenstein labor camp in late 1944, he was liberated by Americans shortly before the end of World War II in Europe in April 1945.

In 1946, Hélie de Saint Marc joined the “Indochina” class at the Joint Military School (École Militaire Interarmes, EMIA), a military academy for future officers, and left it as a second lieutenant in late 1947. He decided to serve with the famous Foreign Legion in the First Indochina War in Southeast Asia, against Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh.

In mid-1948, after a short passage in the 4e REI in French North Africa’s Morocco, now Lieutenant de Saint Marc arrived in Indochina and was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3e REI in what was then Tonkin (Northern Vietnam).

Posted in the northernmost part of Tonkin, on the border with China, the young officer was tasked with forming a guerilla-like unit consisting entirely of local anti-communist partisans. Assigned to the same battalion, the unit became the 7th Light Partisan Company (7e CLP). He commanded them until 1950. During this period, Hélie de Saint Marc experienced an ordered retreat from the region, when his partisans and the local villagers had to be abandoned and left to the mercy of the Viet Minh, who would massacre them; this left a deep wound in him. In late 1950, he returned to North Africa and joined the Foreign Legion’s 3e BEP in Algeria.

In mid-1951, Lieutenant de Saint Marc was back in Tonkin. Assigned to the 2e BEP under famous Major Raffalli, he took over the battalion’s 2nd Indochinese Parachute Company (2e CIPLE), again comprising only local auxiliaries. Promoted to captain in October 1951, he commanded the company until mid-May 1953, when he left the battalion for France. There, he served as a counter-espionage service officer within an airborne unit based in Perpignan, a town located close to the Spanish border. As a matter of interest, the Gestapo had arrested him near the same town in 1943.

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1930s - France — Young *Hélie* in France in the 1930s. This rare photo appeared in a great book by *Laurent Beccaria*: Hélie de Saint Marc (Perrin, 2006).

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1945 - France - gestapo Victims card - Cartes Rouges — *Hélie* seen on a “Gestapo victims” card, issued in mid-1945. He arrived at the Buchenwald concentration camp when he was 21 years old. Photo credit: *Laurent Beccaria*: Hélie de Saint Marc (Perrin, 2006).

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1948-1950 - 3e REI - Foreign Legion Etrangere - Partisans - Indochina — Lieutenant *de Saint Marc* with his locally-recruited partisans in Northern Vietnam, around 1949. His guerilla unit was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3e REI.

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1951 - 2e BEP - 2 BEP - Foreign Legion Etrangere - Indochina - General de Lattre de Tassigny — Captain *de Saint Marc* from the 2e BEP is decorated by General *de Lattre de Tassigny*, head of the French armed forces in Indochina, November 1951.

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1951-1953 - 2e BEP - 2 BEP - Foreign Legion Etrangere - Indochina — Captain *de Saint Marc* (center) with 2e BEP men during a field Catholic mass in Indochina, late 1951 or early 1952. Behind him, seen to the right, Adjudant *Bonnin*, a platoon leader with the 2e CIPLE. According to *Saint Marc* “the best military personality I’ve ever met.” The warrant officer was killed in February 1952.

Hélie de Saint Marc returned to Indochina for the third time in mid-1954 and temporarily took command of the prestigious 1er BEP, which had recently been annihilated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and was undergoing reorganization at the time. He then took over the battalion’s 3rd Company, where he had, under his command, Second Lieutenant Jean-Marie Le Pen, a future well-known French politician.

The 1er BEP, now under Major Jeanpierre, left Indochina in February 1955 and was shipped to French Algeria. The unit quickly joined military operations against FLN rebels in this country. This would soon become a regular conflict: the Algerian War. Later that year, the battalion was transformed into a regiment, the 1er REP, with Captain de Saint Marc still commanding the 3rd Company. The unit operated mainly on the border with Tunisia.

In November 1956, he and his regiment participated in the Suez Crisis, a British-French invasion of Egypt.

In January 1957, the counter-terrorist Battle of Algiers started in the capital of Algeria. The 1er REP played an important role. Hélie de Saint Marc, however, left the company and the regiment in early February. He was accepted to serve as a military secretary and press officer to General Massu, the then-head of the 10th Parachute Division, who also successfully led the counter-terrorist operations in the capital.

In 1957, Hélie de Saint Marc married Manette de Châteaubodeau.

In 1958, he became a member of the HQ staff of the 10th Parachute Division, to which the 1er REP was still assigned.

In January 1961, now-Major de Saint Marc rejoined the 1er REP and became its second-in-command. Meanwhile, the political situation in Algeria was deteriorating significantly. The rebels had been successfully suppressed for some time, yet the French leadership began to talk of a truce and possible independence for the country. Many in the armed forces saw this as a betrayal.

Thus, in April of the same year, the Putsch of Generals in Algiers was organized against French President Charles de Gaulle to force him to abandon such negotiations with the enemy. While the colonel was on leave, Major de Saint Marc took the 1er REP and joined the putsch. However, four days later, the putsch failed. As a result, the 1er REP was disbanded, and Hélie de Saint Marc was arrested. In his opening statement before the military tribunal, he explained that his motivation for joining the putsch was a desire to not abandon the pro-French Harkis, Algerian auxiliaries recruited by the French to fight the rebels, and thus not repeat the sad experience of Indochina.

Hélie de Saint Marc was sentenced to 10 years. He spent five years in prison before de Gaulle pardoned him. He was released on December 25, 1966.

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1954 - 1er BEP - 1 BEP - Foreign Legion Etrangere - Indochina — Captain *de Saint Marc* with the 1er BEP men in Vietnam, 1954. Photo credit: *Laurent Beccaria*: Hélie de Saint Marc (Perrin, 2006).

Hélie Denoix de Saint Marc - 1959 - Foreign Legion Etrangere - Algeria — *Hélie de Saint Marc* as member of the HQ staff, 10th Parachute Division in Algeria, 1959. Photo credit: *Laurent Beccaria*: Hélie de Saint Marc (Perrin, 2006).

1er REP - 1 REP - Hélie de Saint Marc - 1961 - Algeria - Putsch - Foreign Legion Etrangere — Major *Hélie de Saint Marc* as a deputy commander of the 1er REP during the putsch in *Algiers*, April 1961. Photo credit: *Laurent Beccaria*: Hélie de Saint Marc (Perrin, 2006).

1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers - Hélie de Saint Marc - Robin - Prison — Major *de Saint Marc* (right) in prison upon his arrest, 1961. He is accompanied by Major *Robin* from GCP Parachute Commandos. A former long-time member of the Legion, he also participated in the putsch.

1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers - French Algeria - Prisoners - Hélie de Saint Marc - 1960s — Major *de Saint Marc* (center, hands crossed) with other imprisoned prominent supporters of French Algeria, mid-1960s. Above, from left to right: General *Salan*, then the most decorated military officer in France, Colonel *de Sèze* (*2e REI*’s commander), General *Jouhaud*, Major *Camelin* (*5e REI*), Lieutenant *Pierre Guillaume*, Colonel *de La Chapelle* (*1er REC*’s commander). Below, next to Major *de Saint Marc*, Major *Robin*.

Following his release, Hélie de Saint Marc worked as a personnel director in a metalworking company in Lyon, southeastern France. He recovered his military honors, awards, and right to vote in 1978.

In the late 1980s, he began to collaborate with the journalist Laurent Beccaria, who wrote and published his biography, which achieved public success. Hélie de Saint Marc began to speak at conferences around the world, including the United States.

Sensing his full public rehabilitation, he wrote several books about his life and experiences, including Les Soldats Oubliés (1993), Memoires (1995), Les Sentinelles du Soir (1999), and Notre Histoire (2002), discussing various experiences of World War II with a German Wehrmacht officer of a similar age.

In 1991, Hélie de Saint Marc returned to Indochina and traveled throughout Vietnam. He was accompanied by Etienne Segretain, a son of the 1er BEP’s first battalion commander, Pierre Segretain (who was killed in Vietnam in late 1950).

Four years later, Hélie was invited to visit the 2e REP in Corsica.

In late 2011, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally awarded de Saint Marc (aged 89 at the time) the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, the highest class of the most prestigious French order of merit.

Hélie de Saint Marc, who spent his retirement in the Drôme department in southeastern France, died on August 26, 2013 at the age of 91. He had four daughters.

His funeral was celebrated on August 30 in the Lyon Cathedral. It was attended, among many others, by General Ract-Madoux, then-French Army Chief of Staff who represented Defense Minister, as well as an honor platoon of the Foreign Legion. Later that day, Hélie de Saint Marc was buried in the Garde-Adhémar cemetery, Drôme department.

Three streets were named after him in France: in Orange (December 2013), in Béziers (March 2015), and in Bollène (2019).