Lieutenant-Colonel Georges-Régis Bouvet, filled with the rage to win!

With the setting in place, the witnesses of yesterday sit proudly! "To meet you on this day means, first of all, that these commemorations also require, in order to be perpetuated, a work of history, of memory, a patient effort throughout our territories and our municipalities, and you contribute to this all year round. I want to congratulate you on this," declared François de Canson at the inauguration of the bust of Lieutenant-Colonel Georges-Régis Bouvet on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville (...).

MEETING WITH HISTORY

Indeed, there are meetings with History that are marked as much by symbols as by emotion. "On this August 14, hosting the general assembly of the Commandos d'Afrique and then inaugurating the bust of Lieutenant-Colonel Bouvet on the same day shows how much the municipal will is to preserve and keep alive, in our memory, the heritage of the Débarquement de Provence, 80 years after this great feat of arms. There is a definite emotion in honoring the heroes of this brilliant epic, these giants of the reconquest of our occupied country. For it is indeed these Commandos d'Afrique, of incredible mettle, filled with the rage to win as much as the love of their homeland, who restored honor to France," added the mayor of La Londe-les-Maures. For Lieutenant-Colonel Georges-Régis Bouvet, who led the group, was famous among his men for his homeric rages. His outbursts and his jutting chin earned him the nickname "la Galoche," but he was deeply respected for his energy and integrity (...). After the capture of Bizerte, battalion commander Bouvet received, in July 1943, the mission to merge his corps franc into a new unit, which would be the Commandos d'Afrique, whose purpose was to bring fire and sword inside enemy lines. Destined to carry out raids behind enemy lines, the group was more specifically trained for amphibious actions.

COURAGE AND DETERMINATION

"The Commandos d'Afrique must prepare large-scale offensives by clearing and marking the terrain. They are destined to launch destabilizing raids and to carry out reconnaissance and highly risky infiltration missions, which require audacity, courage, and determination. They are therefore composed only of volunteer, athletic, and highly trained soldiers," recalled the vice-president of the Région (...). And at the dawn of August 15, when the Allies deployed offshore and the first elements landed on the Provençal coast, it was the Commandos d'Afrique who landed at Cap Nègre and Rayol-Canadel. At the far western end of Operation "Dragoon", launched during the night, for the perilous mission that no special unit wanted, and which their leader, Georges-Régis Bouvet, had demanded and finally obtained, after bitter discussions, at the Allied headquarters in Naples, as a privilege: that of being killed first on the soil of Provence. For the commander of the "cirque Bouvet", it was indeed an honor granted to the Commandos d'Afrique to sacrifice themselves for the liberation of France, as much as to ensure the success of a landing operation, which was jeopardized by the range of the enemy guns dominating the Mediterranean, hidden beneath meters of reinforced concrete, threatening and impregnable.

INCREDIBLE METTLE

« Il en fallait de la trempe pour se lancer face à la cuirasse ennemie, en franchissant les défenses côtières, et interdire la route 559 puis tenir les points hauts. Frapper vite et fort, en plein cœur, comme un coup de poignard dans le flan ennemi (...). Le Débarquement de Provence et la liberté reconquise dès le 15 août 1944 ont non seulement les couleurs tricolores, mais encore celles de la voile rouge frappée de l'étoile d'or et du croissant des Commandos d'Afrique. C'est pourquoi notre Histoire restera à jamais liée à l'épopée de cette unité d'élite : la première à fouler le sol de notre Provence depuis la mer, la première à la délivrer de l'occupant. Les Commandos d'Afrique sont bien des hommes d'une trempe incroyable, pétris de la rage de vaincre autant que de l'amour de la patrie qui ont redonné son honneur à la France. Leur engagement suprême est notre héritage », a conclu, non sans émotion, François de Canson (...). •