Jean Compagnon

Jean Compagnon (26 October 1916 – 4 November 2010) was a French officer and Général de corps d'armée. Jean, Georges, André Compagnon was the son of colonel Marcel Compagnon and Lucie Dehesdin. He conducted his secondary studies at Collège Gerome. He married twice and is survived by six children. Saint-Cyrien of the promotion « King Alexander I of Yugoslavia » (1934-1936), Jean was commissioned as a Sous-lieutenant in 1936. Assigned to the 4th Hussar Regiment 4e RH from 1937 to 1940, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on October 1, 1938. In 1940, he combat engaged in Lorraine and on the Somme at the head of the a cavalry horse platoon of the 4th Hussar, and was wounded on June 5, at Picardie and was evacuated towards Paris. At the end of June 1940, he pursued the campaign at the head of a cyclist platoon. Assigned to North Africa in October with his unit, he was transferred to the 2nd Dragoon Regiment at the dissolution of the 4th Hussar Regiment on September 1. Assigned to the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment 1er REC in Morocco in November 1940. He participated to the campaign of Tunisia from December 1942 to March 1943. He went back to Morocco, where he was promoted to Captain on June 25, 1943. Assigned to the general staff headquarters of général Leclerc, at the 2nd Armored Division 2e DB, in January 1944, disembarked at Grandcamp-Maisy on July 28, 1944, he participated to the Battle of Normandy and the Liberation of Paris. In November 1944, he assumed command of a tank squadron of the 12th Cuirassier Regiment. His tanks were the first to enter in Starsbourg and combat engaged in front of Kehl on November 23, 1944. Wounded in Alsace in January 1945, convalescent, he reassumed command of the 3rd tank combat company of the 501e Régiment de chars de combat (501e R.C.C) on April 23, 1945, with whom he finished off the war while delivering, on May 4, 1945, the last combat of the 2nd Armored Division at Inzel in front of Berchtesgaden.