Les Dossiers de l'Ecran (broadcast by Armand Jammot), Second television channel l'ORTF, December 1971
Alain Jérôme: As expressed in the film we have just seen, it is commonly admitted that the Chinese army more or less abandoned the French forces at the time of the Japanese attack. However, it must be remembered that this film was made nearly twenty years ago by Julien Duvivier, and your latest book seems to challenge this vision of the facts. Can you tell us more about it?
Professor Tyler: Well, Zhang Fakui, as presented in Duvivier's film, seems to be a calculator who wrote off French lives so as not to have to deal with the Japanese, when he would have had forces strong enough to repel them. The situation was more complex. And the general public seems to have forgotten the battle of Beitian, which occurred a week after the fall of Fort Bayard.
AJ: You mentioned that battle earlier, what happened there?
Prof. T: Beitian is a small town on the edge of Wulishan Bay, a few miles from the northern border of the Kouang-Cheou-Wan Territory. One week after the fall of Fort Bayard in the dramatic conditions that we know and six days after the entry of the Japanese in Che-Kam, General Kou (or General Hong, if you prefer his Korean name) decided tto launch an expedition in this direction. At that moment, his objective was twofold: to exploit his victory at Kouang-Tchéou-Wan for the greater glory of the Imperial Army and to control the entire length of the shoreline of Wulishan Bay which opens onto Mandarin Bay, thus on the China Sea. In fact, by invading Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, the Japanese did not so much to control this French territory as to put an end to the supply of the guerrillas in the island of Hainan. This guerrilla warfare, mainly communist, hindered their operations, because the Hainan bases played an important role in the attacks on the Philippines and Indonesia.
The battle of Beitian, often neglected by Western historiographers, reveals the plan that Zhang Fakui had in mind from the beginning. The campaign of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan had been a formality for the Japanese, at least for the Imperial Army. The Japanese troops went inland, barely taking the time to clear a few pockets of resistance in the Territory. Zhang knew very well that the Japanese considered the Chinese as very poor fighters and that after his victory at Fort Bayard against the "colonialists", the Imperial Army would completely ignore the counter-attack capabilities of the Kuo-Min-Tang troops. It seems that Zhang had changed his mind and decided not to implement the plan he had developed with Eissautier when he discovered the size of the Japanese Army's commitment to Kouang Chewan. He had chosen not to intervene in Che-Kam as planned.
In his defense, it must be said that the 200th Division, the best of his units, had been taken away from him some time earlier for the famous battle of Changsha and that he did not have too many troops to defend the very large Fourth War Zone. Do not forget that China was not yet the same as the Allied offensives of 44-45: the Warlords were still powerful and Allied supplies had not yet benefited the nationalist forces as a whole. The maneuver planned under the ramparts of Che-Kam was no longer as attractive against forces far more powerful than expected. These could have caused irreparable damage to his troops, preventing him from controlling his personal War Zone (As I have already mentioned, Zhang was not absolutely loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, while being suspicious of Communist activities). And then a battle of Che-Kam would have given the French too important a role.
AJ: Did General Zhang have a grudge against the French?
Prof. T: The Kuo-Min-Tang was very moderate in its appreciation of the Western presence in China and the Far East - although the continuation of its arms supply through the Indochinese railroad until December 1941 was an invaluable advantage for the Nationalists. In this respect, several specialists consider that if France had capitulated in 1940, or if Algiers had simply given in to Japanese demands in 1941, the fate of China would have been turned upside down. Personally, I think that everything would have become possible, the Chinese regime would be communist today and Mao Tse-tung would be in power in Peking - don't laugh, Mr. Jerome, history has seen more unlikely events.
AJ: So, Beitian... ?
Prof. T: Yes... After the fall of Fort Bayard, it was decided to evacuate the Egal Company and not to resist the Japanese any longer. Emboldened, General Kou set out without too much precautions towards Wulishan Bay. And at Beitian, it was a Chinese force, not an allied force, but a purely Chinese one, which routed Colonel Aoki's 139th Infantry Regiment by inflicting on it in a single afternoon more than 25% of losses! It is true that the Chinese were at least five times more numerous.
The effect was as desired: the Japanese withdrew to the coastline of the Territory, merely enforcing control of the black market and smuggling to Hainan. But this policy was doomed to failure, as the black market was one of the main means of the Japanese Army's own supplies to China! In addition, to ensure control of the Territory, the Japanese had to maintain large forces, for fear of a massive Chinese attack. So many forces that did not go to war in Mainland China or in the Pacific. Zhang's strategy had succeeded perfectly. Except for the French, of course...
AJ: But the French did remain present throughout the Sino-Japanese War thanks to Lieutenant Egal's police company, named, as we know...
Pr T: Yes. The famous Bayard Company. After the war, and still recently, military hagiographers have not ceased to sing the praises of this troop. A gathering of free men fighting under the tricolor flag out of pure ideals and carrying out coup de main in mysterious China against a perverse enemy. Yes, Jean Mabire, between two books on the too famous Charlemagne or on the LVF, has somehow redeemed himself with Les Aventuriers du Fleuve Jaune. He gave himself a lot of liberties! But the reality was less glorious, if indeed heroic.
Shortly after Beitian, the remnants of the 4th Police Company (it must be said that there had been desertions...) were regrouped in Nanning, Zhang's stronghold, where they stayed for many weeks. There, they were joined by all sorts of survivors of the forces that had defended the Territory: Colonials, Legionnaires and even Chinese militiamen who did not dislike French rule. The main group - about fifteen men - was commanded by Captain Folliot, who had been waging his own war for several weeks and taunted the Japanese by attacking their lines of communication. Finally, nearly 200 men, French, Russians, Jews, Chinese, Tonkinese and even Germans, joined together under a single unit name: Bayard Company. It was the idea of Lt. Egal - Bayard, like the strong man, like the knight without fear and without reproach... Alas, the company was transferred to Chongqing, where it gradually shrank.
First, the Chinese army requisitioned the Chinese elements. Then, some Frenchmen and several foreign legionnaires, in a hurry to fight the Japanese, managed to cross into Indochina and join the Epervier base. Finally, in May 42, a dozen White Russians, nostalgic for their native land and indignant at the announcement of the declaration of war of Germany decided to go and fight in the USSR to defend the Motherland - they all disappeared without a trace. In short, in July 1942, the Bayard Company numbered less than a hundred men and was rotting away on patrol missions along the Yangtze River.
But Egal and Folliot were of the opinion that it was necessary to maintain a French military presence in China. General Martin, commander of the French forces in Indochina, had indeed asked to recover the company - there is no small reinforcement - but a certain Minister of War, in agreement with Egal and Folliot, had opposed it: to quote him, "the prestige of a great nation is made, also, of small details". Alas, the small detail in question, the hundred or so men of the proud Compagnie Bayard, were merely vegetating in Chongqing. Their salvation came, in November 1942, the appointment of General Charles Mast as advisor to the Chief of General Chen Cheng, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese armed forces. To be exact, Mast's second-in-command, Lieutenant-Colonel Salan, discovered the Bayard Company and decided to transform it. He had some funds at his disposal which, with the enthusiastic participation of his officers, metamorphosed this guard unit into a combat unit, similar to the Corps Francs of the Other War - what we call a commando today. The legend of the Compagnie Bayard was born!
AJ: How come you haven't mentioned Captain Trinquier?
Prof. T: Trinquier only joined the Company after his escape, in early 1943. But I would like to emphasize here for the viewers the role of Lieutenant Egal, who has often been overshadowed by the prestige that Captain Trinquier owed to his escape and by his action, then, at the head of the Company. In fact, Folliot and Trinquier shared the task: the shadow of intelligence for Folliot, the glitter of daring moves for Trinquier. But they could not have done anything without the action of Egal. It was he who had succeeded in maintaining the cohesion of this disparate troop, in spite of a quite understandable lassitude and facing enormous material difficulties, even and especially when the closest Japanese was a good thousand kilometers away! It is thus in all justice that Roderick Egal was made Companion of the Liberation, like Lieutenant Pierre Bernard, and like the place of Fort Bayard - the tribute here going to all its defenders.
AJ: But what happened to Lieutenant Egal?
Pr T: Roderick Egal was killed in action during the first commando operation of the Bayard Company, in February 1943.
(Brief silence.)
AJ: Um... What about the other officers of the Kouang-Cheou-Wan defense forces?
Prof. T: The most amusing case is that of Lieutenant Rosenfeld, whom his Chinese soldiers called "Colonel Luo". He survived the sack of Fort Bayard thanks to his mastery of Chinese and the help of several natives, he was first hidden during long weeks by a band of smugglers who were commuting between the mainland and Hainan. The island was home to a communist insurgency and, as you know, Rosenfeld, before his incorporation into the Legion, had been very close to the Chinese CP in Shanghai. He was recognized by the resistance cells in Hainan as a European comrade and ended up, after a few adventures, joining Mao Tse-tung and the New Fourth Army at the end of 1942! He became a military doctor in the communist forces and was even appointed general. His nickname of "Buddha Salvator" is still in the memory of many Chinese people, even though he left the territory of today's China when the communists were ousted, after 1945. Afterwards, he was for a few years Minister of Health of Manchukuo - more exactly, of the Democratic Republic of Manchuria. In 1949, informed that his sister had survived the massacre of her whole family by the Nazis, he wanted to return to his native Austria. He died there in his bed in 1952.
AJ: An incredible case, as you say!
Prof. T: Isn't it? The case of Morris Abraham Cohen, "Two-Gun" Cohen, is almost dull in comparison! This strange man considered that he had promised Gen. Eissautier, and then to Lieutenant Egal, that French forces would be present during the liberation of Fort Bayard. So he stayed with Bayard Company. His good relations with the KMT were a major factor in the fact that the Chinese never decided to dissolve the Company. And in the small but astonishing fact that a section of the Company was able to participate in the Victory Parade in the ruins of Fort Bayard reclaimed by the Chinese forces.
Another outstanding character, Carl Gustaf Von Rosen, under the name Charles Derose, was a fighter pilot in the CATF until the end of the war. He then joined the Armée de l'Air, where the revelation of his true identity almost caused an epidemic of strokes. Eventually, he was reinstated in the Armée de l'Air section of the Legion (which had been created for the American pilots fighting under the French cockades in 1941). On the same day, he was appointed captain and, in exchange, kindly asked to claim his rights to
retirement. This retirement was granted to him, with his back pay and a ticket to Europe, on condition that he avoided ever mentioning in the press his family ties with a certain German Minister of Aviation. In Europe, he found his wife. She had joined the Dutch Resistance, had been arrested and sent to Dachau, but had escaped alive!
AJ: A lucky couple!
Pr T: Indeed! Less fortunate, unfortunately, was General Eissautier, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese as soon as they entered Tché-Kam. The Chinese rebels who had seized him and tortured him were executed by order of General Hong! Respectful of his ill adversary, Hong arranged to have him transferred to a prison camp in Japan. There he was released in 1945, but he had not recovered from his hemiplegia. He survived until 1960.
Even sadder is the case of director Louis Fabre. After many years spent in China, he had performed a real miracle by straightening out the Concession's police force, preventing it from sinking into corruption and preserving its prestige, which is so important element in this part of the world. He had repeatedly asked to be reinstated in the Army, even if he had to keep his position as head of the police, because for him his police force was a real military unit. He considered his position as director to be equivalent to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, which he demanded.
He felt that his position as director was equivalent to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, for which he claimed the stripes. But without officially refusing him, they forgot to grant his request... In November 41, he was finally promoted - but it was then explained to him that in order to apply the doctrine of the Mingant Networks, i.e. to drown in the pro
Algiers the future pro-Matignon leaders of the French Concession of Shanghai, it was necessary that he had to pretend to betray. This was too much for him. Affected by personal problems, feeling disdained at the professional level, Fabre made a final show of thumbing his nose at everyone and committed suicide - which immediately raised his standing in the eyes of the Japanese, who sent a high-ranking military officer to his funeral.
Before finishing, poor Fabre had witnessed the takeover of the Concession by the new mayor-consul appointed by the NEF, Baron Réginald d'Auxion de Ruffé. This was a lawyer for the Concession whom the Japanese had taken under their wing since the beginning of 1941, during the first attacks of the Blue Shirts against collaborators and pro-Japanese sympathizers. De Ruffé was executed in May 1942 in an attack of the purest Chicago style: machine-gunned in the street by a speeding car as he was leaving his home on rue Massenet. His death put an end to the Japanese attempt to maintain the fiction of the French Concession regime. As in the International Concession, Westerners were imprisoned one after the other in camps around the city... At that time, the useful idiot of the Occupiers, the pseudo-minister Georges Bonnet, having signed various documents ceding the various French possessions to Japan or to its puppets, began to wander from house arrest to house arrest, a wandering which was to last until the end of the war.
AJ: And the victor of Fort Bayard, General Hong?
Prof. T: Hong Sa-Ik, General Kou to the Japanese, was sent back with his brigade to his division in North China after the Beitian fiasco. After a period of penance, he was appointed to the NCO School in Japan. His bad luck caught up with him in 1944, when he was appointed to head the administration of the prison camps in the Philippines, the guarding of which was often done by Koreans. His links with Korean resistance did not fade away, but he never tried to put them into practice. And during the liberation of the Philippines, General Kou was held responsible for the various abuses committed by the Japanese and Korean officers during the whole war against the prisoners and was sentenced to death as a war criminal. He was executed by hanging in Manila in 1946.
(New silence.)
Alain Jérôme: Finally, Professor, the sacrifice of Colonel Artigue and his men, thirty years ago, served any purpose?
Professor Tyler: In this Asia where face counts more than anything else, there is no doubt that, during the post-war negotiations with China, the heroism of the defenders of Fort Bayard helped France to recover Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. And everyone now knows the economic and political interest of the Territory, even if the lease is due to expire in 1999. In terms of communication, as we say today, the impact of their fierce resistance was far from negligible. It remains to be seen, of course, whether Artigue and his men would have judged that it was worth it.
