The 31 lives of de Gaulle
QUESTION How many assassination attempts were made on General de Gaulle?
Charles de Gaulle was the leader of Free France during World War II and French President from 1958 to 1969. The book Target de Gaulle, by Christian Plume and Pierre demaret, charts the 31 assassination attempts on his life.
Most were perpetrated by the Oas (secret army Organisation), a rightwing paramilitary and terrorist organisation led by four French generals during the algerian War, 1954 to 1962.
The first attack came much earlier, in 1944. General de Gaulle was in the West african port city of dakar celebrating its liberation by the French. as he took the salute on the deck of a cruiser, while the band played the Marseillaise, a French sailor, known as Jacques C, raised his rifle to shoot the General.
he considered de Gaulle a usurper and stooge of the British. Jean le Guichet, a petty officer in the French fleet, disarmed the sailor and knocked him down.
In 1962, de Gaulle declared algeria would become independent of France. he was labelled a traitor by the one million French settlers known as piedsnoirs (black feet). Powerful elements of French society opposed his decision, including elements of the military, intelligence services, cabinet members, big business and the financial sector.
They believed the loss of algeria would terminally weaken France as a nation, strengthen the ussr in the Cold War and spread the influence of Muslims across North africa.
recognising there was a conspiracy to assassinate him, de Gaulle surrounded himself with bodyguards and drivers. On top of that, he was brave, quick-witted, decisive and downright bloody-minded.
Without these qualities, he might not have survived one particular assassination attempt on september 8, 1961.
Travelling with his wife to la Boisserie, their country home in Colombey-lesdeux-Églises, north-eastern France, their Citroen deesse, driven by his trusted chauffeur, Francis Marroux, passed a sandpile concealing a 150 lb bomb. It was detonated, causing the car to lurch sharply and throwing a sheet of flame across the road.
de Gaulle ordered Marroux to plough straight through the flames. remarkably, no one was injured. The party continued on their way, merely stopping to change cars at a nearby military barracks.
The most notorious attack came on august 22, 1962. a team of assassins, recruited by former French army officer Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, fired 180 shots at de Gaulle’s car. he and his wife ducked while the driver hit the accelerator and got away. Two of the president’s bodyguards were killed. Bastien-Thiry was later executed by firing squad.
Various assassination attempts included attacks by snipers, improvised explosive devices, including one placed in an urn during a remembrance service, and ambushes with small arms.
a key factor in their failure was that virtually all Oas members and sympathisers were known of and under surveillance by the authorities.
de Gaulle died aged 79 from a ruptured blood vessel while watching TV.
Dean Frey, Monmouth.
QUESTION Gas, electricity, water, phone and sewerage are under our roads. What happens in Venice?
VENICE is a unique city, made up of 118 islands intersected by canals and connected by bridges. It sits in a lagoon that covers 212 square miles and is mostly just 3 ft to 10 ft deep.
The water and gas pipes, electrical power and phone lines run under the paving, as in any other city. For many years this was done on an ad hoc basis.
In the 1990s, Venice Town Council linked up with the key services to form a company called Insula to develop a massive integrated project to protect the city and rationalise its utilities, causing major, but necessary, disruption.
raising ground levels for flood protection and renewing infrastructure involved pulling up pavements and bridges to re- lay cables and pipelines while systematically mapping the system.
The bridges not only carry pedestrians, but are used to hide water, electricity, gas and communications conduits as they cross from island to island.
sewage is a different matter. The city discharges its waste untreated into the lagoon, relying on the twice-daily tides to flush the canals clean.
Daniel Russo, London W6.
QUESTION Did Poland cease to exist during the late 18th century?
DURING the second half of the 18th century, the once great Polish-lithuanian Commonwealth faced many internal problems and began to fracture under competing foreign influences.
a tug of war between the habsburg monarchy, kingdom of Prussia and russian empire saw the commonwealth divided in a process of territorial seizures and annexations known as the Partitions of Poland.
On October 24, 1795, the Third Partition of Poland dissolved the Polishlithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of these sovereign countries for 123 years.
Polish poets, politicians, noblemen, writers and artists, many of whom were forced to emigrate, became the revolutionaries of the 19th century, taking part in uprisings in Prussia, the austrian empire and Imperial russia.
Polish legions fought with Napoleon and took part in the series of revolutions known as the spring of Nations, particularly the hungarian revolution of 1848.
Poland regained its independence as a republic at the end of World War I, thanks to the Treaty of Versailles and the collapse of the russian empire.
Mrs Kasia Towey, Kendal, Cumbria.
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