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Georges Robert
Georges Robert, 1893
Birth name	Georges-Achille-Marie-Joseph Robert
Born	31 January 1875 Courseulles-sur-Mer, France
Died	2 March 1965(1965-03-02) (aged 90) Paris, France
Allegiance	France
Service / branch	French Navy
Rank	Amiral

Georges Robert (31 January 1875 – 2 March 1965) was a French naval officer who served in First and Second World Wars. During the latter he was Commander-in-chief, West Atlantic Zone, and High Commissioner for the Antilles, French Guiana, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

Early life

Georges Robert comes from a family of lace manufacturers. Son of Edmond-Achille Robert and Léontine-Marie Gombeaux, he is the oldest of five children. In 1893, at the age of eighteen, he entered the Naval School, after studying at the Saint-Joseph Institution in Caen, then at the Naval College in Cherbourg. Georges Robert was a ship's sign in 1900 and participated in an eighteen-month campaign in Madagascar.

Naval career

Lieutenant, commander of the submarine Seal, then the destroyer Mameluk in 1915, he participated in the Battle of the Dardanelles, where he intervened in the rescue of the shipwrecked transport of the state Admiral Hamelin. Patented by the Naval Warfare School, frigate captain in 1916, commanding the torpedo boat Commander Rivière and the torpedo boat Casque.

He was captain in 1921, rear admiral in 1926, vice-admiral in 1930 , inspector general of the maritime forces in the Mediterranean, 1932. Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. Admitted to the 2nd section in 1937 with the rank and designation of admiral (5 stars). He is called back to the activity, at his request, by August 1939. On September 15 , at Fort-de-France , he took up the duties of commander-in-chief of the West Atlantic and French high commissioner in the Antilles, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Guyana. He had cruisers Émile Bertin and Jeanne d'Arc, the aircraft carrier Béarn , auxiliary cruisers Barfleur and Quercy, the oil tanker Var, the Avis Ville-d'Ys, and a large garrison in Martinique. In addition, it ensures the protection of a stock of 286 tonnes of gold from the Banque de France evacuated from mainland France [ 4 ] .

Second World War

After the Armistice he refuses the resolutions of the General Councils of Martinique (June 14, 1940) and Guadeloupe which, considering that an external pressure is exerted on the Parliament, request the transfer of power to them in application of the 'article 1 of the law of 15 February 1872 (the request is formulated in Guadeloupe by a man and the law is neither applicable, nor enforceable nor in connection with this precise context). The CG of Martinique votes the continuation of the fight alongside the Allies. During the period of hostilities, Robert organized the defense of maritime communications in liaison with his British counterpart from Bermuda.

The United States having recognized the Vichy government, Admiral Robert negotiates with them. With the guarantee of his neutrality, he obtains the necessary supplies. After the entry of the United States into war in December 1941, he confirmed to Admiral Horne (en), Vice-Chief of American Naval Operations, that he would remain faithful to past commitments. In cordial relation with his interlocutor, this one confided "to avoid breakage between friends", that he was preparing an important landing in Morocco at the end of October 1942. This information transmitted by an emissary was received on 17 April 1942 at the French Admiralty. In April 1943, the United States suspended supplies to the West Indies. In the resulting crisis, Vichy, who no longer has diplomatic relations with Washington, orders to scuttle ships and gold. “He [Admiral Robert] could make Vichy believe that all the planes had been destroyed. Likewise, he used subterfuges to save the ships, pretending to execute this decision and maintaining his neutrality while preparing his succession according to the principles proposed by the French Committee for National Liberation (CFLN) of Algiers, who appointed the diplomat. Henri Hoppenot. After Guyana's rallying to fighting France in March 1943, an insurrection broke out on June 24 in front of the war memorial at Fort-de-France. On June 29, the garrison of the Balata camp (suburb of Fort-de-France) joined the dissidence under the orders of Major Tourtet. On July 14, Henri Hoppenot - then ambassador of France fighting in Washington - landed on the island, mandated by the CFLN. The next day, Admiral Robert transmits his powers to him, then leaves the island for the United States, via Puerto Rico , with a part of his entourage. Hoppenot ratifies the rallying of the island to fighting France and appoints a new governor, René Ponton, administrator of the colonies and free French officer in Equatorial Africa. Upon his arrival at Fort-de-France, Hoppenot courteously explains that his predecessor "had maintained for four years full and inviolate French sovereignty over the Antilles and that at the time of supreme decisions, resisting the repeated orders that Berlin made him transmitted by Vichy, Admiral Robert had handed over an intact gold reserve and a fleet to French authority. This thesis of the maintenance of French sovereignty and the conservation of gold is often advanced and is based on the memories of Robert himself. It does not erase the fact that Robert did not choose free France and that he was received in Vichy by Pétain and not by de Gaulle in Algiers in 1943.

West Indian and Guyanese opinion

During this period of very uncertain shortage, he was criticized by some West Indians and Guyanese, who accused him of overriding local interests, his authoritarian positions and a certain grabbing of available resources (rationing of food in particular). Above all, he is criticized for showing contempt for local politicians, for not having taken General de Gaulle's side from the start , for having hampered a certain dissent by repressive means, as well as his bourgeois and Catholic origins. The administration by Admiral Robert remains present in memory of many Martiniquans, especially the oldest. The break in imports from the mainland led to serious shortages. In April 1943, the suspension of supplies from the United States worsened living conditions. The basic necessities like flour, salted meat, soap, cloth, were lacking and had to be replaced as best as possible by local productions. We went so far as to cut gasoline with rum to fuel the cars. The older ones have not forgotten the harshness of this period which they still evoke by saying in Creole " an tan Robè ", that is to say "from Robert's time". The model is only valid in Martinique, the Guadeloupeans designating the time as the Tan Sorin (time of Governor Sorin).

Trial

In September 1944 , Admiral Robert was accused of collaboration and imprisoned in Fresnes. Released on 24 March 1946, he appeared before the High Court on 14 March 1947. He was sentenced to ten years of forced labor. However, the sentence is remitted at the request of the High Court of Justice which pronounced it; the judges noted that he had been very favorable to the British and that after Operation Catapult of 3 July 1940 (seizure or destruction of French ships by the British), he had concluded a modus vivendi with them; that he had maintained his neutrality during the occupation of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon by the Free French Naval Forces; that his obedience to Vichy was only formal and maintained for local diplomatic and utilitarian purposes; that the testimony of the American authorities was laudatory and that he had challenged the oath procedure to the Head of State (Marshal Pétain) as being "superfluous and dangerous".

He leaves the court free. Six months later, his sentence is postponed. He was granted a total amnesty and reinstated in his ranks and decorations on 15 April 1954. He was released in 1957.

General de Gaulle's reproaches

In his War Memories, de Gaulle notes:

"Since 1940, Admiral Robert, high commissioner, maintained these colonies [Antilles and French Guiana] under the obedience of the Marshal. With the cruisers Émile Bertin and Jeanne d'Arc , the aircraft carrier Béarn , auxiliary cruisers: Barfleur , Quercy , Esterel ... as well as a large garrison, it applied a rigorous regime and, subject to the guarantee of its neutrality, got the necessary supplies from the Americans. But, as events unfolded, the population and many military elements expressed their desire to join those who were fighting the enemy.

At the beginning of 1943, everything announced that a great movement would soon lead to the liberation camp the French territories of America and the forces which were there.

In June, Martinique accomplishes the decisive acts. For months, Admiral Robert had received countless petitions from his constituents, asking him to let this ardently French territory do its duty towards France. I myself had found the opportunity to send Fort-de-France , in April 1943, the general doctor Le Dantec to offer Admiral Robert a satisfactory outcome. But my efforts remained unanswered. On the other hand, threats and sanctions were redoubled on the spot against the resistance fighters."

Decorations

• Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor
• Francisque Order

Bibliography

• De Gaulle, Charles (1962) [1956]. Mémoires de guerre, deuxième partie: « L'unité 1942-1944 », « Alger » [War Memories: Part II:Unity, 1942–1944, Algeria] (Illustrated ed.). Paris: Plon. ISBN 2-259-02135-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Halpern, Paul G., ed. (2016). The Mediterranean Fleet, 1930–1939. Publications of the Navy Records Society. Vol. 163. London: Routledge for the Navy Records Society. ISBN 978-1-4724-7597-8.
• Taillemite, Etienne (1982). Dictionnaire des marins français. Paris: Editions maritimes et d'Outre-Mer. OCLC 470113586.

• Hervé Coutau-Bégarie, Claude Huan, Mers el-Kébir. La rupture franco-britannique, Paris, Economica, 1994
• Jean-Baptiste Bruneau, La marine de Vichy aux Antilles, juin 1940-juillet 1943, Paris, Les Indes Savantes, 2014.
• Georges Robert, La France aux Antilles de 1939 à 1943, Paris, Plon, 1950, 228 pages
• Département d’État Américain, Communications entre Fort-de-France et Washington 1940–1943 (avec message d’adieu de Roosevelt à l’amiral Robert). 2 fasc
• Journal de bord du contre-torpilleur Mameluck n° - / 1915 (20 août – 3 décembre 1915) – alors commandé par le lieutenant de vaisseau Robert – (Extrait ; S.G.A. « Mémoire des hommes », Cote SS Y 336, p. num. 245).
• Tibéry, Denis Lefebvre et Jean-Pierre Pécau : L'Or de France (tome 1, « La croisière de l’Emile Bertin » et tome 2, « 12 milliards sous les Tropiques »), Le Lombard, 2011 et 2012.