Jacques Philippe Leclerc, Resistance name of Philippe Marie de Hauteclocque, was born into an aristocratic family on November 22, 1902, at Belloy-Saint-Léonard, France. He was the fifth of six children of Adrien de Hauteclocque, comte de Hauteclocque (1864–1945), and Marie-Thérèse van der Cruisse de Waziers (1870–1956). Philippe was named in honour of an ancestor killed by Croats in 1635.
Philippe de Hauteclocque was homeschooled until he was 13, when he was sent to L'école de la Providence, a Jesuit school in Amiens. He graduated from the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, the French military academy, in 1924.
Graduating from St-Cyr in 1924, he made a brilliant reputation in Morocco during the struggle against the nationalist Riffi. Rising quickly through the ranks, he was a general staff officer when World War II began. Captured twice by the Germans in May-June 1940, he escaped both times and in July joined Charles De Gaulle in London. Sent to rally French Equatorial Africa to De Gaulle, Leclerc, after a 39-day march over more than 1, 500 miles, joined his ragtag army to that of Gen. B. L. Montgomery at Tripoli on Jan. 25, 1943.
He participated in the cross-channel Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, as commander of the French 2d Armored Division. Leclerc arrived in Paris on August 24. The following day, after a triumphal march to the Hôtel-de-Ville, he received the surrender of the German commandant Gen. Choltitz.
After liberating Strasbourg and Bordeaux, Leclerc was named supreme commander of French forces in Indochina by De Gaulle. The French signatory of the Japanese surrender on Sept. 2, 1945, he arrived in Saigon in October with orders to quell the nationalist rebellion of the Vietminh. Immediately recognizing that such a task required a massive French army and years of guerrilla warfare, Leclerc-convinced the cost was too high and ultimate success uncertain-recommended a negotiated peace. Although the Vietminh leader Ho Chi Minh was amenable, Leclerc's recommendations were thwarted by the Catholic politicians in Paris and a clique of French colonialists in Saigon headed by Governor General Adm. Thierry d'Argenlieu. After the decision of the French government in 1947 to reconquer Indochina, the stage was set for the 7-year guerrilla war, which ended in the French humiliation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Named inspector general of the French armies in North Africa in 1946 and promoted to full general the following year, he was killed in an airplane crash near Colomb-Béchar in Algeria on Nov. 28, 1947. At the time it was rumored, but never substantiated, that the accident was organized by colonial groups in Indochina who suspected Leclerc's "capitulationist" tendencies.
He commanded the division which liberated Paris in 1944. He warned against the French attempt to regain control of Indochina. He represented France at the surrender of the Japanese Empire in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.
Leclerc was honored as a companion of the Order of the Liberation by Charles De Gaulle and named a commander of the Legion of Merit by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1952 he was posthumously raised to the dignity of marshal of France.
The Leclerc main battle tank built by GIAT Industries (Groupement Industriel des Armements Terrestres) of France is named after him. There is a monument to Leclerc in the Petit-Montrouge quarter of the 14th arrondissement in Paris. Fort Leclerc is named after him.
Philippe became a frequent visitor to the Gargan household, and became enchanted by Madeleine's youngest sister Thérèse. The two courted while he was at Saint-Cyr. In the tradition of old noble families, Count Adrien asked Baron de Gargan for permission for Philippe to marry Thérèse. The wedding ceremony took place in the Church of St Joan of Arc in Rouen on 10 August 1925. For a wedding present, Adrien gave them a chateau in Tailly. They had six children: Henri (1926–1952), who was later killed in the First Indochina War; Hubert (1927–), who served as mayor of Tailly from 2001 to 2008; Charles (1929–); Jeanne (1931–); Michel (1933–2014); and Bénédicte (1936–). Philippe and Thérèse hired an Austrian governess, and spoke German in front of their children to improve their command of the language.
