Skip to main content

Genevieve De Galard, War Hero Known As 'Angel of Dien Bien Phu', Dies At 99

Genevieve de Galard, a nurse dubbed the "Angel of Dien Bien Phu" for treating wounded during the war in the French colony of Indochina in the 1950s, has died aged 99, with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday hailing her "exemplary devotion".

"The angel of Dien Bien Phu has left us," Macron said on X.

"As a military nurse, Genevieve de Galard showed exemplary devotion to the courage and suffering of 15,000 French soldiers during the worst hours of the Indochina war."

Galard, who passed away on Thursday, volunteered to go to French Indochina in 1953 and helped evacuate casualties.

She was the only French woman on the ground during the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, which led to French troops' defeat in Vietnam and marked the country's last stand in colonial Indochina.

One of the evacuation planes she travelled in was destroyed by gunfire when she was about to leave Dien Bien Phu.

She remained on the ground for two months, "the only nurse in this tropical trap, where 15,000 men were fighting and dying", the president's office said.

When the French-held garrison fell in May 1954, the 12,000 surviving French soldiers were taken prisoner and Galard was repatriated to France against her will.

On her return she was celebrated as a star and French magazine Paris Match featured the 29-year-old on its cover.

In July 1954, US President Dwight Eisenhower invited her to the United States where she received a standing ovation from the House of Representatives.

"I had never wanted or sought it," she said of her fame. "I had only done my duty."

Throughout her life, de Galard continued to care for the disabled, in particular at the Invalides rehabilitation centre, Macron's office said.

In 2014, Galard received France's highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam was the site of an epic battle against Vietnamese communist forces in 1954 that spelled the end of France's colonial empire in Indochina.

This year, France has for the first time been invited by Vietnam to commemorate the battle.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu represented Paris at commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu in May.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/Dxh8I6Y

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UK In 'Diplomatic Contact' With Syrian Rebels After Bashar Al-Assad's Ouster

Britain's foreign minister said Sunday that London had established diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group in Syria, which led the offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad. They remain "a proscribed terrorist organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect", said Foreign Secretary David Lammy. "We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is not continuing violence," he added. "So, for all of those reasons, using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and of course intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/ybLIfjx
Post a Comment
Read more

US Has Agreed To Send More Bombs, Warplanes To Israel: Report

The US in recent days authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel, two sources familiar with the effort said on Friday, even as Washington publicly expresses concerns about an anticipated Israeli military offensive in Rafah. The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, said the sources, who confirmed a report in the Washington Post. Washington gives $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to Israel, its longtime ally. The package comes as Israel faces strong international criticism over its continued bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza and as some members of President Joe Biden's party call for him to cut US military aid. The United States has been rushing air defenses and munitions to Israel, but some Democrats and Arab American groups have criticized the Biden administration's steadfast support of Israel, which they say provides it with a sense of impunity. Bid...
Post a Comment
Read more

UK-Born Italian Teen To Become Catholic Church's First Millennial Saint

A London-born Italian teenager who spent his short life spreading the faith online will become the Catholic Church's first millennial saint, after the Vatican attributed to him a second miracle. Carlo Acutis, who died of leukaemia in 2006 aged 15, was beatified four years ago after the Vatican ruled he had miraculously saved another boy's life. He will now become a saint after Pope Francis approved another miraculous act, an intercession on behalf of a young woman in Florence who suffered severe head trauma in July 2022. Carlo was born in London on May 3, 1991, to Italian parents, and moved with them to Milan as a young boy, where he grew up with a huge interest in computers. "He was considered a computer genius... But what did he do? He didn't use these media to chat and have fun," his mother Antonia Salzano said in an interview with Vatican News at the time of his 2020 beatification. Instead, "his zeal for the Lord" drove him to make a website on ...
Post a Comment
Read more