Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny - Legacy

Legacy

Bernard de Lattre's death greatly impacted his father and mother. His father in particular was said to have been deeply affected, and he died of cancer less than eight months later. His mother, now entitled to call herself Madame la Maréchale following the posthumous promotion of her husband, is described in an obituary published in 2003, as having "devoted herself to the memory of her son and to the history of her husband and the armies that he had commanded".

In 1952, a 308-page book titled Un destin héroïque: Bernard de Lattre (A heroic destiny: Bernard de Lattre), was published. The book is a collection of stories of Bernard's life, along with letters that he wrote. The book was written and edited by the French professor of philosophy Robert Garric. A further written response to Bernard de Lattre's death was provided by his mother in her two-volume work on her husband: Jean de Lattre: mon mari (Paris, 1972). In this work, Madame de Lattre writes about her husband's response to the death of their son, but also writes about her own feelings, and the idealism of a generation of French soldiers dying as her son had.

One of the lasting memorials to Bernard de Lattre is a small open-air chapel in the commune of Wildenstein, in the Haut-Rhin département in Alsace in north-eastern France. Now known as the Chapelle Saint-Bernard, this structure was inaugurated in 1955. It consists of an altar and a small shelter beside a hiking trail. Construction at the site began in 1954, using plans approved by Madame de Lattre. The building material used was pink sandstone from nearby Rouffach. The site is dedicated to the memory of Bernard de Lattre, his father Jean de Lattre, and the French forces that fought in the area in 1944 to liberate Alsace from the Germans in World War II. The chapel later fell into disrepair, but was renovated and reinaugurated during a service on 20 August 2004, the day dedicated to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. There is an annual service held here in honour of Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny, attended by veteran associations, local dignitaries and relatives of the de Lattres.

Also located in Wildenstein is the Centre Bernard de Lattre, which includes a memorial to Jean de Lattre. This memorial was originally located in Algeria, but was moved to Wildenstein in 1962 after Algeria gained independence from France. Additional commemoration of Bernard de Lattre's name came when the 1984-1985 class of the Ecole Militaire Interarmes, the military school at which he had studied, was named 'Promotion Lieutenant Bernard de Lattre de Tassigny' in his honour. An annual service also takes place at the graves of the de Lattres in Mouilleron-en-Pareds.

Historians and other authors writing about the First Indochina War have commented on the symbolism of Bernard de Lattre's death. In Soldats perdus: de l'Indochine à l'Algérie, dans la tourmente des guerres (2007), French journalist and author Hélène Erlingsen says that Bernard de Lattre's death was symbolic "of the modern world devastated by war" and that his life was "representative of our time". Bernard de Lattre's death has been placed in context in relation to other deaths in this war, with Brian Moynahan, in the 2007 work The French century: an illustrated history of modern France, noting that "in all 21 sons of French marshals and generals died in Indochina".