WI: The British Accidentally Kill De Gaulle

[edgeworthy]

Leclerc, without capital C. And, yes, he is one of the patron-saints of chutzpah, demonstrating that you could still buy your rank in the French military. The price was just pretty high, like "give me a territory the size of Continental Europe" high. The guy started as a lieutenant or captain and when he died a decade later, he was a Marshal of France. IIRC, there was a British or US enlisted who ended up general absurdly fast too due to his cryptography skills. The infamous Bigeard started as a basic soldier and ended his career as a two- or three-star general.

You're probably referring to Enoch Powell, who joined as a Private in 1939 and ended the war a Brigadier, possibly because he spoke Nine Languages, including Russian and German, and his textual analysis skills meant he could understand technical terms that did not have a direct translation.

Fitzroy Maclean also joined as a Private and was a One-Star in 1945, he was promoted to Major-General post-war.
(He had to resign from His Majesty's Diplomatic Service first, at the protests of the Foreign Office.)

 

[Seandineen]

What about jean moulin? Could he still be the leader of the marquis?